Sandals Royal Barbados

Sudesh Tambyah

This is our 3rd Sandals experience and as always it delivers based on our expectations. Staff were the best!!! You can tell the people of Barbados are "brought up c" (Bajan term I for sure have mispelled meaning brought up to have manners, I learned) lol. Location is always prime with Sandals, powder white sand, ocean was a bit rough but the way I like it. Our room was gorgeous, with soaker tub in the balcony and clean as a whistle, vaulted ceilings gave it a great esthetic. Coming from Toronto where the food scene is hard to beat, the meats, although nice cuts, lamb shank/chops & steak were good not great. However, the sushi spot Soy, was one of my best sushi experiences which is saying something the Nigiri and Sashimi were the best, especially the Yellowtail imported from Japan. Chef Noe & Gilberto and others were great. My other spot was the Jerk Shack, which always hit. Our Kimino experince was also great. The Red Lane Spa is always a notch above based on location and focus on serenity. The staff there understand how you want to be treated.

Jerika Crawford

My husband and I recently spent 5 days and 4 nights at Sandals Royal Barbados and had mixed feelings about our experience. While we enjoyed some aspects of the resort, there were several service-related issues that made it difficult to justify the price. The highlights of our stay were definitely the drinks, the excursion options, and bartender Zebe, who provided excellent service and was one of the standout employees we encountered. The pools were beautiful, and there were plenty of them throughout the resort. We also enjoyed dining at CHI and would highly recommend it. For breakfast, however, we preferred the options available at Sandals Barbados. Unfortunately, there were several disappointments. We booked a swim-up suite, but upon arrival, the pool filter was out and the pool was filled with leaves and flowers. We had to request four separate times before the pool was finally cleaned. While housekeeping serviced our room daily, towels were consistently removed and not replaced, requiring us to request fresh towels every day. We also felt there was a lack of communication regarding activities. Several activities required advance registration, but no one informed us of this during our stay, causing us to miss out on experiences we would have enjoyed. Additionally, we felt there could have been more activities offered overall. This trip was also a celebration of my 40th birthday, and that was another missed opportunity. Sandals asks guests what they are celebrating, but beyond a "Happy Birthday" flyer and a bottle of wine waiting in our room upon arrival, there was no further acknowledgment throughout our stay. With a fully stocked liquor and wine cabinet already in the room, the bottle of wine felt like an odd choice. At other resorts, we've experienced simple touches such as door decorations, notes from housekeeping, special desserts, or birthday recognition at dinner. No one acknowledged my birthday until the last day when an employee at the gift shop happened to ask. For a milestone birthday, this was disappointing. We also noticed maintenance issues, including a bathroom vent that clearly needed attention. Overall, Sandals Royal Barbados has beautiful grounds, great pools, good drinks, and some excellent dining options. However, for a luxury resort at this price point, we expected a higher level of service, attention to detail, and personalized guest experience. As our first Sandals vacation, it did not leave us eager to return. There were simply too many missed opportunities to make our stay feel special and truly worth the investment.

Kaylie Barker

Just got back from 5 night honeymoon and had a great trip. Drinks were wonderful. Zebe at the swim up bar was awesome! Food was pretty good, room for improvement there but overall not toobad. The rooms were very nice and clean. The bed was more firm than we liked. The AC wouldn't go below 69 degrees which wasn't cold enough for our sun burns but other people said their rooms were colder. The ceiling fans in our room and porch were useless and barely put off air flow. The gardens were beautiful and grounds were very clean. We and others were disappointed the pools closed at 6 every day. Beach was beautiful and water sorta rough on that part of the island. Staff was very friendly and professional. Ricardo the bus driver was fun. I feel like the resort is aimed more got older couples than 20 30 year old but overall we still had a wonderful time.

Jasneet Johal

We had an amazing stay at the Sandals Resort! Service – 10/10 The service was outstanding from start to finish. Every employee seemed genuinely happy to be there and eager to help guests. On three separate occasions, when we asked for directions, staff members didn’t just point us in the right direction—they personally walked us to our destination. Food – Excellent The food was delicious, full of flavour, and offered plenty of variety. With so many restaurants to choose from, there was always something new to try. Pools – Fantastic There was no shortage of pools to enjoy. While one pool was closed for maintenance during our stay, all of the others were open and well-maintained. The water was pleasantly warm in every pool, making it comfortable to swim and relax well into the evening. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and we would happily return.

Sarah&Mark

We went to Sandals royal Barbados for our honeymoon (25/05/2026-06/06/2026). Although overall we had a great time, I feel this hotel lacks what other 5* hotels offer. Our first time at a Sandals hotel and if honest would not rush to return. There are other 5* resorts around the world that offer a far superior service. Zebe and Marland are far the best bar staff here, others lack motivation or leave you waiting without even acknowledging you. A lot of the staff came across as rude and like they didn’t want to be there. This is the first 5* hotel we have been to where you have to go to the bar whilst at the pool and you can wait up to 30 minutes to be served and be ignored. (One of our 12 days someone did come around asking if we wanted any drinks, but the rest of the time we had to go ourselves). We were unaware regarding the butler side of things at this hotel when booking, we booked club level. However this was pointless as I was told to just book the restaurants on the app. . Apart from the cold towels, drink on arrival and the glass bottom boat - which is well worth doing and the staff on the trip were brilliant and well informative. The club level was nothing extra to offer. . Every morning the butlers reserve the sun loungers, unless you are down at the pool early (before 6:30am, or you will not get a sun lounger until the afternoon), I was even told some butler guests get sun loungers at both main pools. This falls short of a 5* experience, other hotels you can go down whenever you want and be able to get a bed, I’d expect this at a budget hotel. Lucky for me, I like to sit down early with my book and a coffee, it was peaceful, every bed taken but no one else around for ages!!! Also you were treated differently, like you were not part of the 5* experience. The main manager walked around the pool speaking to everyone on our first day, I think his name was Dominic, I wish I had seen him again. Our room was clean and really nice, turn down service/topping up drinks was hit and miss, had to ring down for replacement towels a couple of times as the old ones were taken and not replaced. Our tranquility bath plug did not work, I asked in the club lounge in total of 3 times over a 5 day period, nothing was fixed despite saying they would send maintenance, so I asked at the main reception and it was fixed an hour later. Kimonos we left before they served food as it was unbearable, the server was way way over the top, chatting up a girl, an 18-20 year old very inappropriately in front of her parents and making her feel very awkward, and continuing to embarrass people by asking weird questions, making everybody sing odd songs and putting them under peer pressure to toss food in there mouths (rubbery, massively overcooked plain egg!!)the food was very overdone as he just kept cooking it, already cooked rice must of been on the griddle/hot plate for half an hour for example, whilst he continued to Pratt around making loads of noise and being a clown. Despite my shellfish allergy which was made aware twice before he threw it on with the other food, using same cooking equipment and mixing it in and then denied vividly when asked. Most of our table left before us and we bumped in the last couple that stayed said it was by far the worst experience they had ever had and they are a regular at this sort of diner. Both Butchers restaurants, Bombay, Chi and La Parisienne I would definitely recommend. The service and food were spot on, for lunch time the Jerk Shack, we had this most days. I would definitely recommended exploring the island, we hired a car and went around the coast over 2 days, we were lucky to find the Rally that was on that weekend. We also found the beach’s along the west coast which are beautiful and what you would imagine being Barbados. Despite the couple of grumbles, overall we had a memorable experience and enjoyable time in general.