The Sands Barbados

Property • I would not class this as a 4 Star Hotel, more like a 3 Star • The entrance to the hotel is sandwiched between a supermarket and another building on the busy main road • The car park, which is in front of the hotel, is used by the supermarket, so be aware if you hire a car re the availability of parking spaces Room • We had a two bedroom, two level apartment • The first level comprised of a kitchen area with no oven or hob but there was a sink and refrigerator. • There was no crockery or cutlery • Tea, coffee, sugar and milk were provided but there was no kettle. We didn't ask for one as this was available at the bar • There was also a dining and lounge area which could seat up to 4 people • We could only access one of the bedrooms as the other was locked, presumably because we booked a single room. • The room we used was en-suite, but the other room appeared to not have en-suite facilities, but a separate bathroom • Air conditioning was only available in the bedroom. I don't know if it was also available in the second bedroom. Main Restaurant - On the Water • Service was hit and miss. On one occasion we had to wait 45 minutes for a waitress to take our order, others that entered after us had been served and on their main course by the time our order was taken • Food was Repetitive – Fish (Catch of the day) & Pasta at every meal for lunch & dinner including the buffet. The other dish was either steak or pork. I wanted to try local Bajan dishes but these were not forthcoming so we had to venture off property to try these • Meal times had to be booked for lunch and dinner at breakfast every day, which said to me that they did not have enough staff or the capacity to accommodate peoples desire to eat when they want. It was difficult to decide what time to book if you went out for the day, I would prefer to eat when I'm ready and not have to rush back to ensure I was back for lunch/dinner reservations • Dress code was not adhered to. Men & women entered in T-shirts, beach shorts, flip flops and trainers but were not refused entry. A la Carte Restaurant - Noir • The bar was not available for pre/post dinner drinks • Food was the same as the main restaurant although the service was slightly better. • The menu was the same every day, therefore if you had the opportunity to go more than once you had the same food choices Entertainment • This was available every evening either a ‘Live’ artiste or DJ and on the occasional afternoon. • I felt sorry for some of the artistes as at times they were performing to 6 people • Overall the entertainment was good • There is a weekly Manager's Cocktail party with a small market of 3/4 venders. There is also a fire eater. Sit near the beach for the end of the performance Pool • Small and unheated • Goes from nothing to 4 feet, so suitable for young children with adult supervision • No Life Guard on duty • to get a sunbed around the pool you needed to be up by 7am. There did appear to be saved sunbeds that were unoccupied for long periods of time that people could have used. The no reservation policy, where if a sunbed was not used for an hour, except at lunch time, items would be removed and the sunbed made available for others to use, did not appear to be actioned upon Beach • The Beach is a public beach like all beaches in Barbados • The sea is warm and calm, but be aware near the rocks where the currents can be strong • Sunbeds were readily available up to 8/8:30 • There were not enough umbrellas for the number of sunbeds and very little other shade Gardens • The Gardens are small grassy areas in front of the rooms but no chairs/tables to sit at • During our two week stay the hotel did spray/fog for mosquitos on one occasion. The hotel advised if you have any respiratory problems to remain in your room which we did, but the 'fog' entered the room despite the windows and doors being closed, fortunately this did not affect us. Wet Weather • When it rained there was nowhere to go to get out of the rain except back to your room • During heavy downpours the gardens flooded which cleared within the hour. The beach also washed away in parts • On one occasion the main restaurant flooded which delayed the lunch time opening • If it rained at mealtimes, people lingered in the restaurant due to lack of covered places to go, which meant that the later settings couldn’t get a table. Who wants to wait in the rain for their table and then eat at 9:30pm? Summary • Would I go back to Barbados? At the moment 'No'. People have said once you go to Barbados you will fall in Love with the island and never want to go elsewhere. Nothing is tugging at me to return • Would I return to The Sands Hotel? NO. Things need to drastically improve for me to return. There needs to be some where to go during wet weather apart from your room. Suggestions were made as to would they could do even the installation of a covered area in the gardens with seating would do, which would also provide additional shade for people. Read less

Had a great holiday, but spent lots of it exploring the amazing island so we didn’t use the A.I. & facilities to the max. We had a suite with 2 bedrooms 1 en suite king & the other 2 doubles with a second bathroom and lounge and kitchen area with a fridge and table. Really large and spacious and ideal for our family of 4 - including 2 teenagers. Lots of people complain about the rooms but they have booked the savers not the suites. Negatives of the double beds room were that the curtains weren’t large enough so didn’t block out the light - there was a large light directly outside the room, so it was like daylight at all times of night. Food was generally good - breakfasts buffet, dinner mostly ala carte with 3 options - meat, fish and vegetarian. Occasional buffets on the evening. Lunch can be ordered from the beach menu or main menu and you can mix and match. Noire was very nice. Drink service at the bar was a real let down. Often long waits and disorganised staff. A couple of the bar staff were brilliant at cocktails- none of the throwing in as much booze as possible so it tastes awful, but others were less experienced in both cocktail making and knowing how to run a bar so you’d have long waits and people served out of turn. The main bar tender at noire is an absolute cocktail genius - we returned just to see him and sample more of his creations. Staff are generally friendly and helpful but there were a couple of incidents of staff who were grumpy and even a couple who had an argument in front of us. Night entertainment is a bit varied and there are not sufficient numbers of tables and chairs on the evenings. Also lights are often not available which isn’t great. A small gym is open from 7am, but actually accessible before that. Beach is fairly small but nice enough. Just be careful around the rocks as we saw a lady get swept out and a life guard rescued her. There are signs to this affect but it was quite scary how quickly it happened. We managed to get a reservation at both sister hotels so we could see what they were like- this is definitely the best of the 3 - island inn (we did breakfast here and saw the horses swim at pebble beach) & mango bay- we had lunch here. Location is great for walking into Lawrence Gap and exploring some of the local restaurants & other beaches. ZRs pass all the time and there’s parking if you have a car. Enjoyed our stay very much. We got a bargain price to stay here for 2 weeks, if we’d paid the normal 12-18K we see this advertised at for a family of 4 I think we’d be more critical, but for what we paid it was great. Would return but only if the price was right. Read less

This was our first stay at the sands, we’ve stayed at their sister hotel 3 times so was keen to see what the sands had to offer! The room was extremely spacious and clean, we had a pool view room. The food was good, I felt there could have been more options during buffets though. I read on previous reviews that staff make the hotel, I did not find this the case. There was a handful of friendly staff, however I found the majority to be quite rude. Myself and my partner often commented on this a number of times. The outdoor area is modern, bathrooms in particular could do with some minor updating. The sun bed situation is the worse I’ve seen. People reserving them at 6am and often not using them. There was a subbed policy in the room and this seemed to have no significant effect on the situation. Read less

Visit it here this year 2024 for the second time when they’re in 23 an excellent place to visit the hotel the staff, the facilities, the food the drink entertainment is absolutely brilliant. Would recommend it to anyone. Went on a few trips around the island absolutely brilliant tour guide knew all his stuff would recommend going into fish fry Friday I brilliant experience to do But of course, everyone is different and everyone wants different experiences, but would recommend the hotel and the country to visit Read less

The location is perfect,the food is excellent , the staff are probably the best hotel staff we have come across, if there are no sunbeds just ask the staff,only 2 days did we not have one and just asked the staff who provided us with one. Now the bad bit, if you have booked a supersaver room, upgrade or cancel now, it is just a bed with no windows/balcony it's terrible, we asked to change but none available, they really should not sell these "rooms", apart from that great hotel. Read less