I have herd so many good things about Sandals and was really expecting much more. The hotel was not bad but, not worth the money. Alot of people on there honeymoon that we meet felt the same way. I have been alot of places and would not go back here. I have had better for less money. I could go to Mexico and get the same thing for half the price.
The food was O.K. at times.
The pool was nice.
The Staff was nice.
The sunset cruise was fun.
Great weather the whole 10 days!
Some tips if if you go are
Bring water shoes if you want to go in the ocean.
Get your towels the night before they were out everyday.
Make reservations for the Japanese resturant the day you get there.
It takes 1 1/2 hour to get from the big airport to the hotel. The roads are very windy. If you get car sick you will probable have to stop and take a brake. On are way back we drove to the little airport (15 minutes away) and took a helicopter to the big airport (12 minutes). Well worth the money. My suggestion is to look around before you book. Aruba (renisance marriot in town), costa rica ( playa conchal), & maui are much better places. If you have any have any question feel free to ask.

1st, I will tell you a little bit about us. I'm 25 and my boyfriend is 37 and we are from Louisiana. We did not come to
St Lucia for any special occassion or anything, just a romantic getaway. This was our 1st trip to the caribbean so we didn't know what to expect. We landed at the large airport in St. Lucia and took a helicopter to the smaller airport. I highly recommend it. It's a great way to see the island and was just plain old fun!! Just remember that you have to pay out of pocket for a taxi from the smaller airport to the resort. Once we arrived at the resort, we were greeted with the champagne and towels, which was nice. We were taken care of right away and showen to our room. We booked a deluxe room and it was perfect. I would rather spend the extra money on seeing the island and experiencing the culture then having a fancy room. I can't see coming to this beautiful island and staying at the resort the whole time. I wouldn't recommend leaving the resort by yourself, but you should be ok with a tourguide. We never felt scared, but we are pretty adventurous people.

Being that we took the helicopter, our bags didn't arrive for about 3 hours after we got there, so pack a swimsuit and a change of clothes in your carry-on. From then on it was nothing but great food, lots of drinks, and fun in the sun. We are beach people so we stayed on the beach most of the time. The beach is BEAUTIFUL!! White sand and gorgeous aqua blue water with a beautiful lush tropical surrounding. There are some locals on the beach, but they were pretty cool and we enjoyed meeting some locals and hearing what they have to say. They will try to sell you trinkets and "stuff".... but to each his own. The security on the beach keeps the vendors in check. As for the pool area, it was pretty crowded and lively and at times entertaining. So it's a matter of preference.

As for as excursions, we didn't take any that was offered from the resort. We met a local named Bono on the beach. He does horseback rides. This was sooo much fun. We hopped on some horses and went riding along the beach and then he took into town and brought us to a local bar. We drank piton beer and danced to reggae music. Yes we were the only Americans in the place, but nobody cared about that, eveyone just wanted to have a good time. On the way back you get to ride the horse in the water bareback. Haha lol getting on that horse bareback is not as easy as it looks, especially when you have a buzz.. We laughed so much b/c I couldn't get back on. Great memory!! ;)

The next day we hung out on the beach and went snorkling with the resort. It was my 1st time so I thought it was awesome. That afternoon we met a local tourguide named Charlie on the beach. We booked a day tour of the island with him for the next day. Since we were the only tour he had that day, we had a private tour with just my boyfirend and I. It was the most amazing day of my life. We left at 9am and in the van there was iced down beer. We went to the banana plantations, the volcano, shopping, ate at a local resturant in the rainforest that had the most delicious food, drove through the towns, and swam in a waterfall. But the best part of the day was the snorkling. He took us to Jalousie Plantation which is located between the Piton volcanoes. There is a protected coral reef at the bottom of the volcano. This was the most beautiful place my eyes have ever saw. If you go to St. Lucia, DO NOT LEAVE THE ISLAND WITHOUT SEEING THIS PLACE. It's that amazing.

After we got back to the resort, we got dressed and had dinner and drinks. By the end if the days, we were always soo tired so we never really went to the dance club. Overall, this place is awesome. I don't see how people don't have the time of there lives here. Don't listen to the negative reviews, this place is paradise!! We will without a doubt return!!!

My friend and her husband wanted us to go to the Caribean to a resort with them. I was not too interested at first because we ususally go to Europe for our vacations. We live in Dallas and have a pool so the sun and pool idea did not attract me to going to a resort. However, first let me just say we had an amazing time. My husband of 24 years and I loved every minute of our 6 night stay at Sandals Grande on the island of St. Lucia. It was very fun, relaxing and very romantic. The lovely blue water and pristine beach with the balmy continious breeze made me feel so happy all the time. It even rained 2 of the days there but the locals call it, "liquid sunshine mon," which was refreshing and fun because we all headed under the outside pool bar and met many new friends.

The room was awesome, we stayed in the luxery ocean front king size room, it was so comfortable clean and really very romantic for us. The housekeeping staff was very ameable to our lazy schedule.

I have heard before that resort buffets and food are not very good, well they have not been to St. Lucia Sandals then, the food was excellent. Many restaurants to pick from with a varied menu every night.

The pool bar was a lot of fun, there were so many drinks to pick from all fruity and refreshing and the bartenders were singing and Reggae was playing. The evening entertainment was interactive and fun too.

You can not go wrong at the Sandals Grande Resort in St. Lucia, it is a no pressure, no problem expierence.

Hope this doesn't get too long, I love reading detailed trip reports!

A little background on us, this was our first Sandals vacation. We have stayed at two Iberostars, in Mexico and Dominican Republic, and have stayed at Grand Lido Negril twice.

TRAVEL AGENT We used Amy McHugh from Dream Makers Vacation. She truly was a dream to work with. Very informative and any question I had was answered very quickly. I had complete confidence that everything would be taken care of and it was. Thank you Amy!!

TRANSFER We flew into Hewanorra airport and our ride to the hotel took about 2 hours. After reading on a few boards that the ride could be really awful I was a little concerned because my husband tends to get carsick. We had thought about the helicoptor ride, but couldn't justify the extra money. In the end it turned out to be ok. It was a wonderful way to see the island, there were some absolutely incredible views. My husband did ok, he didn't feel great, but didn't get sick either. The helicoptor ride would have been nice, after traveling all day the 2 hour ride seemed to last forever, but the bus was fine.

ROOM We booked a Luxury Oceanfront Room. During our planning I continually read that you should book a beachfront room, which I'm sure would be very nice, but I was perfectly happy with the oceanfront. We could sit out on our balcony and have a perfect view of the Atlantic. It was also nice that because it wasn't facing the beach it was a little quieter. After a day of being around people it was nice to just relax and feel like we were all alone! The room itself was beautiful. A big 4-poster bed with a very comfortable mattress and nice sheets (I hate scratchy sheets!), flat screen tv, a small seating area with a loveseat and coffee table and plenty of drawer and closet space. The bathroom had a double sink with lots of counterspace and a normal size bathtub. It really was a very comfortable room with great maid service.

BEACH I consider us more beach people than pool people so this is always important to me. The beach was very nice, lots of chairs and umbrellas, plus several chairs that had a canvas "awning" over them for shade coverage. These tended to be saved for butler guests, but I am an early riser so I was usually able to grab one. The water was very calm, there are some shells and such when you first get into the water, but only for a couple feet. Its not really a good beach for long walks, but it has beautiful views, nice water and plenty of chairs which is good enough for me!

POOLS I'm not even sure how many pools are at the Grande, I believe 6. Despite being more beach people I think we visited almost all of them! The main pool is definately the major hangout. There are tons of chairs surrounding the pool and a 3 sided swim up bar where the bartenders are friendly and make fantastic drinks. What could be better than sitting on a barstool in the water and having a BBC! That is truly vacation! The music they play is mostly 80's music, we felt like we were back in high school, but it is a very fun atmosphere. We also spent a lot of time at the Lovers pool, called that because it is heart shaped (if you use your imagination a little!). It was very quiet there, nice to just grab a float and get a little quiet time.

FOOD I thought the food was really good. People say it isn't 5 star dining, and it isn't. However I don't really eat at 5 star restaurants at home very often, and I thought the food here was just as good as most of the restaurants at home.

Toscanninis We ate here twice, once we got in right away, once we had to wait about half an hour. No big deal, we just had a drink at the bar while we waited. The atmosphere was very relaxing, with dark wood and rich colored tapestry. The food was also very good with a great antipasta buffet.

Bayside Also fantastic. We had the lunch buffet here a couple times, there were always lots of choices and each day seemed to have a theme station (one day Chinese, one day seafood...). We also had dinner here twice, both nights ended up being buffets and again there was plenty to choose from.

Barefoot By the Sea Before our vacation there had been unconfirmed rumors that there had been a kitchen fire at Bayside. Since I've never been there before I still am not sure but I think there was. They were doing construction right before you get to the restaurant, and I believe thats probably where the kitchen had been. We had lunch there a few times. They had a grill set up where they would grill hamburgers, hotdogs or chicken. There was also a scaled down buffet with one entree selection, a few side dishes, salad bar and nacho bar. We never had dinner there but did walked by and it looked like the same setup. It was great place to stop for lunch when you just wanted a quick bite and its fun to eat with your feet in the sand!

Olde London Pub Fun place! It is designed to look like a London Pub (or what people imagine a London pub to look like, having never been to London I don't know for sure!). They serve fish & chips, burgers, meatloaf, etc. There is a long bar at one end that we enjoyed sitting at and talking to other people

Josephines In one word... YUM! My husband doesn't believe you are on vacation unless you sleep in, so I would eat breakfast here by myself most days. The banana crepes are heaven! We would also usually stop here in the late afternoon before heading to our room to pick up some cookies or pastries to take with us. This place is why I am afraid to step on my scale!!

CANDLELIGHT DINNER We were celebrating our 10th anniversary on this trip and I decided to book this as a surprise for my husband. A couple days before we met with one of the sales staff to pick our menu. It was a four course dinner, with 3-4 options for each course. I had thought we had to get the same things, but we were able to pick whatever we wanted for each course. That night we showed up at the beach and were sat at a table on the beach with white tablecloth and linens, tiki torches as lighting and a printed copy of our menu choices with our names and date on it. We were given champagne and any other drinks we wanted. There were probably 10 other couples on the beach too, but the tables are spread far enough apart that we still felt very alone. The food and service were both excellent and it was very romantic. Was it worth spending an extra $160? I think that just depends on the person. It was a little more expensive than what we would spend on a special dinner at home. However the ambiance was great. It really was a unique experience to be eating at a romantically set table on the beach with the sand in your toes and hearing the waves. For us it was worth the extra money, it was a special night and something we won't soon forget!

FITNESS CENTER I'm a workout nut and never read anything about this so I just have to add it! The workout room is open 24 hours and is air conditioned!! There is plenty of equipment, about 10 treadmills, a few ellipticals, a few bikes, free weights and weight equipment. I was there every morning around 7:00 and never had to wait for any equipment!

Finally finishing! We had a fantastic vacation at the Grande and would definately love to return some day! Of all the all-inclusives we have been to I really think this was the best. It had the largest food selection and the best drinks, and it had the greatest staff. Everyone seemed truly happy and the hotel in general was very service oriented. I can't wait to try another Sandals!

Feel free to pm me with any questions!
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