Strictly Come Dancing star Sophie Ellis-Bextor finds holiday heaven in Antigua

Revealed: 06:53 EDT, 16 March 2014 | Up to date: 09:00 EDT, 16 March 2014

I used to be exhausted and I wanted a break. After my stint on Strictly Come Dancing I used to be heading off to the St James’s Membership in Antigua – and I used to be actually wanting ahead to it.

This journey registered plenty of ‘firsts’: I might by no means been to the Caribbean and this was the primary time we would ever been on a household vacation in January. There was a household connection too – my father discovered to scuba-dive right here within the Eighties and I knew it had a implausible repute.

Ordinarily we’re summer-holiday form of individuals, however halfway by means of Strictly it grew to become apparent to me that it could be nice to have a household break on the horizon, simply in order that we might spend some correct time collectively.

Strictly was a stunning expertise however completely draining. It simply appeared to take over all my mind cells. My stint began in August and I had no thought how lengthy I’d be in it for. Because it occurred, I ended up taking part proper as much as the weekend earlier than Christmas.

On high of all of the coaching, the rehearsals and the present itself, I had a brand new album popping out.

So issues had been full-on and it was a reduction to know that after New Yr, the 5 of us – me, my husband Richard Jones, who’s a member of the band The Feeling, and our three kids Sonny, 9, Equipment, 4, and 20-month-old Ray – can be packing our luggage and heading off for some us-time.

All I needed was a type of holidays the place the one factor you need to plan every day is which restaurant you are going to eat in and the way lengthy you are going to spend within the pool or on the seaside. 

The St James’s Membership is on a secluded 100-acre peninsula on the south-eastern coast of Antigua and it caters for households, singles and {couples}. The resort has glorious sports activities services and the energetic can select from six swimming swimming pools, six tennis courts and a health centre. For households, there’s a particular kids’s space and a kids’s membership.

There may be additionally a sensible choice of locations to eat, with 4 eating places serving every thing from informal to continental delicacies.

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I used to be delighted to seek out there have been additionally two fabulous white-sand seashores: Coco Seashore, which has been described as an aquarium for snorkellers, and Mamora Bay, which is ideal for swimming. 

Once we found that seaside at Mamora Bay, every thing fell into place and our vacation actually acquired began.

It was in all probability probably the most family-friendly seaside I’ve ever been to: good for younger kids as a result of the ocean water is so calm. And the climate was simply beautiful – there was sunshine on a regular basis.

It made us ask ourselves why we would by no means been on vacation in January earlier than. The climate had been so dismal at residence and now right here we had been in Antigua having an excellent dose of Vitamin D and getting sand in every single place!

Often our household holidays are an actual last-minute affairs. With two kids at college, we keep trustworthy to the college routine and really feel we’ve got to get away within the allotted six-week summer season vacation.

Our breaks usually contain staying with associates or hopping over to Europe.

And even after we do get away, one in all us could must pop again to the UK for gigs or recording. It is the character of the best way we earn our residing.

And, in fact, Richard and I additionally must journey for work. I attempt to make my journeys overseas as brief as potential for the sake of the youngsters. I will take the final potential flight out and the primary flight residence. 

Antigua was the primary correct household break we would had in a very long time – simply the 5 of us for seven nights, with no person disappearing in the midst of every thing to go to work.

What significantly happy Richard and me was that issues labored out virtually precisely as we would hoped. The meals was a bit stodgy generally, however as a result of the eating places supplied buffet companies, it was all extremely straightforward. The kids cherished it. There was no trouble – they only turned up and acquired plates of meals in entrance of them right away.

We additionally met some pretty individuals. One evening, one in all our boys acquired a bit wheezy and we needed to name out a health care provider. He was utterly pretty.

A bolt from the blue: St John’s, the capital of Antigua, is a reasonably place for a day journey past the resorts

Thoughts you, we had been warned to maintain ourselves, as a result of there are solely three ambulances on the island and we had been advised that it could take them an hour to get to St James’s.

Leisure on the resort included a metal band and our expeditions took in a few journeys to the island’s capital, St John’s, and a go to to the port of English Harbour, which is an enormous yachting centre. 

Maybe our greatest outing was to Stingray Metropolis.

This concerned a snorkelling journey with Southern Rays. You’ll be able to contact and feed the rays, and so they appear very pleasant. I picked up a stingray and I fed one, however I have to admit I needed to placed on a present of bravado in order that the youngsters can be effective – I could not assist pondering of Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin, who was killed in 2006 when a ray stung him.

All of us cherished the expertise aside from Equipment, who screamed on the high of his voice: ‘Kill them! Kill all of them!’ He did not just like the rays in any respect. Had our kids been a little bit older, they might have had plenty of enjoyable having fun with all of the water-sports on supply. There’s crusing and scuba-diving, however we fortunately settled for one thing gentler – pedalos and kayaks.

The a part of the vacation we had been actually dreading earlier than we left was the eight-and-a-half-hour daytime flight out to Antigua. It is a very long time to maintain younger kids entertained and comfortable, and we had a few bushy moments. The Virgin Atlantic employees had been good. They stored very chipper and had been extremely easy-going. On the flight again, the youngsters primarily slept, aside from poor Sonny, who tearfully knowledgeable me that he hadn’t slept a wink and will solely watch movies the entire method again. 

Whereas there was a children’ membership on the resort, we did not use it. It was nicer simply to have the youngsters with us the entire time. In the direction of the top of the vacation, Sonny met another boys to play with, which he preferred.

Visiting Antigua was such a optimistic expertise for us that we’re pondering we’d strive another Caribbean islands subsequent time. I fancy Barbados, or St Lucia. Our break actually labored and was precisely what we had been on the lookout for. We might stroll from our little villa all the way down to the seaside inside two minutes, so even our toddler was in a position to toodle his method all the way down to the sand with us, and that was actually pretty.

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The nicest factor was that everyone on the resort was very relaxed about kids behaving as kids – they might run round and no person would inform them off.

Whereas the youngsters are small, we’d be exhausting pushed to seek out one thing that works for us in addition to Antigua did.