TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

I will start by saying the workers are beautiful people, they try and care. The 4 grade is for the beach, the water and the people. This resort lacks management and direction. Management is visible but does not have the common decency to address their guests. In Room towel service was not existent all week. How do you clean a room, remove dirty towels from floors and not replace. Only other negative about rooms is that 3rd floor rooms have no roof over balconies, so when it rains you can’t sit out there. Beach and water is incredible. With three couples we felt the need to get up early and reserve spots close together. From a food perspective it was hit and miss, we had a disastrous situation at Italian one night. The other two nights at Italian it was fine. Once again on the evening of our issue with the Italian restaurant, no management to help address, was left to the poor young lady and one of the chefs to address 5 of 7 dishes being very cold, after waiting over an hour between apps and main course. Buffet meals were all great with differnt themes. I truly believe the resort has so much potential with the right management and direction. It’s definately not that GM that is there currently who walks around with a smug face, and has the nerve to walk over to one of our friends to ask to “remove” the heal of his shoe that was rested up on the seat he was sitting on. How dare you, put that level of attention into directing your staff and seeing where it needs help. Some areas are severely over staffed and others are lacking. Someone will need to still explain to me what the role of the concierge is other than sitting in a room scrolling on his phone.

The resort was right on the water with a very clean beach. Plenty of loungers and cabanas. The staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating. Rooms were clean and the price was reasonable. The only reason I gave 4 stars not 5 is that the food options were somewhat limited as there were only three restaurants for dinner (excluding the buffet). The Asian restaurant food was average at best. As well there are times during the day that the only food available was finger food, once food entity next to the pool never opened and the food grilled on the beach would run out of food. There was room service available but I didn’t like having to go back to my room to order food. I went to the Spa and it was amazing! More food options and having a place open all day by the pool would be wonderful! Lastly, do not book through Expedia!

Arrived after long flight to a chaotic check-in. Food very poor for vegetarians and not much better for everyone else. Called house keeping and went to reception asking for more pillows. After waiting three hours nothing arrived. The sheets in the room had sand in them and the hotel was very very noisy on the first night. Not a great start! mearveafré

The beach definitely makes the appeal of this resort. It was clean, long, easy to walk on, the depth of the beach from resort to water is not deep at all but it never seemed crowded as you can sit in the sun or under the trees. The first three days the water was like smooth glass and you could see the ripples in the sand through the water, sea rays and star fish. But after the third day the wind came and it got wavy and stayed that way for the rest of the week. It was still swimable but not picture perfect like the first few days. The view of the bay is stunning with all of the boats and yachts bouyed out there day and night. The end of our stay was stormy and these boats all had to go to the harbour and it certainly changed the whole feel of the bay. And that's where this hotel seems to be lacking -- when the wind and rain come there is really nowhere to go except your room or huddle under a bar umbrella. The lobby is very small and not a gathering place, there is no undercover outdoor eating areas and no undercover outdoor entertainment or open theatre with a cover. Our room was on the third floor which was nice but the third floor has no cover or roof over the balconies so you can't sit out there when its rainy, and if you have your towels and bathing suits out there everything gets soaked. We've never had a balcony with no cover and didn't like that. There is some daytime activities at the beach and pool -- bocce ball, bingo, volleyball, trivia games which gets people up and meeting others. The evening entertainment was good and was always around the pool bar and deck, but once again if it rains, there is none. The entertainment is over at 10 pm and they encourage and promote everyone to go upstairs to the small disco/club, but that doesn't start until 11:00, so most people don't go. It should start immediately after the entertainment stops, and continue on upstairs. As I said, the beach is not deep -- you can see it from the lobby, and from most of the rooms. The resort itself is not deep either but it is very long. The rooms start at the road and are 8 rooms deep from the beach to the road. And yes, the road is noisy, our room was right beside it furthest from the beach even though I requested that it not be, but surprisingly it didn't bother us that much, we figured that it gave us abit of a taste what local life is like, albeit spoiled on our resort-side of the fence. Its not a resort that you need a buggy, elevators or sidewalks meandering through lush grounds. Your walking is done mainly along a walkway along the beach and on the beautiful beach itself. To the right you can walk past the many different sections of Sandals Resort, Beaches Resort and Hedonism. To the left is an area being developed with some bars and shops, then a long unspoiled beach for about 15 minutes. Where that ends you can continue to walk another 20 minutes through a grass area beside the road until you come to 7 mile beach and keep walking forever past resorts, pubs. If I did it again we would plan for the afternoon to do that, bring a bag with coverups and flip flops and then take a cab back a few hours later (it poured rain for us walking back the way we came) The resort needs some upgrading, and mainly the cement composite decking that runs through the resort with the walkways and all around the pools and bar. There are big holes in it, uneven boards and loose screws and nails. This would make a huge difference to the quality of the pool areas and the whole resort actually. There is one little pool with a deck around it overlooking the beach and all week we thought it was black with mould and slime. But then we realized the colour of the tiles in it are black, I don't know why because it looks unappealing and not once did we see anyone swimming in it, although it was probably clear water. I would say the upgraded section to the right of the lobby when facing the beach did look very nice compared to the basic section that we stayed in. There is a bar by the lobby and pool, and a few bars along the walkways to the rooms connected to the swim up pools. The swim up pools were freezing cold and I don't think anyone actually uses them except to get to the swim up bars,but they add a nice vibe. The ocean was warmer. There was a pop up grill on the beach twice during our week there serving rice, beans, salad, corn, curried goat, jerk chicken, a boat full of ice and drinks, with seating at picnic tables. There is a grill that is beside one of the swim up bars by the beach and this gets very busy because its right by the beach so no need to go indoors to eat and the food was so good. Tacos, burgers, ceasar salad, jerk chicken, jerk shrimp, and some other items I wish I would have tried! We actually found all of the food to be good at the buffets and a la cartes. No complaints at all!! We also found all of the staff to be very friendly and hospitable, no complaints there either. The check in and check out process leaves alot to be desired. It was very slow with them getting their guests to fill out all the forms and sign on a tablet with alot of questions. When checking out they give you a table again and they want you to fill out a survey questionnaire, which no one wants to do on checking out lol! just scroll through to the end. Oh, and a really nice thing is no towel card and no room key -- the key fob is in your nice little resort wrist band.

Firstly I will not aim this at the staff as they are only working there. This is for the management at the hotel. The hotel rooms were perfectly adequate and one of the best showers in a hotel. The tea and coffee was in a cupboard and difficult to make a cup of tea without a kettle. There was a dressing table but no seat and bad lighting. That’s enough about the room. And I know you don’t spend time in your room and you get what you pay for but we did get upgraded. Now, the complex itself was somewhat dated and I know they had a hurricane but apparently it’s been getting worse year on year. Some staff actually asked us for money as they had lost everything in the hurricane which i understand but that is not the way to be towards holiday makers. The food.. mmmm the only time we had a good meal was in the Jamaican restaurant and the Asian restaurant and the burger van. The other restaurants had warm food and inedible food. I do understand that most of their business is American holiday makers but Europeans go to Jamaica too and the food is far from adequate. The entertainment was good and the daytime entertainment staff had lots of energy. The hotel is set on the beach which is beautiful and kept very clean but the beds have seen better days. I’m sure the hotel isn’t the worst out there but I personally wouldn’t go back. It could be a great hotel because of the location but attention to detail and a bit of updating would improve its reputation.