Lawrence of Antigua Tour

By Saint Greg

September 11, 2026

I booked this tour with Lawrence of Antigua due to the excellent reviews I read. It’s a cash deal. $60 for the tour and $15 to get into the national park.

My instructions from Lawrence were to exit the port, take a left on the boardwalk, and look for his sign in zone 7.

This is the left on the boardwalk.

I see his sign over in that parking lot.

The guy with the sign called Lawrence and he came and picked me up.

We have 14 people on this tour. Several regular seats are empty and all of the jump seats are empty.

Everyone had a lamented map to look at. At the end of the tour he gave us all a map to keep.

The island of Antigua is 108 square miles with a total population of 100,000 people. The population of St. John is 25,000. The last census was 15 years ago. Antigua got independence from England 45 years ago

This is the museum of Antigua and Barbuda.

St. John’s cathedral is behind the trees. We’ll get a better look at sail away. It’s 175 years old

This is their cricket stadium.

This is the National Archives.

Now we are passing a fire station.

This prison was built in 1735. It holds 250 inmates and has no showers.

This is the old sugar factory. Tourism is their main industry now.

This new cricket stadium was built with grant money from China. Only government officials know what China got in return.

Gas is $6 per gallon. Prices never go down. They only go up. The government just keeps the extra money when the price goes down.

This is some sugar cane.

This house costs about $250 thousand here.

This traffic light in All Saints Village is the only light outside of St. John.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church built in 1932.

This windmill is from the old sugar mill.

Lawrence has a better picture of it.

This is an African church built using limestone.

This is a school.

This is an example of an old one bedroom house. These houses had outdoor bathrooms.

This is where you pay $15 to get into this park.

Our first stop is Blockhouse Hill.

Eric Clapton has a house over there. Whitney Houston also had one over there.

Caribbean Sea

This was gun powder storage when this area was a fort.

Our second stop is Shirley Heights.

There’s a great view behind this old guard house.

They say that is a turtle.

And the one in the middle is an alligator. It looks more like a dinosaur to me.

We are about to enter Nelson’s Dockyard which has some really old buildings that have been repurposed.

Over there is Clarence House which was named for the Duke of Clarence. It was used by the Navy commissioner.

They have guides here who give you about a 5-10 minute orientation. Then you can explore on your own. We were given about 50 minutes here.

A closer look at Clarence House.

I am heading out. Here is the entrance.

This restaurant was an engineer’s house.

Lawrence has an ice chest of waters for everyone.

An example of the local currency.

This is a rain forest zip line.

At this point we have an option to stop at a beach for 1-3 hours or go back to the ship. Nine of us are going for a 2-hour beach stop. Two couples are going back to the ship. Lawrence said he would pick a beach that wouldn’t be crowded and allow us to approve it. Otherwise he’ll take us to a different beach.

This is a fancy hotel entrance.

This is not our beach but a beach at another fancy hotel.

Our beach looks good. We’re at a place called OJ’s Bar and Grill.

There’s nobody out that way.

And very few people on this side.

I’m getting in the water.

I’ve got my bag up on that sand mound.

I wasn’t able to get it on camera but a guy’s hat flew off and he was chasing in down the beach. Finally his wife got it.

I didn’t have to break out the water shoes. There are some small rocks when you first get in but it’s all sand about six feet out. I hung out neck deep for an hour.