Resort Review: Sandals Grenada

First, let me give myself a pat on the back for writing a resort review within two weeks of my return! I still have pending reviews from 2014, so I think we can call this progress, people! 🙂

Earlier this month, Mr. B and I took a belated anniversary trip to Sandals Grenada, located in the West Indies. I had been dying to visit this resort since it opened in 2013 – the photos and videos I’d seen just had me drooling. Opportunity finally knocked and we were finally on a flight from Miami to Grenada….soooo excited! We spent 5 days and 4 nights in Grenada….not long enough, but we will return one day.

The flight to Grenada is approximately 3 hr 45 mins from Miami, which meant a long – but not horrible – day of travel for us. This island has historically been a pain to get to, especially from further distances, but American and JetBlue have stepped up to the plate with some really decent air lift options. We landed at Maurice Bishop International just after 3PM Atlantic time and with a short immigration/customs process and extremely short ride to the resort, we were checking in at Sandals Grenada before 4PM. It was that fast.

Challenge was, our room was not ready upon arrival in spite of getting there after check-in time. I’m not a complainer; this was a minor inconvenience, but they already had our luggage stored and let us go have lunch and walk around the resort.

BVB Tip: a major credit/debit card IS required at Sandals upon check-in to cover incidentals and room charges. I want to say they charged $250 to the card as a pre-authorization. I always advise this, particularly for those who would rather use their bank debit. As long as there’s a major logo it will be expected, but some of your funds will be frozen. Be prepared.

We found this resort to be the exact vibe we needed for this getaway. It’s a small property, just large enough to not be considered boutique. Considering we stayed at the massive Grand at Moon Palace in 2017, this was a huge change – but a welcome one. The resort is literally across the street from the airport, but since Grenada’s air traffic is quite limited, you won’t be bothered by noise. We barely noticed the airplanes, to be honest, but there is a spot in the Lovers Hideaway where you can go watch takeoffs/landings as they happen.

Accommodations: Sandals Grenada has four villages with 257 rooms and suites across 2 different categories. The rooms are located across four villages: Pink Gin, Italian Village, South Seas and Lovers Hideaway.

Pink Gin is located closest to the beach and is the only building that existed before Sandals bought this property and renovated.

Italian Village is all-butler and holds the skypool suites that first attracted me to this property.

South Seas Village is located at the middle of the resort and has butler and luxury rooms. We stayed here in a Waterfall River Pool Junior Suite with a Balcony Tranquility Soaking Tub. This is a luxury room, which I jokingly call “regular schmegular”.

Lovers Hideaway Village is located at the back of the property and contains all luxury rooms.

Since our room had an amazing view of the South Seas Pool (a/k/a Party Pool), we didn’t spend much time in there. I love and appreciate that Sandals is now stocking beer and wine even in the “regular schmegular” luxury rooms, because this hasn’t always been the case. However, I really did miss the availability of room service, which is only available to Club and Butler Elite guests. This would have been a great asset to have on the day of our excursion, as we had to be up quite early and that can be a struggle on vacation.  We ill definitely book Club next time.

We had the opportunity to tour rooms in all four villages – Pink Gin Beachfront Honeymoon Club Level Suite, Italian Oceanview One Bedroom Skypool Butler Suite w/ Balcony Tranquility Soaking Tub, South Seas One Bedroom Butler Villa with Infinity Edge Pool, and South Seas Waterfall River Pool Walkout Junior Suite w/ Patio Tranquility Soaking Tub. You can view more photos by visiting my Facebook page.

 

Dining/Bars: Sandals Grenada has 10 restaurants and 6 bars across the property. Only two – Butch’s Steakhouse and Kimono’s – require reservations. And only one, Le Jardinier, has a resort evening dress code. All others are casual. We had a chance to dine at each establishment at least once.

For Breakfast, Spices and Cucina Romana offer a buffet-style meal, while Le Jardinier offers a la carte options. All three options were great, but we preferred the paced table service of the latter.

Lunch options are available at Neptune’s (seafood/mediterranean), Spices (lunch buffet) and Dino’s Pizzeria. We ate at Dino’s almost daily, as it was located by our favorite pool/pool bar and that just made it easy. Placing an order only took a few minutes, and you were given a buzzer that let you know when your meal was ready. Dino’s also had popcorn and Jamaican patties to grab at your leisure, as well as frozen yogurt. Y’know, things to soak up all the alcohol from the pool bar.

We enjoyed dinner at Spices, Butch’s, Soy, and Kimono’s during our stay. No complaints about anything, other than the fact that I was so full that I couldn’t make it to dessert (yep, I left Grenada with a food baby). Dinner at Kimono’s (teppanyaki) was incredibly fun…we eat hibachi frequently here in Florida, but the whole vibe and jokes in Grenada were so different. Shout out to Chef Gaspar for an incredible meal!

Entertainment: Daytime Entertainment was available in limited quantities. There were beach volleyball games almost daily at the Pink Gin beach in the front, while a DJ spun a variety of music at the South Seas Pool at the back of the resort. The South Seas Pool also hosts a foam party every Friday afternoon (which we missed due to waiting for our luggage in the room), and trivia/games on other days of the week.

Every evening has a different theme: Grenadian Culture, Caribbean, Reggae, White Party. There is a sponsored activity in the Living Room every night with live entertainment, and afterwards a DJ plays music until 1 or 2 am. Dancing is available every night, but if you want to steal away to somewhere quiet, there are plenty of loungers around the resort and at the beach.

Pools/Beach: I’ve mentioned the two main pools already, and how different the vibe was between the two. The Pink Gin Village pool in the front of the resort was lovely to look at, but too quiet for our tastes. The South Seas Village pool had an attached pool bar, plenty of lounging chairs and the vibe we wanted. There is also a large whirlpool with loungers in the South Seas Village as well.

We spent one afternoon lounging at the beach and hanging out in the water for a bit, but it was so windy that the red caution flags were up for the remainder of our trip. Which worked for me – I’m a pool gal anyway.

 

Atmosphere: For me, the vibe at Sandals Grenada is perfect. The resort is small enough that I saw many of the same guests throughout the week, but large enough where I didn’t feel like they were in my face the whole time. For fun-seekers, there are plenty of opportunities to twerk or get in a good dance with your love without getting bored – the South Seas Village pool is great for the partiers, especially on Fridays. But for those looking for serenity and quiet, the Pink Gin area of the resort is ideal.

I would return in a heartbeat. Grenada is a beautiful island full of beautiful people. The weather was ideal – low 80s with a strong cross-breeze. The food at the resort was amazing and it was lobster season, so there was tons to go around.

We only booked one excursion during our stay, with the goal of snorkeling to see the Underwater Sculpture Park. However, the powerboat broke down and we ended up booking a dune buggy excursion around the island instead, which included a stop at Annandale Waterfall. 150% perfection!!

If you have ANY questions about getting to Grenada, please don’t hesitate to reach out. It’s not an island on many people’s radars, but it’s absolutely worth a visit.