Jamaica, Sandals Whitehouse Review

Overall Rating

It's all good, see my review....

None - Yep, NONE

We visited Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica from the 16th to the 23rd of August 2006 from (just outside) London UK.

One of our favourite drinks is a French spirit called Pernod, and we like it mixed with blackcurrant cordial. Having picked up the e-mail address from this site, I dropped SWH a line asking if they stocked Pernod. They didn't, but they said they'd try and locate some for us. Sure enough, some time later I got an email telling me that they had some Pernod in stock now. The slight problem was the blackcurrant cordial which they could not locate for us on the island. "No probs" we said, "we can bring some of that from home"! So far so good, and excellent service we felt. A week or so before we were due to arrive I mailed them again. We particularly wanted to see the ocean and sunsets from our room. I was concerned since I understood that as we had booked the lowest room category our view may be obscured by the trees/bushes or whatever. Within a few hours I had received a reply saying that an upper floor in the Dutch area would give us the best sunset views, and that they would see if they could accommodate our wishes. Great, even better - superb service!

Our flight from London was long but fine. We waited about 30 minutes for immigration and went to collect our bags, no real hassle. From there we go to the Sandals lounge and get a drink and give them our bags. Drive to SWH from Montego Bay airport, which lasted about 2 hours of winding narrow roads, but in England our roads can be worse, so no worries for us. There were three other couples on the bus journey.

On arrival we were greeted by all the staff, and after identifying our bags we all relaxed with cold towels and champagne - mmmm nice! All four couples received upgrades. We went from Deluxe to Grand something or other (I think the check in guy said we had upgraded 5 levels)! We ended up in room 2327, third floor Dutch, one room from the end (near the French area). Room was spotlessly clean, large and well equipped. Stocked fridge (soft drinks and water etc), TV and DVD (we didn't use the TV or DVD), CD player (we brought a selection of our CD's having read this site so often), alarm clock, everything you'd need. Nice balcony, perfect view of the pool, ocean and sunset. One thing, if you like to use shower gel as opposed to soap - bring your own. As an extra bonus (for which we were really grateful and impressed) there was a huge bottle of Pernod for us in our room. I can't tell you how impressed we were (and still are) with the service we have received from Sandals WH management and staff.

Housekeeping was fine if a little erratic in the time they turned up, and turndown service was good also. We left small gifts for the housekeeping, with a signed note so they could prove that they were gifts when they left to go home with them as tipping is a big NO NO here.

Food - well, you won't go hungry, as the restaurant selection is truly excellent. We tried all of them. On our first morning we went to breakfast at Bayside. As we walked in we were greeted and offered a Mimosa, and we had to ask what a Mimosa was, but we were converted once we tried them, and we had them with breakfast every morning - yum yum. All food we had was of top quality. There was no waiting to be seated (appears to be a quiet time to visit SWH). The service was top class and friendly too, and nothing is too much trouble for them. And, you'll never go thirsty for water, rum and cocktails, you name it! The restaurants also maintain a dress code. I have to applaud this, it made it all the more special that virtually everyone dressed well for dinner each night. For guys smart trousers (pants for you US readers), closed toe shoes and shirts with collars are required. In the most part, the ladies were all wearing very smart dresses and heels. But the ladies can also get away with skirts and tops and trousers and tops. No flip flops. If you really don't want to dress for dinner there are a couple of casual restaurants, but personally for us, dressing for dinner makes the holiday that bit more special. Be aware that not every restaurant is open every night, but maybe that does not apply in peak periods. January and November are the peaks according to the bar staff. A nice touch is that the bar tenders will remember your drinks, if you ever have the same round twice that is. It's so nice to have that personal touch.

There are several bars. Our fave was at Arizona's on the large patio areas by the sand. We consumed many cocktails such as:
Dirty Bananas
Humming Birds
Jamaican Smiles
Brain Haemorrhage (yes, I had to check the spelling too!)
Harvey Wallbangers
Royal Flushes
Smirnoff Screwdrivers (that blow your head off)
Woo Woos
Ewart Rum Specials (no two ever the same!)
Hmmmmm - can't remember some of the ones we had later... Not sure why!

Ask for a Londoner's Secret (remind the barman it's made with Pernod), you'll
love it !

All the pools are fantastic, although we preferred the Dutch. We were told the Dutch was for the 'newly wed and nearly dead,' neither of which describes us! The French has a good swim up bar and water volleyball (every muscle I have ached after playing just one game) twice a day, which is a bit more lively. The Italian only has a hot tub, and when we went there it was deserted, but it is right next to the main pool. This pool is beautiful, and there are quite a few activities taking place there every day. Since we were after a "relaxing couples chill out" type of holiday, this pool didn't appeal to us, but it was nice to look at, and we did see other people enjoying it when we did pass by.

Water sports - I wimped out half way through the Scuba diving course (US$70.00 each). I hated not being able to gulp fresh air and decided to drop out. Sue was fine with it and went on to complete the course and do the 34 feet deep ocean dive the next day. Well done Sue. Other then that we tried - water skiing, hobbie cat sailing, kayaking and snorkeling. All water sports were easily available at any time due to the fact the place was not packed out - a good time of year to go to SWH. There is a young girl who takes the bookings in the watersports building who is full of energy and smiles, and will never fail to brighten your day - I wish I could remember her name, but I just can't.

We took lots of pictures, which I will be posting up on Snapfish shortly, so look out for them. There are photographers all over the place who can take pictures of you as a couple. Nice sunset pics and all over the place. In fact, once we were lying in a hammock and said wouldn't it be great if we could get a picture of us in this. Within about two minutes a photographer called out asking if we wanted some nice pics taken - wow, what service! One tip with the photographs, the photo shop will put your selected pictures onto a CD for you if you don't want to have them printed there. They charge US$5.00 per picture, and on your last day you have them loaded to a CD to bring home and enhance/print them at your leisure. They do not advertise this service, you need to ask if you want to do this.

The beaches are fantastic, and get raked every morning (I want that job please!). One day we walked way beyond the security hut, perhaps a mile and half of untouched beach. We were like cast aways and completely alone. Now, that night Sue noticed that my back had been bitten by something around 20 times. Luckily the bites did not hurt and went down, although they are a little itchy now. Lucky Sue, they didn't like her as she didn't get bitten once.

On our 4th day, there was a lot of condensation on the underside of the air conditioning unit. This sits right above where you hang all your clothes. As a consequence, all our good clothes felt damp and my shoes had little puddles in them. A quick call brought the duty manager to our room. Within minutes all our clothes were whisked away for full laundry service, and later that day the duty manager brought some help, and we moved up to room 2427, directly above our first room. This one was on the concierge floor and had the benefit of bottles of Rum, Gin, Whisky, Vodka, red and white wine, red stripe beer, champagne and all the mixers and soft drinks. Other than that the rooms are all exactly the same, apart from the butler suites I think. Obviously I'd rather not have had to change rooms, but it did go to prove the high standards of service that the Sandals team deliver. And to reinforce this standard of service, whenever we saw the duty manager after this, he always came over to us to check that we were happy and that everything was fine with the room and service etc - well done.

To sum up, this was the best holiday we have ever taken, and we have travelled quite extensively and have stayed in some super luxury hotels before, so we know how good service feels. We felt we were treated like royalty at SWH. We met some nice people, we drank some (OK, OK - lots of) cocktails, we sunbathed, we swam, we ate, we...

Sadly all good things must come to an end, and our week was up far too quickly. We intend to go back to SWH next year (would go next week if we could), and we can't wait. The pictures in the brochure and on the website cannot do this place justice; you have to see it for yourself. There is an army of behind the scenes workers who are continuously tending the gardens and carrying out general maintenance to keep up the high standards. The service is excellent and the people are so friendly. If you are thinking of going I'd say go for it! You won't be disappointed. I'd defy anyone to not have a great holiday here. If you want night time fun, it's there. If you prefer quiet you can have quiet. Day time poolside fun and activities - go to the main pool or the French area. Relaxing quiet times - go to the Dutch area or the beach. I'd be happy to answer any questions should you have any, so just leave a comment.

SWH has it all - and we want some more of it!

Sandals Whitehouse - See you next year...

Members' Comments ondavebryant500's Review

• pinknic07 on 13th Mar 2007

  
  I am going to Sandals Whitehouse in May this year and just wondered if you have or could tell me where I can find their email address, as like you I want to ask if they stock a particular drink?
  
  Nikki

• davebryant500 on 15th Mar 2007

  Email me directly at davebryant500@hotmail.com, I have the email of the manager but don't want to publish it here.
  
  Regards
  
  Dave

• lenalush on 4th Sep 2008

  Hi there
  Its great to read your review, we are off to the Whitehouse on 20/09/08 & i wanted to get intouch with the hotel to see what damage if any has been done by the hurricane, so could you give me their mail address.
  Many thanks
  L

• lenalush on 15th Sep 2008

  Hi Dave
  I have emailed you at your hotmail account but I have had no reply. Please can you email the hotel for me to find out what damage if there is any to the hotel

• toddytwo on 10th Oct 2008

  Thanks for a great review :-)
  We're hoping to go feb /march or April and I wondered if there's a particularly bad time to choose ,weatherwise, many thanks

• Kay Murdoch on 26th May 2009

  Hi
  We are off to SandalsWhitehouse on 27th June and I am very keen to take your advice and email in advance to see if we can book into the Dutch part. Do you have an email address at all as I am having trouble getting in touch with them.
  many thanks