Sandals and Beaches Hotels, Jamaica: A plethora of sunny options

I just got back from Jamaica where I spent five nights touring the Sandals and Beaches properties in Ocho Rios, Negril, Montego Bay and Whitehouse. The weather forecast was for rain everyday, but we only experienced a few drops one evening. In general, the weather was warm and humid, but really delightful – especially around the pool and ocean.

I stayed at the Sandals Ochi Beach Resort (adults only) for three nights, where I had a room with a butler. If you choose that kind of room, the butler is there to help you with reservations for tours, dinner, spa treatments, anything you can think of to make your vacation more relaxing and enjoyable. They give you a cell phone so you can have access to them from 7:00am to 10:00pm every day. This resort is over 100 acres and divided into two areas, so to get from one to the other you have to take a bus, which only takes five minutes and is very easy to do. There are 17 dining options, which are included in your all-inclusive package, so one night we had sushi at Soy, soup at Neptune’s and the main course at the Sky Terrace restaurant under the stars on the outdoor terrace. The food was very good – and with so many options you had a wide variety of choices.

We also stayed at the Sandals Whitehouse for two nights – the only Sandals hotel in Jamaica that was originally built by Sandals. I found it to be another beautiful property with great beaches and wonderful food. Every meal I had there was excellent.

Beaches are the family resorts and are very lively with lots of pools and waterslides along with the ocean for kids and their parents to have a fabulous time. They have counselors for the kids, broken into groups depending on ages. For the littlest children they have the Sesame Street characters. You can have breakfast with the characters or even have one of them come to your room and read your child a bedtime story.

These properties are actually more expensive than the adults only properties… just the opposite of Mexico, where the adult only resorts are a little more money. There seemed to be more going on at the Beaches resorts, where the Sandals resorts were a little more laid back and quieter.

If you are traveling to Jamaica each of these properties are approximately 1½ hours from the airport… unless you stay in Montego Bay and then it only takes 20 minutes to get to their properties. All of the Sandals and Beaches properties have several room category options which can be quite confusing at first glance. After having been to their resorts I understand them better… and after seeing their seven hotels in Jamaica, you’d want to buy a vacation from a travel agent that has been there and understands them.