As I mentioned in my overview, Sandals Grande Ocho Rios is beautiful. And it is huge! More like a small city than a resort, it dwarfs its' sister property located a few miles away, Sandals Dunns River Villagio.
The resort is divided into three distinct sections, the Riviera, which is the main building on the ocean (with surrounding cottages), the Manor Building, across the main road, with more restaurants and some rooms and finally, the Ciboney Villa Suites, where we stayed, which are a short drive from the Manor up the mountain in a jitney (a small gasoline-powered vehicle, slightly larger than a golf cart that seats four comfortably in the back, six in a pinch).
While we only had personal experience with the Villas, here' s my impressions of the other areas:
The Riviera
Closest to the ocean, with the greatest number of restaurants. As the rooms sit above the restaurants and a night club, I think the reviews I read that lamented the noise levels are probably correct. If you're a young, active, stay-up-late couple, then the noise may not bother you and may be offset by the ocean views and proximity to the beach.
There are also a lot of villas surrounding the Riviera and while you're not directly above the action, I suspect you're close enough, as the sound echoes pretty good. We could hear music late at night at our villas and we were half a mile away up the mountain.
The Manor
Overlooking the giant pool you see in all the Sandals ads, with restaurants and other public areas below. Probably a little quieter than the Riviera, as there's little action later in the evening here. Frankly, I wouldn't bother. Stay at the beach in the Riviera or skip the Manor and go for the privacy of the villas.
The Villas
Spread throughout the mountain above the Manor, the villas all have private pools. Some have the ocean view we were promised but not given, most have views of trees, or "gardens" as Sandals describes them. For more details, click on my Villa room details.
Transportation
This was a genuine concern of mine prior to booking and even after, as I knew that we were far from the beach area. It was hard to get a feel from the reviews just how much time every day we would be spending on jitneys and busses.
I expressed this concern to our travel agent on November 24, 2008, who forwarded my email to Sandals Management on November 25, 2008. Sandals never responded.
Every day, our schedule was pretty consistent; we would take a jitney to the Manor Building for breakfast in the morning, walk a hundred feet to the Manor's transportation area, catch the bus to the Riviera side, return for a midafternoon nap and then repeat the same routine for dinner.
Total time spent actually riding in the jitneys and busses each day was probably 20 minutes. Total time waiting, maybe 30, for a total of 50 minutes. Other than one night where we waited in the rain for a long time, we were generally impressed by the ease of catching a jitney or bus. But, it did became a little tiresome halfway through our stay. It would have been nice to just walk out our room to the beach. That's the trade-off for staying in the Villas or the Manor. While we stayed during the busy time of year, I think the resort wasn't too full due to the economy. If this resort were truly full, I suspect wait times would be considerably more.
Once again, I find it ironic that Sandals wins numerous environmental awards considering the fleet of gas-guzzling vehicles shuttling vacationers to and fro. Who were the "Green Award" runners-up? Exxon-Mobil and Dow Chemical?
Bars
There are plenty of bars to choose from. Unlike Club Med, you don't have to walk far to find a bar. Many are swim-up, which were virtually empty during our stay due to the fact the pools were freezing.
If you prefer premium spirits, as Sandals promises you'll get, rather than no-name brand rotgut, don't forget to ask your bartender for it. Some will use it without asking, most won't.
The only problem we experienced seemed to happen at the main Riviera Bar. The bartenders weren't as friendly as most of the other bars and on a few occasions, they told us they were out of limes and olives. With six employees standing around doing nothing, it was apparently too much work to go to the stock area and grab some garnishes.
Weather
Prior to leaving, I did some research on average December temperatures in Ocho Rios and was happy to see that typical averages were low to mid 80s. The end of December in South Florida can get cold for those of us who are used to warm temperatures ten out of twelve months a year.
Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed that out of eight mornings at SGOR, four or five were grey, with a few hours of rain. Also, the beach area is VERY windy. While we did enjoy plenty of sun for lounging, the combination of the wind and clouds kept me out of the cold ocean and even colder pools most of our stay.
I've since learned that the wind and rain are common in the Ocho Rios area due to the mountains. If I had known this in advance, I might have chosen a different Caribbean destination. We were looking forward to really warm weather, a warm ocean and a nice, peaceful beach to snorkel and swim. For some unknown reason, SGOR doesn't let you snorkel off the beach; only off their boat.
The pools really need to be heated. They were absurdly cold and barely anyone used them during our entire stay. Sure, they have the huge Manor pool you see in all the advertisements. But if there are only a handful of people using it during peak season, perhaps Sandals should get the message and splurge on some solar heaters, as many true "luxury" resorts do.
Finally, if you're lounging by the Manor pool and you can't get one of the handful of umbrellas to get refuge from the sun, you can pay Sandals $75.00 per day for the privilege of having a little shade by using one of their cabanas. Oh, you though everything was included? Silly you!
Beach
I read several reviews that said the beach at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios wasn't as big or as nice as Sandals Dunns River Villagio. Other than the weather, which Sandals can't control, I actually had no complaints about the physical layout of the beach at the Grande. But, because of the strange layout, you can't simply walk along the beach from one end of the resort to the other. You'll be walking up and down a lot of stairs to get from east to west. This wasn't a big deal to us, but for those who picture romantic strolls from beach end to end, you can't do it at SGOR.
Unfortunately, a few of the pictures on Sandal's website for SGOR are misleading, as they were taken years ago, prior to the construction of the dive boat dockage area, which blocks access to approximately one-quarter of the entire beach area (you can see this area in the second picture below). In my opinion, this whole issue could have been solved with better design. The dock boat area, along with the dive center, should have been placed near the watersports area at the far eastern tip of the property. And the main boardwalk area in the center of the beach should have been designed in a manner that allows guests to walk along the beach without having to traverse stairs.
We spent every day, except one, at the westernmost beach, the first stop on the bus. We liked that it was a little quieter (except during volleyball matches), had a pool and swim up bar a few feet away, close to the scuba center and the Barefoot Bistro, which was closed our first day at the resort. After eating their burnt burgers, I wouldn't have objected to their staying closed the rest of our vacation.
My only minor complaint about the beach was that they played the same music, in the same order, every single day.
If you want to get to the other beach areas, you have to walk toward the water, up a few stairs and then you arrive at a pier area, with a little beach you can't go on because it's where the dive boat parks:
After you reach this area, you begin your up and down journey of the endless stairs:
And after you go up and then down again, you reach some flat ground and you have reached the second beach area. To the right, the mysterious Sandtrap Grill that we couldn't find on our Sandals-provided resort map. Straight ahead, a sports bar; the only one with a pool table. We sat on the beach in this area one day but didn't enjoy it, as right behind us (in front of the cool bar), there was a girl with a microphone loudly teaching people something called the SOCA dance for an hour or so. Nothing wrong with entertainment, it was just hard for us to relax with a PA speaker blaring inches from our heads.
To the left of this area, the protected swimming area and famous Sandals logo:
And looking east:
The beach ends at the jetty you can see on the left side of the picture. Beyond that are wave runner rentals and paragliding, not owned by Sandals and there are several terse signs that attempt to scare you into non-participation in these non-Sandals activities.
The water sports area is in the background, where you can take out a Hobie Cat Sailboat, sign up for the glass bottom boat, snorkeling, sea kayak and those silly aqua trykes you see in the picture.
We did spend a day at Sandals Dunns River and frankly, I didn't think the beach was all that great. It actually seemed smaller, although it was laid out like a normal beach you could walk from end to end without the interruption of stairs.
Medical Attention At The Grande
My fiancée and I needed to visit the Staff Nurse on a few occasions. My trip to the nurse occurred after I made the mistake of petting one of the many cats that wander among the guests at the restaurants. I got a few pretty good gashes on my finger. As a cat lover, I didn't blame the cat. He was actually friendly and just playing.
However, if the thought of feral cats rubbing up against you and begging for food while you eat dinner is a turn-off, factor this into your decision on whether to stay at the Grande.
My fiancée visited the Nurse when her ear began hurting after a dive. Now, let me say right off the bat that the Nurse was a nice guy. The problem with the setup is Sandals; he only has office hours from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and he is very limited in what he can do. He said he wasn't even allowed to look in my fiancée's ear, which I found ridiculous. In a "luxury" resort, shouldn't there be an actual doctor on duty or at least a nurse practitioner, who is permitted to perform more substantive medical treatment than slapping on bandages?
As the nurse was unable to look in her ear, she had no choice but to pay $220.00, plus $30.00 for meds to the doctor on call, who was also a nice guy.
My advice; don't get hurt at Sandals. And especially don't have something serious, like a heart attack, occur between the hours of 10:01 p.m. and 1:59 p.m. the following day. Guests are advised to enter cardiac arrest only between the hours of 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Entertainment
Sandals provided the week's entertainment schedule in our room as well as on a daily board at various locations. Nothing really appealed to us, except the piano bar. Again, we're an early 40s couple who prefer martinis and piano bars rather than dance clubs and cheesy variety shows. Younger couples, or those with different interests, may have enjoyed the Jamaican Country Western singer that performed (I'm not kidding).
As I mentioned in my Overview Page, Sandals has a problem with the whole piano bar sing along concept. As in, they didn't have a singer on the two occasions we tried to go, even though it was billed on the daily board.
On the second occasion, I was extremely upset that we waited over an hour, yet again, and no singer showed up. I spoke to a girl at the front desk who, when I pointed out that the piano bar sing along was on the board for that evening, apologized and magically conjured up a singer within five minutes.
I didn't catch the singer's name, but he was great. He played on the out-of-tune piano in the Manor Bar and guess what? The 30 or 40 people in the bar had a good time and many got up to sing along.
For a "luxury included" vacation, there shouldn't have been this much drama and confusion over a simple piano bar sing along that was scheduled on the activity board.
Watersports
The only watersports we participated in were sailing on the Hobie Cats and scuba.
The sailboats were great! With the east to west trade winds, it's easy to go straight out and come back in without zigging and zagging, as we had to do on the river at Club Med Sandpiper. Once you get a little bit out in the ocean, the views of the mountains, especially to the west, were breathtaking!
The thing that surprised me is that there were no restrictions on where we could sail. I saw boats over a mile out in the ocean, as well as several miles east and west of the resort. While the freedom to go where we wanted was appreciated, as we have sailed before, the idea that some first-time sailors were so unrestricted seemed like a big liability on Sandals part. I've read reviews that mentioned lessons were required by the staff. Unless they just changed their policy, we weren't forced to take any. They simply asked if we sailed before. We said yes. Off we went.
My fiancée is a PADI certified open water diver, but hasn't dived in a few years. She took the resort course with me for support and for a refresher.
Our instructor, "Jack Sparrow", was a real character. I was surprised that after the 3 1/2 hour course, a dive was immediately held. All of the Sandals literature stated that the first dive would be the day following the course, which would have been much safer for inexperienced divers, in my opinion.
As I am a smoker, swimming the required eight laps around the pool, putting on and taking off the heavy equipment and practicing in the pool was enough to physically exhaust me. I didn't feel confident diving the same day but my fiancée did. She enjoyed the dive very much but unfortunately, experienced the ear problems I mentioned.
The Red Lane Spa
My fiancée and I took advantage of our $175.00 spa credit by having a massage. My neck and back were out of whack from the unfamiliar bed, so I had the sports massage, which promised some strong pressure. My masseuse delivered nice, strong pressure as promised.
My fiancée had the more gentle Swedish-type massage.
At home, we pay $75.00 for an hour massage, but the prices at Sandals ranged from $115 - $135 for fifty minutes. Like popcorn at a movie theatre, the inflated prices are to be expected.
However, we both enjoyed our massages and we tipped well.
The only part we didn't like was the hard sell immediately after the massage, before we even had our clothes on, to book other spa services. Nothing like ruining the post-massage relaxing mood by aggressively hawking other services. They even offered a 30% discount on any future visits.
Not a big thing, just a little annoying.
My fiancée did take advantage of the 30% discount a few days later and had a facial. She wasn't as impressed on the second visit and said the technician didn't know what she was doing.