My wife and I went to the Sandals Halcyon in July 2009 for our honeymoon. Although we had a great time and thought the Halcyon was a beautiful resort, we were disappointed by a few aspects of the trip.

Rooms
Like one of the previous reviewers, we also fell for the trick of being “upgraded” from one of the renovated rooms (near the Paradise Pool) which we originally booked, to an “ocean view” room for $200. Seems like a great deal, right? Not exactly—these rooms haven’t been renovated and don’t have a view of the ocean. Basically, we were tricked into paying $200 more for an older room. This is a shameful business practice and shows that Sandals will do anything to make a buck.

Food
Breakfast and lunch are served in the Bayside Restaurant, an open-air restaurant overlooking the beach. The food served at breakfast was outstanding. Lunch was good, not great. Our problem with the Bayside was the service. Since it is a buffet, the waitresses were only responsible for taking drink orders. However, on several occasions, we’d place our drink orders and our waitress would never return with our drinks. One night at dinner, I asked a waitress for a glass of water and she looked at me like she wanted to kill me.

The two other restaurants on the resort, the Pier (seafood) and Mario’s (Italian) open for dinner. Both restaurants were good, and the service in each was excellent. We didn't like that the Halcyon closes one of these restaurants each night, so our dinner choices at the Halcyon were limited to two restaurants each night.

You can also dine at the restaurants on the other Sandals resorts in St. Lucia, which are both about 15 minutes from the Halcyon. We had dinner one night at Barefoot by the Sea at the Grande and Kimonos at the Regency. Barefoot by the Sea was very scenic, but the food was absolutely horrible. Kimonos is a typical hibachi restaurant. The food was good, but we didn't like that you can't choose your entree. Instead, the hibachi chef serves each guest a small sample of all the entrees.

Beach
We were disappointed with the beach at the Halcyon. All beaches in St. Lucia are public, so they are open to locals. It is impossible to relax on the Halcyon's beach without being hounded by local vendors trying to sell beaded necklaces. Most of the vendors are very nice (with the exception of a crazy man who calls himself Bob Marley and tries to sell bowls made from palm leaves) and will leave you alone if you say “no thanks”, but as soon as one leaves, another will appear trying to sell you the same necklaces. If you like to spend hours relaxing on the beach, St. Lucia might not be for you.

Water Sports
The water sports at the Halcyon were great—definitely one of the highlights of our trip. I highly recommend sailing the Hobie Cats, tubing, and water skiing. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes for any activity.

Grounds
The Halcyon’s grounds were covered in lush, flowering bushes and tall palms trees. We loved the cabanas that were located near the “ocean view” rooms. It’s a beautiful resort.

Excursions
I highly recommend booking one of the excursions. St. Lucia is a beautiful island with much to see outside of the Halcyon. My wife and I booked the “Land and Sea” excursion through the resort which took us down the west coast of the island in a van and back to Castries on a catamaran. We saw banana plantations, the rainforest, a volcano, the Pitons, and fishing villages. Unfortunately, Sandals charged my credit card twice for the trip and is being an absolute pain about crediting my account.

Gift Shop
I recommend buying souvenirs in the Halcyon’s gift shop. You won’t find any good souvenirs outside of the resort (unless you like the necklaces sold on the beach). One of the gift shop’s employees (Allyson) was the most delightful people we met in St. Lucia.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Halcyon. I would probably return to St. Lucia in the future. Not sure if I would return to a Sandals resort.

We arrived at the Halcyon on the 11th of November 2008 (staying for 14 nights) and right from the start we knew that we had made the correct decision to chose the halcyon as the place to stay and get married, Staff during our stay were very good and a special thanks go to the following staff, Maggie who went through all the wedding day details and areas on the site were we could get married arranged a steel band to play for us on our special day, Maverick always a smile on his face, The man Chester full of Buzz, Galvin the photographer who was excellant and took some wonderful photos.
Our room was very good and looked out to the ocean, the room was kept very clean during our stay.
We went on the following trips arranged at the Halcyon and have to say that we enjoyed them all.
Boat trip down to the Pitons, drank to much rum punch on the way back and the guys on the boat knew how to get every one in the party mode.
Ziplining, what an experience this was fantastic and last of all horse riding along the beach, First time for me on a horse his name was Bob felt sorry for the guy of the other couple who were on the same trip it was his first time on a horse as well, only his horse was called dancer and gave the poor guy hell lol.
Food experience at the halcyon was a mixed bag, Marios was very good, not impressed with the pier (ate there twice and on both occassions food was cold), bayside was good and enjoyed the breakfasts in the morning, it was good that you are able to visit the other snadals resorts on the Island and best that we tried were the London pub (jerk chicken to die for).
The wine was very good and there is no need to pay for any other wines that some staff try and sell.
All in all a fantastic time was had and we will go back again.

Halcyon Beach is a wonderful place to stay if you want to avoid crowds and still have some fun. It is now set up as a typical hotel but as several small buildings spread out over the campus. Every room is a good room. You have views of nature, the beach, and many other things. The staff is friendly and really makes you have a good time during your stay. There are also plenty of activities all day and night. You can visit the other 2 Sandals on the island at no additional charge which means you can eat at a different restaurant every day without going to the same place. I strongly recommend any couple visit this resort.

Let me begin by saying that St. Lucia is a beautiful island and I recommend a whole lot of people to visit the island. If you are going to choose a Sandals resort be prepare. Sandals has a lot of marketing power to advertise and do a whole lot of touch up pictures. So, everything you see is not 100% true. Let me tell you about some of the negatives:

- First Negative Point: The Sandals Halcyon beach resort is an old hotel resort. We book ours at the Garden - Pool area because they were new and renovated. Then sandals contact us and offer us an upgrade to an ocean view room. We looked at the sandals web site (by the way is very misleading) and it looked like a good deal. Looking at the rankings by the rooms it was from the bottom category almost to the top three. So we took it. BAD CHOICE. My advice stay with the Garden Pool area. They are new. Ours were old. Ocean view? The horizon of the ocean at best thru the grill cabana. There goes my money upgrade!

Second negative point: We got the room with the "non ocean view" with an outside porch to sit and relax. Well, you can't use the porch either The great majority of the rooms have Window A/C units that are old and noisy and guess where that hot air blows... You got it. The front porch. In simple words you can't use it for nothing other than for leaving your wet swimsuits and let them dry outside.

Third negative point: We got an Ocean View Suit so you expect a small refrigerator with some sodas, liquor or at least bottle water. Sorry, is not available. Not even for the top three room categories. Bring cash or an empty credit card to pay for water. Forgot! You get a small plastic pail where you need to go outside pick ice from an ice chest and bring it to your room. That is your cooler!! Sorry only a few cans will fit inside. Big bottles won't. I wonder where Sandals came from with the all super inclusive service.

Fourth negative point: No free room service? Need some.... room number and your credit card please! Ahhh. Where is my bath rope? NONE. Get some clothes and pick something at the grill cabana if it is open.

Fifth negative point: The need to keep some strange people out of the resort area. If Sandals is paying for security at least they should keep some of them out of the premises. One particular person was "WEIRD BOB MARLEY RASTA WANNA BE" The guy has mental problems and in several opportunities he was cursing the cleaning staff and guess if you didn't pay attention to him.

Other negative points: You come to St. Lucia to experience some traditional St. Lucia flavors not MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE IN YOUR ROOM AND IN MANY OF THE RESTAURANTS. For Pete sake! Where is the Bounty Rum in the bars or the rum cakes FOR DESSERTS. I can get Maxwell House coffee in Motel 6. Thank you.

If you are planning to go to different Sandals resorts in St. Lucia be prepare for confusion. Sometimes you get extra trips and never get drop at your hotel. Enjoy the free ride. Internet service. You have to pay five dollars per hour to use it and if you bring your laptop they charge you more.

We gave the main negatives but there are some positive points to the Sandals resort:

- If you love the Sandals way. Stay with them.
- The food at the restaurants was very good. Congratulations to the staff of Mario's and the Pier. They really tried their best and gave us an exceptional service.
- If you love cats you like the Sandals Halcyon. Yes, there are some felines that love to pick up some leftovers but I didn't mind.
- If you like wild birds and birds singing is the place to stay.
- The grounds in general are well kept and clean.
- The room cleaning service was excellent.
- The information staff was very helpful
- The little store sales staff ladies always smile and were very helpful.
- If you don't mind the Koky frogs singing in the night is the place for you.
- Stay at the Halcyon if you like the tranquility of the grounds and if you don't mind what I wrote as the negative points. Want a party hotel stay at the Sandals Grande. Want to play golf and get lost; stay at the Sandals Regency.

Enjoy the review.