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Sandals Barbados Vacations

4.3 - 2214 Reviews
Bridgetown, Barbados

Set on 10 acres of tropical gardens, resplendent with majestic trees, lush tropical foliage and flowering plants bordering the white sands of Dover Beach. Sandals Barbados is paradise found, combining elegant natural settings with sophistication and Sandals first class service and amenities. With Luxury Included™ amenities and five-star hospitality, Sandals Barbados offers an intimate and private ambiance for couples.

Location: On the south coast of Barbados, in the St. Lawrence Gap area, 25 km from the capital of Bridgetown and 11 km from Grantley Adams Int'l Airport.

Important Info

Couples only. Hotel does not accept children or singles, or triples. Some restaurants may be open for certain meals only and limited visits may apply. Reservations and dress code may be in effect for a la carte restaurants. Time restrictions may apply for water sports. Formerly Couples Barbados.

  • All meals and snacks including gourmet restaurants serving the finest international cuisine with Caribbean flavors
  • Unlimited Premium Brand Liquors
  • Complimentary internet cafe and WIFI 
  • Free Golf (Transfers and greens fees) at the Barbados Golf Club
  • Free Glass Bottom Boat Ride, including swimming with Sea Turtles
  • Free Sunset Catamaran Cruise
  • Free Scuba Dive (two dives per couple per stay, or 4 total per stay, PADI certified divers only)
  • Free Boogie Boarding, Wind Surfing, Paddle Boarding, Hobie Cat Sailing, Snorkeling and Kayaking with instruction
  • Free Shuttle to Oistins Fish Fry - a Barbados MUST DO
  • Guided Barbadian Green Monkey nature trail walk
  • In room Dining
  • Live entertainment is offered nightly
  • Managers Cocktail Party is held weekly
  • Personalized mini bars
  • Tennis with instruction
  • Daily activities

  • 280 rooms
  • 11 specialty restaurants
  • 1 snack bars
  • 3 Bars, including swim-up
  • 5 pools
  • Fitness centre
  • Red Lane Spa (fee)
  • Salon (fee)
  • Golf
  • Non-motorized water sports
  • Tennis courts
  • Shops
  • Wi-Fi
  • 24-hour front desk
  • Concierge

Palm Garden room:
  • 1 king bed
  • garden view
  • patio or balcony
  • full bathroom
  • A/C
  • flat screen TV
  • hair dryer
  • alarm clock
  • iron/ironing board
  • housekeeping
  • Personal mini-bar stocked daily
  • bottled water
  • turndown service
  • phone
  • iPod docking station
  • room service
  • safe
  • maximum # of guests: 2
Junior Suite, same as above:
  • 1 king bed
  • garden or ocean view
  • patio or balcony
  • seating area
  • mini fridge
  • maximum # of guests: 2

Weddings - Wedding and Honeymoon packages are available at a special price. Please inquire for details.

???????Early Booking Bonus - This hotel may offer early booking bonuses at certain times of the year. If early booking bonuses apply to your vacation, prices shown online have already been adjusted accordingly. Please inquire for complete details.

Some restaurants may be open for certain meals only and limited visits may apply. Reservations required and dress code in effect for a la carte restaurants. Time restrictions may apply for water sports.

Child pricing may only be available with select tour operators and valid for select dates and durations. Child pricing rules are subject to change without notice. Please contact one of our vacation specialists if you require assistance with child pricing.

Photo identification and/or credit card or cash deposit may be required at check-in for incidental charges.

Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy. Rollaway beds and cribs (infant beds) may be available and should be requested at the time of booking; fees may apply.

Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in. Special requests cannot be guaranteed and may incur additional charges upon check-in to fulfil.

Hotels do not condone unruly behavior, parties in rooms, excessive noise or any other actions that violate the hotels terms of use. Guests may be removed from the property at their own expense in the event of any disturbance or complaint from other guests or hotel staff. Escapes.ca cannot be held responsible for any guests who may be removed from the hotel due to a violation of rules.

What's Included

Vacation package bookings include the following:

  • Round-trip flights
  • Hotel accommodations
  • Airport transfers (see exceptions below)
  • Departure taxes (see exceptions below)
  • Tourist cards (see exceptions below)
  • Hotel taxes

All-inclusive resorts typically include the following options. Please see each specific hotels all-inclusive details for what is included, as it may vary from the list below.

  • All meals
  • Drinks (typically soft drinks and domestic beer, wine and spirits)
  • Daily activities
  • Nightly entertainment
  • Non-motorized water sports
Items not included:
  • Baggage fees (if applicable, see Supplier's terms on reservation page for details)
  • Resort and Environmental fees (if applicable) must be paid directly to the hotel
  • Travel insurance (mandatory if traveling to Cuba)
  • Airport transfers for packages to USA
  • Airport transfers for packages to Europe
  • Items of a personal nature
NOTE:
  • If traveling to the Dominican Republic with Sunwing or Signature Vacations, tourist cards ($10USD) and departure taxes ($20USD) are not included.
  • As of November 9, 2019 Los Cabos has implemented a non-mandatory tourist tax of $18:50 per person payable upon entry into Los Cabos.


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4.3 Google Rating
Based on 2214 Reviews

Couldn't recommend. Overpriced for an all inclusive resort. Staff good but let down by mediocre food. Couple of good restaurants, CHI and Bombay. Rooms good size and nice. Great location and beautiful island.
Require to book some restaurants but very difficult to get booking unless you are Butler level. We were in resort for 10 days and only managed one late dining booking. Walk-in restaurants require to wait up to 2hrs at normal eating timed (7-8pm). Food average, except for 2 mentioned above, and certainly not 5 star as advertised. Would say similar to mid range Spanish all inclusive.
If coming here would recommend planning ahead dining schedule and book restaurants well in advance of arrival via Sandals App.

All I want to say is the butler Patrona was by far the the best I could ask for, I miss her already . She was sweet and took care of anything I asked for . Sandals should be grateful to have her.

A fantastic experience from start to finish.

The food was unbelievable everywhere we ate and the staff were always very friendly.

The rooms, bars and restaurants were all stylish and modern and the view from the beach was gorgeous.

There are also fantastic trips out and spa treatments available.

We cannot wait to go again!

We’ve been to 10 different Sandals locations over 20 years. So about 50 nights.
We’ve been to 4 the last two years.
Barbados is beautiful, the resort is dated but the grounds and rooms are clean.
Horribly managed and short staffed is the primary issue.

The employees are clearly very unhappy, they’ve been short on common items. They were so short
today, the told us housekeeping wouldn’t be able to service the room.

Sandals was a 5 star organization, the dramatic shift is in management, and profits first before clients.

If you can’t staff it, don’t sell all the rooms out. Sandals was much better during the pandemic than now.

I’m embarrassed for the owner, the managers and feel horrible for their employees.

At this point, know where you are staying. There is better value other places.

We spent our anniversary at Royal Barbados. We had a great time and will definitely go back.

Great location, direct beach access. Very large selection of all kinds of food and drinks in various restaurants. Large entertainment program, many sports options. But: Unfortunately there are also a large number of people who cannot handle the free alcohol and many people who treat the free food and the staff very disdainfully. Mountains of food are ordered, of which only a little is taken and a lot is simply left lying around. Very disrespectful to everyone who worked for it and to simply destroy absolutely no-go food.

Beautiful and Ideal Location for a Caribbean Getaway. Sandals is wonderful.

Lovely hotel with excellent decor throughout.
The beach is stunning

Honest reviews from a European couple in their 30s visiting for the first time.

PROS
-amazing beach
-variety of restaurants
-gift shop is great
-if you like alcohol you’ll have a great time
-beach volleyball
-facilities at Royal Barbados are much nicer and newer
-friendly customers
-free airport transfer
-favourite restaurants: Jerk Shack for lunch, Bombay for dinner
-photoshoot was great and we bought some lovely sunset pictures (even though the price is USD 20 per digital pic which is outrageous)
-departure lounge is a great initiative and makes it easy for customers to stay at the resort once they have checked out

CONS
-staff are slow (could be a cultural thing) and don’t seem like they want to really help you
-concierge lounge is really useless in my opinion, we got mixed messages from various staff members; again not really trying to help: asked if they could call the Mount Gay distillery for me and the lady answers “can you find me the number”! Also the lounge is supposed to have drinks but I rarely found water there.
-the booking system of restaurants is a nightmare, we only managed to get 1 reservation for 21:30 because everything was booked for the entire stay we were there
-you queue for everything everywhere, it’s really long. The wait times at the restaurants are crazy: we spent 2h at the Indian restaurant waiting for food.
-room service food quality was awful
-the state of the room was so old and used that it shouldn’t deserve 5 stars, I think the rooms at Royal Barbados must be nicer. The shower was terrible.
-the sunbeds around the resort are fully taken by 8am. People literally wake up, reserve their beds and then go to breakfast and there is not enough sunbeds for sure.
-I found a knife on the beach volleyball court, broken glass in the hotel corridor…
-the signs across the hotel are not helpful, perhaps a sign explaining that Le Parisienne is actually on the roof would be helpful or even something in the elevator.
-gyms need a few more benches
-clearly a resort for the older retired crowd
-everyone is always late, just get used to it.
-WiFi could definitely be better
-bowling, the screens don’t work so can’t count points
-most beer taps were out of order so they serve you from the can
-some days there was pool service and staff going around asking if you want a drink, other times there weren’t. Sometimes the bar was even left unattended which was shocking.
-when faced with situation of not having any more straws, the bartender suggested I go ask the restaurants instead of going themselves and finding me a solution.
-as Europeans the food really felt like quantity over quality. Breakfasts buffets were terrible, the sit down ones were a tad better but still not great. The dinners were ok but nothing impressive.

TIPS
-the only “nice” coffee is at Cafe de Paris and even that is borderline for Europeans
-the “secret” pool by Greenhouse is the least busy and the most calming in our opinion
-the breakfast menu at Schooner is the same as Le Parisienne
-freshly squeezed orange juice can be found at the buffet breakfast but not the sit downs

CONCLUSION
I’ve been to many 5 star hotels in my life and this is not a 5 star service in my opinion, staff simply do not go out of their way to help you. They do the minimum and are happy to kick back and chat with other staff members. It feels the resort is understaffed but at the same time you see staff everywhere. You are paying big money for a service that isn’t luxury in my opinion.

Edit: 7 months later, no one ever reached out. They do not care. WILL NEVER TRAVEL TO ANOTHER SANDALS RESORT AGAIN

Edit: I reached out to Sandals customer service before we even left the resort. That was over a week ago. No one ever replied or got back to me. They don't care.

Our stay at Sandals was riddled with problems. We were celebrating our honeymoon. Our travel agent sent a copy of our wedding invitation to Sandals ahead of our stay to ensure we received the Honeymoon package. We even got an email stating that we would receive a bottle of wine in our room, turndown service with rose petals on the bed our first night, and fresh flowers and breakfast in bed one morning of our choosing. When we arrived, we had fake flower petals on our floor leading to the balcony. That was it. We went the the concierge and told them we hadn't received the bottle of wine and asked how to schedule the breakfast in bed. They told us they would take care of it and we needed the card to fill out for breakfast in bed. We told them we didn't receive the card and were told that, without the card, we couldn't get it. They again told us they would take care of it. The next day, still nothing. We went back to our concierge. They told us they would take care of it. The next day, still nothing. We went back again. Finally, the next day, champagne was in our room with a towel in the shape of a heart. Still no breakfast card. We went back to the concierge. Shaquille took our order. We told him what we wanted and when we wanted it. That morning came and no breakfast arrived. 30 minutes after our breakfast was supposed to be there, we called room service and they told us they never received an order. We gave up after that. Never got the breakfast in bed we were promised. Backtracking to when Tropical Storm Bret passed the island. That night we had reservations at CHI. When we showed up for our 5:30 reservation, we were told that Sandals decided to close all the restaurants except for American Tavern and Spices. We waited in line for over 2 hours at American Tavern just to be seated. Another hour to get food. What a mess. Then came our last night when we booked our romantic candlelit dinner on the beach. About 2 hours before our reservation, we stopped by our favorite concierge desk to ask where we needed to go to check in for the dinner. That's when we were told that all of the dinners were canceled because it was supposed to rain. We asked if we would get a refund. We were told that because sales had left for the day, if we wanted a refund, we were responsible for contacting them and requesting one. Just what we want to do on a busy travel day back to the United States. This vacation was truly a disappointment. We got scammed by Island Routes for a duplicate excursion they won't refund us for. We were harassed by locals trying to sell us drugs every single time we tried to have a romantic walk on the beach. We were planning a follow up trip to Curacao around our one year anniversary but this trip was such a disaster that I don't think we are ever going to return to another Sandals resort.

Unfortunately for us the butlers apparently have priority over everyone else. As with many resorts lounges around the pool are a premium commodity. We like many mark two locations early with towels and books etc. only to come down around 9 to find our stuff all moved and the butler board sitting on our spot. This is a rampant practice and very frustrating as we have never been anywhere where our stuff was moved. Not cool!!

Amazing experience! Everyone was very professional!

Overall we enjoyed our stay. However, a number of issues created problems for us. We were not aware that Sandals Royal Barbados allowed corporate outings and conventions The week we were there, Milwaukee Tool, had over 400 people attending an event for a week. Their attendance created all kind of dinner reservations, pool and beach chair reservations problems as well as other issues for all the regular customers. The pool and beach chairs reservation policy created many problems for anyone scheduled for morning spa treatments or other morning excursions.

It's a "luxury" resort in absolute paradise. The rooms need repairs. The facility needs repairs. Could have injured yourself on open outlets or junction boxes. The butlers tried and were mostly helpful. Food was good, drinks were great! Photographers need to work on centering their subjects and learning to frame their scene. The pools were nice and beach was beautiful. Drug dealers on the beach are unavoidable I guess. Nice free snorkeling excursion but the paid ones are way overpriced. Beautiful for our honeymoon but definitely over priced overall.

So VERY Disappointing! Rooms so outdated and dirty. No entertainment on the beach. The entertainment they did provide was terrible. The ladies that worked their were extremely rude and unfriendly. I've been to 12 Sandals Resorts. I would never return to this location. So upsetting to spend so much money for very mediocre at best. Good luck getting into any of the restaurants that need reservations. Please do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Trust me you'll be disappointed just like most of the people we spoke to regarding this Sandals.

We had an amazing time at the Sandals Royal Barbados for our Honeymoon in late Jan 2024. The facilities, food, staff and experience was 10/10 and we had the absolute best time! Highly recommend!

Sandals Barbados - it’s never 5 star.
Where do I start.
We were allocated a room in Walcott. The block we were in stunk of damp and the rooms were dated with broken sockets, broken fire panic buttons and shoddy paint work. After 5 days they decided to spray somethong to mask the smell, unfortunately they also decided to do it in our room which made the floor like an ice rink. There are no slippers, no amenities in bathroom and we never had a bath mat so just used a towel - not what you expect for supposed 5 star.

Customer service, simply don’t expect it, they will never get back to you even if you go and wait in reception. They eventually got back to us on our penultimate evening to discuss things, we declined.

21 restaurants - what a laugh. Any that need booking you simply cannot book as they are are always fully booked, the ones that you can walk in will have a minimum 1 hour wait then once you get seated don’t expect your main course within 1.5 hours. At Spice the lunch items regularly run out and are not replenished, I asked for a desert that had finished and was told it would be there in a few minutes, they didn’t bother to replace it.

Bombay and La Parisienne did good food with good service.

Diving is included but what they don’t tell you is that it’s an hour to Bridgetown before you board the boat. The diving operation is decent enough.

There is a lovely beach but please don’t think that you’ll ever get a bed on there as all beds are reserved even though some people don’t even show up.

Been to a few Sandals now but won’t be going back again, just a shame I hadn’t read more reviews. Sandals, if it was in Europe or Asia would only just attain 4 star, if it was judged on Walcott block it would be 3 star.

Won’t ever be going back. Good luck to anyone who goes.

WE COULDN'T EVEN GET CLEAN WASH CLOTHS!!! Now that I have your attention here’s my review (and yes, it’s true- we were left dirty wash cloths) There are so many constant and daily small to medium issues with this place that it ruins the entire experience. A few key things that stood out to me are: any time you ask for something, the staff makes you feel like you’re being a burden. I’m not talking about major requests, I’m talking simple, basic things like a refill on a drink, etc. A few times we had meals where we never got a refill, even when requested. We went on this trip to celebrate my wife’s birthday and the morning of the day BEFORE her birthday, I went to the front desk to ask if they do anything for celebrations on the day of a birthday (the last resort we stayed at in DR had streamers, banners, cake all in the room the moment we made it to our room on arrival and we didn’t even ask for it). They told me they don’t have enough notice to put a slice of cake in our room to surprise my wife for her birthday (we told them about her birthday on arrival day 3 days prior AND when we booked it but this specific request was 36 hours in advance of when they would put the cake in the room). They gave me options for cake flavor and asked if I wanted them to decorate the room which I said that would be AMAZING. So they delivered her a slice of cake a day AFTER her birthday and didn’t even bring the correct flavor requested nor did they decorate like they said they were going to. Again- small issue but continues to add up. One day, the cleaning staff left our dirty wash cloths up to dry on the shower head instead of replacing with clean ones. When I requested clean wash cloths (a basic human need), I was made to feel like a burden and they never brought them until I went back and demanded wash cloths 5 hours later. Let’s not forget that we had to be awake and reserve a beach chair at 6:30am or we wouldn’t have one the rest of the day. Staff doesn’t smile and looks like they hate their jobs. It rained multiple times per day (no big deal) so everyone would switch out their wet towels for dry ones after a storm but most of the time, there were never fresh towels so you were stuck with wet towels. You can only eat once at each restaurant that requires reservations. Our hotel phone didn’t work so we couldn’t call for anything, our TV just stopped working completely one night while watching it. The list goes on and on. I sincerely hope if you are reading this that you do not stay here. We read reviews beforehand and thought people were exaggerating their negative experiences but that isn’t the case. I promise you can spend half of the money it costs to stay here and have a better time almost ANYWHERE else. I do want to say, there were a few people that were great (the Merry Monkey staff and the Cafe Paris staff). Outside of those two, everyone else seemed miserable, rude and despised you. Seriously, save yourself the headache and go somewhere else. There are so many other issues but none are coming to mind. Don’t think that the things mentioned in this review is the extent of the problems with this place. We left thinking “man, we really should have listened to the negative reviews of this place”. Never felt more unwelcome anywhere else in the 30+ places we have stayed at together.

24-03-19-07-18
24-03-19-07-18

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