easy access to snorkel right off the beach, the reef is close and waters calm and clear on most days. Lots of chairs to rent, food for purchase, and a really great restaurant on the beach. This beach is very busy with cruise ship tourists when 4 large ships are in port. Plan to go early.
Solid beach with beach bar at one end which will rent you umbrellas and chairs for US$5 each. Can get food and drinks from the beach bar and there is snorkeling right off the beach. Beautiful water.
Beach is nice in Long Bay. We had rented a car and were looking for a nice place to snorkle. A really nice local woman recommended we try Long Bay. She said we could walk on to the reef and she was right! We rented a beach chair from a local restaurant for $5 for the day...dropped our stuff and into the water we went. We saw a lot of cool fish. The reef is fairly shallow in this area but for what we were looking to do it was perfect. There are also some good places to eat in the area. And the water is stunning in this spot. It is just a nice place to spend a very relaxing day.
This beach was in the next bay along from our resort, had the opportunity to walk here in just a few minutes. This is a beach worth seeing and taking in: there are corals walking distance into the sea, and snorkelling can be good here.Watch out for the poisonous tree!
The highlights of my visits to Long Bay have to be the white sand and clear blue water that instantly creates a picture-perfect memory. Delving deeper, the snorkelling is great too. If you're on the look out for Blue Tangs, Sergeant Majors and the odd Angel Fish, you're in for a treat!
Long Bay Beach: The beach was grainier than other beaches I've visited but still lovely. It was powdery but not the super soft sand. The water was crystal clear. There are sea grape trees for shade. Just be careful because we took shade under the sea grape trees and it had black ants and bees. You can rent lounge chairs, shade umbrellas, jet skis, food and beverages at the local shops that line the beach. The bathroom is NOT FREE. They charge $2 US to use the bathroom. I'd advise to buy a $2 bottle of water and then use the bathroom.
This public beach is not too big, and most of it is occupied by a resort, but the sand is very fine, the water calm and it is very picturesque.Snorkelling wasn't great and the constant buzz of salespeople trying to sell you everything from activities to drugs was slightly annoying. Do not bring valuables as there are a lot of people and a thief would have multiple escape options.
We stayed at the Verandah and this beach is outside the complex so we decided to have a short walk to see it. The beach is ok, however the locals are very off-putting. Before we even set foot on the beach we were approached to see if we wanted boat trips, food, sun loungers, drugs!!! A shame and not really what you expect, I think we stayed 5mins then left - I didn't feel very safe.
We visited long bay and got hassled by the guy running water sports rental hut to pay $75: for three beech chairs even thou we were only staying an hour but he was so pushy I paid. The next few times we visited this beech we just sat on the beech and used the natural shade of the trees which the local beech chair guy didn't like at all. On our last visit to long bay I moved a line beech chair that was under the tree my family and I wanted to sit under and the beech chair guy fromIsland water sports but came over shouting and hollering at me to not touch his chairs. I was not scared but he was doing his level best to intimidate me . I walked away and he continued the abuse until a security lady stepped in. The real shame of this is that the beech guy should know that ALL beeches in Antigua are free for public use. No person, no hotel, no business can claim any part of a beech is private, this law was originally passed to stop hotels and businesses from making Antigua's beeches inaccessible to the locals. The irony of this is that now the locals are doing exactly that and trying to claim that beeches are private .DO NOT Feel pressurised by the chair man!
The sand and water is pretty nice. Water is nice and warm. It is not very crowded. You can do some snorkeling, not that impressive though. If you are staying at the hotels in the area, the stingray city boat will actually pick you up from here.When you pull into the bay, you would notice a big tree on your left. Do not park under or near this tree. There is a sign that says this tree is poisonous, however it is high up and I did not notice the sign until I left the bay. I read about the tree afterwords. You should Google this tree. Do not eat any fruit that looks like an apple.