ATV Adventure in Antigua – St. John’s Port Guide

by

Last Updated on February 24, 2024 by Grant

The third stop on our Southern Caribbean cruise was St. John’s, Antigua. St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, is one of the most developed cities in the Lesser Antilles, the island chain that provides the boundary between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Antigua has long been known for its resorts, beaches (365 of them…one for every day of the year) and cruise docks, with tourism being a big part of the economy. Like most other nearby islands, the Eastern Caribbean Dollar is the official currency, though the US Dollar is widely accepted.

(Disclaimer: When we link to places where you can buy our stuff or places we stayed, we are using special codes that earn us commissions on the sales at no additional cost to you. Please see our Review Policy  for more information.)

ATV Adventure in rural Antigua

For this port, we chose the ATV Adventure for our excursion. We met the group, filed past the hoard of taxi drivers and adventure companies and piled into a small van for the ride to the ATV shop.

A rural inlet on Antigua
A rural inlet on Antigua

On our 15-20 minute ride, we quickly got out of town and saw the picturesque country-side. We passed by the Recreational Ground, which the West Indies Cricket team uses. In fact, Prince Harry had been in town just the day before on a tour and spent some time at the stadium.

Once at the shop, the guides gave us a brief safety and handling demonstration. We suited up with helmets and got on our way. Each of us had our own ATV. While neither of us had ever driven an ATV before, it was very similar to a snowmobile, so we didn’t have any issues. It is a fairly simple machine, though, so even those with no experience shouldn’t have any problems.

Bonnie on the road on the ATV
Bonnie on the road on the ATV

We drove a couple of miles on the main roads, which allowed us to make sure we were comfortable with the vehicles, before going off-road. We had one guide in front and another in the back, to ensure that nobody got lost or left behind.

One of the stops along the ATV excursion was this lovely inland reservoir.
One of the stops along the ATV excursion was this lovely inland reservoir.

The off-road part was where the real fun began! While we were driving on fairly clear dirt roads/paths most of the time, there definitely were a fair amount of bumps and limbs to watch out for. Our drive took us though a logging area, some farmlands and past an old sugar plantation.

Grant riding on the ATV
Grant riding on the ATV.

Our “destination” was a reservoir towards the interior of the island. It was a great place to stop, rest, and have a snack, even if it wasn’t right on the coast. We spent about 15-20 minutes chatting with the guides and other participants before retracing our steps back to the shop.

While we thoroughly enjoyed this excursion, we would have enjoyed a loop rather than an out-and-back route.  Also, once on the ATVs, we did not stop at all along the way to our destination. We would have liked to have been able to stop, see a few more sights and take more pictures. We definitely would recommend this excursion, though! It was definitely the most adventurous of all our activities but wasn’t overly demanding or scary.

The Port

As you get off the ship, just as in most Caribbean islands, there will be MANY taxi drivers and adventure/excursion companies there to greet you. If you haven’t pre-arranged a tour, you should have no problem finding something to do. We did our best to avoid these folks since we already had our excursion booked, so I have no idea how the prices compare to the trips offered through the cruise line.

Right off the boat is a very nice shopping district in St. John's. Pro tip: Turing left allows you to bypass the horde of taxi drivers.
Right off the boat is a very nice shopping district in St. John’s. Pro tip: Turing left allows you to bypass the horde of taxi drivers.

If you just want to do some shopping, there is a huge shopping area right at the end of the pier. You can find just about anything you want within walking distance. The two main shopping “malls” are Heritage Quay and Redcliffe Quay, both a fairly short walk from the pier. Since we are not big shoppers, we did not visit either.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

Once in port, we had a great view of the city from our balcony! We could see a church not too far off in the distance. Grant had some idea that there was a stone church, but we really didn’t know anything about it. Before leaving the ship after lunch, we used our phones to pull up the map and locate the church, then navigated ourselves there once in town.

The towers of The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
The towers of The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

The walk was slightly uphill and it was a VERY hot day, but it only took us about 10-15 minutes from the shopping area. The church dates back to the late 1600s and the parishioners have rebuilt it several times due to damage from a couple of earthquakes.

The interior of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
The interior of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

The current structure is a stone exterior, with a wooden structure inside of it, thus the description of a “church within a church.” This structure has survived yet another earthquake and several hurricanes but was still in need of renovation/restoration. Currently, they are under a massive restoration project, hoping to be finished in July 2017.

Downtown St. John’s, Antigua

The streets of St. John's from the cathedral
The streets of St. John’s from the cathedral

While we felt fairly safe walking around town, it definitely is a place that you want to stay aware of your surroundings. While the area closest to the pier is very touristy, just a few blocks over was definitely “the city,” rather than “the touristy part.” That was nice, in that we could easily walk to the church and get a sense of the town and community, but also made it feel not quite as safe as some of the other areas we visited.

We enjoyed our time in St. John’s, and would love to return and visit more of the island of Antigua!

For more from our 2016 southern Caribbean cruise, be sure to read our overview, tips on staying healthy on a cruise, and our port reports from Saint Martin/Sint Maarten and Saint Kitts.


Travel Resources
What do you use to find a flight?

We use Skyscanner to find deals on flights. Skyscanner has a great interface and compares tons of airlines for the best pricing and routing. That said, it does not always have every airline and some airlines will have better deals on their website. Still, Skyscanner is a great place to start.
Click here to search for a flight.

What do you use to find a hotel?

We typically stay at Hilton properties, so we use the Hilton website. You can find good Hilton Honors discounts or AAA discounts for a hotel there. We make great use of our free night certificates from our Hilton Honors American Express.
Click here to book a Hilton property.

If there are no Hilton properties available, we use TripAdvisor to read reviews and book the hotel. We find we can get the best price that way.
Click here to search for a hotel.

We recently partnered with Stay22 to add interactive maps to each of our destination posts. This will allow you to see a plethora of hotels and vacation rentals all in one responsive map of the area.

What if I need more space than I can get at a hotel?

We use Vrbo for the times when we have rented a cabin for a weekend getaway, like this cabin in Townsend, TN, or needed to rent a house for a large family vacation. We had a great experience with them in terms of refunding deposits when COVID hit and will continue to use them.
Click here to search for a vacation rental.

Who do you use for rental cars?

As a general rule, we book with Hertz for rental cars. We have had nothing but good experiences with them. Plus, we really like unlimited mileage and not worrying about crossing state lines. We have even rented from Hertz overseas in both Slovenia and Croatia.
Click here to book a rental car.

How about booking a cruise?

We have found some amazing prices for booking a cruise through Cruise Direct. We have saved a lot of money on our cruises compared to what we found elsewhere, making a last-minute Bahamas cruise even cheaper.
Click here to book a cruise.

What if I want to rent an RV?

We highly recommend Outdoorsy for RV rentals. We rented a camper van for a week to visit Rocky Mountain National Park for the elk rut and Custer State Park for the Buffalo Round-Up and had a blast. The program was easy to use and we really enjoyed the freedom of having a camper van for that trip.
Click here to rent an RV.

What do you use for booking tours?

We don’t often book tours. Typically, we like to do stuff on our own. That said, there are some experiences you can’t have any other way. So, when we do want to book a tour, we always check Viator first.
Click here to book a tour.

Do you use anything to get discounts on the road?

We make extensive use of both Good Sam and AAA on the road. Good Sam is normally regarded as a discount card for RVers at campgrounds and Camping World but anyone can use the 5 cents off a gallon at the pump at both Pilot and Flying J.
Click here to get a Good Sam membership.
We have had AAA as long as we have been married and it has more than paid for itself in discounts at hotels, aside from the peace of mind of having roadside assistance. Add in paper maps and the ability to get an international driver’s license and it is more than worth it for any traveler out there.
Click here to get a AAA membership.

How we spent our day in port in St. John's, Antigua. Overview of our ATV Adventure and walk through the city.
Enjoy this story? Be sure to pin it on Pinterest and share it to Facebook and Twitter!

Leave a Comment

I accept the Privacy Policy