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.

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.

Bus Route Of The Week

Planning on visiting the town of Parham? The following route is the route for you. 

This route makes stops in the following villages and residential areas:

• Factory Road 
• St. Johnson's Village
• Potters
• Paynters
• Old Sugar Factory
• Cedar Hill
• Vernons
•  Parham

 About Parham Town 

Parham is a town on the north-east coast of Antigua, with a population of 1,276 (2001 census).^[1] It is the oldest town in the country (established in 1632) and was once the capital. Parham is built upon Parham Harbour, a well-protected anchorage.

Information gotten from Wikipedia.

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:

source

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.

Golden Moments

Growing up, my family only had ABS, Antigua & Barbuda Broadcasting Station, and although I was able to still find something to watch, one of my memories of that station is the Benson & Hedges 555 Commercials. It's amazing I never picked up the desire to smoke, LOL. That is one of the funny things about life, 25 years ago there would be commercials for cigarettes and now you can't smoke in buildings and packs of cigarettes display warning labels that cover half of the package. It's also amazing that people still smoke despite those warnings.

Forgive me I meander a lot. I mentioned the Benson & Hedges commercial because it had a woman coming out of the ocean, bathed in golds and browns. Then a couple months ago, my sis and I were at the beach, and the sun was setting. In that moment our little patch of paradise became a Benson & Hedges commercial. Sometimes life imitates art and we just have to stop and enjoy that moment in time because there is no guarantee that you will have it again.

I couldn't find the exact 555 commercial, but here are a couple I found on YouTube

Traveling by bus in Antigua

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

Introduction of Bus Stop Antigua

First of all, welcome to Bus Stop Antigua and thank you for visiting the blog. What is Bus Stop Antigua? you ask. It is your one stop for all information related to traveling around Antigua via bus. It was borne from the realization that I knew nothing about the local public transportation with the exception of traveling from where I lived to town, St. John's and back.

Over a one year period, my car had been repossessed twice, was out of commission at least once or was needed by a family member. I had to rely on public transportation and it was in these situations that I realized I didn't know the following

• The bus numbers to take to get to where I live from St. John's
• The cost of the fare to travel from where I live to St. John's
• The cost of the fare to travel at night
• At what time it was considered night

 It was late 2012, when I was talking with family members that I realized that I was not the only person who knew very little about traveling around Antigua by bus. It was also in that moment that the idea for Bus Stop Antigua came to be.

Who is Bus Stop Antigua for? It's for you,

• the local who may drives or have been driven who now finds themselves without a vehicle;
• the new resident who is still trying to make their way around Antigua;
• the visitor who is either looking for a cheaper way to travel around Antigua or wants to have an adventure and really see life through the eyes of the locals;
• the local who only knows their bus home but wants to visit a different village.

 The website is simple to use, just select the village or residential area from the drop down menu on the homepage or the top right hand corner of all the pages. You will be directed to the appropriate bus route or a page that will give you options of  bus routes. Bus Stop Antigua is a work in progress so expect to find new features as we grow.

What should you expect from this blog? Expect interesting information such as the following:

• Pictures taken around Antigua;
• Monthly looks at books written by Antiguan writers;
• Information on what's going on in Antigua;
• Fun stuff produced by Antiguans
• Updates on the Bus Stop Antigua site

So to keep up to date on all things Bus Stop Antigua, subscribe to the blog, like the Facebook page and follow on Twitter.