Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Resort Reviews

We spent our honeymoon at Sandals Grande over the Christmas and New Year period and had an absolutely amazing time!! I had been worried about whether we had made a mistake booking here after reading numerous reviews on this site slating the resort. I have to say we found them all to be complete and utter rubbish!

The room we stayed in was a honeymoon penthouse suite in the riviera building overlooking the beautiful, lush gardens. It was immaculately clean with fresh towels placed in every day, our bed turned down at night and soft music playing for our return after a night out. We had a fully stocked bar which was re-filled daily containing soft drinks and every kind of alcohol imaginable.

The resort is split into 2 sites - the riviera(where we stayed, by the beach) and the manor side (easily reached by a frequently running minibus service). The beach was small but lovely and we never struggled to get a sunbed. The pools at the riviera side were also gorgeous and peaceful.

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the food we ate whilst away. We have to recommend the candlelight meal on the beach which is a perfect treat for a special occasion. We ate a 4 course meal by candlelight in a secluded area of the beach with a private waiter and champagne. Pure bliss! This was made even more perfect by the sound of a steel band playing in the nearby amphitheatre. We enjoyed buffet breakfasts and lunchwhere numerous delights were available in abundance and we really enjoyed dining at San Gennaro, Arizona, Bayside and the reef terrace restaraunts in the evenings. Check out Beverley's piano bar too for a nice chilled out evening drink.

My favourite pool area was on the manor side - the main pool - which has a fab swim up bar. Again we rarely struggled to get a sunbed and there was often entertainment available too.

On the whole we found Sandals Grande provided us with our dream honeymoon and we thoroughly recommend it to everyone. Total honeymoon bliss!!

This was our first trip to the Caribbean and we picked Sandals as we were celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary.
We had booked the upgrade to Star Class Premier for the flights, and we certainly think it's well worth the money. The check in at both ends was painless and both flights were good with friendly staff, good food and a wide range of entertainment.

On arrival at Montego Bay airport we were shown into the Sandals lounge with its self service bar offering soft drinks or Red Stripe. After a wait of about 20 minutes we were told to make our way to the bus for our transfer to Ocho Rios. We sat in the 40 seat bus with another couple waiting to move, however we were then taken to a 7 seater which made sense, until they tried to get 2 more couples on board. We eventually left with 6 of us on board and our driver McIntosh, who was a real character began his running commentary of our trip.
The roads are every bit as bad as they tell you, and then some. They were supposed to have them upgraded in time for the Cricket World Cup this Spring, but sometime in 2015 seems more likely, given the ";relaxed"; attitude to most things in Jamaica.

After our planned refreshment stop (why?) we eventually arrived at Sandals Grande. In the reception area we were ";greeted"; by one of the most unfriendly, almost rude members of staff that we encountered during our stay. There was no cold champagne for us or the others honoured to have her greet us. I could only think of the negative reviews we'd read and hoped had been wrong.
We were taken up to our allocated room in the main building and, having been awake for 17 hours or so by that time, hoped all would be well. It wasn't!!

The previous occupants of our room, several hundred ants, had not checked out prior to our arrival and were still treating the room as their own. Had they ventured into the bathroom they might have fallen through the crack in the bath, but this was not to be. So, tired and cranky I went to reception and managed to get a change of room, this time a one room affair, part of one of the villas up the hill.
The room was small with only ";the bed"; and a couple of sets of drawers and the unit housing the TV. No chairs to sit on either, which might not have been a huge problem had the bed not been a prop from Land of the Giants requiring some degree of athleticism to get on and off. I'm 6 feet tall and my legs didn't reach the floor when sitting on the edge of the bed!
After eventually falling asleep through exhaustion to the strains of some inane dance music we got a few hours sleep and awoke to be greeted by bright sunshine and clear blue skies.
Sorry, I slipped back into a parallel universe for a second. We were wakened by the sound of torrential rain which lasted for ages - a recurring theme during the first week. The brochures said ";25 mm of rain during January in Jamaica";. I'm sure we had more than that for each of the first 5 days, and that was before breakfast!
You'll have gathered the weather was a bit ropey - which is saying something because we live in the West of Scotland. It did improve into the second week but by them we had developed webbed feet.

The restaurants were good, but I'd advise you to go reasonably early if you want to get in straight away.
We enjoyed Valentino's and Arizona, however you'd better eat your carrots before you go as they don't believe in wasting much energy on lighting. We also had a wonderful evening at Kimono's Japanese restaurant at Dunns River Fallswhere our chef, Mr Beautiful, cooked us wonderful food and really kept us entertained with his flowing wit.
Having had our fill of loud obnoxious travellers from the Land of the Free, we spent our last few days at Dunns River resort, which was much quieter and had the most amazing pizzas for lunch - with a couple of glasses of red wine to wash it down.
To summarise, we were disappointed with Sandals in general, because it isn't anything like the adverts or the brochure. We expected, and paid for, a 5 class experience which was not delivered. We still enjoyed our holiday, but it wasn't the 25th anniversary occasion we'd hoped for.

We wouldn't recommend Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, although most of the staff were great.

After arriving in Jamaica I was expecting Sandals to be something special. We were staying in Ocho Rios which took us two hours on a very small old bus to get to the resort. The roads are appalling and not what you need after a nine hour flight!
How annoying are American people??-Answer extremely, this was realised within the first ten minutes of our holiday. They were very loud drinking and spilling alcohol on the floor of the bus and generally being a pain in the arse.
The hotel is split into two sides the Grande and the riviera. We were taken to the Grande and my immediate reaction was that the hotel was old fashioned in decor. We were given a cold drink and then taken in another bus to the other side of the hotel.

The grounds of the hotel are very nice with streams, fishponds and lots of vegetation.
We stayed in Bamboo grove room 3107-the room had a four poster bed, tv, cd player, hairdryer, iron and ironing board. Bathroom was slightly outdated and the wardrobes and decor left a bit to be desired as did the safe. But was clean. The room had doors which led onto a small balcony on ground level. There was shutters at the side of this which didnt shut properly so let in the noise of the entertainment at night and the very noisy animals!!
WEATHER- we were told by travel agents to go in Nov as the rainy season would be over. We had four days of solid rain all day and night and five days of overcast skys and drizzle. A disaster! The beach was literally washed away and the pools were out of use on our side for a short period. All watersports were also off.
This meant that we hardley had anything to do and found the daytime entertainment was rubbish.
FOOD-All of the restaurants were very good. Especially Kimonos the japenese at the sister hotel SANDALS DUNNS RIVER.
Drinks are good all spirits are available including Baileys and named brands from 10.30am.
GYM- good equipment and classes were also very good and lots to choose from.
SPA-Very good but extremely expensive.
TRIPS- we did the Katamaran trip to Dunns river falls which was brilliant-remember to take shoes to go up the falls in. We also did the shoping trip into Ocho Rios which was rubbish and the shops were very tacky tourist shops.
My partner did fishing which he would not recommend, expensive, no fish caught and not good in bad weather!
WATERSPORTS-We are both scuba divers and this was one of the main reasons we booked sandals as it is included. We managed to to do 6 dives on two weeks due to bad weather. The boat goes out twice a day to local reefs. The diving is average very clear, calm water but the fish are quite small. We also visited a wreck while we were there which was good. Take your own wetsuit if you want to use one as they chrge for them $10 a dive.
The best factor I felt was being able t take the shuttle bus to Sandals Dunns River which was much classier had a much nicer beach and friendlier staff.
I would reconsider if you were thinking of getting married here aswell as the weddings appeared very tacky and were as frequent as a conveyor belt! Everybody is sitting around you on their sunbeds as you are getting married on the beach!!

If the weather was good I am sure we would have had a brilliant time but it literally put a dampner on the holiday all round. I would go to sandals again but not the Grande.

I had the best honeymoon and wedding at this resort ever and i would recommend this to any other couples who are thinking about getting married here.

The rooms are clean and comfortable and we had a mini fridge for cool drinks.
The choice of restaurants is excellent and the food was good to. There was a bus at night to get guests to the other side of the resort we stayed at the riveria side but the bus took us to the manor side where theres a different choice of bars restaurants and entertainment.
The choice of trips was good and we went to dunns falls and the bob marley trail. We even hired a taxi and went to kingston with our guide, Grace. She took us to places that we would not have seen otherwise and showed us the real Jamaica.

THere was also a bus from the hotel that took us to sandals at dunns falls, this was well worth a visit.
We got married at the riveria a secluded private spot over looking the sea this was the best day of my life and the happiest for family and friends. Our wedding cordinator Arlene arranged everything and the wedding day could not have been more perfect.

i was worried after reading some of the reviews but was very happy with the holiday overall

We holidayed here 12-26 Nov 2005.
On arrival at Montego Bay Airport, we were directed by a Sandals rep to leave our bags with them and they would see they got onto the transfer bus, whilst we could avail ourselves of the facilities in the Sandals lounge. On arrival at the bus with the porter and our bags, he refused to load them onto the bus until we had given him a tip. The fact that these porters were foisted on us by the Sandals rep but it wasn't made clear that we had to pay them was outrageous, my husband nearly had a fit! All tips are supposed in a Sandals holiday and we were led to believe this was part of the Sandals service.

WELCOME!
On arrival at our resort 2 hours later (after a detour to drop another gentleman off at a resort that isn't even part oif the Sandals group) we were met by the sight of a group of very loud guests throwing food and drink everywhere and being generally obnoxious. We were ignored for 30mins, when we eventually did get the reception staff to do something (we didn't get the Champagne and cold towel reception every bunch of Americans got) one of the couples were sent off to their room without a key!

ACCOMODATION(This same couple were accommodated in the Riviera building and turned straight around when they got there and demanded a room that was to the standard they had paid for). I wish now , in retrospect that we had done the same.Our room was in the Bamboo Grove, when we arrived there after midnight all I wanted to do was sleep and eat, however there was no map provided by Sandals and as it was pitch black we didn't want to go wandering around trying to find food. The room had an overpowering odour of damp, the air conditioning unit was so noisy I defy anyone to sleep with that on. We stayed in that room for 3 nights before we were finallly moved to a Manor House Suite. Again the general state of the room was shabby, the ceiling fan in the lounge was fixed to ceiling so was unsafe to use. Several appliances were ";hard wired"; into the socket, I presume to prevent theft, but this is actually an electrical hazard.
One of the rooms they showed us before we accepted this suite was being used by the local feral cats as a toilet!

ENTERTAINMENT
If Sandals is classed as a romantic getaway, where on earth are ";Beer Chugging"; contests considered romantic. The entertainmant was appalling, much of it never happened, 75% was alcohol based, and I would guess most was no better than an 18-30 holiday.
FOOD
Once you actually got some food it was excellent, very American themed with a bit of the Caribbean thrown in.
A word of advice, don't try and eat at ";Valentinos"; unless you are American or you like queueing at 5pm to get in the restaurant. We were told one night that the waiting list (Yes - you read that right) was full, only to hear the waitress tell the very next couple who asked (American) that yes they could go on the waiting list! Blatant racism there!

DIVING
Don't expect to dive if visibility is less than 50 feet unless you pay the extra $50 for a night dive, where visibility is less than 30 feet!
DRESS CODE
Not enforced as a rule, we saw one couple get straight out of the pool, throw on a cover up and come in for their evening meal. all the staff did was swap their chairs for ones that wouldn't mind getting wet. Dress code only enforced minimally in Valentinos and Orchids restaurant.

RESORT
The resort is vast, but generally very shabby. If you can find a quiet area to just be alone, you will be very lucky. We didn't manage it.
STAFF
95% of the staff were brilliant, we spent most of the holiday speaking to various managers, who all promised to get back to us with the answers to our questions. They never did. The resort general manager actually said that if we couldn't enjoy our holiday it was our problem not his!

CONCLUSION
You can get a much better all inclusive holiday in the Maldives for less money. This resort is much better suited to the younger holidaymaker, sorry to be so ageist, but forewarned is forarmed!

we landed at Kingston Airport and our transfer took 4 hours, after the long flight of 9 hours, we were very tired, but excited about seeing our accommodation!!

on arrival we were giving a glass of champane (nice touch) and were goiving a mini introduction to sandals and what goes on, there are 7 restuarants so you never go hungary 4 of thoses are al carte.
No complaints on the food at all, the staff carter for you all day long...

The rooms were spacious, modern, the hotel had just recently been renovated we were upgraded to a 1 Bedroom Plantation Suite which consisted of a Kitchen are, lounge, seperate Bedroom with massive 4-posted bed and en-suite bathroom, all rooms have air-con, ceiling fans, safes, iron and iron-board, T.V with satielite.
Our Balcony overlooked the gardens of the Manor Building as there are two parts to the hotel The manor side which is has been recently refurbished and the beach side. A shuttle bus runs in-betwwen the both every 10 mins or you can walk if your feeling energetic enough!!

My personal apinion is to stay on the Beach side as there was more going on this side, 4 restaurants, Ampitheatre where all the after dark entertainment takes place, (usually hosted by staff)
Views are nice overlooking ocean but make sure you request this at time of booking!! as they are popular rooms.
The BEach is small but quite wide, you also have two peirs to walk along with a restaurant at night.
Watersports are a short walk along beach where you can windsurf, Kayaking, water trycycle, glass bottom boat and snorkling for all you motorised sports you have to Visit sister hotel Dunn's River located 10 mins away.
The main pool in monar part is impressive with a swim up pool bar!!
We found when we visited very popular with americans whom some where in groups, so i found this abit intimidating as its supposed to be a couple resort but americans can be quite loud and rude when in large groups!!!!

Watch out for the playmakers who like to get you entertained in the day with pool side activities ie. to win a bottle a rum and other challenge activities- But you dont have to get involved if you dont facy it!!!
Over all a great place to visit if you like large hotels!!!!

First up, I reckon this place was excellent. This review is by a 25 year old British guy, who saved a fair amount to go there.

Anyway, I went with my partner for a week between the 12th and the 20th July 2005.

The flight from Heathrow was with Air Jamaica, and considering it was my first ever flight outside Europe I didnt think the 9hrs was too bad. I think we were about 25mins late taking off, but we didnt mind. They played 3 different films and had a large selection of music available on the headphones, as well as constantly offering free drinks alongside the two meals we were given.

Upon arrival in Jamaica the private air conditioned Sandals lounge is a very nice start to the holiday - after the Sandals airport staff have collected your luggage you can take a seat and get a chilled drink, which was needed.

I'm afraid I have to agree with everyone else on the bus ride to Ocho Rios....its about 60 miles but takes at least 2 hours as the roads are in such poor condition. Although the bus is relatively comfortable, and has air conditioning which you can adjust to your preference.

When we arrived at the resort the bell-boys take your luggage off the bus for you while you check-in. You'll be handed a glass of chilled champagne, which is a nice touch but not what I wanted after 12hrs of travelling. There are two sides to this resort - The Manor and The Riviera. My guess is The Manor costs more to stay in, but is a fair distance from the beach - guests are required to use the shuttle service to get from The Manor to The Riviera which is the side with the beach. We stayed in a Riviera Cottage. It was very nice, they are like small 'houses' with 4 'hotel rooms' per house. They are set in some very nice tropical gardens, with streams running throughout, many ponds full of a variety of fish, and a comfy hammock outside a few of them. The room itself was nothing that special I'd say, OK it was comfortably spacious, had a nice king-size bed, a large ceiling fan, satelitte TV featuring a variety of US channels, a CD player, a safe and a balcony overlooking the gardens. As I say, the room was nice, but nothing special - anyway, what right minded British person goes on holiday for the room, not me for one.

The meals were excellent. We went to the buffet breakfast every morning as we loved it so much, there was also a restaurant style breakfast somewhere but (unfortunately I suppose) we never used it. Anyway, the buffet was superb, such a huge selection - as much fresh fruit as you liked, cereals, freshly made omlettes, waffles with syrup, a choice of cooked food (altho the sausages were weird), toast, tea, coffee, juice, muffins, everything really, and as much as you wanted! The snacks throughout the day were also very good, although there wasnt that much of a selection on the Riviera side - a grill with a variety of burgers, fries, sandwiches, salad, pasta etc. There was probably more but the resort is so huge I didnt find it. There is a large selection of restaurants in the evening, some have a dress-code, some don't, but all are nice. We ate somewhere different every night, on both Riviera and Manor sides. There's plenty of choice of restaurants (traditional Caribbean, Italian, South West USA style, buffet International cuisine etc), so there's a huge choice of food within the resort - but the choice isn't particularly big once your in each individual restaurant.

The staff are also excellent throughout the resort. Everyone from cleaners, to reception, from groundsmen to management say ";hello"; or ";good morning"; when you pass them. The Playmakers, who provide a lot of evening entertainment, are hilarious - they seemed to have a different joke to crack whenever or wherever you saw them. The watersports guys are also funny, as well as helpful - if you want to windsurf but haven't done it before they'll give you a lesson!

The beaches are pretty nice, although not huge. There are 3 private beaches in all - the watersports one, one that has the swimming area kind of cordoned off from the ocean by the walk round pier, and a general beach. You won't have a problem getting a sunbed anywhere and the staff walk round with beach towels regularly if you require one. The water is really nice - clear and warm.

The watersports are great, good fun and always available. If you cant sail (which I cant) then one of the staff will take you out sailing on one of the Hobie-Cat's which are like catamarans. Although Sandals don't offer motorised watersports the next beach along has a few guys who rent out jet-ski's or offer para-sailing for a charge. The snorkelling was good fun and we saw a shark! But don't worry it was one of the worlds most placid sharks and in fact it didn't really move.

There are loads of things you can book to do from the hotel tour desk too. I would definitely recommend going to Dunn's River Falls, it really good fun and we had a great time. We also went horse riding, part of which took us running through the sea, which was also really good - and that is from someone who's never been on a horse before!! But like I say, there is so much available.

The majority of the guests there were from the USA, at least 9 out of every 10 couples we met (or overheard) had an American accent. So expect a fair few perma-tan's! There was also a large age range of guests, probably from about 23 or 24 being the youngest, to 60 or 70 being the oldest.

It seriously is ultra all inclusive - if you are happy to stay in the resort (which is huge) on the beach, swimming in the sea, doing watersports, snorkelling, scuba-diving, playing golf then you seriously don't need to take a penny. But the shop is well stocked, and like I say, there are some excellent tours you can book which you pay for.

All in all it's a really good place to go, especially if it's your first visit to Jamaica or the Caribbean. Also, having seen some of the other hotels in the area, I'm glad we stayed where we did and not anywhere else!!!! I'd go again, in fact I'd love to go again!

we booked jamaica whitehouse but were told about five days before we were due to go by thos. cook that the resort was closed due to on-going work)- it wasn't closed but we only found out two weeks into the re-directed holiday that thos. cook re-arranged for us at ochio rios- the holiday from hell
we had only booked a holiday to jamaica on the strength of the thought of going to a brand new sandals resort (whitehouse)
ochio rios was dire- we spoke to about thirty couples who thought the same- STRANGELY SANDALS SAID THEY ONLY GET POSITIVE RESPONSE FROM THEIR EXCITED CUSTOMERS when we complained- they offered us some stupid coupons to put towards another sandals holiday- straight into the bin- never ever sandals again
a plus point for the staff- helpful, fabulous, we made some good 'friends' although they were clearly 'on the make' for gifts being sent, visits to the u.k etc

the resort was a total building site (strange that we had been supposedly banned from 'whitehouse' due to building work when this place (rios) was dreadful- when we eventually got to whitehouse for five days - after a big fight with sandals-it was paradise compared to rios

you couldn't walk on the beach without having to give way to wheel-barrowers with concrete pushing past you, the building work was so noisy- brides crying due to the noise at the pre-booked weddings (one british couple we met cancelled their wedding video due to them not being too keen on listening to drills and hammering in the back ground)

the americans were obscene- drunken parties in the pools

queueing at sub-standard restaurants on an all- inclusive resort is not acceptable

sub-standard/unsafe scuba equipment- well past it's sell by date- the dive masters were uninterested and didn't even do 'safety checks'

although not a smoker, my wife is ... ashtrays like rocking horse s##t to find

plastic cups (can accept this near the pools but not at the indoor bars)

over-grown gardens - looked out the room to see a jungle, not a 'manicured' garden- not the sandals promise

basically rubbish- wish we had spent the 5k we wasted on the promise of sandals 'whitehouse' holiday on a new car, not on an awful holiday- whitehouse was actually fabulous for the short time we spent there

NET RESULT

SANDALS- NEVER EVER AGAIN
THOMAS COOK- FOR TELLING US OUR CHOSEN RESORT WAS CLOSED NEVER EVER AGAIN

we were married at sandals antigua in 1999 and the family loved it- our impression of sandals has plummetted - and they have lost several bookings from our last experience

After a 26 hr delay with Air Jamaica, we finally arrived at Montego Bay Airport with no rep or sandals staff to be seen! only locals hounding us for money!. Eventually after a 2 hr journey by a drunken driver did we make it to the hotel. Tired and thirsty we were not offered any refreshments and what little staff were available did not expect us!!.

Sandals is a complete letdown, the room was horrendous, smelled of damp, bathroom disgusting. Had to wait 3 days for a room change which was only slightly better!.

ULTRA All inclusive it is NOT! We even had to pay for bottled water, and the so called cocktails are just ";slush puppies with rum"; out of cracked plastic tumblers!!!!.

Managers were totally disinterested in any problems

On the plus side most staff were friendly and helpful and the food was ok.

We will NEVER stay at a Sandals hotel again as it is not worth the money and does not live up to its reputation!

We even left a week early because of the stress and disapointment.

Our tour operator on the other hand were brilliant throughout and very good on arrival back home.

If you want an American version of Butlins meets Club 18-30 then go to Sandals. We had to change rooms 4 times during our two week stay. The food was very poor. Entertainment crude and also very poor. Accommodation poor, unless you were staying in the most expensive rooms/villas. Building work is going on along the beach. This means that there is scaffolding, drilling, hammering, dust - basically a building site - where the beach should be.

If you want a romantic, relaxing, stress-free break don't go there. We came home more stressed than when we arrived.

The staff were very friendly and quite helpful - it isn't their fault - in fact the porter showing us the rooms was quite embarrassed as the carpets were stained and the rooms were damp and not fit for habitation.

The grounds are very pretty, but the constant noise - very loud music, people shouting and cheering through beer chucking competitions,etc, was very offputting. There were people drunk throwing up in the sea, dancing on the bar and generally being very rowdy.

They don't show all this in the adverts. What should have been a holiday of a lifetime was a nightmare from start to finish.

We are not alone in our complaints. One couple flew home after two days - they had seen enough.

We went to this resort for our honeymoon expecting a romantic, relaxing, stress-free break. We came home more tired and stressed than when we arrived.

We had considered getting married at the resort but are so glad that we did not.

The accommodation was of a poor standard. We changed rooms twice during our nine night stay but to no resolve as the rooms were in need of refurbishment and the resort noisy. So much so that we requested to come home but the Kuoni representative could not arrange this.

Building work was ongoing along the beach with scaffolding, drilling, hammering, dust - basically a building site - where the beach should be. The newer part of the resort (The Manor) was still being completed also.

The food, drink and entertainment were of a very poor standard. The resort was an American version of Butlins meets Club 18 to 30.

The general staff were very friendly. On the other hand though, the management seemed disinterested in ensuring that we returned to this resort.

For us, what should have been a holiday of a lifetime was a nightmare from start to finish. We were really glad to come home.