We just stayed at the Sandals Barbados from January 30th to February 6th and I thought I would share my review of the resort with you!
It was our first time staying at a Sandals resort, and it exceeded our expectations! We went with my family (my parents, who have stayed at several other Sandals resorts, and my brother and his girlfriend). We were the nerds wearing matching #BarbadosSquad2017 t-shirts.
My parents stayed in a Beachfront One Bedroom Butler Suite with a Tranquility Soaking Tub. My husband and I, and my brother and his girlfriend each stayed in a Beachfront Penthouse Club Level Suite with Tranquility Soaking Tub.
Since we were in a Club Level room, check-in was super quick and easy! Upon arrival, we were taken directly to the Club lounge where they gave us iPads to check-in on. While we were doing that, we were offered welcome drinks. I think they were Blue Hawaiian’s. Once we finished our check-in, Dexter, our Club Concierge, took us on a quick tour of the resort and up to our rooms!
Brent and I were in room #1508 – pretty well in the middle of the Beachfront building. Our view was absolutely breathtaking!
Here is a quick overview of our room category:
• King Size Bed
• Bathroom with tub and shower and all the amenities from the Red Lane Spa
• Coffee maker, kettle with many tea bags to choose from
• Fully Stocked Bar (water, juice, pop, wine, beer & champagne) plus 4 pouring liquors. The wine, beer and champagne were re-stocked daily, as needed
• Balcony with Tranquility soaking tub
We loved our room category. Our view was amazing, the room was always cleaned in a timely fashion, we had fresh towels in our room daily and the bar was always re-stocked with whatever we needed! We enjoyed coming back to our room each day to a chilled bottle of champagne to enjoy on our balcony before we got ready for dinner.
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We were lucky enough to get to try each of the 11 dining options at our resort! Below I will give a quick review of each one:
*Breakfast* – there were 3 breakfast options, and we were able to try all of them at least once.
Bayside Buffet
This was the largest of the two buffets and had everything you would ever need for breakfast. The omelet station was really great and we always enjoyed whatever we ordered. I ordered poached eggs most days and they were done perfectly every time! They also had a fresh squeezed orange juice machine, which was a fabulous way to start the day!
Bombay Buffet
This is the Indian restaurant in the evening, but for breakfast they have a small buffet. It is a more private option if you are looking for some quiet, as the restaurant is quite small. They still offered all the basics for breakfast, just not as much variety as Bayside.
Portofino’s
This is the Italian restaurant in the evening, and the only a la carte option available for breakfast. We ate breakfast here a few times and were always very pleased! The food was very good, as was the service!
*Lunch* – there were 4 lunch options, as far as I know!
Bayside Buffet
Again, a buffet for lunch with many options! They even had a ‘sandwich bar’ which I had never seen at a resort before. You had many different bread options, as well as meat, cheese, veggies and sauce. They would even grilled it in a panini press if you wanted. Also tons of salad, veggie, fruit options if you were looking for something light!
Dino’s Pizza/Mariner Seaside Bar & Grill
These two restaurants were right beside the main pool by the beach. We ate here most days, as it was easy to either go sit at one of the picnic tables and eat or even grab something to bring back to our beach chairs. We tried a variety of the pizzas at Dino’s and also many of the different sandwich options at Mariner’s. The curly fries were to die for – they tasted just like the ones you get at Arby’s!
Doggie’s
This was a hotdog cart by the main pool. It seemed to be open every day except Sunday between 12p-3p. We ate here a couple of times, I even requested just pulled pork on a bun the one day instead of a hotdog and it was delicious!
*Dinner*
Bombay Club
This is the first Indian restaurant at any of the Sandals Resort and it was fabulous! I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it ended up being really fun! The menu offers a ton of different options that are small portions. We were a bit confused by the menu so our waitress just brought of a little bit of everything! My favourite was the Chicken Tikka appetizer and the Naan bread, Butter Chicken and the Goan Shrimp Curry. The rice was also so fresh and cooked perfectly!
Butch’s Chophouse
This is the famous Sandals Resort Steakhouse. It was as fabulous as everyone has described! All 6 of us enjoyed our meals!
The Merry Monkey
This was the English Pub on the resort. It is where we ended most of our evenings for a night cap and a game of pool! The food was also very good! They offered a dinner menu, as well as a late night menu, if you were hungry after 10pm! The drinks were great and the bartenders were hilarious!
Kimono’s
Teppanyaki dining – one of my favourites! The show that our chef put on was so entertaining and the food was delicious!
Portofino’s
This was the resorts Italian restaurant and it was extremely delicious! We met a couple from the UK and had dinner with them at a huge round table in the middle of the restaurant. It was a great time! It is an open air concept restaurant with just a roof covering. It was so nice to take in the fresh air during dinner. I ordered the beef ragout pasta and it was really yummy!
Schooners Seafood Grill
My husband and I went to this one by ourselves one night. I wish we would have gone more than once! The food was incredible. I pretty much ordered lobster everything and I loved every second of it, but I wish we would have gone back so I could have tried something new!
Soy
This is the sushi restaurant and our plan was just eat here for an appetizer every night before dinner. That didn’t happen, the food during the day was TOO good so we were never hungry enough for an app and didn’t want to ruin our dinner! We ended up only going once, but everything we ordered was delicious!
Bayside
This was the buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch but for dinner it turns into a French restaurant. We ate here our last night and it was beyond delicious. The chicken cordon bleu I ordered was one of the best I have ever had!
Café de Paris
This was the café where you could get specialty coffees, mini desserts and crepes throughout the day! It was great for a morning iced coffee, a midday snack if you had a sweet tooth or an after dinner ‘special’ coffee and treat!
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Overall Resort Feels
We honestly had no complaints with this resort! The rooms were great, the food was top notch, and all of the staff were super friendly!
*Construction Update* I know a lot of people have been complaining about the construction that is taking place on the resort, so here is my take on it. Yes, at times, it could be a little loud – but never enough to disturb our stay. They didn’t start any of the loud work until 9am and were always done by 6pm. Some days they were there earlier than 9, or later than 6, but they were never making any noise outside of those hours. As I see it, we were on vacation, and we weren’t going to let something like that bother us. It is life. Sandals needs to expand, and unfortunately they cannot close the entire resort during the process. Here is a photo I took from our balcony. You can see the construction on the far left if you are curious.
I loved the turn down service at this resort. Every evening they would come into our rooms while we were at dinner, turn down our bed, replace any used towels and tidy up. It was so refreshing to come back to a clean room, twice a day!
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Here are a few more photos I took during our stay:
We didn’t have a butler suite but my parents did, and here is just one of the little perks you get when you stay in a butler suite. Aritha (one of 3 of their butlers) set a table for us on our last night, decorated with flowers and a homemade card from us to our parents. It was the sweetest gesture! Even though the butlers couldn’t do anything for us (obviously, since we didn’t pay for the upgrade) they were so kind to us and made sure to say hi anytime they saw us around the resort! They were so sweet (Jane, Aritha & Romero) all week and I just wanted to give them a shout out to thank them for making our family feel so special.
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Lastly, we decided to hire a local driver for the day to take us on a tour of the island! His name was Sanjay and he was extremely knowledgeable about the island. He told us about a ton of the history as we were driving around and took us to some of the most popular spots. Below are a few photos of the things we saw:
We did a tour and rum tasting at the Mount Gay Rum Distillery. The oldest rum distillery in the world, founded in 1703.
He then took us to a local restaurant for lunch with a view where we got to try some local food.
Below are a couple of the islands most beautiful sights!
All in all this was a wonderful, and relaxing vacation spent with my favourite people in the world. ❤
Now back to reality.
xox. -K
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