Sandals Montego Bay Reviews

We've been here twice and are returning for a third visit in 2018. Beautiful place friendly people and a good deal being all inclusive.

Beautiful beach front Hotel, next door the Sangster International Airport.

Dalton and Jermaine made our stay. Our 1st round of butler's did not work out but they changed them and let me say we could not have been happier!!! The rooms were nice, restaurants were all great. Everyone who worked at the resort were fabulous. We will definitely visit again!

Nice resort. I've had equally great experiences at less expense resorts. That is why it is a 4 star rather than 5 star rating.

I have vacationed at 5 Sandals/Beaches resorts and always enjoyed it tremendously. MOBAY offered nice rooms and a paradise view... Unfortunately, the customer service and MOBAY was the worst I have every experienced. The staff would not accommodate everyone in our party for dinner in one instance, staff was rued and in two cases served a white customer before us when we were clearly standing there first. We were told they were out of certain types of food and some drinks at the bar several times during our stay. At one point in one of the restaurants a roach was seen and the staff was alerted; the roach was killed but left on the floor for us to observe the next morning during breakfast. The shame of it is, everyone in our party was experiencing their first time at a Sandals and most likely their last... In fact, one couple said they would never return to Jamaica because of this disaster we called a vacation. With all that said, there were some awesome folks that get 5 stars for their service. I was told by a staff member at T& K Beaches " You don't pay for a vacation here you pay for an experience" Lets just say MOBAY just wants you to pay..........

SMH!

We were there for a wedding yesterday and I must say the wedding planner Nickalia went above and beyond to help my sister and her husband pull off an amazing day! The property is beautiful and the food and service from all the staff was just A+! No wonder they are one of the best destinations in the world.

Butlers servicing was simply awesome. Accommodating at all times. We felt so appreciative and valued. They represent the face of Sandals in a positive and outstanding manner. They made our stay enjoyable. Evety person we met were very nice. The housekeeper, Tanya has a beautiful presence. We were in Room 514. Thanks Oshane and Oshei. Love you guys and this place!

Probably the favourite resort of the 3 play in all resorts in Montego Bay sandals. The watersport is fun but pools are small more to just dip in. The stewfish dinner was fine but over cooked the lobster which was disappointing. The French bayside had excellent food but service could be slow. The buffets are pretty average and the gelato shop is cute touch but not the best. Although it says they will do lessons for windsurf they seem lazy and constantly say there s no wind for windsurfing as the sail is in the back and they don t seem to get it..
Value 3/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Service 4/5
Quality 4/5
15/20

Rooms were fine, loved the beaches. Workers here really are clueless about just about everything. WiFi never worked which wasn t a huge deal since we weren t on phones a lot. AC in room didn t work for multiple nights and took days for someone to get to room to fix it. Bars are nice but food is average at best... definitely not 5 stars. When check our time came, our transportation that they set up was more than 30 minutes late and still anyone we asked didn t really have any answers. Will try a sandals again but don t think it will be this one.

Friendly staff and comfortable accommodations. Wish there were more food options. Overall lovely relaxing experience.

Very close to airport so you hear planes at lot during the day. Not so much at night.
Bed was much too firm...Like sleeping on BOARDS.
Great variety of activities included. Super friendly staff.

Beautiful grounds and views, but for the prices better room maintenance is expected. Bathroom fans did not work in 3 of the 4 couples rooms, floors had chips, paint should be touched up, swim up pool area paint chipped, room service left out entire day in walk ways...but buers, room attendants and most other staff are AWEMAZING!!

Montego Bay, Jamaica Loved It, Love It! Definitely going back again and recommend Sandals resort over others resorts companies.

Spent a small fortune. 2 of my tours were cancelled today. Little notice. No other tours offered. Been here one day... Disappointed to say the least!

We stayed in one of the lower priced rooms (which was still pricey) and it was pretty drastically out of date compared to other rooms on the property. It appeared to be in the middle of being updated (paint in the bathroom looked half-done) and was overall kind of dingy so we were a bit disappointed in that given the price tag. The newer rooms were really nice (we saw some of them because we knew people staying in them and they were great). The location of the resort was unfortunate because it s located literally at the end of the runway of the Montego Bay Airport so you hear huge commercial planes start taking off at like 7:30 in the morning every day and they continue throughout the day. It is pretty loud - loud enough that you have to stop your conversation with someone if you re outside by the pool trying to talk to someone when a plane is taking off. The planes are really close to the resort so it s just an unexpected nuisance when you re trying to relax by the pool - or in our case my brother was having his wedding ceremony and they had to pause the ceremony while the planes went by so people could hear. The service at the resort was relatively good, but fairly hit and miss. Sometimes the staff was really good and quick, other times they were really slow to bring your food and drinks. Especially at the pool and at certain restaurants for dinner. The staff was really fun though and they had good personalities, making them fun to interact with throughout the week.

The most friendly people. It was like living in a post card. Most relaxing Vacation ever.

The resort is beautiful and the people were super friendly! No major problems on our trip but a combination of small things took away from what should have been a more enjoyable time. The website for this specific resort showed Patron was available. It was not. The on-line menus showed lobster was available at several restaurants. It was not until the last day of our trip. The resort did a good job of social distancing but when another rude couple pulled beach chairs within 1-2 inches of our beach chairs they would not do anything about it. We also nearly stepped on an old fork that was in the sand. Again, no major problems but all of these happened early in our trip and brought us down a little bit. We just felt like with the beauty and kindness of the people our experience could have been better.

First time ever in Jamaica and we couldn't have picked a better place to go! Make sure you get some money put before arriving at the resort so you can buy gifts to take as there is no cash machine available. This place is a great value and the staff is always willing to go the extra mile to make you smile! Thank you Sandals for giving us a memory for a lifetime!

Nice resort. Long waits at restaurants. Horrible service at tokoy joes.

Beautiful place. Staff was very friendly. Fun activities. Good and bad is that it is 10 minutes from airport but you hear planes taking off about 5-6 times a day and it is REALLY close

Incredible resort with top notch service. We stayed at the Sandals Royal Carribean, but came over to this resort via the Sandal's shuttle a few times. We were also able to attend a friend's wedding while there. This resort spared no expense and the wedding and dinners were extraordinary. I would recommend either resort in a heartbeat.

I stayed at SRC but visited MoBay for dinner. It's much more updated than SRC and better entertainment

My husband spent 11/3/2018 - 11/11/18 At Sandals Montego Bay. We have stayed at other Sandals & Pineapple properties and by far one of our favorites. They rooms are beautiful ( ours came with Butler Service- two Resort Workers that help you all the time and are great people) The food choices are many and we really enjoyed them all, the sailing, snorkeling (at their near by reef one of the best in Jamaica) There is also other water sports available, resort activities & games ( and entertainment staff) very fun the night time entertainment very nice. All the Bar Tenders were wonderful & fun. The Resort workers are the happiest & most helpful & kind people and they all really like working for Sandals - this company takes very very good care of their staff. Can't say enough how wonderful this resort is - check it out for yourself!

Amazing vacation here. Can't wait to go back. Everything was perfect and the staff were incredible.

The hotel is under construction. Every day they are banging and grinding on a new building. Every day they bring a loud pump to the small beach they have and run it ALL DAY. We had "butler" service, dont waste the money. The butler doesnt answer the phone or really do anything for you. The room was nice but it was being cleaned on three different occasions and the maids were rude about it. Some tried to sell you something extra at every opportunity which I didnt like at an all inclusive place. The bar doesnt open until 10am and the butler wont get you drinks before then. I would not go to Sandals Montego Bay again.

Excellent service,nice beach front view and great rates.

Where do I start.. my wife and I age 38 and 36 went here to relax. WOW! This place is amazing from start to finish. I believe there are some misconceptions. You dont have to dress up in the evening it's very optional. I personally wore gym shorts to relax in the evening. (No weird looks). I believe it's up to you to relax at your comfort level. Also before we went I thought it would be filled with snobby people and honeymooners NOT TRUE... if you want your space you got it. If you want to socialize you got it. There is so many great things I can say about this resort I cant fit it in here. The staff... AMAZING...from the servers, butlers,housekeepers, landscapers and beach clean up crew(Very underated). This place is more then heaven..Its... JAMAICA.. I believe the rest of the world can learn something here. Dont take life for granted. They love and live life like we all should. We can all learn something from these great people. I will be posting a very long trip advisor report with much more detail. It's the best of the best 10 STARS...

Great resort with many options for entertainment and activities!

I've been going to this resort (only) since 1987 and absolutely love it! When someone asks me why do I keep going to the same resort? I simply say ... it's the people (Jamaicans) the relaxing atmosphere, great food, lots of options, longest beach, plenty of things to do (if you want to) or simply sit back and relax like we do! The planes fly by during the day about 8 seconds and they are gone, after one day you don't even pay attention to them! Being next to the airport when you arrive allows you to be at the resort in minutes. This beautiful newly renovated original Flagship Resort for Sandals is breath taking! THIRTY years later, we are still going to this same resort with no reason to try anywhere else! Reading, PA USA

We love it here!! Cassandra was our beach cocktail waitress and we loved her!! So fun to talk to and one of our favorites here!!

This resort is wonderful. It's all inclusive, which I loved. The service was excellent. They had different activities to do, spa services, or you could just hang in the lounge chairs at the beach and do nothing. I never left the resort. I got some much needed rest and relaxation. It's a great place for a destination wedding too. I saw several wedding parties while there.

we took our first vacation out of the states. We choose this resort after very carefully researching. This resort was amazing. Our room was fantastic. Very spacious and beautiful. Our butler was amazing handled everything for us. food was great. remember when you book that they have several room category's. Spend a little more get the bigger rooms its well worth it.

Best place to go for fun and sun, going back for reunion week.

Love, Love, Love San
dals Montego Bay. Friendly people.

Fantastic
Great for a quick trip because so close to the airport.

Sandals is pretty much the Gold Standard for luxury included vacations. This particular resort is the flagship of the group. The very first one. They've even managed to make the fact that it's in the back yard of the airport into an interesting feature. Go there and see!

The best of everything, food, drinks, entertainment, Great friendly staff

I recommend purchasing the cheapest room you can get if you must go. We spent entirely too much money on this vacation and felt like we wasted our money. We did have fun, but we were with a group and most of the fun was when were together. Almost all the food was amazing. We purchased an ocean view balcony room but wish we would've known it's a slight ocean view with the resort buildings in front of it. We don't have one complaint about the employees super people. The entertainment needs some improvement and the activities need more advertising. It isn't a quiet resort due to the airport being 15 minutes away. I give this review 4 stars because of the staff. We never met a rude person.

We stayed here from 8/20-8/26(today). Our stay has been amazing! The food is absolutely amazing, the lamb chops at Oleander's is by far the best plate of food I have ever had! Do yourself a favor and go to palms bar outside the steak house and visit Dwayne he is the coolest person we have met on the island, he is amazing at his job and the Sandals company should do everything they can to keep him moving up in the ranks, he went above and beyond for every single customer in front of him and always kept people having fun! We will be back in a couple years!

Everthing taken care of! Total fun vacation and got scuba diving certified!

We went to Tokyo Jo's for dinner and had an amazing time! The food was good and the atmosphere was exciting! You get to make your own stir fry plate, then they cook it in front of you. The portions were large.

My own experience of this place is i would encourage every one who can to visit this place

Amazing experience. We do not travel frequently. This location makes you feel comfortable instantly. Clean and well maintained. Lots of conviences on resort. Getting to and from location to local airport is within 10 minutes.

My husband and I really enjoyed our honeymoon here. Service is great from the moment you step on the property. It's great for people that just want to relax at the beach/pool, but also great for people that want to be more active. There are different events every night and the play makers really keep it entertaining. There are a lot of excursion options. We highly recommend the catamaran cruise and the Island Routes Mini Cooper trips. Can't complain about any of the food. Oleander was my favorite restaurant there and the service was phenomenal!
Airplane noise did not bother us at all, I am a light sleeper and I don't recall hearing it in our room with the A/C on. My ONLY complaint about our room at Seagrapes is the bathroom had no ventilation. I had to keep my stuff out of bathroom otherwise it would be soaked after using the shower. It was very humid in the bathroom, almost impossible to dry or style hair in there. The room had a nice balcony, near piano bar so you could hear people singing late at night (didn't bother me).
Overall we would definitely come back. We meet couples that have been to other Sandals Resorts and they keep coming back to Montego Bay.

It's okay but there's a ton of snobby drunks that detract from the overall beautiful aesthetic and charm that the island and the workers provide

We had a great time. Aaron and Palmer were the best butlers we could ask for! They took care of everything for us and went above and beyond to meet our dietary needs. The beach was great and the bars were really cool. Davian and Rayon were great servers/bartenders and made us feel very welcome and well taken care of. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful vacation! We would love to come back soon! We are in love with Jamaica!

Love this hotel!! Friend staff clean environment and so much to do....I prefer this one over Sandals Royal Caribbean

Sandals has evolved from a wonderful vacation experience with everything included to a place where you must work hard to enjoy yourself, and deal with multiple sales pitches every day. Our bathroom was pitiful, and not as described in our room selection. In the pictures, our bathroom was the one on the left. The picture on the right is the bathroom shown and described for our room reservation. The lighting was so poor we used a flashlight. The tiny little sink was cracked and would not hold water. The exhaust fan sounded like a gas generator and barely worked.
Day one our room was 77 degrees and we asked for help with the AC. Day 2 our room was 76 degrees and we asked for help with the AC. We asked many more times. Finally on day 7, they tore apart the small air conditioning unit and cleaned it out. For the last night of our stay we were able to get ready for dinner and also sleep in comfort. It would have been great to have AC for all 8 days.
I have celiac disease and notified the butlers and food staff multiple times. The butlers were quite useful in ensuring my food was safe. However, the wait for gluten-free bread (which is not very good) is way too long. Also, there should have been gluten-free flour on site as my restrictions were described in my reservation.
The pools are small at this location and the pool bar was never staffed appropriately.
The water sports staff were great, but many activities were cancelled due to waves.
We managed to enjoy ourselves but worked quite hard to do it.

Beautiful resort! Great service, food and drinks! We love Sandals resorts! Unfortunately, my husband hurt his back for 4 days. The doctor that came to our room was great and getting medication delivered to the hotel was great too. We enjoyed the Pub and all the staff there. Vanessa at Butch's was so experienced and friendly which made it a great evening!

For an all inclusive vacation touting "Luxury Included..." I'd think we'd get a better bed than we did. After complaining, they did try to make it better and provided as much as they could. Our room was nowhere near as spacious as advertised. The food is good for the first few days, but past that it gets old when it's all the same every day, which is how they can cut cost to make it "all inclusive". We haven't had a single tour that is complimentary, and they are all, evidently priced as if you're going to drink yourself into oblivion. Even in the rooms alcohol with all you need except ice, is provided to drink till your liver's content. These are full bottles, not minis.
Nothing seems individualized, even after paying thousands, there is no "special" treatment. Be sure to take out a loan before visiting the gift shop. Plain, average t-shirts are $30-$40. Button ups are $35-$155. That's right. Each of the Sandals; Montego Bay, Royal Caribbean and the Carlyle have different prices on the same items. I bought a shirt for dinner for $35 at Carlyle, then saw it at the Royal Caribbean for $155. A 24ct bottle of Motrin IB was $16. To get a t-shirt washed will cost you $4 and a pair of pants $7.
I'm truly not trying to be negative, but for the money we paid we really did expect more. The people can be great, the city is nasty, and the amenities are lacking. All they have going for them is their amazing weather, beautiful beaches and great attitudes.
God Bless them.

Unparalleled service, we didn't even have a butler but the staff was just as accommodating. Best first experience with Sandals!!

Amazing place the staff are so good and the food is to die for.

Only thing that I could ever say bad about this place is that you need to watch out at the swim up bar... You might just get a huge glass instead of a single shot. But it was so amazing. Can't wait to return.

Everyone was great. The food tasty . The boat ride excellent and the walk was perfect.

This is my second time in Jamaica. And my vacation was amazing. The staff is very friendly. The butler's are very helpful. And so nice to have around. The restaurants are great and the food is delicious. The drinks are made strong. The beaches clean.

My wife and I just completed a 5 night stay at Sandals Montego Bay. The resort reopened on 6/16/20, and we were one of the first guests. I'm writing this review to help others understand what their experience will likely be, and to help decide whether to go to Sandals at this time.

SANDALS IS SAFE!
The management and staff have gone to great lengths to protect guests from contracting an illness such as the COVID virus. Sanitation occurs frequently, hand hygiene is required at all restaurants and is available throughout the resort.

Staff all wear masks - which is a shame since the studies have shown the masks are generally ineffective, and all they do is make the staff very uncomfortable. The rooms are cleaned and disinfected regularly as are most environmental surfaces.

There is no guarantee that you won't get ill, but the resort has taken all reasonable steps - and more - to protect you. I would not hesitate to vacation at Sandals.

THE RESORT IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS
The resort seems fully staffed. It was only about 20% occupied when we were there, so crowds weren't a problem. All of the restaurants and bars are open (some on a rotating basis), and access to on-resort activities are fully available.

STAFF ARE AS FRIENDLY AS ADVERTISED
I can't speak highly enough about the service and the staff. Almost without exception, staff were friendly, outgoing, and seemed genuinely interested in being of service. Spend the money and get a butler-level room. It's worth every penny. Our butlers (Carleen, Palmer, and Jerome) were top-notch.

FOOD AND DRINK
There are plenty of reviews on the quality or food and drink. To each his own. I have nothing significant to add.

HERE IS THE DOWN-SIDE
The Jamacain Health Ministry implemented COVID-19 screening measures a the airport for tourists the day before we arrived. Unless things change when you arrive, be prepared for a inefficient, convoluted, confusing, and irritating experience.

The requirements around quarantining change on the fly, are not clearly understood, and often contradictory. We were told by one health official that we would be quarantined to our room for 14 days (even though we screened negative). Then came to find out that we would be quarantined to the resort. This is being done on everyone - so there were no tours off the property. They also made us take both a nasal and oral swab test for the virus.

I can't stress strongly enough my recommendation that you check with the hotel for changes to the screening process before you get on your plane. Once you're there, you can't turn around and go home until your test results come back (3 - 5 days)

BOTTOM LINE
Go to Sandals and have a great time!

Absolutely loved our stay at Sandals Montego Bay- from the food to the service it was exceptional. Curious, what pillow brand do the Sandals resorts use? I ve never found anything quite like it.

The food is great. The staff is cooperative and friendly. Wonderful service. The landscaping beautiful.

My husband and i had our honeymoon here. We stayed 14 days it was amazing. We had a butler suite. They were amazing hand towels and a cooler set out every morning on our favorite spot on the beach. I cannot wait to go back!

They did a beautiful job on the renovations. Best of the 3 Sandals locations in Montego Bay.

People here are great. Friendly and trying to make your stay as pleasant and enjoyable. Though, don't expect them running around you like in some place in New York. "Ya mon. Noproblem mon!" Indeed, relax and enjoy.

Only at Sandals, does luxury and comfort come alive

As new divers my wife and I were excited dives are included here. Even though the dive master was aware everyone was newly certified the dive master left both couples behind immediately to race ahead once in the water. The first couple were paying and attempting their advanced certs that they push on you to buy. That couple got exhausted trying to keep up and had to surface. We continued for a while before surfacing also and the dive was ended and we went back in early having never gotten to the plane. Very dangerous and unprofessional for the DM to simply abandon the group to do their own thing. We did not attempt to dive again as we did not feel safe. I would caution any newer diver wanting to try diving here as you are gambling with your life.

Most of the restaurants were roughly good/okay with the exception of the pub. Granted it might be good but we waited an hour and a half in an otherwise empty restaurant for food that never came.

The Spa was a huge disappointment. We wanted/paid for deep tissue massages and their version of that is a scam. If they changed the names to relaxation massage or something it might not have been such a bad thing expectation wise. But gentle touching with one hand at a time is not a massage. Save your money.

The drinks are good, the food is decent, the staff is genuinely interested in you having a good time. The rooms are nice, the place as a whole is mostly good. Just a few very bad things took a lot of enjoyment away from the trip as a whole.(there were other smaller bad things too I just don t want to type anymore). This place is good for non divers, cruise type people who like the all inclusive idea. There is no real draw outside of all I can drink. Would not go here again.

Even with strict COVID-19 protocols in place, we were able to have an AWESOME time! The staff, supervision, and accommodations are beyond expectations! Already book our next trip back!

On the positive side, the service at their spa was excellent, the food at the English pub and at Tokyo Joe s was fantastic, and The housekeeping service was wonderful; they were friendly, informative, and extremely hard-working.



Apparently the amount of money we spent for this trip was not enough to earn us top-notch services, as we would have had to pay extra for a butler to reserve our seat at the beach, not allowing us to enjoy any seats in the shade despite the fact that many people did not show up for their butler service. Failure to pay this extra money also resulted in a significantly smaller room, with an infinity tub that was basically just a large size bathtub.

Next year Secrets we are coming back!

Nice resort. We visited from the neighboring Sandals Royal Caribbean (free shuttle). Large resort is spread out in a long line versus stacked backward form the beach. Like I said we just visited and what we saw was beautiful.

Every detail of this Sandals is 5star quality. The service is impeccable, the food amazing. Very clean and tidy on the entire resort, and we walked all over. It's very spread out, so you don't feel crammed in anywhere. I will say, it was tough to get a covered lounge chair at the beach as the butler's claim them all. There's plenty of places to go and things to do. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Loved it!

Incredibly fun! The best all inclusive. Super Friendly and helpful staff. Lots of activities. 5 min to the airport. Large Variety of places to eat.

Absolutely the most beautiful Resort I have ever been to In My Life !! This is the flagship of Sandals Resorts! The local Jamaican staff make this Resort a better experience then you could get just about anywhere on the planet !! ;-) Ya Mon no problem !!! Anything you want !! ;-) Miles of private beachfront make for an experience like no other in the Caribbean ;-) shout out to the staff,miss you guys and gals, live entertainment every day all over the resort, large events in the evenings that get the entire Resort together like one big family :-):-) made more friends and connections then i could have ever imagined I would. I went to Jamaica for a humanitarian Dental Adventure through #GreatShape #thousandsmiles program, #sandals donates Millions of dollars in boarding donations to house the volunteers during the program duration ! Now... I definitely would have put five star review except I am addicted to drone photography and this Resort happens to be directly across from the airport(ya really do get used to the jumbo jets leaving after a day or so) because of which I could not launch my drone and get footage :'( otherwise absolutely stunning amazing experience !!