I’m getting married next June and am looking at Honeymoon destinations at the moment. I live in the UK and we are currently thinking of flying out to the Caribbean and going to an all-inclusive resort (possibly Jamaica).
Does anyone have any advice? I’m particularly interested to hear any comments from people that have been to Sandals’ resorts.
Just an aside, I’m getting married on June 10th. We elected to go to the south coast of Spain for our honeymoon…ever been there?
Sorry, can’t help you, hubby and I aren’t really resort type people.
We were married in September and went to Venice, Italy for a week.
Cost about £500 each for flights, accommodation, transport, activities and food.
The trick was to stay in a 4 star hotel, 10 minutes by train from the city.
All-inclusive doesn’t necessarily equal value for money.
I can give you some gossip, though I haven’t been…I did a little research on these for a vacation that didn’t materialize.
Sandals are generally considered expensive for the value. They are fairly nice high quality resorts, but there are better resort options that don’t sink so much into marketing and therefore have lower prices. Friends of ours really enjoyed a Barcelo resort South of Cancun (although post-Wanda that area will be cheaper, but not as nice - I think the one they stayed on is the Maya Caribe). Rui also has a bunch of resorts that are well respected in the area, considered a great value for the money. On the ladder above Sandals are the Club Meds.
When we went to the Mexican Riveria last summer, we discovered a bunch of message boards that specialize in the area. I’d do a search, if you are interested in Jamaica do a search for Jamaica travel related boards.
I’ve never been to a resort which is partly why I’m asking. Given it is for a honeymoon, we’re looking for the minimum amount of stress and organisation, since the wedding is going to require alot of effort to organise. Hopefully I’ll be able to persuade Mrs Creosote to come to India or China next year in return, for a more back to basics type of holiday.
That’s probably a good idea. I did a search for reviews on Sandals, but didn’t do a general one for Jaimca. Better get my googling hat on.
We went to two Superclubs resorts in Jamaica for our honeymoon. Superclubs are allegedly a step up from Sandals, but I haven’t been to one to compare. We went to The Grand Lido Sans Souci in Ocho Rios and the Grand Lido Negril in Negril. The resorts offered a “sampler” where we spents some nights at one, and then were flown in a very small plane to the other.
I preferred the Sans Souci–Negril seemed a little less luxurious as Sans Souci so it felt like a step down, plus the cliffside location of Sans Souci felt more interesting. If we’d just gone to one, or done them in the reverse order (we did Sans Souci first) that may have been a non-issue.
But generally, I’d recommend either as okay honeymoon spots. This was 8 years ago, but I assume not much has changed (trip reports will help you ascertain this). Both were on the ocean (some of the Ocho Rios resorts aren’t, and guest take buses to the beach) and the service was pretty good, although their version of some bar drinks were mystifying. These were all-inclusives, where all was included.
One downside is that they’re both a long bus ride from the airport where you’ll fly in.