It’s very, very rare that I’ll pit hotels against each other and do a comparison post, but I’ve had an influx of messages on Instagram from travellers wanting to know whether four-star Pineapple Beach Club (PBC) or five-star Royalton CHIC Antigua is better, as I’ve stayed at both.
Both resorts are adults-only, and both are great in their own way, but other than the price point, they’re very, very different, so I thought it would be easier to write it all out in a blog post.
So, which Antigua resort is better – Pineapple Beach Club or Royalton CHIC? Let’s get into it!
For context, I stayed at Pineapple Beach Club in February 2000 (when I was just 9 years old!), and August 2021 (age 30!). I stayed at Royalton CHIC Antigua in November 2025.
What I would also say with this post, is that when I stayed at Pineapple Beach Club in 2021, it was shortly after COVID lockdown restrictions ended (read my post about that trip here!), so the resort wasn’t at it’s normal level of service.
Additionally, I was there for a last-minute holiday and didn’t take any of my cameras etc with me, just my phone, so the photos aren’t as high quality as the Royalton ones.
1. Location & Beach of Each Resort
Pineapple Beach Club
Antigua’s Pineapple Beach Club (PBC) resort is located on The Atlantic coast side of the island, in the small town area of Willikies.
The beach at the resort is called Long Bay Beach, and while it’s beautiful on a calm day, because it’s on The Atlantic side, it can get quite rough when it’s windy.
It’s also quite prone to seaweed (which the staff promptly clear up with rakes).
PBC is about a half hour drive from Nelson’s Dockyard and Shirley Heights, and also about a half hour’s drive from St John’s and V.C. Bird International Airport. Jolly Harbour and Dickenson Bay are a 40-minute drive.
Royalton CHIC Antigua
Royalton CHIC Antigua (not to be confused with Royalton Antigua, which is their sister resort), is located about 10-mins from St John’s and the airport.
The resort is located on the Caribbean Sea side of the island, on Dickenson Bay, so the waters are much calmer and IMO, better for swimming.
It’s also a better option if you like to walk, because walking down the whole beach and back again is around a 30-min walk, which was really nice early in the morning before breakfast.
I also found the sand to be softer than PBC’s beach.
However, Royalton CHIC is further from the main tourist areas of Nelson’s Dockyard, Shirley Heights, Stingray City etc. It’s a 45-min drive away from those places.
The Winner: Royalton CHIC Antigua – For me, Royalton CHIC won on location purely because I really loved the beach so much.
2. Resort Size & Atmosphere
When it comes to the size of each resort, neither of them are huge, but Pineapple Beach Club is definitely much smaller than CHIC.
Royalton CHIC
Royalton CHIC Antigua is known as a party resort, and they do have a lot of parties, activites and entertainment.
It’s also quite a loud resort. There is a quieter ‘relax’ pool, but it’s still fairly noisy at times.
Because it’s a party resort, you do get a lot of drunk guests – just something to be aware of if you’re like me and don’t drink.
Royalton CHIC is also larger with three different pools for all guests, plus an extra pool for Diamond Club guests.
When it comes to clientele, I’d say Royalton CHIC mostly has American and British guests. The British guests are quite rowdy (I say this being British myself lol…), and they get a lot of big groups there.
Pineapple Beach Club
Pineapple Beach Club, however, is much quieter, smaller, and has an older more mature crowd.
I’d also say their guests are much more respectable, and again, a mix of British, American, and Canadian.
PBC is also much more lush and green than Royalton CHIC, with beautiful plants and trees everywhere, and lots of places to walk and relax.
I really loved the hammocks dotted around for reading in!
The Winner: Pineapple Beach Club – For me, PBC wins because it’s just a lovely resort and atmosphere, and feels more relaxing with better vacation vibes.
3. Pools, Spa, and Amenities
Pineapple Beach Club
Pineapple Beach Club has three main pools, including a really lovely ‘quiet’ infinity pool overlooking the beach.
The main pool is right by two bars, and the poolside food place.
There are four tennis courts, pickleball courts, and a well equipped gym at PBC, but honestly I don’t use a gym when I’m on vacation, so I couldn’t tell you what the equipment is like.
Pineapple Beach Club isn’t really a spa resort, and their spa is very rustic and bare-bones. If you’re looking for a good spa, this probably isn’t the resort for you.
Royalton CHIC Antigua
Royalton CHIC Antigua has four pools, including the main pool, a smaller activity pool (complete with net), the quiet/relax pool, and the Diamond Club pool.
The Main Pool was where they held all the water activites and the twice-weekly foam party. There’s also a pool bar here with bar stools in the water.
Royalton CHIC has much more in the way of wellness and spa services. They have a brand new full Spa which is BEAUTIFUL!
It’s honestly stunning, super tranquil, and feels very luxurious.
I had a really amazing massage there (top tip: the massage prices are negotiable), and there’s also hydrotherapy pools inside the spa, as well as sauna and steam room.
The Winner: Royalton CHIC Antigua – The Spa makes Royalton CHIC the winner for this one, it really is an amazing space.
4. Food and Drink
Pineapple Beach Club
Pineapple Beach has 6 restaurants, 1 cafe, and 3 bars.
When I stayed at PBC in 2021, only a select few restaurants were open due to the COVID restrictions still in place.
Since I stayed there, they’ve renovated a lot of the restaurants and bars and they look a lot nicer now than when I was last there.
When I stayed there the food wasn’t great, but what I would say, is 1. they didn’t have everything up and running due to COVID, and 2. I find it quite hard to find high resort quality food in the Caribbean. The one restaurant in the Caribbean that really stood out to me for great food was Galley Bay Resort, but that’s a much higher price point than PBC and CHIC.
The stand-out for me at PBC was The Outhouse, a Caribbean BBQ restaurant up on the cliff which is really, really amazing! The resort also hosts a Caribbean BBQ night on the beach once a week, and I’d say in general their Caribbean food was much better than Royalton CHIC.
Royalton CHIC Antigua
Royalton CHIC Antigua has 7 restaurants, 1 cafe, and 4 bars.
Now, the Royalton’s food also wasn’t great. But, I did think it had more options and choices than PBC (but again, PBC didn’t have everything open when I last stayed there), especially at breakfast and in the cafe.
Plus, they have a mini-bar in all rooms which is refreshed daily with different drinks.
The stand-out food places at Royalton CHIC were their overwater restaurant, Pescari (but this comes with an additional fee), and their cafe.
The Winner: It’s a tie between the two! – Both offer a good amount of different restaurants & bars, but the food definitely isn’t four or five star quality at either resort. I’d say both are more three-star in terms of food quality.
5. Room Options
Pineapple Beach Club
I think the main thing you need to know about PBC is that it’s more of a homely, rustic/barefoot resort, than a luxury/modern one, and the design is more traditional and older than CHIC.
The resort was built in 1986, so the buildings are older, and because of that combined with the Caribbean humidity, the rooms can smell quite musty if you’re on the lower levels.
There are six different room types available at Pineapple Beach Club, including Waterfront, Beachfront, Premium Oceanview, Oceanview, Gardenview, and Pool Terrace rooms. There’s also the Chairman’s Suite.
When I checked in I was on the lower level in the Waterfront building, but the room was very damp smelling and they kindly moved me up one floor, which was great and had no damp smell!
I do think that the rooms and quality of the beds and linen is what lets PBC down a bit, and that if they renovated the rooms it would make a huge difference.
As you can see from the photo below, the bed was quite lumpy.
Royalton CHIC Antigua
The main plus for me with Royalton CHIC is that CHIC’s rooms are very fresh and new, with no smells of mildew/damp at all.
The rooms are super modern and contemporary, and all felt very clean, and the beds were very comfortable.
I think if PBC could match CHIC with the quality of the rooms, I’d say PBC would be the more obvious choice for more travellers.
As well as the main rooms at the resort, they also offer Diamond Club (which is in a high rise building), and overwater bungalows.
The Winner: Royalton CHIC Antigua – new, fresh rooms with a contemporary design and better quality beds & bedding!
6. Excursions
Royalton CHIC Antigua
Honestly, I was not impressed with Royalton’s excursions at all.
They were all super overpriced and expensive compared to the other resorts I’ve stayed at in Antigua, and half of them weren’t even available.
We literally sat in the room with the excursion people and they crossed out more than half the excursions and told us they simply weren’t running. The only ones running were 4×4 excursions, which we didn’t want to do.
We ended up just going into St John’s one day for lunch at Hemingways, and then we also went to Shirley Heights on the sunday night.
We used a taxi for these rather than doing the official tours.
Pineapple Beach Club
I found the excursions at PBC much better, and more value for money.
On paper they look more ‘basic’ than Royalton’s, but they were things I actually wanted to do instead of random all-day tours that did a bunch of random things.
I’d highly recommend doing the Calypso Cat Catamaran trip, which takes you out to Bird Island.
Stingray City is also a bit of fun, and I’d definitely recommend hiring a jeep in Antigua and driving around the island!
The Winner: Pineapple Beach Club – More value for money, and better excursion options.
7. Entertainment and Activities
Pineapple Beach Club
The entertainment at Pineapple Beach Club is more traditional, with steel bands, karaoke, and local DJs.
Like everything else at PBC, it’s more relaxed and low-key.
Activities-wise, there’s plenty to do, with four tennis courts, pickleball courts, and lots of ocean activities – hobie cats, kayaks, wind-surfing etc.
Royalton CHIC Antigua
Royalton CHIC is an entertainment powerhouse. All day, every day, there’s something going on.
However, it gets a bit exhausting at times, and the level of noise can be quite loud.
And the evening entertainment is um…a bit meh. The musicians were amazing, but the dancers weren’t great.
I think the entertainment is amazing for groups of friends who are wanting more of that party vibe (it literally bills itself as a party hotel), but if I was travelling solo or in a couple, or if I was wanting a super chill vacation, I’d be annoyed by the constant noise.
They have a few ocean-activities as well, including hobie cats, padel boats, and kayaks, as well as tennis courts and pickleball courts.
The Winner: Royalton CHIC Antigua – Bags of entertainment all day, every day.
8. Service
The service is 100% better at Pineapple Beach Club.
We found the service very hit-and-miss at Royalton CHIC Antigua – some staff were amazing and others just clearly didn’t want to be there. The service at the bars was very poor, especially the pool bar.
At Pineapple Beach Club, the staff are just lovely. I think because it’s smaller and part of Elite Island Resorts (who also own Galley Bay and Palm Island Resort), they really do a very good job at training their staff at all of their resorts.
The Winner: Pineapple Beach Club – Much better service. The resort is more intimate and personable and the service reflects this.
So which resort should you choose?
I know it looks like Royalton CHIC is the winner in more areas, but for me personally, Pineapple Beach is the obvious choice if you value peace and quiet, and a more relaxed vacation with um, ‘nicer/more respectable’ guests.
Pineapple Beach Club feels like you’re in the Caribbean. It’s quaint, rustic, relaxed, and has the perfect tropical vibes.
It’s hard to really describe, but it’s just special. It’s intimate, homely, peaceful.
Royalton CHIC meanwhile, is contemporary, has that party-vibe, and is great for girls trips and groups of friends and families…but it could be located anywhere in the world. Other than the beach there’s nothing about it that makes you think, ‘Ah yes, I’m in the Caribbean’.
I’ll put it this way – I’d go back to Pineapple Beach Club again and again. I personally wouldn’t return to CHIC.
Best Resort for Groups of Friends & Girls Trips: Royalton CHIC Antigua
Best Resort for Adult Families: Royalton CHIC Antigua OR PBC (depending on what vibe you want)
Best Resort for Couples: Pineapple Beach Club
Best Resort for Solo Travellers: Pineapple Beach Club
Read my full review on staying at Royalton CHIC Antigua and how to plan a vacation like a professional!
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of Content Marketing at Amazon by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
