Sandals Grande St. Lucian

Excellent resort with fabulous food, scenery, and hospitality! Nyah in the fitness center was fantastic. She learned the guests names and provided excellent advice when working out and participating in her variety of classes. She was very engaging in the gym, at the pool, and on the property! She is an assist to the resort. The spa was very nice and relaxing. The rooms were comfortable, clean, and always stocked with what we needed. There were many options for excursions- the chocolate and rum tour was fantastic! Would return again but note that the resort is about a 2 hour drive from the commercial airport and there is always traffic in Castries.

We had a wonderful trip to the Sandals Grande St. Lucian. Service was terrific. Staff spoke to us even when just passing on the sidewalk. The pool bartender Andre ran out of cherries for my wife's pina colada. He personally found my wife at our pool and delivered some cherries! At the Bombay Room, our server Amanda did not take our dessert order promising a surprise. She served all three desserts on the menu that night because it was my birthday. Nicholetta at the creperie brought a tray of ice cream and pastries to us at a "quiet pool" when I had my hands full with drinks. One exception was a member of the concierge staff. When he escorted us to our room, he didn't bother to carry my wife's backpack for her. Instead of a tour of the room, he opened the door, put the key on the table and left. But he was the exception. We stayed in a Honeymoon Club Level room with an ocean view. This is an intermediate "concierge level" room, between the "luxury" and "butler" levels. We had access to the concierge lounge which was a good source of information and booked dinner reservations for us. Booking reservations was valuable since one of the restaurants, Gordon's on the Pier, was only available on the last night of our five night stay. Our room was just as it is pictured on the website. Housekeeping was impeccable. Housekeepers not only cleaned the room in the morning but came back in the early evening to provide fresh towels. There were a few small signs of wear, a worn spot on the pullout shelf on the bedside table and some wear on one of the two sinks in our room. We really liked the shelf in our bathroom which had plenty of room for all our toiletries. The restaurants were very good. Not Michelin star quality, but delicious food served with genuine warmth in attractive settings. Gordon's had the best setting on a pier over the water. The Bombay Room was delightful. But even the "no reservations" restaurants were great. We were so impressed with "Barefoot on the Beach", we ate there twice. There are plenty of activities at the Grande. We paid extra for a fun snorkeling cruise which cost $109.00 per person. We also splurged on private transportation (at $160 each way) because the resort is 1.5-1.75 hours away from the resort. I would not spend the money for a resort which is closer to the airport (Dunn's River in Jamaica, for example, is only about 20 minutes from the airport}. We're big pickleball enthusiasts; Grande St. Lucian has 4 brand new courts. We took three lessons from the terrific pickleball pro, Norman Hall (visiting from Jamaica). It was a little bit of a challenge finding two more players to play doubles. Sandals might consider a signup or other expression of interest to make it easier to find other players. The beach is beautiful and wide with a large number of beach chairs. Guests had their choice of the larger central pool with a swim up bar or smaller, quieter pools on the perimeter of the resort. We had to get up early and stake out pool or beach chairs. We are early risers, so it was not a problem for us. But it was frustrating to see towels put out by guests or butlers which were not touched the entire day. Tip: it is worth it to take a resort tour at 11:00 a.m. the day after you arrive. Not having to worry about tips was great. The spirits were quite good. The house wine was okay, but Sandals should consider upgrading the wine. All in, we ended up spending about $6,800.00 plus airfare, a decent value for a great resort in high season. We weren't sure what to expect from an all-inclusive resort on our first trip to the Caribbean, but we liked it so much we booked a trip for next year to a different resort. Highly recommend.

So my reviews are a bit different than most. I try to give helpful tips/facts vs my opinion. With that being said, I'm happy to answer any questions. Sandals Grande St Lucia 🇱🇨 Cap Estates Bldg #1205 (2nd floor) - Club Level **Solid 2 hour 🚘 transfer from 🛫 **Other transfer options, 🚢 & 🚁 pricing given once you arrive in the Sandals airport lounge **Only two American style outlets by the desk. All others, bathroom, bedside, etc. are international. **Robes, slippers, blow dryer, iron, stocked mini fridge, in room bar, tea kettle, 4 cup coffee pot, in room safe, are provided **Club lounge open 24 hours with room key - games, books, light eats, drinks **Activities & Nightly Entertainment Galore **Chair game Poolside **Several Fitness Class Options/No Certified Yoga Instructor **8 Floating Rings **Public Beach to the right of the resort **Beach is rocky when going out **Lots of talk about The Street Party *Pigeon Island is walkable from the resort **Pack for a Purpose - https://www.packforapurpose.org/destinations/caribbean/st-lucia/sandals-grande-st-lucian-spa-beach-resort/?search=true SHOUT OUTS: Heckra & Brittany - Barefoot Remy & Matthew - Beach Bar Ruben - Kimonos Everyone @ Watersports hut

From the ease to enter the country at the airport to the Sandals lounge, to the arrival at the airport… SO welcoming! The dive shop experts are outstanding: Carolla, Stingray, and Kenny are knowledgeable, professional and make the experience so enjoyable. The staff at the Club lounge especially Miguel, make you feel special. Miguel went above and beyond to drop off cookies for my honey. Miss Pamela, Hanna, and Lorena, from our first visit here to this time our 5th, make us feel like family going above and beyond! And then my absolute favorite masseuse, Ketruah, who is so in tune to my massage needs, and makes me feel like a dear friend; she’s so extremely talented and I couldn’t possibly imagine having anyone else connect with me the way she does! These folks are like family and always make us feel like we’ve come home! THEY ARE THE REASON WE KEEP COMING BACK TO THIS LOCATION 💕 the facilities size is perfect. Everyone and all the food is wonderful. Highly recommend to everyone… top notch h!

This was our first time staying at a Sandals resort and were blown away first and foremost by how hospitable every single staff member was. Everyone we spoke to right from front of house, restaurant staff to house keeping and the gardeners couldn’t have done more to make us feel welcome and make our stay as enjoyable as possible. We would like to give a shout out to Wanda from Red Lane spa who was exceptional with my wife during our couples massage. It was her first massage since having surgery 4 years ago and Wanda followed everything my wife requested and more. We booked the helicopter transfer from the airport that turned out to be a very good choice after speaking to a few guests who took the road transfer instead. There are two roads running north to south both of which are mostly single lane with many twists and turns taking around 2-3 hours to drive from the international airport to resort. In contrast our helicopter transfer took 15 mins plus a 25 minute drive. Upon arrival we were welcomed by a cold towel, welcome drink and song which we really enjoyed. The check in process was quick and simple before being escorted to our room. Our room: We stayed in a Caribbean luxury ocean view room in the Monchy building. Our room looked to have been recently renovated and was very clean and well appointed. Being one of the cheaper room options we knew we wouldn’t get the best views available but despite that we still enjoyed a morning coffee on the balcony before breakfast. We both agreed being located in the Monchy building was great as it’s located in the more quieter areas of the resort and also located by in our opinion next to the best pool. Now after staying here the only difference we would make next time would be to upgrade to a swim up room in the same building that also included room service. Restaurants: Being honest reading some previous reviews before we arrived I did have a concern we may have had to wait a while before getting seated in some restaurants with service taking quite long after that. We’re happy to report we experienced none of that and pretty much got seated straight away in every restaurant we went to. Making reservations for Gordon’s, Bombay and Kimonos was very easy which we did when we first arrived as well as making some second reservations throughout our stay. Honestly I did think we would struggle to get a booking at popular times but in fact we had no issues choosing any time from 5:30 right through to 7:30 even a day before we wished to go. We enjoyed every single meal we had, the food and service were exceptional. Highlights for us were the jerk salmons from barefoot and the butter chicken from Bombay. From both a food and entertainment point Kimonos was fantastic too. Breakfast highlights were Toscanini’s, honestly there isn’t a better way to start your day than having breakfast under the palm trees listening to the birds. Pools As previously mentioned our favourite pool was in front of the Monchy building as it was great for swimming and quiet. Throughout our stay I didn’t see more than 4 people in the pool at any one time and on most days we could choose pretty much any sunbed we wanted even after breakfast at 10am. From a sunbed perspective having experienced many European resorts where you battle it out at 6am to get a bed we saw none of that here. Yes if you wanted a particular sunbed around the main pool where the bar and music is you may have to get up early or book a room with a butler but apart from there we didn’t struggle to find a sun bed at all. This is based on what we were told by one of the managers Raymond that the resort was 85-90% occupied. It didn’t feel over crowded at all. Honestly I could go on but to summarise we were very impressed and fully enjoyed our 11 nights here and can’t wait to come back again someday. Ben & Rachel room 6218