The highlight of your Antigua vacation

Antigua and Barbuda, renowned for their stunning beaches and vibrant culture, offer visitors a plethora of activities to make their Caribbean vacation unforgettable. Among these, a private charter or day tour with Adventure Antigua stands out as a must-do experience. Founded by local entrepreneur and environmentalist Eli Fuller, Adventure Antigua provides authentic, educational, and exhilarating excursions that many travelers consider the highlight of their trip.

Eli Fuller: The Visionary Behind Adventure Antigua

Eli Fuller, a third-generation Antiguan, grew up immersed in the natural beauty of Antigua's North Sound area. His grandfather, Nick Fuller Sr., arrived in Antigua in 1941 and was so captivated by Bird Island that he decided to make the island his home. Continuing the family legacy, Eli's father, John Fuller, was born in Antigua and returned after studying law in the UK to raise his family. Eli's childhood was filled with boating, snorkeling, and exploring the islands, fostering a deep appreciation for Antigua's ecology and history.

At 16, Eli represented Antigua and Barbuda in windsurfing at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, showcasing his dedication and passion for water sports. After completing his studies in Business Management at Florida Tech and traveling the world as a professional windsurfer, Eli returned to Antigua to share his love for the island's natural wonders. In 1999, he founded Adventure Antigua, designing tours that mirror his family's adventures, aiming to provide guests with an authentic and educational experience of Antigua's marine and coastal ecosystems. 

Adventure Antigua: Authentic and Educational Excursions

Adventure Antigua offers a variety of tours, each meticulously crafted to highlight the island's natural beauty and rich history.

Eli's Original Eco Tour: This excursion takes guests through the North Sound Marine Park, exploring mangroves, reefs, and islands. Activities include snorkeling, caving, and hiking, with opportunities to spot local wildlife such as turtles, frigate birds, and rays. The tour emphasizes ecology and history, providing insights into the island's natural habitats and conservation efforts. 

Xtreme Circumnav: For those seeking adventure, this tour circumnavigates Antigua, stopping at key sites including Stingray City, Green Island, Nelson's Dockyard, Rendezvous or Pinchin Bay. The custom-designed speedboat ensures more time is spent exploring these remote locations, offering a comprehensive view of the island's coastline. 

Adventure Islands: This unique tour combines ecology, history, and adventure, allowing guests to explore Hell's Gate and Laviscount Island. Participants can engage with the island's wildlife, including giant tortoises, and learn about its fascinating history. 

Private Charters: For a personalized experience, Adventure Antigua offers private charters aboard their 37-foot yacht, "Seclusion." These charters are tailored to guests' preferences, providing a luxurious and intimate exploration of Antigua's coastal treasures. Charters using their other larger vessels can also be arranged. 

Guest Testimonials: A Highlight of the Vacation

The exceptional experiences provided by Adventure Antigua are reflected in numerous guest testimonials.

Spangler Dawne shared, "We LOVED the Extreme tour…the crew was fabulous and the tour is just so much fun!! I have mentioned you guys so many times they think I am getting kickbacks!!" 

Gena B. expressed her gratitude, stating, "I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful tour I had with you last week. It was a gorgeous day and I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful excursion. Our team of guides – JD, Alex, and Tony – were all wonderful and so accommodating. I will recommend your services to anyone I know going to Antigua." 

Carol, who faced physical challenges, recounted her experience: "I have bad knees and have trouble even climbing stairs, so you can imagine my apprehension about getting in and out of the boat. On top of that, I too get seasick. However, the ride was wonderful and their team pay special attention to special needs. Take Eli’s tour and enjoy. Even if you don’t snorkel, it’s the best." 

These testimonials highlight the personalized attention, accommodating nature, and unforgettable experiences that guests encounter with Adventure Antigua.

Why Choose Adventure Antigua?

Several factors make Adventure Antigua a standout choice for visitors seeking an authentic and enjoyable experience:

Local Expertise: Eli Fuller's deep-rooted connection to Antigua ensures that each tour is infused with local knowledge, history, and a genuine passion for the island's natural environment.

Environmental Stewardship: The tours emphasize ecological education, fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of Antigua's unique ecosystems calling for help in preserving these infinitely valuable areas. 

Personalized Experience: With smaller group sizes and attentive crew members, guests receive personalized attention, making each excursion feel like a day out with friends.

Diverse Offerings: Whether you're seeking adventure, relaxation, or education, Adventure Antigua's variety of tours cater to diverse interests and preferences.

A private charter or day tour with Adventure Antigua offers more than just sightseeing; it's an immersive experience that connects you with the heart and soul of Antigua and Barbuda. Eli Fuller's dedication to showcasing the island's natural beauty and his commitment to environmental education ensure that your excursion will be both enlightening and exhilarating. As echoed by numerous guests, a day with Adventure Antigua is not just a tour but a highlight of any Antiguan vacation.

The Best way of learning more is to go to the Adventure Antigua website, their Instagram or Facebook accounts or just calling them on WhatsApp +2687266355

18 million US dollars of Government Dept in exchange for what coastal protection??

This photo below shows some of the legally designated Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that Antigua and Barbuda currently has. Some of them were set up in the early 70s and up to now I don't know of any area within these huge expanses of "prtotected" waters that is being actively managed in any way. We see so many types of invasive non sustainable fishing methods daily within these MPAs and whenever our politicians speak of environmental protection I just laugh. Recently tears came to my eyes when I heard that our government was boasting about wiping off 18 million dollars of debt in some sort of environmental trade with Brazil. The Minister responsible says that Brazil is forgiving the debt because he and his government have promised to protect the marine coastline. There are more questions than answers with this one to be honest.

Here is a excerpt taken from The Antigua Observer:

Baptiste told the CARDI consultation that he was able to further reduce the debt to $18 million after talks in Rio in June with that country’s finance minister, Guido Mantega.
“We were introduced to a climate change organisation (The Nature Conservancy) and we are getting involved in a debt for climate adaptation swap,” Minister Baptiste said.
“We will get the climate change people to pay off the $18 million for us while we get vigorously involved in coastal zone management in Antigua & Barbuda.”

Read more here. As you can see, it's not very specific to be honest. Caribarena.com wrote another piece today questioning what exactly this all meant:

However, when Caribarena.com contacted Senior Environment Officer Ruleta Camacho and her Chief Environment Officer Diann Black-Layne, neither could share any information on the $18 million initiative.

According to Wendy Tittle, Press Secretary for Minister Baptiste, too many details cannot be divulged about the proposed initiative at this time, as the ministry is “still waiting on some documents.”

Read more: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/environment/environment/101065-firewall-surrounds-debt-for-climate-change-project.html#ixzz20npS74Ye

My problem with all of this talk is that as the photo above shows, we already have huge areas of coastline in our country which is protected under law and on paper but not actually in practice. I hope that the Brazilian tax payers and The Nature Conservancy are not as complacent as we are here in Antigua and Barbuda. I hope they actually are going to make sure that some sort of visible marine protection goes on here. We don't have any marine patrols at all here in Antigua for all of the area that sits in Marine Protected Areas and without the 2006 Fisheries Act having any signed regulations, the "fishing free for all" continues. The marine environment is under more strain than it has ever been under and while our government ministers slap themselves on the back our our marine resources dwindle and become extinct. Protect the Marine Protected Areas and stop talking!!!!!!!!!!

Adventure Antigua - Eli Fuller's Office on the Caribbean Sea by Tim Cotroneo

Eli Fuller’s office isn’t like yours and mine. One day his workplace is a 32-foot speed boat. Another day it’s a 52-foot catamaran. This 40-year-old native of Antigua conducts business and meets clients on the Caribbean Sea.

Eli Fuller captains his Xtreme speedboat while touring passengers along Antigua’s coastline.

Fuller discovered early on that being indoors wasn’t for him. After graduating from college at Florida Institute of Technology, Fuller tacked a variety of jobs that kept
reminding him what he didn’t want to do. Over the course of a post-college decade working in restaurants and hotels, Fuller kept his sanity and competitive outdoor juices flowing while competing as a world-class wind surfer.
In 1999, Fuller coordinated an agreement with Antigua’s Sunsail Colonna Club to take hotel guests snorkeling on his rustic 21-foot boat. About the same time, Fuller bonded with a friend who was developing a web design business. The moons were starting to align for Fuller as he began combining his twin passions of a life at sea, and anything to do with the Internet.

Fuller and his crew prepare to leave for a six-hour excursion from St. John’s Harbour.

Water and Web

Fuller immediately crafted a website called www.adventureantigua.com and absorbed whatever his friend would share on search engine optimization, link building, and Internet marketing. Fuller’s water adventure business inched forward as he kept his eyes opened, looking for a bigger boat.
Around 2000, “an English lady” suggested that she and Fuller attempt a 50-50 business split, with Fuller operating her 34-foot Wellcraft Super Sport based out of Antigua’s Jolly Harbour. Luckily, this new business arrangement coincided with the demand for boat excursions increasing on the island. The partnership remained fluid for about a year until Fuller eventually purchased the boat outright.
In those early years, Fuller “worked like a dog” to keep his excursion business at full capacity. Fuller felt he was developing a competitive edge, in part, because of a growing response to his content rich website. As much as Fuller enjoyed managing a one boat business, he began scouting for another, even bigger boat, to meet the demand stirred by some of the larger hotels on the island. Financing for this potential purchase would arise from an unlikely source.
“I was telling an English gentleman on one of my excursions that I was considering the purchase of a 52-foot catamaran. After knowing me for just a few hours, he very casually offered to lend me $195,000,” Fuller said.

Adventure Antigua has operated as an excursion business since 1999.

Only as Good as Your Team

As important as his boats are, Fuller noted that a boating business is only as good as the people who work for you. Eli’s Mom and sister handle the administrative side of his company, while many of his crew members are people he has known since childhood. The common denominator for all of Fuller’s Adventure Antigua hires is that each individual has a passion for sailing or an overall love of being on the water.
As for dealing with customers, Adventure Antigua is committed to keeping it real. “I believe in treating people like a best friend visiting here on a special holiday. People can
tell when you’re being corny or scripted. My goal is for Adventure Antigua to make a connection with our customers. We believe our tours offer tremendous value. That’s how you develop a good word of mouth and referral business,” Fuller said.

Eli Fuller’s business goal is to make each excursion a memorable experience for his passengers.

Instant Feedback

Value is also about giving customers more than what they bargained for. During the course of a six-hour Xtreme tour, customers snorkel twice, view dozens of dreamy oceanfront hotels, have lunch on a pristine beach, see the mega-yachts at Falmouth Harbour, swim with stingrays, and catch glimpses of celebrity homes like those belonging to Eric Clapton and Georgio Armani. Throughout a day skittering along the Caribbean’s turquoise water, Fuller regales guests with stories of Antigua history, geography, and shipwrecks.
Being an entrepreneur in an era where you are only as good as your last customer is something not lost on Fuller. “With today’s Internet, gone are the days when you can get by running a mediocre business. With Trip Advisor, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, we receive instant feedback over the web regarding our tours. If a customer has had anything other than an exceptional experience, you hear about it,” Fuller said. Early on, Fuller snared “Antigua” as his Twitter handle, and he stays connected with followers on a daily basis.
When one’s office is on the Caribbean Sea, it’s important to anticipate the next big wave. Whether he’s navigating passengers along Antigua’s coastline or researching the latest in Internet technology, Eli Fuller is one happy entrepreneur, as long as he’s not too far from the water.

Tim Cotroneo is a freelance writer from Lino Lakes, MN, with a passion for travel and a future Caribbean zip code. www.timcotroneo.com

The Adventure Antigua Team

Adventure Antigua has needed an updated crew blog for some time. Many of the old team have moved on to bigger and better things with skills they gleaned with our team and today we are proud to have another excellent fresh team who have been getting nothing but excellent, rave reviews on Tripadvisor and other online sites.

I am still here of course and in case you are new to Adventure Antigua, I (eli fuller) started this company using a small open, locally built boat back in 1999. I took a max of four people a day out on a tour i called "the eco tour". The tour is carefully designed to replicate adventures that I got up to with my siblings and cousins in the North Sound of Antigua. That's me on the far left sometime back in the very early 80s.

Also shown in the image above and in a better one below is Nell Fuller, my sister, and the person who maintains a link between the hotels and our company. Nell has been with Adventure Antigua for years and years and know the internal mechanics of it better than anyone. It's not always easy getting info about our tours to the guests that visit Antigua and Nell's job is a very challenging one indeed. She also takes most of our bookings that come in over the phone. She answers the phone 24 hours a day!
 

Also involved in working with the hotels but more involved with working with guests before they actually get to Antigua is Julia Fuller, my sister in law. Julia answers most of the hundreds of emails we get each week and spends quite a bit of time behind the computer as you can imagine. It's been a while since I have seen her on the boat actually (makes note). Here you see her with her son and my nephew, Alexander Jr., a third generation North Sound Fuller kid.

Also not getting on the boats nearly enough is the person who really keeps the business glued together. My mom, Jill Fuller, runs the office side of things. Thank goodness because I am not nearly as good as she is at keeping track of everything that is going on behind the scenes. She is one of those people who finds a few more hours in each day and when she's not working for us she manages to find time to do councelling. Read more about that part of her career here. She also finds time to be an artist too!! See some of her work here.  

 
Another family member who is part of the team is Ross Bloomfield, my (slightly) younger cousin. Ross was born in Antigua and grew up on Dutchmans Bay like the rest of us had done and spent his time as a youngster exploring all the islands and reefs of the North Sound. Like most of my team, he is more at home on the beach and in the sea and on land. He spent quite a bit of time in the UK going to school and then came back a few years ago with a Yacht Masters under his belt. He is a great captain and a natural guide showing people his beautiful home out on the water.



Another skipper on the team is Captain JD Hall. JD is a veteran Adventure Antigua hero like Ross spends most of his free time out on the water. I mean, you know you are in the right type of work when you go boating on your day off and that is what you do when you work! His family has a long tradition of going to sea here in Antigua and I don't think there has been a fishing tournament at any time over the past 40 years when one of the Halls wasn't taking home a trophy. They all learn about boating as kids and JD is probably one of the best at it. He's comfortable at the helm of either a powerboat or a sailing vessel.


Another Adventure Antigua veteran and one of my oldest friends is Trevor Erskine. Trevor and I spent quite a bit of time racing against each other during windsurfing competitions both here in Antigua and internationally. Trevor is another person who is at home on the water. That being said, you will also see him on land wherever there is a good cricket match going on. Until recently he spent most summers in the UK playing county cricket. On the pitch he's an all rounder scoring sixes and fours with ease and then later will be smashing wickets with fierce bowling. He now plays with the Stingray City gang for Seatons here in Antigua.
He has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years and is the perfect tour guide while you are visiting Antigua. We are lucky to have him with us in our team because just like when he's playing cricket, Trevor is an all rounder on the tours as well. 

Nicola Nash joined the team a few years ago and we are so lucky that she did. Nicola is our main Eco and marine biology aficionado. She has represented Adventure Antigua at a recent Whale Watching conference in Panama, sits on the Environmental Awareness Group as a board member, spends heaps of time volunteering at night for the Turtle Project here in Antigua, and is always there to help when there are any eco type things going on. She loves nothing more than snorkeling and being in the water though. Her favorite thing in the world is the octopus, but she's passionate about all the other marine and terrestrial animals. She is our main Eco Tour guide and is perfect for the job as you can imagine. Originally from the USA, she lives full time here on island now.

The other lady team member working on the boats full time is Natalie Fuchs. Natalie also grew up spending most of her time in the North Sound. I remember seeing her take some of her first steps on the beach where I grew up. Dutchmans Bay was where her Dad and I windsurfed most days and Natalie was often there with her brother and her mom. She is an extremely talented and artistic makeup artist and cosmetologist but after quite a bit of perseverance we managed to get her to join the team. She is a natural tour guide on our tours because like JD, Ross and I, she grew up doing this. Showing people the beautiful aspects of our off shore islands, secluded bays and interesting reefs is something that she has done all of her life and you can see her passion when you are on the tour. This kind of "work" is fun for her!  



Jourdain Smith also joined the Adventure Antigua team recently and has shown to be very dedicated. Jourdain was working with the luxury Galley Bay Resort but wanted to be on the water more. He would see us passing the hotel each day and after getting powerboat course under his belt he approached us about being part of our group. We were happy to have him and like the rest of our team, Jourdain can be found on the water when he's having a day off. He owns a small powerboat which he goes fishing and snorkeling from whenever he gets time off work.

Noel Dubery is the newest member of the team. I first met him when I was general manager of the sports center in Jolly Harbour way back in 1998. He was a 15 year old kid who spent all his free time on the beach or out boating. When he was 17 he got a good job working as first mate with one of the premier private charter boat companies. It didn't take long before he was skippering and within a short time he was traveling with the owner to work with their day charter operation in Italy during the summers. Within no time he learned fluent Italian. After a few years he went on to work with the St. James club and ran many of their boats but the was the main skipper for Suzie Q, their sport fishing boat. Deep sea fishing is Noel's favorite thing to do and he is an excellent fisherman and boat skipper. Recently the St. James Club decided to get out of sport fishing charters and Noel parted with them to do some marine mechanic courses. We convinced him to come and be part of our organization and Noel is currently working in various positions within our company. He is as comfortable driving the boat as he is snorkeling or guiding. He is a great all rounder and we are delighted to have him with the company.

Itano Bachelor is working part time with us at the moment as he has started a little company of his own. I first met him when he worked at Sunsail's resort on the island here. He is a sailing lover and is an excellent tour guide. He worked full time with us for a few years and is now a great person to call on when we need an extra hand.

 

Of course there are many others who help to make it possible for us to provide what we feel are the best tours on offer here in Antigua. Thanks to you all!

www.adventureantigua.com