To St. James's Club By Bus

A couple weeks ago, my sister, my mom and I played hookie from day to day living and went on a day pass at St. James's Club. It was only this year that I discovered the lovely experience called the day pass. For a fraction of the regular price of a room and for about $100 EC each, we got to take advantage of all the resort had to offer and a very nice room. The only concern we had was how to get there.

As you can see from the google map below, St. James is nowhere near a bus stop. The closest bus stop is in Cobbs Cross.


View St. James By Bus in a larger map

We knew that when we hopped on a #17 bus, Bus #87 and we figured that we would find our way to St. James's somehow. The bus didn't have much people and the atmosphere was light and jovial. We travelled through All Saints, Liberta and Falmouth.

As we approached the Cobbs Cross bus stop, we called out the stop and prepared ourselves to work out how we were going to make it to the resort. As I paid the fare, I asked the bus driver if he knew how to get to St. James's from Cobbs Cross. He told us he could take us, if we paid a little extra. He went on to tell us to name the price and in the end we paid him $27 EC for the entire ride from the center of the island to St. James for 3 people. Sounded good to us.

 ..most bus drivers are willing to take passengers wherever they want for a little more money.

On the drive to the resort, the bus driver informed us that most bus drivers are willing to take passengers wherever they want for a little more money. If you ask nicely they will do you the favour. This is not the first time I've heard this, in fact one bus driver told me that some buses would act as taxis if the price is right.

Because they were not expecting us in a bus, we had to enter St. James at the gate. The only problem with this is we had to walk the full length of the property to reach the reception desk. Trust me this was not the Front Desk. 

After checking in, we had breakfast. In my case, a huge breakfast - pancake, sausages, an omellette with almost everything in it, fruits. Yum. This was followed with going to the room and letting the sleepiness of eating to much run it's course.

It wasn't long before I was itching to leave the indoors and have a bit of fun. With sister in tow, I went to the bar by the pool. We ordered the drink of the day, Blue Horizon, which was mixed to perfection. And although we ate, we still got a bit tipsy so we took a walk around the property to sober up.

On our walk, we were offered a few pieces of coconut from a little blonde boy with blue eyes. We walked along the coast and found what I believe is Antigua's smallest beach. We found ourselves at watersports, so we decided to go out on the paddleboat. Let's just say we are not in shape and we found ourselves taking breaks every few minutes. All in all good fun, we even took pictures of the resort from the water.

Back on land, we sought out the bar and got a couple of beers. We then went and played pool, which was a smart move because it was hot, even the sand under our feet was hot. Not only did we play pool, we played our version of ping pong which meant we spent more time running after the ball than hitting it.

Having had our fun out of the water, we decided it was time to get wet. We went back to the room and threw on our swim suits. We continued to explore the property by going in the other direction. We found a small pool near to a restaurant and we set up camp.

It was an hour or so later that we started to get hungry. We gathered up our things and went to the restaurant. We ordered a late, boozy lunch and ate while being entertained by the staff bantering with each other.

By the time we were finished, we were relaxed by being in the water and having a big lunch. We made our way to the room, taking a different route from the one we took before. When we got to the room, we crashed in the bed. The unfortunate thing was I was too tired to sleep.

In the end, we watched a crazy zombie movie which ended just when we were to check out. We gathered up our things and made our way to reception. The only concern: How are we going to get off the property?

Luck would have it that my sister someone she knew who was leaving at that moment. She asked her if she could give us a ride to the bus stop and she said sure. In fact she gave us a ride to Liberta.

We did have to wait a while before a bus arrived, but we were just happy that we were somewhere where we could get a bus. In less than 10 minutes, we were in walking distance to home.

Although I had heard of day passes, I never thought to go on one. A few of the bigger hotels have them, St. James's, Verandah, Sandals. To find out, ask someone who works at a major hotel or call the hotel and ask. Not only are they great for locals, visitors can take advantage of them. You can stay at one property and go on a day pass at another.

To see more pics of our adventure at St. James's visit the Facebook page and the St. James's album.

Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver

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This morning, just before leaving the house, I saw the commercial for a show that caught my interest. It was called "Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver". As I left the house I decided I had to see what this was all about. I hoped on my trusty internet and looked it up.

"Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver" is one of three documentaries that aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom in February 2011. The other two were centered around a Paramedic and a Midwife. The shows were such a success that they came back in early and mid 2012 and mid and early 2013.

 The first "Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver" had London bus driver, Josh West , traveling to Manilla in the Philippines to take up his new job as a Jeepney driver on some of the most congested streets in the world.

 If you think driving in Antigua is hair raising, check out the documentary below.

Bus Stop Antigua 2.0

After four months since its launch, Bus Stop Antigua will be meeting one of its major milestones of providing detailed bus information. As of June 15th, 2013, visitors to the site will be able to choose both their point of origin and their final destination. Upon submitting their start and end villages, town and/or residential areas, a table will be generated showing

• The bus(es) to take;
• The bus fare(s), including regular, child and night fare(s);
• The transfer location with links that open maps of the location showing the bus stops.

It is the aim of Bus Stop Antigua to become Antigua's #1 website for local public transportation. In the months to come Bus Stop Antigua will be introducing new features which will make bus travel in Antigua easy and simple.

So jump on a bus and enjoy the ride with Bus Stop Antigua.

Five Tips For Bus Travel In Antigua

Although the amount of registered vehicles in Antigua is in the tens of thousands, a lot of people still depend on public transportation to travel around Antigua. Below are five tips to keep in mind on you next journey by bus:

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1. Always allow extra time for travel. Depending on your final destination, give yourself at least 30 minutes of travel time. This will include walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, traveling by bus and walking to your final destination. Nothing is worse than arriving late because you underestimated the time it will take to get there.
2. Upon enter a bus, greet the passengers and the bus driver with a "Good morning" "Good afternoon" or "Good evening" This is out of common decency and respect for your fellow passengers. It also shows that you still possess the manners you mama taught you.
3. Keep your music to yourself. Although the speaker quality on the latest cellular phones have gotten better, it doesn't mean you have to share your music with your fellow passengers. The only person who has the right to blast their music in a bus is the bus driver and sometimes his selections are questionable. Your personal choice of music is just that - personal - so use ear buds.
4. Use ear buds instead of headphones. Although big, chunky headphones are fashionable right now, it's better to travel with ear buds. Ear buds are lighter and take up less space and it is easier to have only one in your ear as opposed to the chunky headphones. You should always be aware of your surroundings as you never know when something will happen and you would have to act quickly. This would be near impossible if you can't hear.
5. When in doubt give the bus driver a little more than the bus fare. For short trips you can give him $3 and for longer ones $4 (during the day) when you are not absolutely sure of the bus fare. It's better to have them give you back change than have the whole bus waiting for you to pull out extra change.

For many people living in Antigua, traveling by bus is a necessity. It is their only way of getting to and from work and/or school. It also gives individuals a sense of freedom and independence as they don't have to depend on family and friends to drive them around.

The Best & The Worst

Everyone in Antigua has had an encounter with the buses that make up our public transportation system. Be it through being a passenger or by sharing the road with them as a driver. Some of these encounters have been great and some have been worst that awful. Because of this, Bus Stop Antigua presents The Best and The Worst.

We invite nominations for the best and worst buses on the roads of Antigua. This will lead to voting online and from the votes, we will identify the best and worst buses in Antigua and the runner ups.

Nominations start on March 15, 2013 and end on March 31, 2013. Voting will start on April 1, 2013 and end on April 15, 2013. For more information, visit The Best & The Worst page.

So if you have a bus that you love or always travel on, nominate it. If there is a bus you will never travel on, nominate it. And if you have a great or awful experience on a bus, post it on our FaceBook page, www.facebook.com/busstopanu.

Traveling by bus in Antigua

Traveling by bus in Antigua. Here is a clip posted on You Tube by Jamil Vanderlinde.

Movie Night Pick - Speed

 

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Hi all, let me start off by saying I am a huge movie buff and I was thinking to myself:

"Self, why don't we have a movie night pick based on transportation? And why don't we start it off with the 1994 blockbuster Speed?"

 I am not going to lie, I am a Sandra Bullock fan and when this movie came out I was loving it. But you know what? You know when you remember something from your child fondly and then you watch it now only to feel old or wonder what you were thinking. I almost feel the same about this movie, check out the trailer:



What I'm loving:

• The action sequences,
• The actors: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper and Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber)
• The cheesy lines, especially the last line 
• The fact that this was a great example of what a 90's action was

 I can appreciate action movies now because this shows what it was like back then and they have come a long way. Just imagine almost 20 years ago this was a big budget movie, now compare it to Fast Five or the Avengers. I'm just saying. For more info on Speed, click here.

P.S.
If Keanu Reeves was such a bad actor, why come he gets the big movies, i.e. Speed, The Matrix. I'm just saying. Have a great weekend.