We have just returned from a magnificent 14-night stay, where the holiday blues have severely kicked in (travel dates 25th July to 8th August 2026). This was our 5th Sandals (previously visited St Lucia La Toc, Grenada Curacao and St Vincent) and has become our favourite. There wasn’t much price difference between the Royal side and the Barbados side. As we have never done ‘club’ level before we booked to stay on the Royal side to give it a try.
Taxi Transfer - Leaving the arrival hall there was a fellow holding a Sandals sign that guided us to the taxi pick up point. Waited about 5 minutes for the taxi to arrive, where it was a private transfer that took about 15 minutes.
Check in – we were greeted with a cool towel, mimosa and a lady singing the Sandals welcome song. We had already completed check in prior to arrival (via app) so check in was very swift, just a matter of signing a few things and being handed the keycard. Check in this time was done in the club sandals lounge. Access to this was 24 hours and featured access to books, snacks, coffee machine, a fridge with beers/soft drinks and an array of spirits on the counter. One of the benefits of club was that we could reserve our a la carte restaurant reservations there and then for our whole 2 week stay instead of going to culinary reservation desk that is featured on the Barbados side. We managed to book Butches on the app prior to arrival. Not sure if it’s just this site but they seem to have changed the a la carte reservation system and applied limits to the number of visits allowed. They said this has been changed to allow other guests a chance of visiting the restaurants that require reservations. You are therefore only allowed 1 visit per a la carte restaurant per week (so 4 a week as there are 4 restaurants that require reservations). On the first week we did all 4 but on the second week we only did 2 (didn’t want a repeat visit to Fusion or the French). We asked if we could do the two Butches again in lieu of not wanting to visit the Fusion/French but weren’t allowed.
Room - we only use the room to sleep and get a shower, the rest of the time we are too busy enjoying the resort and facilities. Our home for the next 2 weeks was in the Poinciana Building (8 on the map). Access to our room faced a residential area and road. We are always up with the larks anyway on holiday, however if we were planning a lie in it would have been spoiled by the neighbourhood cockerels and dogs that were intermittently crowing and barking during the early hours. The room was just like any other Sandals room we have stayed in - very commodious, tastefully decorated, had plenty of storage space, plug sockets were dotted about everywhere and were all US ones (plenty of USB ports too). The bed and pillows were really comfy. Wi-fi worked excellent around all parts of the complex. There were several mirrors and decent lighting and featured a bath on the balcony. Only used the TV for background noise when we were getting ready on a night and there were plenty of English-speaking channels. The air con worked well and didn’t make much noise. A safe, hair dryer, 2 x umbrellas, ice bucket (ice machines located on all floors, however the one next to our room didn’t work and this was even after an engineer was sent to look into it), iron, ironing board, bath robes, glasses, coffee machine and kettle were provided as standard. The fridge was stocked with 2 x orange juice, 2 x fruit juice, 2 x cokes, 2 x sprite, 2 x diet coke, 2 x still water, 2 x cans of Banks beer, 1 x bottle of red wine and 1 x bottle of white wine. With being Club level, the room featured no frills litre bottles of Vodka, Whisky, Rum and Gin. This was handy to have as normally being non-club we have to bring drinks back from the bar for getting ready on a night. The fridge also featured a bottle of sparkling wine that was replenished daily. Every Sandals we’ve visited there are days where items don’t get replenished like the wine, beers or the coffee (this normally starts to happen on day 4). This was rectified by calling housekeeping or using GINA. Remember to turn on the ‘housekeeping required’ button otherwise your room won’t be cleaned. We forgot to do it one day and the room wasn’t cleaned. We weren’t fussed about the room not being cleaned but just needed clean towels. This was easily fixed by calling the front desk who arranged extra towels ASAP.
Gym – The gym was decent sized but some of the equipment seemed a little dated (we did manage to get a decent work out in though). One of the treadmills was out of operation as there was something that resembled a bear’s claw through the belt and they didn’t have the interactive running routes that the other Sandals treadmills have. There was no rowing machine or cable machine. Someone was continuously hiding the remote for the TVs. On one occasion it was hidden underneath the fruit bowl and then a few occasions we couldn’t find it at all so not sure why that was happening. There were always sanitising wipes, towels, water and cups available.
Pool and beach – there are an excellent selection of pools at this resort catering for everyone’s needs. We knew the roof top pool would be right up our street as it got the sun all day, it was quiet and there were no parasols/canopies that would encroach our sunbathing spots and cover us in shade. The direction of the sun rose from where the airport is (also got a good view of all the planes landing) and went directly over so that it set just where Butches on the Barbados side is. We used to lose the sun on the roof top about 16:45 but we used to head down and sit on the benches outside the pub where you go it for another 45 minutes. The roof top pool had everything we needed – swimming pool, a nice breeze, comfy sunbeds, peace and quiet, hot tub, great views, a fantastic bar, toilet and sunshine. We pretty much had the roof top to ourselves most days. As with the other Sandals we have visited the towel cabinets are plentiful, all fully stocked and replenished by the attentive pool lads. All the pools were open during our visit. It does take the weight off when you don’t need to get up the crack of dawn to reserve a sunbed. Even walking down past the party/infinity pool there were loads of sunbeds free at the peak times. Reading previous TripAdvisor reviews, they were making out that the beach was plagued with seaweed, this is not the case. The sand was just as good as we remembered it when we last visited Barbados in 2019, white, fluffy and soft. You literally have to walk down to the shoreline to see any of the seaweed even then it’s just a small amount, there was no seaweed on the main beach itself. There was plenty of sunbeds on the beaches too. They didn’t have the yellow floating rings like they had in Curacao or St Vincent, so we missed them. We also loved the tubing that they did in St Vincent but didn’t do it here. We love a good pool foam party and asked if they did one here (they did one in Grenada), unfortunately they didn’t (but they used to) hopefully it is something that can be reintroduced as they are great fun.
Restaurants/eateries – never been to a Sandals that had so many places to eat and drink, we were totally spoilt for choice. The first morning we popped into Salty’s to reacquaint ourselves with the Frangelico, Jameson’s and bailey’s coffees (haven’t had one since last year in St Vincent). Mercia served us on our first day and after that had our orders down to a T, ready and waiting. We don’t normally have a sweet tooth but some of the donuts and treats were fantastic – the pistachio donut, red velvet donut, the quad donut and the peanut butter brownies became our favourites (all made in house in the kitchen out the back). As per out last few visits to Sandals two weeks before departure the app allowed you to make a dinner reservation for the first week. We thought this was a lovely touch again and booked Butches for the first Wednesday night. We mentioned at the beginning that they have limited the number of visits per week to the a la cartes, we were therefore only allowed 1 visit per a la carte restaurant per week (so 4 a week as there are 4 restaurants that require reservations). Not sure if this applies to this resort only as it didn’t happen last year. Last year in St Vincent we visited Butches 7 times during our 2-week stay. This year we visited the 2 different Butches 4 times and the Fusion (Fusion has the bottles of Kirin Japanese beer) and French once. We didn’t want a second visit to the French or Fusion and asked if we could visit Butches in lieu, but this wasn’t allowed. We ate twice at Portofino’s (no air-con) for breakfast the rest of the time we ate breakfast at the Greenhouse which has air-con. Just like to say we had the best Bloody Mary ever at the Greenhouse. The service and food were excellent at both restaurants. We used morning room service for this first time ever as we had upgraded to club. We only did this as we wanted to try the breakfast burrito which was on the menu (we asked at the American Tavern if they did these but didn’t). The breakfast burrito was fantastic, and needs introducing into the breakfast menu at the other restaurants. Didn’t take long for room service, I think the first time we used it took about 10 minutes & the 2nd time it took about 20 minutes. All the restaurants we visited both the service and food were on point, we tasted some excellent, scrumptious food. The best steak we had was at the Greenhouse (even better than Butches), this was one of our favourite places to eat for breakfast and dinner. The resort needs to improve the advertisement of the hot dog stall. We only found out about this as we sat on one of the snug areas one night in Lovers Lane where the hot dog stall was in situ. We contracted GINA to confirm the opening times which was daily 12 – 14:00. There is a menu provided but some of the ingredients were not available (pulled pork was only available once), however you were allowed to build your own. We piled ours with chilli meat, bacon, sauteed onions, Jalapenos and cheese. We had a hotdog every day once we found out about it. This was the same as Grenada (we provided feedback whilst there highlighting that it needs to be advertised more) & we only found about the hot dog stand over there in our last week. Feedback is needed for this one too and Sandals need to start adding the hot dog stall to the resort map, the app & the paper meal planner/schedule. We also enquired about the beef and chicken patties, as they had them in Grenada and St Vincent. Unfortunately, they didn’t do them at this site, so additional feedback would be to see if they could be introduced here at the Jerk shack. We looked at the pizza menu prior to arrival & the menu was different to the other Sandals ones, most of the choices we weren’t keen on. When we ordered at Dino’s we seen that they have the other pizzas choices on the order form, the one we loved from the previous Sandals i.e. the meat lovers. We normally got a pizza about 5ish (closed at 6pm) & we had to wait about 15-20 minutes which wasn’t long. Each pizza was so tasty and perfectly crafted. We also noticed the dress code in the a la cartes wasn’t being adhered to, & plenty of male guests wearing shorts. Might as well ditch the trouser dress code Sandals.
We need to get something off our chest regarding the building work that is ongoing (and looks to be ongoing for a while) & the poor communication between Sandals operations and the guests. We booked this holiday September 2025 directly with Sandals UK, not once during the booking process were told that there would be construction work going on during our stay. We had to pay the holiday off 10 weeks before arrival, & once again were not told about any construction work. On our first morning we noticed all the rooms in blocks 17 and 18 on the map were hollow & had been gutted. There were no ceilings or furniture in these rooms. Each room was having a major overhaul. The backs of these rooms are like a construction site where areas have been cordoned off with blue & white boards. The first morning we fancied eating at the French restaurant for breakfast. This didn’t open till 7.30, but we were up there at about 7.20 and couldn’t see any team member nor did the tables look decorated for breakfast. We waited until 7.30 & decided to enter the restaurant. It was like a ghost town; no one was there and there was no one in the kitchen. Scratching our heads, we went to Portofino’s instead. We asked one of the team members why it wasn’t open & they said its closed until the renovation works are completed (it’s open on an evening though as the builders are finished for the day). They said it gets too noisy with the construction work so have closed breakfast service for the foreseeable future. Needless to say, we were fuming, not once did Sandals inform during the booking stage, the payment stage nor the arrival/check in stage that this was closed or any of the other restaurants were closed. The app showed that the restaurant was open and you could view the menu. GINA was contacted immediately about this where we got an AI response of ‘Parisienne is closed for breakfast we have other options available for breakfast including American Tavern, Green House, Heat & Sol, Bombay, Portofino’s & Schooners open daily for breakfast’. After breakfast we went sunbathing on the roof top, between breakfast operating hours of La Parisienne another 6 guests turned up wanting to visit the restaurant for breakfast. We couldn’t let them stand around like we did so approached them & informed them breakfast was closed here for the foreseeable future. These guests immediately became disappointed with this news, they also said they hadn’t been informed of this (hence why they turned up). On first morning during the la Parisienne breakfast operating times we were acting as Sandals staff members & should have been on the payroll for those hours. Despite raising on GINA nothing more was done. A few days later another couple turned up and were standing there wanting to visit for breakfast, once again we had to get our Sandals customer liaison role on & instructed guests that it was closed. We also informed them about the hot dog stand, & they were chuffed as they knew nothing about it. After that incident we were going to write a note & stick it on the door telling the guests it was closed. Checking the app now it looks like they have removed Parisienne as a breakfast choice. The night we went to the French restaurant we spoke to one of the team about it being closed for breakfast. They said they have put it on in Schooners instead. Again, not once were we told of this. Next morning we decided to go to Schooners, we turned up at 7.30 on the dot was closed. Again, we were fuming, as it was our first time down to Schooners we seen that there were construction boards up opposite. Looking on the map, this is where Spices was. Hmm we thought why is Spices closed as it was still showing on the app as being open? We weren’t informed of this. We then went to the Greenhouse instead & asked why Schooners was closed for breakfast, they said because Spices is closed due to the work & they don’t want to open Schooners because of the noise (Schooners was open on a night-time though). once again we were not told that Spices was closed during our stay. This work meant the French wasn’t open for breakfast & apparently it had been moved to Schooners but that wasn’t the case as Schooners was closed on a morning due to the work that was going on in Spices which was fully closed during our 14-night stay. The construction work disrupted 3 eateries whilst there, we knew we weren’t going to starve but it’s the fact we weren’t getting what we paid for. On top of that we weren’t getting told anything by those in Sandals operations prior to arrival nor on site. A really bad example of shoddy communication. The noise off the construction work is bad & isn’t aesthetically pleasing to the eye. On building 18 the front of it was completely covered in scaffoldin. Noise includes drilling, hammering, banging, sawing, cement mixes, vehicles constantly reversing, engines humming due to the cherry picker that is in constant use. You will hear these noises on the roof pool, the infinity pool and even if you’re on the beach.
Bars –the watering holes are in abundance over the two resorts; this is one of the reasons why booked this holiday. It was great being reunited with a Sandals pub again, the last 2 new resorts (St Vincent and Curacao) didn’t have one & was sadly missed. They had the same drinks as per St Lucia Grenada i.e. bottles of Stella, bottles of Strongbow cider and cans of Guinness (plenty of Irish car bombs went down the hatch). The pub was quite a size & featured a snooker table & a pool table. We tried the English Sunday dinner & give it 10/10, Yorkshire puddings were spot on and were crispy, light & fluffy, the gravy was authentic too. Just need to say a big thanks to David who was one of the food and beverage managers. He managed to get his hands on a carton of Ribena so we could have a cider & black. We were absolutely overjoyed with this lovely gesture, thanks David. We couldn’t get enough of Lover’s lane, an absolute fab concept. Loved the little snug booth areas outside with the TVs, the remotes are available from the bowling shoe counter. The bowling alley was great (opens 2pm till 11pm don’t forget your socks, shoes have both English & US sizing). Best time to go was 17.45ish as no one was there. Your limited to 35 mins & there’s plenty of games to chose from. When it’s busy they give you a buzzer indicating when it’s your turn. They did international beers including -Barbados brew house mahogany bay stout, Brew house Round rock IPA, Belgium Duvel, Canada Molson Canadian pale lager, Germany Becks, Paulaner Hefe Weiss, Italy Peroni, Netherlands Grolsch, USA – Anchor Steam, Blue Moon, Sam Adams Boston Lager, Shiner Rock, Sierra Nevada, Jamaica Red Stripe & Mexico Pacifico.
Miscellaneous - the grounds are magnificent & are immaculately maintained. The groundsmen all do a cracking job with the husbandry of it all. The hygiene attendants also did a cracking job with keeping all the areas such as bins, floors & toilets all nip and clean.
Check out – was 11:00am but our flight wasn’t till 17:00 & we weren’t getting picked up till 14:00. We had to enquire on the morning of departure if you could keep the room on. If we weren’t allowed to the keep the room on, we could use the departure lounge to get a shower. We peeked inside & there was plenty of showers, a hairdryer, toilets, clean towels & was air conditioned. We were allowed to the keep the room on till 13:00 for free which meant we had an hour before we got picked up.
Overall, we had another fantastic Sandals holiday. This has now become our favourite & will come back in a heartbeat. We achieved our free week whilst there and have our sights on visiting Beaches Turks and Caicos. The weather was glorious, we came back with a cracking tan and loved not having to worry about getting a sunbed . We tasted & sampled some fantastic food and drinks. You can’t tell that it’s stretched over two separate resorts, it’s like one big mega resort. You might be thinking why are we giving it 5/5 despite our grumblings. The answer is the positives outweigh the negatives; we didn’t let these few hiccups spoil the fantastic holiday.
We just want to say a further thanks to the following – Joachim , Hide, Alicia (sky bar-made some fab drinks), Crystal, Rashid, Ryan, Shyantio (all from sky bar) Blaire, Renaldo and Renico (bowling alley bar), Jasmina, Tricia & Ingrid (two hostess’), Ariston (pub), Josiah &Jermiah (Greenhouse), Sophia (hot dog) David (food & beverage manager who brought us the Ribena), Mercia (Salty’s), Kerry Anne & Avery (Butches)
