Sandals Grenada Resort & Spa

Nothing but positives to say about this resort (we will be back soon) but wanted to provide a shoutout to the Grenada dive team. Incredible human beings who made each dive so much fun. My wife and I were getting open water certified. Process was awesome and the dive sites were beautiful. Best instructor we could have asked for and did a great job teaching techniques and ensuring we were ready for diving. If you are thinking about booking this resort, do not hesitate. If you are diving, get to know Kimshon Prince. Awesome guy and will make your trip well worth it. A message to Sandals, make sure you keep Prince around!! Read less

Here goes nothing! It’s September (2024) and we’ve been dreaming of our annual vacation for months. This year marks our 3rd year anniversary and we’ve chosen to visit an all-inclusive 5-Star Sandals resort on the island of Grenada. The cost is steep, more than 16K after an applied 65% discount, but we’re excited to see what we get for this kind of money in a country that recently increased their hourly minimum wage to EC 9.20 ($3.40 US). Here we come! The airport in Grenada is small, a bit disorganized, but nothing new for us on our travels. As we exit the terminal, into the unexpected heat and humidity, there are several semi-organized people directing the new arrivals to their perspective rides. To our surprise, what awaits is a van with no running air conditioning. The person escorting us has insisted we jump in the van that’s sweltering hot and smells a bit funky. We assume we’re leaving immediately but quickly find out that’s not going to be the case. The ride is short, less than 5 minutes, and we have arrived at Sandals. We’re quickly checked in, offered drinks and introduced to our butler(s). He appears to be kind though seems overly professional and not dressed appropriately for the weather. He’s also training someone new to being a butler. Both butlers walk us through part of the small campus before taking us up to our suite. As we enter, we notice there’s a bottle of champagne. Not something we drink, and seems to be something the butler should’ve known before our arrival to the island. Also, at this time, we realize we still don’t have the drinks offered. Oh well, we’re officially on vacation. The Italian ocean view suite is exactly what the doctor ordered. The place is clean and spacious. The room is hot, something the butler overlooked, but we fix this right away. The decor is a mixture of modern and local. All the essentials are stocked and, wait for it, no Vegas sensors to monitor our unruly behavior. Lol! The bathroom is huge! No doubt, the main attraction is the infinity plunge pool on the patio just outside our bedroom sliders. Before they leave, the butlers provide us a cell phone and go over our “entire” dining agenda for our extended visit (9 nights). We’re not opposed to their suggestions but feel it’s a bit presumptuous to tell us where and when we’re going to be eating. Additionally, if we wanted to be on a schedule, we could’ve skipped the extra butler fees and arranged for our dinner locations and times online prior to departing for our trip. The next morning arrives way too early (900am). There’s running water and it literally sounds like it’s running down the walls. For some reason the plunge pools are on some sort of cleaning timer at the crack of dawn (daily). After a bit, the noise stops and we attempt to fall back asleep; only to be awakened again by our butler calling. We’re annoyed, as we’ve stated we prefer to sleep in and have indicated we’ll call them when we’re ready to start our day. We mention the water and hope this will be fixed. It won’t! Stop one is a French bakery. There’s Reggae music playing and nobody at the counter to assist. After a few minutes a sweet lady pops out, then two, from the back and greets us kindly. They indicate the coffee machine is broken and offer us smoothies made with coffee ice-cream. We try a crepe but realize some of the fruits are canned. Bagels it is. After breakfast, we call the butler. About 15 minutes later our butler(s) arrive. We find this intriguing because they’re supposed to be at our service and it wouldn’t take more than about 3-5 minutes to walk the entire campus. We ask about the coffee machine and are assured it’s no big deal. It’s worth mentioning here that the coffee machine would only work one day during our visit. It’s also worth pointing out that there’s another coffee machine on campus but our butlers would never tell us this even though we’ve expressed the importance of starting our days with iced coffee. Sad! They take us to our designated beach spot for the day. There’s a very small cooler with some drinks. We appreciate the pre-stock of water but the local beers are not to our liking so we request some very common drinks (Coronas and White Claws). The main butler seems to be disappointed with our request. He states these are not normally offered drinks and expresses it will be difficult to accommodate us. Wow! Thanks for making us feel bad! The beach area is small but truly majestic. We immediately hit the water and find ourselves surrounded by exotic fish. They are extremely aggressive but nothing to worry about. The water is a bit warm though feels a lot nicer than the 2 main pools on campus. I’m dying to see what lurks below the surface. We call our butler and ask where we need to go to borrow some snorkel gear. We assume it’s where they offer snorkel trips, just a few yards down the beach, but are informed Sandals won’t let visitors borrow anything. This is followed with “you can purchase in the gift shop” or take a snorkeling tour. Really? Off to the gift shop we go. The semi-enclosed beach area is no deeper than about 10 feet. I spend the next few hours trolling around the rocks finding super cool things. I decide it’s time to see what’s outside the “safe” zone. There’s no lifeguard but that’s okay, I’ve been a triathlete for years, and there’s no sign stating it’s dangerous beyond the roped area. I quickly realize the depth changes to 25-50 feet. The current is no joke and it’s wanting to take me. The sea-life is quite different here. The parrotfish are huge, I catch sight of a large ray playing in the current, and I’m not going to tell you what else. Da-dum! Da-dum! After a few hours my gift shop mask is shot so I head back in to relax. Sitting on the beach is so nice but there are some concerns realized right away. First, the seating is limited and we’re literally stacked next to people we don’t know, don’t trust, and are not interested in listening to all day. The waiters on the beach seem to have no service pattern and it’s pointless to call our butler because we realize we can get a drink faster by getting it ourselves at the beach bar. We notice a lot of sketchy people on the beach every day. Some appear to be local vendors but others aren’t carrying anything to sell. They do not hesitate to invade our space and their persistence is quite annoying. We mention this to our butler though he states the beach is not private and that there’s nothing they can do. We decide to head back to our room around 4 (most days) to enjoy our semi-private plunge pool and catch the sunset from our amazing view. Each day there’s a random snack waiting for us in the room but it’s impossible to tell how long they’ve been sitting there. After the second day we tell the butler our daily plans but, for some reason, it doesn’t seem they care because each day the snack is sitting there when we arrive. Not long later, it’s dinner time so we call our butler. This is required. On this night, and almost every night after, we would wait outside up to 25 minutes. The explanation for the wait given to us was that they were helping multiple guests. We found this odd, as we paid for a service, but also felt bad for them so let it go. Each night we tried something new. For us, the top places were Soy and Le Jardinier. We enjoyed aspects of the others but agreed something just seemed to be missing the mark for us. One on night, my birthday, the butler thought it was a good idea to set something up for me at dinner. While we could appreciate the gesture, his not asking my partner if this was something I would like was a huge error on his part. Most nights the resort offered live local music and dance. You gotta try the silent DJ party on the beach! On one occasion we asked our butler where to catch a college football game to watch my partner’s alma mater. First they directed us to a place called the Library. We were super excited to see the game, even left the beach early, but upon arrival were met by a group of local musicians that seemed less than pleased to see us in their space. We asked about the game and they said the remote was missing. We took this as our cue to leave and ended up having to watch it in our room. On another day we asked for another spot to catch a game. This time, the butler suggested the British Pub (Tipsy Turtle). The part they left out was that it wasn’t open when we wanted to watch the game. On all but three days we chose the beach as our healing destination. On the other days we tried the “party” pool. This is where we found water volleyball, a live DJ, and a swim up bar. Sadly, the volleyball was a bunch of aggressive men and not safe for my misses. On at least two occasions fights almost broke out. The DJ only played for 4 hours a day and spent lots of time talking. The bar was cool but the water was not. Not sure if the resort has a pool circulator but it must’ve been broken during our stay. Towards the end our stay we asked our butler about taking an island tour. He recommended using the resort to book and said they were all worth the hefty price. We chose a Jeep tour that allowed for me to drive. Stops included a chocolate place, a waterfall, the rainforest with monkeys, and a stop to enjoy the local cuisine. Sadly, the chocolate place was nothing more than a tourist trap, the waterfall was dirty and short, the monkey (singular) was trained and the guys showing were extremely inappropriate, and the local food place looked condemned and most people of tour didn’t eat. On the positive side, driving there was wild and we learned from the locals that Coronas and White Claws can be obtained virtually everywhere. This trip to Sandals Grenada left us with mixed feelings. We both loved the resort location. The food was great and most people were very nice. With exception to the butler service, that cost us a lot of money, we feel this is a great destination for anyone looking to find a way to relax. Our advice, as experienced travelers, don’t offer a service you cannot properly provide. Maybe reconsider how many of your highest paying guests can be serviced by each butler. Since we didn’t use nearly as often as we could’ve, it’s likely the ratio is 1:1 if you don’t want more reviews like the one we’re providing. Best of luck Sandals Grenada. Wishing you the best. Chad and Tracey. Read less

First time visiting a Sandals property. The overall experience was good. The property and beachfront were smaller than expected. We ate in 3 of the 5 restaurants available on the property. 2 restaurants require reservations. The Curry Chicken and steak at spicey’s was great. Service at Kimono’s was great the experience was made that much better by Hensley and Nolan. the steaks at the chophouse were very good. We did have to send our steaks back because they were overcooked but they came out correct the second time. I will add that dinner service is slow. Expect to wait 30 minor more to receive your food. The service at the bars were good. Nordica did an awesome job navigating the crowd and seeing to everyone’s needs. Sometimes defusing interesting situations. However the mixed drinks were inconsistent. Felt like ingredients differed from bartender to bartender. The signature cocktails were great. We enjoyed a private candlelight dinner on the beach with Mikey as our host. He was phenomenal. The dinner was a 5 star experience from the time we were seated to the time we departed the table. The nightly entertainment was good. My favorite was the saxophonist, fire dancers on the beach and the soloist. Great shows. Very professional. There was lots of available seating around the 2 pools. Other than the air conditioner being noisey the room was very comfortable and spacious There were a few negatives. The young lady Cordelia working the reservation desk seemed frustrated and ill tempered each time we interacted with her. The gentleman at the front desk when we arrived was supposed to get back with me on an upgrade and I never head back from him. Beware the Complementary photoshoot comes with a hefty price for 10 digital photos ($21.00 per photo). Finally Antoinette was very helpful navigating the resort and although we did not book during our stay, we will very likely visit another Sandals property. Read less