Our Stay At Sandals South Coast
Last week we spent a few days staying at the beautiful Sandals South Coast resort in Jamaica. This was the first time we’ve ever stayed at an all inclusive resort, and we had a very positive experience. We kept comparing it to an adult Disney World. The whole process was very smooth and operated like a well oiled machine. The staff on every level were incredibly friendly and helpful. There are actually four Sandals resorts in Jamaica. Our resort was adults only, and was probably 95% couples. It seems like a very popular honeymoon spot. We flew into Montego Bay and had a hour and fifteen minute drive south to the opposite side of the island to our resort. All ground transportation is included. The drive was through very windy bumpy roads so if you are prone to motion sickness just be aware.
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The moment we stepped off our shuttle bus at the resort we were handed a cold towel and a glass of champagne. We were ushered into the lobby and were told to take a seat on a plush sofa. A member of staff greeted us and checked us in via an iPad while we leisurely sat and sipped our champagne. We were handed a welcome packet including a map of the property and a calendar of activities and then we were personally escorted to our room. To be honest this was very necessary as the property is large and I’m not sure we would have found our room on our own if we tried. We were grateful for the guide who explained things about the property on the 10 minute walk to our room. We quickly realized this stay was going to be unlike anything we had previously experienced on a beach vacation.
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Our room was spacious and clean, but very basic. All rooms on the property have an ocean view. In order to achieve that, the layout of the property is really spread out. We stayed in the “French” building, which was the furthest building. It was a good 10 minute walk to the main pool and most of the restaurants. There was an in room mini fridge stocked with bottled water, juices, and sodas (all included) that was replenished daily. There was a coffee maker in the room with coffee but we opted to grab it in the restaurants every morning instead. You could opt to have a selection of wine in your room if you wanted, again all complimentary. Probably our favorite part of the room was the balcony which overlooked the “French pool” but also the beach. The remarkable thing about this property is it is literally on the beach. Our hotel room was probably less than 50 yards from the ocean. The actual beach is not very wide, so you can very easily transition from the pools to the ocean in seconds with very minimal effort.
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There were so many activities. More to do than we had time for. All included. Every evening the calendar of events for the following day was delivered to our room, which was very helpful and necessary. There were things like fitness classes, pool games, water activities, nightly entertainment, and the restaurant schedule. Not every restaurant was open for every meal every day, so this was nice to know so we could plan our meals. When we travel to the beach we are more sit by the pool and read kind of people. We want to relax and not partake in so many activities. So while we had tons and tons of options of things to do, we decided we would do a few things, but overall wanted to mostly sit, relax, and do nothing. When we are at the beach we tend to go to bed early wake up early, so we didn’t partake in any of the nighttime entertainment on property (cabaret shows, karaoke, etc) so we can’t speak to any of that. We did go and play tennis one morning. They have rackets and balls you can borrow and a tennis pro on staff if you want a lesson. We also went tubing and paddle boarding one day which was really fun.
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There are 9 restaurants at this resort. Being new to the all inclusive lifestyle, it was hard for us to get used to not paying for any food or drinks. You never need your wallet. We literally never brought them outside of our room. There were a good variety of restaurants on property, just remember that not all of them are open every day or for every meal. There was at least one vegetarian option at every place. All of the menus had appetizer, entree, and dessert options. One of the restaurants was buffet style. There were no rules or limitations about how much you could order. For example it wasn’t like y0u could only order one appetizer and one entree per person. At one restaurant for dinner we ordered four appetizers between the two of us, and liked one of them so much we ordered a second round. You can eat or drink as much or as little as you want. They don’t even bring you a check to sign as if it was a room charge at the end of your meal. You literally just get up and leave when you are done eating. Tipping is also not permitted on property.
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There are multiple pools on the property, but the main large pool was our favorite. There are more than enough beach chairs around each of the pools and placed on the beach as well. We never had an issue with securing a spot whenever or wherever we wanted. They do have beach cabanas you can rent but it’s really not necessary. We wouldn’t recommend you do that. A nice and unexpected touch was that they have pool floats available for you to use in the pools. The pools had swim up bars where you could order any type beverage you could possibly want. There was also an overwater bar out in the ocean that we hung out at most days. They did not have wait staff at this resort that walked around the pool or beach that you could order food/drink from. I was a bit surprised by this because it’s so different from every other resort experience I’ve ever had. We did have bar staff come up to us occasionally when sitting around the pool or at the beach when the bar wasn’t busy to ask if we wanted anything to drink and they would bring it to us, but this definitely wasn’t reoccurring or something you could expect. For lunch or any snacks you wanted during the day you were pretty much expected to go to one of the restaurants or snack bars. While I think you could in theory get food “to go” and take it wherever you wanted, no one ate by the pool. Another observation we had was lots of people brought their own “Yeti” style cups for their beverages at the pool. While this is absolutely not necessary, and we would probably never think to do that, it did seem to be a popular choice amongst the crowd.
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Elsewhere on the property there were lots of spaces created for you to be able to sit and congregate in a group setting. There were lawn games scattered throughout the property you could play. There is a pretty large store on site that has typical souvenir stuff (t-shirts, hats, etc) but also local goods you may want to bring home with you (like rum!). There were also local vendors that would set up in the courtyard each day where you could purchase art or other goods. If this is something you are interested in make sure you have some cash. There are peacocks that roam the property and we had multiple encounters with stray cats. One day there was a hammerhead shark and stingray sighting in the ocean, but from what we gathered this is incredibly rare. All of the local staff remarked this was the first time they’d ever seen a shark. It was a bit scary to us as it was very near the shore in shallow water we had just been swimming in, but the only casualty in this situation was the stingray sadly. There is a staff of professional photographers around that grab you to take photos at sunset or while you are participating in various activities. It’s a bit pricey to purchase the photos, but if you want some really good photos of you/your group plan to take advantage.
All said, it was a very fun trip at an amazing resort. We’d love to check out some of the other Sandals resort properties on future trips.
-Ash
