ANTIGUA WITH KIDS
Beaches, Adventures and Family Favourites
Planning a family holiday to Antigua? From calm beaches and swimming with stingrays to sailing, history, island adventures and very lazy afternoons, here’s our guide to experiencing Antigua with kids.
There are holidays with children that require military-level planning.
Antigua doesn't have to be one of them.
The island is small. The weather is warm. The sea is never very far away. And many of the best things to do don't require tickets, timetables or getting everybody out of the house at 7am.
Sometimes you need an adventure.
Sometimes you need a beach, somewhere to eat and enough space for the children to disappear off and play while you have a cold drink.
Antigua does both rather well.
So forget trying to fill every hour.
Here's how we'd experience Antigua as a family.
Is Antigua good for children?
Very.
Antigua's size is one of its biggest advantages for families. You can combine an attraction, lunch and a beach without spending half the day travelling between them.
Then there are the beaches.
Antigua famously promotes itself as having 365 of them, so finding somewhere for a swim isn't particularly difficult. The island's official tourism site specifically highlights family travel, including beaches, marine life, historic landmarks, sailing and island adventures.
The trick isn't finding things for children to do.
It's deciding how much you actually need to do.
Our advice?
One adventure. One beach. Plenty of time in between.
That's usually enough for a very good day.
Start with the beach
This is Antigua.
So let's begin with the obvious.
Not every Antiguan beach has the same conditions, so with younger children it's worth choosing where you swim carefully.
Long Bay, on Antigua's east coast, is protected by a reef and is specifically recommended as a good choice for families.
Pigeon Point, near English Harbour, is another great option for combining a swim with exploring the south of the island.
Darkwood Beach on the southwest coast has beautiful clear water and gives you that classic Caribbean combination of sand, sea and somewhere nearby to get something to eat.
And then, of course, there's Fort James Beach.
We'll come back to that one.
Swim with stingrays
This is likely to be one of the stories they tell when they get home.
At Stingray City Antigua, a short boat ride takes you out to a shallow, sandy area surrounded by reef where visitors can get into the water with southern stingrays.
Because parts are shallow enough to stand in, the experience can be much more accessible to families than the words swimming with stingrays might initially suggest. There's also an opportunity to snorkel among tropical fish and coral.
For children fascinated by the ocean, this is difficult to beat.
Just check current age restrictions and swimming requirements directly with the operator before booking.
Laviscount Island (The Giant Tortoise Sanctuary) and right next to Stingray City
If your kids want to hang out with land-dwelling giants, this is the ultimate stop. Located on a private island just a short boat ride from the mainland, it is frequently booked as a package deal with the stingray swim.
The Experience: The island is home to over 50 rescued Giant Aldabra Tortoises, which are among the oldest living creatures on the planet.
Kid-Friendly Perks: Kids can walk right up to these gentle, prehistoric giants, pet their prehistoric-feeling shells, and hand-feed them leafy greens. Guides even let children hold smaller baby tortoises.
Other Amenities: The island features walking trails, wild iguanas, parrots, a large beach area, and an ice cream shop to cool down after the tour. It is entirely flat and managed, making it perfect for toddlers and young children who may not be ready for open-ocean swimming
Get them on the water
Antigua and sailing belong together.
You don't need to be an experienced sailor either.
Depending on children's ages, you can look at sailing lessons, catamaran trips, kayaking, snorkelling or simply taking a boat out for part of the day.
And there's something different about seeing Antigua from the water.
Beaches appear between the hills.
Tiny coves suddenly make sense.
Children jump overboard.
Someone inevitably asks how much it would cost to buy a boat or to live on one!
A perfectly normal day in Antigua.
Give them a little history
We know.
"Kids, today we're visiting a Georgian naval dockyard."
Not necessarily the sentence that has them racing to put their shoes on.
But give this one a chance.
Nelson's Dockyard is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Antigua's most important historic areas. The restored Dockyard, museum, old buildings, boats and surrounding harbour make the history much easier for children to experience than simply walking around exhibits inside a traditional museum.
Combine it with English Harbour, lunch and a swim at Pigeon Point and suddenly your educational outing doesn't feel particularly educational.
Which is usually the best kind.
Go exploring
There comes a point on most family holidays when another day lying beside a pool isn't going to work.
That's your cue.
Rent a car.
Pick a part of Antigua you haven't seen.
And go.
You might head east towards Devil's Bridge, explore the coastline, find a roadside food stop, discover another beach or simply follow a road because you're curious about where it goes.
Older children may enjoy hiking, kayaking, snorkelling, sailing, ATV tours and some of Antigua's more adventurous activities. The official family tourism listings include hiking, ATV tours and water-based adventures alongside the island's beaches.
Don't try to do all of them.
Pick the one your children will still be talking about six months later.
Let them try Antiguan food
Family holidays don't have to mean chicken nuggets for seven consecutive days.
Although sometimes they will.
Give children a chance to try Antigua.
Fresh fish.
Jerk chicken.
Plantain.
Rice and peas.
Local fruit.
Ducana.
Fungi.
Oooh - and lobster - how often do they get to have lobster? If you shop around the island at local spots - its not all that expensive. It is possiblle to find a whole pound of freshly caught and cooked lobster for as little as $10USD!
Or something bought from a roadside stall that you can't quite convince them to taste until you eat half of it yourself.
You don't need every meal to become a cultural experience.
But food is one of the easiest ways for children to understand that they've travelled somewhere different.
And if they hate it?
There's usually a burger somewhere.
Spend a day at Treehouse
Because one of the reasons we've built Treehouse Beach Club the way we have is that parents and children don't necessarily want the same thing from a beach day.
Children want somewhere to explore.
Parents occasionally want to sit down.
Preferably for more than four minutes.
At Treehouse, you're right on Fort James Beach, close to St John's, but once you're there the day can be extremely uncomplicated.
Their beach day too.
Come for brunch.
Let them play.
Swim.
Have Dunch.
Find a lounger or some shade.
Let them play again.
Have something cold.
Repeat as necessary.
Treehouse has a kids' play area, while the beach gives everyone considerably more room to roam.
That's the point.
We don't think a family-friendly place should feel like a children's venue.
It should be somewhere children enjoy being and adults enjoy being too.
Eat. Drink. Play. Rest.
Everyone gets to choose their verb.
What about Saturdays?
Saturday is different.
That's Under the Leaves.
Treehouse opens from 9am, so families can start with breakfast, swimming and a normal beach day.
As the afternoon moves towards sunset, the energy changes.
Music.
Steel pan.
Entertainment.
Live bands.
DJs.
Sundowners.
And eventually a proper Saturday-night beach party.
You certainly don't have to stay until 3am with the children.
Although we're not judging your parenting decisions.
The point is that parents don't necessarily have to choose between family day and somewhere with atmosphere.
Come early.
Spend the day.
Watch the sunset.
Enjoy some music.
And decide when you've had enough.
Take them to Shirley Heights
For many families visiting Antigua, Shirley Heights on a Sunday becomes one of those holiday memories everyone shares.
The view over English and Falmouth Harbours is reason enough to go.
Add music, food and the atmosphere as the sun goes down and it becomes something children and adults can experience together.
Our advice is to arrive early enough to enjoy the view and the hike before things get busy.
Then watch the island change as afternoon becomes evening.
Should you take children to Barbuda?
If you have enough time, absolutely consider it.
Barbuda offers something completely different from Antigua, with vast stretches of coastline and one of the world's important frigate bird colonies.
For wildlife-loving children, that's potentially a very memorable day.
But don't force Barbuda into a short Antigua holiday simply because it's there.
With younger children especially, sometimes another relaxed day on Antigua beats adding another journey- especially if its rushed and an hour and half boat ride each way.
And then... do absolutely nothing
This might be the most important section of this guide.
You do not need to entertain children every day of a Caribbean holiday.
Give them some sand.
Give them the sea.
Give them something cold to drink.
See what happens.
Children have a remarkable ability to turn a stick, a bucket and a beach into three hours of entertainment.
Let them.
At Treehouse, there are often other children spending the day. Its funny and we forget how easy it is for kids to make new friends to play with.
Some of the family moments you remember most probably won't happen on the expensive excursion you booked six months earlier.
They'll happen when nobody was particularly doing anything.
Our perfect Antigua family day
If we were designing one day for a family visiting Antigua for the first time, it would be ridiculously simple.
Morning
Wake up without an alarm.
Breakfast.
Get everyone into swimwear.
No complicated itinerary.
Late morning
Choose one adventure.
Stingrays. Sailing. Nelson's Dockyard. Exploring.
Something.
Not five things.
Lunch
Somewhere relaxed.
Preferably near the sea.
Afternoon
Beach.
Swim.
Play.
Do nothing.
Sunset
Everyone together.
Phones away for at least five minutes.
Evening
Dinner.
Children exhausted.
Parents congratulating themselves on excellent parenting.
Bed.
Tomorrow, do something completely different.
The Treehouse Family Antigua List
If your children leave Antigua having done most of these, we'd call that a successful holiday:
Swim in the Caribbean Sea.
Build something unnecessarily ambitious out of sand.
Visit more than one Antiguan beach.
See a stingray, turtle or tropical fish.
Get on a boat.
Try at least one Antiguan dish they've never eaten before.
Explore Nelson's Dockyard.
Watch a Caribbean sunset.
Spend a gloriously unproductive day at Fort James Beach and Treehouse Beach Club.
Go home asking when they're coming back.
Family holidays don't have to be complicated
There are destinations where travelling with children feels like moving an entire household around.
Antigua isn't one of them.
Keep the days simple.
Do one thing.
Find a beach.
Eat somewhere good.
Let them swim.
Let them play.
And leave enough space for the things you hadn't planned.
Because the best family holidays aren't really about how much you manage to fit in.
They're about the moments everybody remembers afterwards.
Welcome to Antigua.
And when the family needs a beach day, you'll find us beneath the trees at Fort James.
Treehouse Beach Club
Fort James Beach, Antigua
EAT. DRINK. PLAY. REST.