World Country Guide

Sport & Activities

Watersports
Most resort hotels offer facilities for a range of watersports. Equipment for snorkelling and scuba-diving is cheap and easy to hire and most hotels also hire out windsurfing boards. The coastal waters offer a good selection of coral reefs and there are more than 365 beaches, all of them open to the public and suitable for swimming. Most of the larger hotels provide water-skiing and sunfish sailboating facilities. Antigua has excellent facilities for sailing and is famous for its international sailing regatta held once a year during April or May. Smaller regattas are held throughout the year, in particular a two-day event at the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club starting on Valentine’s Day, a Cruise Race in July, and a two-day regatta in November. An annual Model Boat Race Competition is held in April. The less adventurous may wish to hire a dinghy and find their own secluded cove or sheltered beach and anchor for a day of peace and quiet. There is year-round deep-sea fishing for wahoo, kingfish, mackerel, dorado, tuna and barracuda. Yachts of all sizes can be chartered and an annual sportfishing tournament is held at the end of April to early May. Spear fishing is prohibited.

Crab-racing
A sport for the very lazy, crab-racing is staged in certain bars once or twice a week. A punter may win enough to pay for the next round of drinks, but stakes are moderate and the crabs are unlikely to make anyone a millionaire.

Golf
There are two first-class golf courses: the spectacular 18-hole golf course at Cedar Valley and Jolly Harbour. Daily, weekly and monthly memberships at Cedar Valley also include tennis privileges.

Other
The national game is cricket, which is played to the highest international standard. In Viv Richards, Antigua produced one of the finest cricketers the game has ever seen. January is the official start of the cricket season, as well as the beginning of the netball and volleyball seasons. There are also many lawn tennis courts and the International Tennis Weeks in January (men) and April (women) attract numerous professionals, some of whom stay for extended periods to train for the international tennis circuit.
Horseriding can be organised through hotels and there is a well-equipped riding club with competition facilities of an international standard. There is horseracing at Cassada Gardens. The annual football season runs from September through to February.
It is also possible to hire bicyles.