16 Sandals Resort Secrets You Should Know Before You Go | 2026

Let's get right to it. Today we're going to talk about the top Sandals picks for your vacation. I have a whole list of tips and tricks for you, and we're going to start with pretty obvious, which Sandals resort is perfect for you. There are 17 Sandals resorts, so it's kind of hard to pick which one is specifically perfect for you. If we haven't met, I am Steve. My last name is Griswold. My wife and I own a travel agency called Pixie Vacations. We have pixies that can book a magical— we can book a magical vacation for you to any Sandals or Beaches resort. There's no extra cost to you. So I've put together again my top list of things to get you ready for your Sandals trip. So number 1, again, which Sandals resort? So why is this important? It's important because there are 2 types of Sandals resorts. Basically, there are the ones that are a little more chill and relaxing, and then there's some that have more of a party vibe. So let me give you an example. So if you wanted a very chill, quiet, boutique-type Sandals resort, you might go to Jamaica. To Sandals Royal Plantation. About 78 rooms, all butler, cliffside, very quiet, very small little pool, a couple little restaurants tucked away. Very different vibe than if you went to the Bahamas, to the Sandals resort there, or if you went to Sandals Ochi, which is pretty much down the street from Royal Plantation, or if you went to maybe Sandals Montego Bay. Those have more of a party vibe. The one in the Bahamas is super close to Miami. Like, literally, I have been there in a 35-minute flight from Miami to Nassau. So that resort is good for maybe an extended weekend, 3, 4-day weekend. So maybe that's why that one has more of a party vibe reputation. My next tip is which room should you pick for your Sandals trip? There are so many room categories. Over the water bungalow with a jacuzzi tub with an ocean view. I mean, they go on and on. They have the longest room category names you have ever heard of. And I've seen, in some of the comments where people get very confused, like on Google reviews or things, people book a room category because they all, none of them say room overlooking the tennis courts right by the entrance next to the road. Okay? So there's no category that says that. But it could be your entry-level room is a luxury room. And then you go to like a club level room and then you go to a butler level room. So if you have a garden view, yes, it could be looking at the gardens next to the tennis courts or next to the basketball, basketball courts or something like that. So you need to know what category you're booking, what that category comes with in the way of like in-room amenities or little extras. And kind of what the, the view is. So if you book a Luxury, kind of your entry-level room, and you're looking at all these pictures online of these rooms that, you know, have like separate pools and they're right on the water, those are like two different things. So try to work with a travel agent who knows Sandals because then they can help you figure out what the different room categories are and what's right for you. So my next tip seems very simple, and I always have one of these in my pocket. This is a pen, in case you can't tell, because it looks so fancy. Someone's like, is that a vape or something? No, this is an actual pen. So bring a pen with you on your flight. If you haven't flown international in a long time— now, a lot of them are online now. Where you go ahead and you sign up online. It's kind of like an entry form, but some islands still have the paper form, or if you didn't do it online, they'll usually have the paper form. And most of the flights will have the form on the flight and they will pass out the form. But if you don't have a pen, it's very hard to fill that out. Then you get off the plane and you have to go and you have to find— you have to go to a little stand and you have to fill it out while the rest of the flight goes ahead, ahead of you to go through customs. So a very simple tip, bring a pen with you. I just keep one in my backpack, right? And then if I put my backpack up, I'll take it out, throw it in my pocket because I know sometime during the flight they're going to come around with those forms. Sometimes I don't follow my own advice, but bring a carry-on when you go to Sandals and you need a couple things in this carry-on. To start your vacation off right. So the first thing is when you arrive, I get there usually pretty early. So sometimes I'm there at like 11:00 AM and then maybe the room's not ready and I'm— it's like you can't tell, but it's, it's 12 degrees where I'm at right now. So it is freezing. So sometimes you fly in and you're bundled up, right? And then you get there and it's like 85 degrees and sunny. And then you're walking around because they take your luggage and they store it, and then they take it up to your room. And sometimes your room might not be ready till 3. So you're walking around with like a jacket and jeans and whatever, and everyone else is in bathing suits going to the pool. So in your carry-on, pack a bathing suit, pack some sunscreen, pack a few little things so when you get there you can go ahead and change. Now you think Then maybe I'll just put it in my luggage and then I'll go to the front desk and say, hey, can I get to my luggage? Now I have been, I have been where the entire flight's luggage did not arrive and the only thing we had for 3 days was our carry-on, which, um, was a camera bag for me. So I had nothing except camera gear. And literally the clothes I wore. So bring a carry-on, put everything you want in it, just in case. So back to booking. You need discounts. There are always Sandals discounts. We have a list of them. I will put somewhere up here two different QR codes, one to the current discounts that are going on right now at Sandals. And thank you. If you click, if you click on that, it helps out this channel. There's no cost to you. It just takes you to Sandals. So there's that. You can see the latest discounts or the other one I'll put up to work with a Pixie, with one of our Pixies here at Pixie Vacations. And we go all the time and we can help guide you through all the latest discounts, make sure you get the latest best discount, the resort that's right for you, the room category that's right for you, and we can walk you through all the different options. So again, just get with us. We'll help you find discounts. There's all kinds of different ones. It depends on the time of year, um, but there's always recurring discounts. And then hopefully if something comes out later, it's usually the best now and then it kind of progressively gets a little less. So the sooner you book or the farther out you can book, usually the better discount you can get. Again, it's also tied to time of year, resort popularity. So if you're going during season when it's peak season, yeah, then you're going to have— and you want a very hard to get room, you know, it's going to be a little higher priced. If you're going off season, then that's when you can find more discounts, lighter crowds, things like that. My next tip is this. Dressing appropriate, bringing the appropriate clothes for your Sandals Resort. There will be usually at least one restaurant that requires a collared shirt and slacks for the guys, and then women can pretty much do anything. So like just a dress or a nice outfit for the ladies. So closed-toed shoes, usually it's the French restaurant. At the resort you're at that might have a dress code. So make sure you pack something for that. So you have a collared shirt and some dress pants and some nice shoes and you're ready to go. The other thing is there are party nights. So all white night, if that's your thing, bring something white to wear to that event at your Sandals resort as well. I learned the hard way. Bug spray and sunscreen. Yes, you can buy them at your Sandals resort, but they are very expensive. So always bring a lot of sunscreen and then bug spray or some, something like bug spray. I mean, some of the resorts I've been to and they're not bad, but then sometimes on the beach, the little no-see-um things, It just depends. Like, my wife will get eaten alive and I'll just be like, nothing. So I'm usually, usually I'm okay. But again, just throw them in your bag. Super easy. You can buy them there, but the prices are a lot higher on the islands to buy bug spray and sunscreen. Another tip I like to bring, and I always forget this too, I need to follow my own advice. Something to put your cell phone in because you're going to be on a catamaran or on an excursion that's wet. So if you get one of these little plastic bags or sometimes they have a lanyard and your phone fits in the lanyard and it's sealed, something like that. Even a dry bag. I brought one once. It was great. I brought one to, I think, to New Zealand because we were going in and out of all these different spas., and then you have a wet bathing suit with you when you're changing, and then you're going to the next thing. So a dry bag is also great. So something for your phone and a dry bag, very helpful. When you get to sandals, you're going to get this, you're going to get something like this. So this is a club level, uh, folder. You can get one of these for Butler as well, and it's going to have a list of things inside of it that you should take a look at. So the first thing on here is it talks about the lounge. So if you're club level or butler, what's happening at the lounge and when are the hours of the lounge. There is an orientation. All Sandals Resorts have this similar to like on a cruise ship where they take you around, they show you the same thing at Sandals Resorts. They'll take you around, show you everything. They'll talk about all the events going on. That's very helpful. They talk about if you have in-room dining, so what the hours or how that works. Uh, then they have special events. So for Club Level, they have a martini hour. They have wine tasting just for Club Level. They have exclusive snorkeling. So these are specific extra times to go snorkeling, and it tells you how to RSVP for that. They have a shopping tour, they have a cocktail party just for Club Level, and then they talk about the in-room bar and how to get that set up. So take a look for this, um, Club Level or Butler. When you check in, you will get that, and that will kind of get you going. The other thing is, when you first get there, make your dining reservations. So it's very important to make dining reservations first day. So I like to go and get them all knocked out for my entire stay and I plan it all out and not go day by day by day because then something might be closed or something might be booked. And then, you know, like, okay, I've got these excursions. And so you want to plan it out and get it all mapped out and then you're set for your whole trip. The same thing if you want to do things like snorkeling. Or other activities, go to the activity desk for that because you don't want to go to the activity desk at like noon and go, hey, I want to go snorkeling. And they'll be like, oh, it filled up 2 days ago. So go and see what's available for that day and future days and then book it on your first day. These are the included excursions. So snorkeling, scuba diving, golf, all those types of things that are included, go ahead and go to those locations, sign up the first day for whenever you want during your week, and then get it planned out. So let's go back to excursions again one moment. So these excursions are the ones that you book before you arrive. These are usually with Island Routes. You can book them at the Island Roots desk when you arrive. I like to book them before because then you have everything planned out. You don't have to worry about them being sold out. You know what the pricing is, so you're not surprised, and you can figure out what day you want to do things, and you get to kind of look at them online, and we can go ahead and book those for you also and go over all the options of excursions. Now, these are the extra cost excursions, so again, I book those before before I travel to make sure everything's set, and then you're good to go. If you have a butler. So if you have a butler, a couple things. The first is, is there's a form online that you can fill out about your preferences. So drinks and things like that. Uh, you can also do this when you get there. So in your room when you meet your butler, So what alcohol you want, things like that. The other thing is I have a video on butlers, so take a look at that. So like what to ask for, because I am not the butler type, but now I enjoy it. But the first few times I'm like, is this for me? I'm like, what do I do with a butler? So I put a whole video together. 'Cause if you feel the same way, the things to do with the butler, what to expect, what they do, what they don't do, all of that. So again, if you're getting a butler, watch that video to understand how that works and some of the things that are really cool that you can do with your butler. So let me tell you one of the things with the butler before I forget. So if you have a butler, one of my favorite things is to have them book a cabana for you. Because my family, we did this at Beaches. You can do this at Sandals as well.. But when I was at Beaches, which is for families, Sandals is for couples, uh, the kids wanted a cabana next to the pool and that comes with the butler service. So they go out and they get the cabana for you and they put your name on it and it's reserved. And then they come by for lunch and they bring you what you want for lunch and they can bring drinks and all the, the whole nine yards. So that's a great use of a butler. The next one. Do we want to talk about— I call these Sandals Stay and Play resorts. So what this is, there are certain resorts that are very close to each other on certain islands in the Caribbean. So you can stay at one and you can play at two or three Sandals resorts. So an example of this would be Jamaica. Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Royal Caribbean, really close together, maybe 10 minutes. So they have a shuttle that's included and you can go from resort to resort. So you can dine at one or dine at the other. So you have over 20 restaurants in that situation between the two resorts. So you can spend the day at the pool at one resort, at the private island over at Royal Caribbean. Then you can come back and have dinner over at Montego Bay. So there's a couple situations where this plays out. Another one that's really great that I just did was St. Lucia. St. Lucia has 3— Grand St. Lucian, Halcyon, and, uh, Regency La Tocque. So you can stay at any of those 3. You get on a really nice shuttle, goes between all 3 of them. So you can go have lunch or relax at any of those 3 resorts. So that's another great option. Stay and play. Now, before you arrive at Sandals, here's another tip. You can do the online check-in. I have done this because it makes it so much easier when you get there and you don't have to figure out what's my return flight time because they're trying to figure out the free transfer back to the airport. So you're typing all this in on an iPad. If you show up and you haven't done it. But I'm guilty of not doing it very, very often as well. I just kind of show up and I'm like, I don't even know what room I'm in. So yeah, I get the vacation brain as well. But if you remember, just go to the app, do the online check-in, you're all set and you're just ready to go. I have one other tip and then we'll wrap it up. So my last tip This is great also if you go on a cruise or if you go to Beaches and you have kids. So Beaches again is for kids, Sandals is for couples. Just enjoy all the dining. So when I say this, so here's what I mean. Go have sushi at Soy as an appetizer, then go to Butch's for your main meal, then go get some ice cream at Froyo's or one of the ice cream places, right? So enjoy multiple things in a night if you want and just take your time. Or when you go to dinner and you're like, ooh, do I want the steak or do I want the lobster or do I want the fish or the pasta? Just order 2 meals and give it a try. Now, I don't— I usually— I'm pretty hungry because you're running around all day, right? So you're going around. So Go ahead and try a couple things and then you'll see what you like. So it's a great opportunity to explore things that you would not normally eat. And if you, especially at beaches, it gives your kids a chance to try all kinds of cool stuff. Hopefully that helps you out. We're happy to help you with your sandals vacation. Go ahead into the comments and if you have other tips, go ahead and leave them in there. Or if you have questions, I come back to these videos as much as I can. So I try to answer your comments. And questions in there. And in the description, I will have links to all the latest deals and how to work with us over here at Pixie Vacations. Again, it's no cost to you. Have a fantastic vacation.