Beaches Sandy Bay Hotel

We had a great time at BSB. We were upgraded from negril gardens. I found everyone to be friendly and helpful. The buffet could get a little busy at times and it was easier to get drinks from the bar than to wait on the wait staff to ask what you would like. Other than that, the food was very good and i tried something new at every meal.My 14 yr old son had a blast, there were plenty of kids his age and they pretty much had the run of the place. I would recommend the riverwalk and wild thing cruise as extras if it is in your budget, definately worth it. Also cliff diving at Rick's Cafe was incredible. None of us wanted to leave.

After going to Beaches Sandy Bay, I must say that it is not the resort that is bad, it is the people of Jamaica. I love traveling, and have been to Mexico, so I know what dirty is, but these people are not only dirty, but as rude as I have ever seen. The lack of sevice at Beaches made it worse. The not being able to tip must make these people think they can give below average service, and the minute you leave the resort, huge mistake. Tipping is a must in order to get anything done?? The resort itself is below average, food, service, rooms, and entertainment is not what I expected. The buffet is bland, the men and women are extremely rude in theor own way. If you ask a question or request service, they get in no hurry to answer you or provide you what you asked for. Not my idea of a good or even average vacation. By the way, plan for a boring, hot drive from the airport lasting 2 hours. Those of you who have been, you will get a laugh out of this, RESPECT MON!!!

I'll start w/ the bad. We did not book a long enough vacation, we stayed 5 days and 4 nights. We read alot of the reviews from a few diffrent sights the good as well as the bad. I don't know where anyone could complain about Beachs Sandy Bay. The rooms are not 5 star but the service was, my wife, son (16) and I were treated like royalty. The food was above avg. and you could eat all day and night. drinks were great, and the mixed drinks were not weak or watered down. Here are some hints and tips for you., 1) If you go off property toshop or what ever, it seemed like everyone wanted to sell you weed , if you say you don't smoke they respect that and leave you alone. 2) Take insect repellant 3) Make reservations for the upscale dinners early. 4) Sign up for activity early (8:30 am) some of these you will have to wait a day or two. 5) Take sun block with you, we saw alot of painfully red ppl there. You have Beachs Negril excange privaleges. but it is much bigger and the staff was not as nice. So we did not stay there long. Just remember have a good time and give your self a xtra day at home b/4 you go back to work so you can reajust to the real world. 2 thumbs up

Just returned from 5d/4n at Beaches Sandy Bay, Negril, Jamaica with my wife and children (son 16, dtr 14). Both children order from the adult menu, so can you say all-inclusive? We loved it, and would go back. As for the 6/13/04 review from someone who stayed at Beaches Negril and wrote a review based on stepping off a shuttle bus- give me a break! If you don't stay there, don't write a review! We have travelled extensively in the Caribbean. Here's what we look for in our Caribbean vacations: -Quiet resort -Clean resort -Clean room, but we don't need a castle. You're not spending every waking hour in your room, are you? Shower and sleep is about what we do in ours (remember the kids are along). -Excellent food that is fresh, well prepared and represents the local cuisine. -Water-based activities especially snorkelling Our wants and needs were certainly met. The property: -Small, about 125-130 rooms -Beautiful, lush grounds with mature palm trees and every sort of flowering tree, bush and plant you could imagine -Room is clean, shower powerful and water hot -A few tiny bugs on the nightstand- once we wiped off someone else's dried cola, they didn't reappear. Remember- you're in the Caribbean, not the Ritz Carlton. We've had to shoo lizards out of a house in Virgin Gorda, for goodness sake. -Staff is extremely well trained and attentive. They could stand a little more smiling, but I do believe there is a certain Jamaican "attitude" that doesn't equate good service with excessive smiling. -Beach excellent. Clean, white, powdery sand, large roped off swimming area. Plenty of shade. Close enough to the water to hear the waves. Guarded at both ends. Big floating trampoline for the kids. -Water sports excellent. Snorkelling outstanding- reef directly offshore is a 5' boat ride, some of the best I've done. At the beach, what looks like dark patches of coral inshore turns out to be beds of sea grass. Snorkelling from the beach will turn up rays, some fish, starfish and a few small coral clumps, if you look hard enough. They do offer waterskiing, in contradiction to their website. Also sailing, pedal tricycles, kayaks, scuba, etc etc. -Food outstanding: Breakfast wonderful. Got up every morning looking forward to it. Lunch at either the buffet or beach grill very good. We had 3 dinners at the buffet. One mediocre, the other two outstanding- one a Caribbean theme, the other night a seafood theme. Two meals in the Sundowner, a Caribbean restaurant that was outstanding. Some of the best Caribbean cooking we have had. We never ate in the "upscale" Italian restaurant- we don't go to the Caribbean to eat Italian food! -Drinks are powerful! After our one and only cruise, in which you had to pay for drinks and then got watered down crap, the bartenders at Sandy Bay lay on the liqour! We are not drinkers, but if that's your bag, you won't be disappointed. -You can walk down the beach or take a shuttle to Beaches Negril. -Fitness center not AC'd and old equipment. Who cares? -Pleasant reception staff at the airport. -Van from the airport A/C'd, new road to Negril from MoBay, takes 1.5 hr with plenty to see along the way. No tipping at the resort, but remember to tip the van driver, airport porter, etc. -Fellow vacationers a mix of Americans, English, Italians. Pleasant on the beach and restaurants to hear different accents and languages spoken. The loudest, most obnoxious people on the beach were of course, the Americans. C'est la vie. Now, on to Beaches Negril. See if this is what you're looking for: -Larger property -Pretty lame new "water park" with a very brief lazy river ride and two slides. -Beach very wide, when sitting in the shade you can't hear the water. -Surrounded by loud, extremely overweight Americans stuffing themselves with food. -Japanese steakhouse seems to be a big hit with Americans who travel overseas to eat the same food they get at home. -Picture the Jersey Shore at the Caribbean. If that's your idea of a Caribbean vacation, go for it. If you want a clean, quiet resort with excellent beach, excellent food, where you can do as much or as little as you want, and a good value to boot, head to Beaches Sandy Bay. Remember, it's the Caribbean. If you want a slice of USA transplanted to Negril, go to Beaches Negril. If you want the Caribbean, head to Sandy Bay.

First, Let me say that I love the Sandals and Beaches resorts. I have stayed at 5 of them. I just completed a 8 night stay at Beaches Negril. We took the shuttle over to Sandy Bay to check it out and lounge around there for the afternoon. Well when we stepped off of the shuttle our "jaw hit the floor!" Sandy Bay rates lower than our average Holiday Inn. The only good point I saw was the beautiful ocean and beach and it is gorgeous!! The rest of the place should never even be allowed to call itself a Beaches property. It had one tiny pool central to everything and one more in another area, but nothing more than our back yard pool. Not what you have at the Negril or Boscobel resorts. The place was clean, but it just looked old and run down. I feel sorry for anyone who is suckered into going there. Maybe if I had never stayed at a Sandals/ Beaches property I may not know the difference, but come on!! The owners of Sandals/ Beaches really need to do some work here. Please take into effect that i am a 100% Sandals/Beaches fan and this is why I was shocked to see this place!! We didn't even wait the two hours for the return shuttle to take us back to Beaches Negril, we walked back down the beach "home"

We were at Beaches Sandy Bay from May 29-June 4th. It was the perfect resort for us. My husband and I have been to all-inclusives before, but this was the first time we took our boys (ages 10 & 15). The only small snafu was that they misplaced our luggage when we first got to the hotel. They sent it to another room, and it took them several hours to find it. But with as laid back as Jamaica is, that timing wasn't too bad (it took me a day or so to get used to how slowly things moved . . . . now I'm having a hard time speeding back up!) Plus it had just started raining, and they were trying to take care of other things. Other than that, we all had a great time. Maybe the resort wasn't full while we were there (which doesn't bother me in the least!). We had absolutely no problem getting into both restaurants or going snorkeling/sailing/etc. pretty much whenever we wanted. Chairs on the beach weren't a problem at all. The food at the both restaurants and the buffet was really good. Even my picky 10-year-old found plenty to eat. He thought it was cool being able to get drinks and food whenever he wanted without having to let me know. I would definitely go back to Sandy Bay. We walked over to Beaches Negril one morning, and honestly, I was not impressed. Sandy Bay is much more our style. Very small, and all the rooms have a view of the beach. At Negril we could hardly see the rooms because they were set so far back and had lots of trees in front of them. They have a huge pool, but I don't go to the beach to swim in a pool! We had a first floor room, which was wonderful. We used our patio door all week and never even locked it. From the patio we were only a few yards from the beach. In the mornings and evenings we'd sit on the patio just staring at the scenery. It was easy to keep track of the boys, and I didn't worry even when my 10 year old was off on his own for hours at a time. He loved the game room and the giant chess board. And remember, your vacation is what you make it. Why sweat the little things? (Not that we even ran into little things.) Example: One morning my husband saw a guy at the buffet looking for bagels. When my husband pointed them out, the guy said, "Those aren't bagels! I'm from New York, and that's not a bagel!" Hubby wanted to say, "Well you're NOT in NY, you're in Jamaica. If you wanted a NY bagel, you should have stayed home." You come to Jamaica for the whole experience. Relax, slow down, have an open mind, try some new things, and you will quickly find everything is "No Problem" at Sandy Bay!

Let me first state that my husband and I are world travellers and do not consider ourselves to be fussy. To be frank, we were not impressed with this resort at all and feel that we did not get value for our $$$. (We stayed at this resort in May 2003 with our 2 children ages 3 and 5 months.) We were both frustrated and annoyed with this resort and encountered several others who felt the same way. Let me state that we paid about $5000 CAN including airfare. Here are some points -- - with a 1 to 1 1/2 hour drive from airport to resort, we expected to be picked up in resort with working AC. We were so hot and queasy from drive. - Check in was way too long. When you are hungry, tired and have 2 screaming children - it should not take 30 minutes to get bags to room. - when we got to room, no king bed as we requested. We had to wait for another room! In fact there was no crib or fridge as we requested either. - ants in washroom and tables - ironing board had ugly holes in it - ironing cover costs less than $5! - dirty discoloured lamp shades, uncomfortable bedding - dirty blue blanket with holes in it and worn out. No extra pillows or blankets in closet - no bathrobes, crib sheets were never changed, no proper dresser and lack of drawers for clothing - we lived out of suitcase. - shelf in washroom was missing (on top of toilet), cracked ceramics in washroom, only 6 hangers in closet. -little water pressure - water smelled bad -fitness room had old equipment, some did not work -lack of food variety for children. They only had fries, pizza and hotdogs. -lots of sand flies on beach - no warnings given by staff. Had to see a Dr. when I came home as I was bitten so badly. -pool and jacuzzi was closed daily mid-afternoon for cleaning - this should have been done overnight or early morning. When I complained about this, they opened the jacuzzi up but it was cold. -nursery had lots of worn out and old toys/books. Was not impressed with toy selection at all. There was no baby bottle sterilizer and I had to go to Negril Beaches for that. I have to say that staff at Sandy Bay nursery was excellent and very friendly. The Beaches Negril nursery had poor staff that was rude. -every time we requested a stroller for our 2 kids, none was available at the Negril location. We got one that was broken. Not what is expected from a family resort! Also, baby swing at Negril location had no batteries in it and AC was on too high! -entertainment at both Beaches Negril and Sandy Bay was very disappointing. We expected more high class entertainment. -found it ridiculous that the shuttle service was only every 2 hours and that the last shuttle from Negril resort was at 10pm. This allowed us no time to enjoy most of the entertainment and disco. -spoke to general manager who did not seem very sympathic. When I told her that I could not recommend the resort to others, she had no response rather than seeming interested or trying to fix things for me. -spoke to a staff member who wanted to quit as he said, "does not like working in a place where everyone complains!" In closing, we felt that we were lied to. We called the toll free numebr and asked several questions about the resort and was told that both resorts were same calibre and 5 stars! We were told that Sandy Bay was simply smaller and more satisfying. This was not true. A staff member at the resort even told me I was lied to as Sandy Bay is more 3+ stars. I was shocked that customer service people are telling people differently. Now people may say, why care what the room is like when you spend so little time there. My response is you are paying for the room among other things. You should not be on vacation and dread going back to your room for a nap! Hope these comments are helpful.

I have to disagree with a number of reviews here. Although the rooms were not magnificant, who cares? We spent so little time in the room, that it hardly mattered! The rooms were right on the beach and thoroughly cleaned everyday. Beaches Sandy Bay is a bit smaller than Beaches Negril, which made it much easier to keep track of 3 teenagers. The beaches were raked every morning and the food was excellent! We went scuba diving, kayaking, snorkeling, which were all included in addition to parasailing and climbing Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios. There were beautiful (and harmless) sting rays in the water and within the first 20 minutes of arriving at our room, the kids found a live starfish on the beach. All of the employees were very courteous and personable and put forth extra effort to make sure that we all had a great time!

From reading some of the reviews here it is hard to believe that some of us were at the same resort at the same time! We all enjoyed this trip and are actively trying to find a chance to go back next year. We were met quickly after coming off the plane at MoBay and offered a timesaving flight. Knowing that arranging the flight and shlepping luggage would pretty much eat up any savings in time, we walked out to the bus. The road is so much nicer than 14 years ago! We stopped halfway at a delightful bar/restaurant where we purchased our first red stripes and got the kids ice cream. From plane to resort was hastle free. Once at Sandy Bay we were given the cool towels/champagne treatment. The we were asked to step into the manager's office. Our 2-bedroom we reserved had been overbooked for the night and we were told that we would have to stay in a one bedroom until the next day. I was pleasantly surprised at the compensations offered by the manager. They offered more than we ever expected and the manager certainly made us happy. The one-bedroom wasn't fancy, but the view and balcony were to die for. We actually considered keeping the one bedroom, but the new room was larger and the beds were more comfortable than the pullouts according to my children. My 13 year old son quickly made friends and the attention of the staff and security at the resort enabled us to let him roam until 11-12 o'clock. They played ping pong(until the paddles got lost by the painters), pool, bocci, volleyball, manhunt and took boats out. He did lose a few bucks in the slot machines that were up in the sports bar. My 4 and 8 year old daughters spent most of their time with us(we wished our son would have graced us with his presence more often too) The 3-4 times we left them with the Kid's Kamp they loved it. They played simple games and made small crafts. Nothing hightek but the girls enjoyed the downtime after playing in the water every day. They usually had to be dragged out against their will. They loved the playground in the evenings. The food at the buffet was fine for buffet food. The grill was very good for snacks and lunches. I was successful everytime I tried for a reservation at the Sundowner and Vista Sul Mar(?). One I did cancel as I could only get 8:45-too late for kids! The trick is to be at the desk at 8:30 am the day before you want to eat there. We enjoyed both restaurants twice . The staff as a whole is excellent. We met warm, friendly, smiling people at every corner of the resort. We never waited too long at the bar, but expanding the Sunset bar to include beers and simple drinks would be a great addition. The entertainment was good but simple in the evenings. I actually didn't even realize they would have entertainment so I was pleased to have any at all. I do wish the manager would buy Stacy Ann longer dresses. ;) Or at least put the lifeguards in speedos-it's only fair. My husband(after days of blatently telling him to do it) surprised me with a candlelit dinner in the wedding gazebo. I think it ran about $100 or so extra. We had our own waitress and it was wonderful to share a long quiet dinner alone in such a pretty setting. He now has to do this every trip. The rooms were very clean(the entire resort was) When at a beach resort, I expect things to show some wear. If you want fancier digs-try Beaches Negril. Personally it didn't impress us at all from the water-Sandy Bay seemed more peaceful. If I want big, crowded and always hopping I'll go to one of Disneyworld's deluxes! The pools were kept immaculate as were the walkways and gardens. The beach here is awesome. But getting up at the crack of dawn for lounges was a pain. I did enjoy the beautiful fish that cruised by early in the morning though. Even the local vendors we visited when we went passed security were polite, friendly and charming(yes they really were!) If we didn't have cash on us they would send us away with the item and trusted us to pay them next time we saw them. I hope the same people are there when we visit again. Being able to check in with Air Jamaica right at the resort was fantastic! The easiest flight checkin ever. It made leaving a pleasant experience-or as least as pleasant as it could be to leave paradise. If you are willing to go with a smile on your face, a respectful attitude and a willing heart you'll have a wonderful vacation memory to bring home from Beaches Sandy Bay.

My husband and I, along with our 2 children (ages 4 and 2) spent 4 days at the Sandy Bay Beaches resort. I have to say I was disappointed when I was shown our room (1 bedroom suite..oceanview). It was pretty run down and definitely needed some renovating. We had to change rooms because of several lizards that managed to come into the room and scare our children, not to mention myself! When we switched rooms, it was somewhat better but if we left any kind of food around, a lot of ants appeared. However, the grounds were nice and so was the beach. The water was shallow, however beware! In only a few inches of water I found a sting ray very close to my daughters feet. We took the shuttle to Beaches Negril and we were amazed by this resort. What a difference between the two resorts. The grounds were extensive with more pools, pool bars and restaurants. We decided to just sleep at Sandy Bay and stay all day at the Beaches Negril resort. We just found it cleaner and the food was better as well. If I were to go back I would definitely spend a little more money and stay at Beaches Negril instead.