Anyone been to Sandals in Antigua?

BriarfoxinWA

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 22, 2001
I'm thinking about splurging on a 50th birthday trip next year. I've been looking at Sandals in Antigua. They have these amazing looking private "Rondoval's" that are basically round rooms with their own private plunge pool. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been and if it was worth the cost?
 
It's actually cheaper than what it cost me to fly the family DH & 2 kids to Florida to go to Disney World. :smooth:

Really? In that case I might do it. I looked at those rooms whike researching a trip and daydreamed about that private pool. I think at that time it was about $8,000 for a week for DH and I so I couldn't justify it, but if you get a good deal my friends that have done Sandals stays (while not at that property) have always loved them.
 


It's actually cheaper than what it cost me to fly the family DH & 2 kids to Florida to go to Disney World
I'm going to Europe in a couple of weeks, and that trip is going to be cheaper than Disney!

I've been to Sandals St. Lucia, and it was a great vacation. We paid $4200 for two of us--air and hotel. It was years ago, though. We didn't book through the Sandals site. Prices were nearly double on the Sandals site.
 
The cost for Sandals with the private plunge pool is around $7,800. That doesn't include airfare, but transfers, food, and drink are all included. You also get reserved seating for means, 24 hour room service, and your own butler.

When we took the kids to Disney for week, back in 2006 we stayed at Caribbean Beach and bought park hopper passes. With all the food, park tickets, transfers to and from the airport and hotel room it was around $10K. I feel a little guilty on this one because my kids are grown and it's just me and DH. When the kids were at home I'd do whatever I could to scrape together the money to make it a memorable trip. This one I'm doing just for "me". :)
 
Haven't stayed at Antigua, but other Sandals resorts. I was chiming in to warn against booking directly through Sandals. Much better deals to be found. Have a fantastic trip!
 


We went to Sandals Antigua for our honeymoon in 2002. The resort has changed since then and it's gotten bigger. I loved it there. It was small, quiet and peaceful. We didn't stay in the rondoval, but became friends with a couple who did. They didn't like it because little lizards and other small critters kept getting in the room. We didn't have that problem, but we were on the 2nd floor of one of the buildings. They also didn't like being so close to the beach. The beaches in Antigua are public, so there were always people selling stuff on the beaches. Sandals made sure the locals respected the line between private and public, but you learned very quickly to stay off the beach if you wanted to be left alone. I would definitely recommend trying the resort out. I would go back in a heartbeat if we could.
 
Haven't stayed at Antigua, but other Sandals resorts. I was chiming in to warn against booking directly through Sandals. Much better deals to be found. Have a fantastic trip!


Not sure last time you went to Sandals but thats not the case anymore. Sandals vacations are not discounted anymore.
A travel agent may throw in a free massage or excursion plus sometimes if they are well known to Sandals you may get a free upgrade but no discounted trips.

Years ago when we first started going to Sandals we bought through a broker and got some nice deals. He doesnt sell Sandals anymore because of Sandals no discount rule. The second agent I went through lost her " Sandals specialist" title due to her discounting trips.

We've never been to Antigua because the flights are a pain in the butt from where we live but we've been to almost every other Sandals and Beaches.
We had a private pool at our villa at Sandals LaToc in St Lucia. It was great but we didnt use it much. The pool was in the shade and freezing.

If u have any questions feel free to PM me.
 
We've never been to Antigua because the flights are a pain in the butt from where we live but we've been to almost every other Sandals and Beaches.
We had a private pool at our villa at Sandals LaToc in St Lucia. It was great but we didnt use it much. The pool was in the shade and freezing.
.

Ahh yes that reminds me, when I was researching these rooms and reading Trip Advisor comments, the fact that the private pool water was freezing came up often.
 
I have been there and stayed in that type of room. We were given a complimentary upgrade to it at check in. The room was very nice, we found the bathroom area to be a bit stuffy (like the air conditioning flow couldn't get back there well enough, but that wasn't that big of a deal). The plunge pool was great, we had a lot of fun in there.
The biggest problem for me was it absolutely poured on 2 of the nights there and when that hits the rondeval roof it amplifies the sound, it was like sleeping in a forest during a thunderstorm - it was so loud and made sleeping pretty much impossible for me. But Sandals Antigua is one of the nicer Sandals resorts from what I understand and it seemed true to me. It wasn't trashy people partying like you hear about some of them, and I thought the food and drinks were quite good.
 
Thanks for the replies! We'll see how it goes. The trip is a long way off and I can cancel up to around 30 days before with no penalty. I have a fairly demanding / high stress job and the idea of being able to get away and not have to worry about doing a lot of planning during the vacation really appeals to me. We tend to always be on the go on vacation and have all kinds of activities planned (by me). I just need a very un-stressful time away from work!
 
Thanks for the replies! We'll see how it goes. The trip is a long way off and I can cancel up to around 30 days before with no penalty. I have a fairly demanding / high stress job and the idea of being able to get away and not have to worry about doing a lot of planning during the vacation really appeals to me. We tend to always be on the go on vacation and have all kinds of activities planned (by me). I just need a very un-stressful time away from work!

How was it?
 
Two zombie threads, both posted by the same OP two years apart. Both resurrected by the same person.
 
So we went to Sandals Ochi in Jamaica and had a great time! We had the Romeo and Juliet Honeymoon suite with private pool. We wanted a room with the private pool and Ochi had the cheapest one. Everything went great and the only complaint was that the trip wasn't long enough! We stayed 7 nights but I think next time we'll try for 10!
 
So we went to Sandals Ochi in Jamaica and had a great time! We had the Romeo and Juliet Honeymoon suite with private pool. We wanted a room with the private pool and Ochi had the cheapest one. Everything went great and the only complaint was that the trip wasn't long enough! We stayed 7 nights but I think next time we'll try for 10!

Is it as nice as the pictures?
 
Yes it really was! The Sandals staff are great and go above and beyond to make your stay perfect. The resort is gorgeous although Ochi does not have as large of a beach as some, the pool areas really nice and make up for the smaller beach front.
 
I think you made a good choice going to Jamaica instead. I've been to Sandals in Ocho Rios and St. Lucia and they were very similar except for the people. Jamaicans are the most genuinely friendly and accomodating people. There is a vibe there like nowhere else.
 

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