All I can say about Sandals Negril is WOW!! This place is wonderful. When we arrived at the resort after the bus ride from the airport, we were told we were being upgraded to a room with a butler who would be there shortly to get us. After about 5 minutes our butler Paul arrived. I have to say this man is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He grabbed our bags and off we went. The room was awesome. After showing us around, he gave us a cell phone, and told us if we needed anything at all to call him. On the third night of our stay, we went to our room about 11:30 pm. To our surprise, our butler had lit candles all over the room, chilled champagne by the bed, soft music playing, a warm bubble bath with flowers, and turned down the bed with tropical flowers all over it. Since it was our honeymoon, this was a great romantic treat! The people at this resort are so friendly, and they make you feel like royalty. You want for nothing while you are there. The food was wonderful, and the drinks were really good. I have seen some reviews that said the drinks were watered down. We did not have that issue. Another great thing about staying at Sandals, is you can go to their other properties and use the amenities. We went to the Beaches resort twice and had a great time at the pool, water slide and lazy river. If you have any questions about the resort, please let us know. We would be happy to tell you more about our experience.


Tim & Suzette
Madisonville, TN

My wife and I just returned from a 6-night stay at Sandals Negril. This was our second trip to Negril. Two years earlier we'd spent 3 nights at the RIU - Tropical Bay (Negril). By comparison we preferred the Riu. (We also have since been to the Breezes in Curacao - we prefer the Riu to that also.)

Sandals does a good job of arranging your transportation from the airport. The airport in Montego Bay had undergone significant improvements since we were last there in 2006. I think we were through Customs in less than 15 minutes.

Our room was not ready when we arrived at Sandals even though it was around 3 in the afternoon when we got there. The area around the front desk was very congested. When we arrived we were directed to a canopy-type seat where we sat with other couples who were either arriving or leaving - we couldn't tell. Be sure to print out and have your Sandals voucher with you when you arrive - they will ask for it when you get there.

Our room was near the beach and the 4 C's Italian restaurant which was convenient. We had problems with noise the first morning we got there. Some of the staff was yelling about something but thankfully this only happened once.

Our Room: Simple but tasteful. And from what we could tell it was clean. We left the maid tips every day and recommend that you do the same. A mini bar WITHOUT alcohol is included. (The Riu included alcohol - beer and liquor - in their rooms.) We were told the more expensive Sandals rooms included alcohol. The A/C mysteriously stopped working the day we checked out.

The Beach: Decent but far from the best we'd seen. Very narrow at several points compared with what we had at the Riu (Negril) and also what we'd seen previously in Grand Cayman. Water was gorgeous though. Some of the shaded huts on the beach were "reserved" even though there was nothing to indicate so. If you get to the beach early enough though, you can work around this.

Food: Overall pretty good - probably the best resort food we'd had. Service was VERY SLOW though so try not to be starving when you arrive. Even though we requested a reservation more than 24 hours in advance, we were told that the Kimonos restaurant was booked. I'm sure those paying MUCH higher room rates (e.g. those with butlers) were getting preferential treatment. (For what they were paying though, I guess they deserve it!)

Service: Not that great. Again the staff at the Riu was much friendlier. In particular the bartenders at Sandals all seemed to have an attitude. If you like to drink beer - and I do - then you'll spend A LOT of your vacation waiting for your bartender to get around to pouring you a "Dixie cup" size beer. We ended up going into town and buying a case of Red Stripe and a case of water for about $40. It was worth it. Just be sure and ask about the price of the taxi ride in advance. We did not and probably overpaid. (The Riu had taxi prices posted near the front desk.) Note: Sandals also sells Red Stripes for $3 each in the gift shop.

Misc.: Scuba was good. They will make you do a pool check out and a shallow dive before they will let you do other diving. I didn't mind too much. Dive staff was good.

"All inclusive"? - not really. You will constantly be offered to pay for something more, from spa services to wines at dinner. And again bar service was so poor, we ended up buying some of our own drinks.

Overall: I can believe the folks who opted for butlers had excellent service. But I can't imagine what they must have paid! And in the end you all eat in the same restaurants (with the possible exception of Kimonos) and share the same beach and pools.

You will LOVE the following:
- proximity of rooms to the beach
- calmness and colour of the caribbean sea
- friendly, hospitable staff. I have never been so catered to!
- Professional photographers that walk around and capture pictures that you can buy later
- The food was unreal! All the al-a carte restaurants are fantastic
- Indulge at the spa!
- The most beautiful sunsets you'll ever see

Things to note:
- you DONT need to dress up formally, as indicated in the holiday books/website
- Feed the fish in the pool on the back side of the resort.
- Make sure you get beach front; the other side of the resort backs onto the main road. Very busy
- Bring some Jamaican money with you. It's hard to get, and you will definitely need some if you go on excursions etc.

We looked at many locations for our Carribean wedding in April 2008 before deciding on Sandals Negril. We arrived in Jamaica to receive a warm Jamaican welcome at the airport in Sandals own hospitality suite at the airport before transferring to resort. The transfer took approximately 90mins but there was some stunning scenery on route and the time passed quickly by. We met Alan and Sheila (also from the UK) on the minibus and this was their 3rd visit to Sandals and they could not praise it enough. We were greeted "Welcome Home" by some of the Management staff at Sandals and were offered refreshments immediately (cooling refreshing towels and glasses of champagne) as we were expertly checked in as we sipped our champagne. We were swiftly guided to our room, this was our one and only disappointment as they were building another block of river suites immediately outside our room, it was noisy and the builder were still on site after 7 pm. However we only spent one night in this room after stating we were to be at Sandals for 14 night and this was to be for our wedding. We were shown another room which was very satisfactory and our belongings were moved while we were out during the day enjoying our 1st day of ourSandals experience. We were met by our Wedding Co-ordinator Michel to confirm our arrangements, she was very professional and we didn't see her again until our wedding day when she delivered flowers to our room and accompanied me to the ocean view gazebo where we were married by the Rev Ramsay. All of the staff we came into contact with were very friendly and they made a point of remembering your name and took a genuine interest in you and made you feel very special. To mention a few Kenesha who was a supervisor in the Sundowner Restaurant (now a butler - well done!!), the two D's causing mayhem in the 4C's restaurant, the photographers Fabien(Fozzydog), O'Neill and Vinton always smiling despite their very long days, Romaine in the shop always keen to sell offers of the day (Blue Mountain Coffee always at 15% off). The food at all of the restaurants was excellent, the 4C's serving seafood and pasta was one of our favourites, nice location directly overlooking the ocean. Entertainment team was excellent, we enjoyed our last evening on the beach barbeque, with steel band and the fire eating limbo dancing guy. We're British and we like to talk about weather, what we found out about Negril is that it was red hot in the morning, but the clouds quickly formed on the mountains around midday but it was a welcome relief some days. Beautiful clean white sand beaches, they worked hard to keep it pristine and the sea was lovely and warm for a swim (watch out for the stingrays). Our wedding day was absolutely perfect, I opted for a bit of pampering at the Red Lane Spa, well worth it! Overall this resort is excellent and is worth every penny. We will definitiely be back to visit our new friends in Jamaica ! - YEAH MON !!