Sandals Negril Beach Resort and Spa

We arrived in Jamaica 4/19/24 for our wedding. We were told the shuttle to resort from airport would take an hour and a half (when we were told 45 minutes when we booked). The driver was sketchy and the ride took almost 3 hours. That night; we went to Bayside to eat and waited over an hour for food after a 15 hour travel day. The room itself is gorgeous, the swim up pool is nice, and the view is great. As much as I hate to say this; I do not recommend getting married here. My husband and I eloped and got married here on Sunday 4/21/24. We booked the 2 lovebirds package. This comes with a couples massage, candle light dinner on the beach, breakfast in bed, the wedding ceremony with officiant, and 10 photos. We also paid for videography, a live stream, and extra photos. Our wedding planner, Natalee was amazing. Very professional, patient and kind. That was where the good experience ended. On wedding day, I went to Red Lane Spa at 12pm for my hair and makeup. I showed them the photos below, and got the following photo. They insisted they did not know why I was upset because it looks just like the photo and they kept insisting I eat something because I might just be hungry and that’s why I don’t like it? They would not let me leave the salon and kept trying to put more makeup on me and more curls in my hair until I demanded to leave and had ~30 minutes to do my hair and makeup in the room to try to look somewhat like myself and not feel ugly at the very least. I was not able to feel beautiful on my own wedding day. Once the ceremony started, workers and guests were tramping through the spot on the beach and interrupting the ceremony and live stream, no one tried to stop them. The ceremony was choppy and the live stream kept cutting to the “we’ll be right back” screen. It was honestly embarrassing. The minister was highly apathetic and unprofessional. he mispronounced my name for half the ceremony and then goes “oh wait it’s ______?”. I’m the bride so I expect my name should be pronounced properly. We paid $200 for trash the dress photos. I ruined my $1200 for 3 poses in the water when I was told the photographer would be getting in the water and saw in the Sandals photo look book examples of other trash the dress photos where they got way more poses and shots. I feel cheated of that experience. We paid for breakfast in bed the morning after the wedding and they completely ghosted us on it. I was looking forward to that breakfast and thought it would be romantic. By the time we realized we weren’t getting breakfast, the buffet had closed and we had to wait until lunch to eat. We haven’t booked any excursions since we have had nothing but bad service and don’t trust them to deliver. Overall, this experience has been very disappointing and the service does not match the very high price tag at all. If I could do it over again I would have gotten married at a different resort. Save yourself the heartache and get married somewhere else. Read less

What can we say about our trip to Sandals Negril - such a wonderful honeymoon made phenomenal by the team who work so hard to make your time there world-class! We are already planning another trip back here. THE RESORT We have been to 2 other Sandals resorts - Antigua and Jamaica Royal Plantation. We were sold on Negril for 2 reasons - the sunsets and the room choice.

Sandals is expensive but it’s such an easy trip and you know you’re going to have an amazing and easy time. We always have butler rooms to make it even easier and to get the best rooms.

It was just under a 2 hour trip to get from Montego Bay airport to the resort and we splurged on a private transfer both ways which was well worth it. Robert on the way back was exceptional.

It’s a weird resort as it’s so long, but very shallow in depth from the road to the beach - the road noise isn’t noticeable at all. We loved the walk down the beach in the morning, venturing further down to where Beaches is located. Small pool but we don’t care much for that anyway - we prefer being on the beach! 
 THE ROOM We had a 2 storey beach villa (butler) and when they say BEACH, you literally are a few steps away with a beautiful view. On the map it shows you close to the pool bar (which in Antigua means you’re not able to relax in peace in your room) but this had absolutely no effect for us, the room was lovely and quiet and it was so handy. We can’t say that we actually used the bottom room much where the lounge is although having it meant that the bedroom was a lovely tidy and enjoyable space to relax in, so it was good to have plus it gave us amazing views from the bedroom Funnily, we weren’t really that bothered or excited about having the balcony bath…. until we got into it! It’s big enough for two, the sun shined right onto us and there’s privacy curtains so the whole world isn’t watching you in it! It was heavenly to pop a bottle of champagne, enjoy the hot sunshine and the cool bath.

We were by the wedding gazebo so saw a wedding and an engagement take place - which is always lovely as everyone cheers. The bathroom in this room was exceptional. Double height ceiling, double shower (one rainfall), lovely big bath and plenty of light. THE EXCURSIONS / SPORTS We didn’t opt for any group excursions, choosing instead to upgrade to a private boat trip after a conversation with Moses after kayaking. Although this was a definite splurge at $400, we were sold on the idea of having a whole boat to ourselves (the Royal Princess!) and having a trip for the two of us alone.

We went swimming in caves, enjoyed the most glorious sunset on board the boat and took a trip to the VERY fun Rick’s Cafe… we wish we could have spent more time there as it was so fun.

This trip was a highlight and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. We did kayak twice and to our absolute shock when we were looking for a turtle, ended up with dolphins swimming by us! We couldn’t believe such a rare event happened right in front of us in the shallows - it was incredible to see 5 of them in the wild. THE BEST BITS
 We loved Perla for lunch with its ocean bar vibes - I especially enjoyed the gazpacho and Perla sunset cocktail. Make sure you ask for extra dips for your tortilla chips! We loved Brava for dinner as we love tapas and the view was stunning. Jamaica Day was the best vibes of the whole trip - loads of jerk food for lunch, Jamaican music all day long and the evening Jamaican culture entertainment was so fun.

Seeing dolphins on kayaking made our trip extra special, along with private dinner on the beach being a highlight. 
 THE NOT SO GOOD BITS Vendors - I’m not actually complaining about them as we didn’t have a bad experience, but I know there are probably people scanning this review for the bad bits! We heard that there were a lot of them but we had nothing but lovely interactions with the beach vendors and although they are there they aren’t allowed to come up to the loungers so its possible to ignore them - 99% of them are really respectful of the rule. We politely say no, and they learn to leave you alone over time. We liked the music vendors - they’re fun performers! Number of restaurants - There’s not actually a huge amount of restaurants, although it didn’t affect us only being there for 7 days, but we would have got bored staying any longer. You can go next door to Beaches Negril I’m told, but we didn’t do this for this trip. THE ONLY BAD BIT My only real criticism - Sandals need to stop putting balloons on the lounger parasols on the beach. The beach throughout the day ends us with balloons littered amongst the sand along with confetti from inside the balloons. I know you want to make it fun for people celebrating special occasions, but there has to be a different way of doing this. As a company that prides themselves on supporting conservation - they need to do better at this in all parts of the experience. No matter how many beach attendants you have, you can’t account for every bit of plastic that gets blown into the sea. This has to stop and it would put me off future trips if not addressed. This is the only resort I’ve seen it at. SPECIAL MENTIONS Jamaica…. The sun shineth, the land is green and the people are strong and creative. Truly, what makes this island are the people - so our special mentions are for those who made our trip so special! The whole team are incredible, but we want to mention specifically… Our lovely butlers Damion and Shanice who took care of us throughout the trip so wonderfully.
 Moses and Kavaughn who took us out on our private boat trip and gave us the time of our lives. We had the best day with you guys. Warrel - the beach attendant who was such a lovely soul to chat to. We can’t wait to see him progress at Sandals, and he is a shining example of someone who takes so much care and pride in what he does and made the effort to get to know us.
 WE MISS YOU ALL ALREADY! L&M Read less