Sandals Resorts and other All inclusives

[av8er23]

I am starting to plan a honeymoon for April 2008. I have done lots of research and there are countless places to stay. The sandals resorts look nice but I have gotten a bad report from the St. Lucia one. I do not really want to go to Jamaica but Neagril Beach sure has some nice properties. So this leaves Bahamas and Antigua. Has anyone ever gone to these resorts that could share an experience?

We are definitely not stuck on the Sandals but they do include one two-tank dive per day, which is nice. We have defiantly made the decision to go all-inclusive and one of the most important factors is the quality of diving since we will probably dive every day. We also enjoy other water sports and are active people. Any recommendations or experiences will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Agua]

Turk & Caicos.

 

[Torontonian]

We've stayed at Beaches Ocho Rios 4 yrs ago. That's where I learned to dive and got my NAUI OW. That resort is now merged into the Sandals right next door to it. Forgot the name. But Ocho Rios does NOT have good reef or marine life. I've heard diving near Negril is better. The Sandals resorts will all have good food and facilities everywhere, possibly except for Cuba.

We've also stayed at Beaches Veradero. The food there isn't as good, not much vegetables, probably due to the poor country. The diving there is soso. However, we once went to Bay of Pigs (after a few days of high winds, they arranged us to go with an outfit downtown Veradaro to take a bus 2.5 hr south). The shore diving there went right to the wall, and it was great. The Veradero beach was quite good. My wife is not a swimmer. In that beach you could take many steps and the water rises slowly. In the Ocho Rios beach, the small beach went deep right away and my wife didn't like it (neither did I).


For good diving and an all inclusive resort, could consider Cozumel? It is cheaper in Cozumel compared to Sandals St. Lucia, and Coz has excellent diving.

 

[mike_s]

I am starting to plan a honeymoon for April 2008. I have done lots of research and there are countless places to stay. The sandals resorts look nice but I have gotten a bad report from the St. Lucia one. I do not really want to go to Jamaica but Neagril Beach sure has some nice properties. .

Don't rule out Jamacia. the diving there is not as good as Bonaire, but it was much better than I expected. In the area in Negril we dove in, it was actually pretty good.

We stayed about 2 or 3 resorts down from Sandals Negril at Couples Negril. It was first class.

Diving at Couples was on a 36-40ft Newton Dive Special. The All inclusive rate included diving. I dove evey day there. When we went, they did a one tank dive at 9am and one at 1pm (or 2pm). Pretty much all the dives were 35 to 65 feet and on reefs or random small sunken items. On saturday they did a two tank dive that the first dive was deeper (65-95 feet) in the morning and didn't do an afternoon dive. (Sat afternoon was reserved for boat maintenance). No trips were done on Sunday as that was the dive shops off day. A divemaster lead each dive, but he was pretty relaxed and let you do what you wanted.

You could use your own gear or the shops rental gear was included in the all-inclusive price. It was sherwood gear, but I can't remember models. tanks were all AL80's.

Like I said, the diving was pretty good and I have no complaints whatsoever about their dive operation and would go there again.

The only costs associated with the diving there was if you wanted to take a class and the night dive was not included in the all-inclusve price. I think it was $40 bucks and was scheduled based on a minimum 4 people signing up for it. (they did one or two a week)

As for Negril beach, it's one of the nicer prettier beaches you'll find. Not much in waves though, but the water is crystal clear and vis was 100' easily.

I've been to Ocho Rios also... the resorts are nice, but the beaches and water are no where as near as nice as in Negril.

Hope that helps. PM if you've got questions.

Mike

 

[DiverDebbie]

hey Mike... are you on the Couples message boards too?

As soon as I read this post I thought... no! Don't go to Sandals. Go to Couples!

Listen to Mike! He's getting me excited, and we've already booked! We are going to Couples Swept Away in Negril for our wedding in Jan. 2008 and we couldn't be happier. As Mike mentioned, the diving is all included, as is golf, a catamaran cruise, glass bottom boat trip and snorkeling. You can get continental breakfast delivered to your room in the mornings, and they have flag service for drinks on the beach.
The resort looks amazing and romantic in it's lush setting. The service is supposed to be top notch, and already I can vouch for that. One inquiry about food selection for my celiac sister in-law and I got a prompt reply from their executive chef stating that they will prepare special dishes for her and assign someone to give her personal daily assistance with her meal planning. Wow!

Sandals wouldn't even give me a human reply to one simple question I sent in to them via their web form. I got 2 canned messages back then they 'closed' my 'issue' ??? huh? I did a ton of research, read all the reviews, and looked at people's personal pictures from tripadvisor. This is my wedding and we don't want to waste money on the wrong place or have a bad experience. Trust me, people's actual pictures of Sandals look nothing like the highly editted ones on their site (make water bluer and rooms look much, much larger) The prices for Couples and Sandals are very similar, but in my opinion, they don't come close. Sandals is just looking tired and dated and I'm sorry, but their rooms look like something from Gramma's house. What is with all the flower print 'bedspreads' ??? Also, Sandals is very "class" oriented. If you don't pay for the top room, you won't get the top service.
We also looked at Sandals in St. Lucia, but the same thing. The Halcyon especially looked old and rundown, and I'm sure people are mistaking them for local rodents, but several reviews complain about RATS! - no thanks! I cannot even risk that with my fussy FMIL.
(whew - I love to rant about Sandals.. hehe - I'm not allowed to do it on the Couples message boards - which is a great source of info. btw)

 

[Charles R]

Turk & Caicos.

I second that turks and caicos

 

[av8er23]

Great infomation Debbie and Mike. I have been doing lots of reasearch and Couples Negril has came up severl times. I have a friend staying at Ocho Rios in May so I can get a report from her.

Mike,
How was the food at Couples Negril?
What about the booze. did they have a good selection of beer and top shelf liquour?
Does the dive boat pic you up right at the resort?
Is transportation easy if you want to venture out to the other couples resorts?


Neither of you guys have recommend an all inclusive resort at turks....

 

[mark G]

mike did you consider just living together OK I won't go there! But I would recommend looking at bed and breakfasts. B&B's are romantic and you get to do what you want when you want. Eat a big breakfast and skip lunch then eat at the best restaurants.

 

[DiverDebbie]

av8er23 - I looked into Turks and Caicos, but we were looking for an adult only romantic resort and all they have there is a family oriented Beaches and a Club Med.

I would totally not argue that the diving in Jamaica is not the best in the Caribbean, but if you are going for a honeymoon, then you, like us going for our wedding, have other priorites. Are you both divers? If not, then a location like Bonaire might be incredibly boring topside. Dive resorts are great for what they are - a place to eat and sleep between diving, but the all-inclusive is IMO the most laid back, realxing, easy way to go. Nothing like not having to continually pull out your wallet.

Couples has a spa as well, which might have some nice honeymoon packages. That's about the only thing that is extra. Couples doesn't even allow any tipping of their staff. Here's a link to the Couples message board, which can answer ALL of your questions.... but be warned, there are a lot of hard-core repeater Couples-aholics there... lol.

http://www.couples.com/08messageF.htm

 

[DiverDebbie]

P.S... although I haven't been to Negril or Couples yet, we did go to Montego Bay in Jan. (that is where he proposed The diving there wasn't so great. The water was warm and clear, but that area was quite over-fished, so we didn't see the ton of life you can see elsewhere. Otherwise though, we loved Jamaica! Gorgeous and sunny and such brilliant water. It totally gets a bad rep, but we found the people to be amazingly friendly. Sure, some may try to sell you something, but if you say no they move on. We walked the "hip strip" many times without a single problem... mon... no problem mon.... Not nearly as agressive as the beggars in downtown Vancouver!