Best Sandals Resort in Jamaica: I Visited ALL 7 Resorts & Ranked My Favorites

I've been to all 7 Sandals Resorts in Jamaica to give you the skinny on what's the best Sandals Resort. Now it's 2026, so it's a very important year for Jamaica because in October of 2025, Hurricane Melissa, Category 5 hurricane, hit that island. So I was there just maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago. To double-check the island. I spent almost a week looking at Jamaica and checking out Sandals Resorts. Now, some resorts are open, and they were open when I went there, and they look amazing. So we're going to go over that. Some resorts for Sandals do not open until May 30th, 2026, but I'mma still rate those resorts for this year. So if you go May 30th on, they'll be even better. Okay, so these are all 7 Sandals Resorts. I've broken them into categories. I've got insider tips. If you have any questions or comments, always leave them in the comment section of the video. I come back to these videos all the time and try to answer your questions. I'm also going to put links to the latest deals, and man, are there deals. There are deals. So the links to the deals will be in the description. Thank you for clicking on those. Those help out the channel. We also have Pixies. My wife and I own Pixie Vacations. We have Pixies that can help you book your Sandals and Beaches trip, 100% included in the price of the booking, no extra cost. They travel to all these resorts as well. I wanna give you a breakdown of the different types of vacations you can have at a Sandals resort in Jamaica. So I've come up with a lot of different categories. I don't have big dollars to announce the categories, but my wife has an endless supply of boxes from Amazon, things she has bought. So I have repurposed those. So the first category is what I call Stay and Play. So you can stay at one Sandals resort and play at others with an included shuttle. That'll take you from one Sandals resort to another. There are two different areas in Jamaica that this is possible. One is really close to where you fly in at Montego Bay. So Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Royal Caribbean Stay and Play, they are, I don't know, 5-10 minutes apart, very close to each other. So you can stay at Montego Bay and go over to Sandals Royal Caribbean Enjoy the amenities of that resort, enjoy the pools, enjoy dining, make dining reservations between the two. I believe it's 21 restaurants. There might even be more when they open up, cuz right now they are closed because of the hurricane, but on May 30th they will reopen. So those two resorts, they're going to take them up to the next level— Sandals 2.0. So they're going to be stunning. Also, you can stay at Royal Caribbean and play at Montego Bay. Again, there's a shuttle takes you between the two resorts. The other area is Ocho Rios. You have Royal Plantation, which has around 78, 80 rooms, all butler. So it's very quiet, very quaint. It's on a cliff, little— you— so a lot of walking. So you walk down the cliff, the beach is there. Great for a really quiet, romantic Like, when you think of romance, so, so very romantic. But it can get quiet, right? So if you're there 7 days, maybe you want to do something. So you can stay and play over at Sandals Ochi. So there's a shuttle, 10-minute ride, you're at Sandals Ochi. There's a hillside version of that, up, up that resort with a speakeasy that's super cool. The rabbit hole. Um, and then there's a beach side of Sandals Ochi. The beach side's a little more party vibe. So if you want things to do, nightlife, more activities, maybe you stay at Royal Plantation and you go to Ochi. If you're staying at Ochi, you cannot go to Royal Plantation because it's too small of a resort. My first insider tip, tip number 1: if you're going to do resort swapping, the first thing you do is you check with the front desk on what time the shuttle runs. It's gonna run at different times at different resorts. Some of the shuttles could be 30 minutes apart. Some of the shuttles might be an hour apart. Some of them might stop earlier in the day. Some of them might run all the way till midnight. So always check with the front desk at the resort you're leaving and the resort you're going to on what time the shuttles run. My second category, what's the best Sandals resort for romance? Come on, baby. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Yes, yours, yours. Uh, naughty but nice. What's the best Sandals resort for romance? If you're looking for something all butler, Sandals Royal Plantation, every room butler suites, very intimate, very quaint. A lot of newlyweds pick this resort, and then they do what we talked about earlier, is they go from there to Sandals Ochi if they want to go to the Speakeasy or go to resorts with larger pools or other things like that. My second choice I really love— oh boy, there's two. But I really love the overwater bungalows. So Sandals South Coast has brand new— when they open back up May 30th, they'll have brand new, again brand new overwater bungalows. They just redid them, so they're redoing them again. Those are spectacular. They also have Rendezvous, which are like these kind of teepee, tiki feeling rooms with the beautiful ceilings like this. Beautiful ceilings, right? So they've got the really cool ceilings. So those are not on the water, but they're about maybe about half the price sometimes of the overwater bungalows. Also Sandals Royal Caribbean, when that opens up again in May, that has overwater bungalows and has a private island. Super, super romantic. Okay, on to our next category, Jamaica. I appropriately named this category rooms. What are my favorite rooms in Jamaica now that Sandals Dunes River is open? Oof. So I just stayed in the Sky Suites. So look at my Sandals Dunes River video. Wow, wow, wow. Third floor, you go out, you've got a soaking tub, and then you've got your own pool on— for our room on the third floor. The temperature, fantastic. Complete glass on the front that overlooks the pool and the ocean. That pool, and it's covered Like I was in that pool, it was raining, it was pouring down rain just for a little bit. It was pouring down rain in December, completely covered. I'm in there, amazing. It's expensive. It's for a special occasion. Also, they have Rendezvous. I have those in that video too. The Rendezvous are super cool. They are not on the beach. They're always back, kind of back in the garden area. But they always have like really cool swim-out area. They have like kind of a hut with a thatched ceiling kind of vibe. One of them, instead of— it has a second story instead of the thatched ceiling. It has a second story. You go up the stairs, there's lounge chairs up there, there's tables up there. There is a telescope so you can look at the stars at night. Those are less expensive, still special occasion, but those are amazing. Then of course Jamaica has two resorts— I talked about this earlier— that have over-the-water bungalows. Royal Caribbean, those are spectacular. And then also Sandals South Coast just redid those. Now again, those two resorts, as of recording right now in 2026, those should be opening May 30th. Again, 2026. Now, those rooms— almost all of those rooms that I recommended are for special occasions. So what you want to do to save some money is maybe book a more entry-level room, maybe a luxury room or a concierge-level room, and then for the last 2 days or something like that book one of these butler-level rooms. If you've watched my videos, you know me. This category is about being cheap, and I am a cheap bastard when it comes to saving money and finding great value for vacation dollars. So I have appropriately named this category my Cheap Bastard Picks. Now, 2026, we're gonna save some money. Because in 2026, only you and me, only us are in the know because you've been watching that people think the hurricane hit that island and it's completely closed, which is not the case. Because I just went there. Dunn's River looks brand new, looks amazing. Sandals Ochi open, ready to go. Sandals Royal Plantation, all butlers right there on the cliff, little quaint boutique Resort open, ready to go. Negril, famous Seven Mile Beach open. Beaches Negril open. There's only 3 Sandals resorts that are closed that are gonna be opening in May 2026, and we're gonna have deals on those too. So normally your deals are in Sandals Ochi because they have a lot of rooms, lot of room categories, probably your cheapest butler level also at Sandals Ochi. Lots of swimming pools. The Mongoose, the Mongoose are super cool at night. Lots of swimming pools. A resort up in the mountains, also a resort right on the beach. There's a little shuttle that takes you between the two. The Rabbit Hole, which is a speakeasy, I love. A lot of fun there. So that's where you get your kind of entry-level Sandals pricing normally. But get in touch with us. Because this year we're going to have deals. So go to the comments, leave a comment, go to the description. I'll put links to the deals if I can figure it out. I did on one of my other videos. I'll put the little QR code somewhere that'll show you the Sandals deals. Thank you for clicking on that because that helps us out with this channel. Also put a little QR code to book with a Pixie because we have Pixies over at Pixie Vacations that go to these resorts know them inside and out, and we'll let you know what the best deals are. So cheap bastards unite! This is the year, 2026, 2027, for Jamaica. Let's go save some money. Next category, if you're going to Jamaica, this is the best beach. It's really hard to pick a good beach cuz they're all really good. There's only one resort where the beach is kind of okay. It's not in Jamaica. Jamaica, fabulous beaches. So I think you're going to enjoy all of them. My top picks. All right. Now there's a beach that's famous. It's what, 6 miles, 6.5, 7, 6, 7, 7. You can tell I have kids. It's the famous Sandals Seven Mile Beach. There's a Sandals resort on that, on this famous Jamaica Seven Mile Beach. It is Sandals Negril. So if you want to get up in the morning, take a long walk, you want to watch the sunset, perfect beach for that. Now there are vendors on that beach. There are vend— you know, all the beaches in Jamaica are public beaches. It's just that some of them are maybe cliffside and they're harder to get to or whatever. So Sandals Negril, the famous Jamaica Seven Mile Beach, top beach. Sandals South Coast, love that beach. That beach is a ways out there. To get to Sandals South Coast, it's about a 2-hour free island tour from Montego Bay. If you saw my best Sandals Resort video, there's a lot of information about Sandals South Coast that you would enjoy. I really love Sandals South Coast. It'll be opening again in May for 2026. Really beautiful beach, and there's nothing else out there. That whole resort is kind of all by itself, so it's not a very crowded beach. So I love that about that. If you look— if you're looking for a very small intimate beach like you see in Hawaii, where you see the cliffs and you're like, how do those people even get down to that beach? They walk down a lot of little rocky steps. Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios, about 74, 78 rooms, all butler. And that beach, there's two little sections to that beach. One is kind of closer to the main resort area, that's kind of where most people hang out, and then there's another one that's kind of tucked away underneath the mangroves. And we've sent clients there and they love it. They get a butler, they get their Yeti little cooler that the butler brings them full of their favorite drinks, and they just park it out there and they just spend a week drinking and relaxing by the beach, reading a book if that's your thing. Little quaint, little boutique kind of beach. So those are my three— oh man, there's another one. Do you want a bonus? Do you want a bonus, bonus beach? So Sandals Royal Caribbean, not open until May 30th again because of the hurricane. But when Royal Caribbean opens, it has a private island with a dragon boat. You get on a boat, it looks like a dragon. It takes you out to this private island. That's where the overwater bungalows are. But you can also go if you're not even staying in one of those amazing restaurants out there, Asian, restaurant out there and a jerk shack. Oh my God. So there's a beach out there too. It's also perfect for sunset if you're looking for a totally private area. Just go over there for the sunset and watch it off of that beach. I think you already know this next category, so this is best food. And this is my 6th time recording this, so I've eaten 6 bananas. So I've taken notes for the 6th time. So I want to tell you about a couple things with dining at Sandals Resorts. Now, first off, we talked about stay at one, play at two. So for 21 dining establishments, 21, you can stay at Sandals Royal Caribbean and Sandals Montego Bay, and you can enjoy 21 dining restaurants between the two. The other cool thing over at Sandals Royal Caribbean, they have a private island. Now, there's a dragon boat, or a dragon boat, it takes you out to the private island. Super cool. And there's Bamboo Grove. Asian-inspired restaurant right there, feet in the sand, barefoot. Great place for sunset too after dinner. Okay, another one. I just came back from Dunn's River again. Another Asian— I don't know why I love the Asian fusion. Asian fusion, Banh Ngu, Asian fusion restaurant. Really enjoyed that. 12 dining options. Over at Sandals Dunes River. So that's also great. That's over in Ocho Rios. Then, oh, my favorite restaurant, my favorite restaurant. Every time I go, I'm like, this is my favorite restaurant. And I hate tapas, man, I hate tapas. But for some reason, this restaurant, which is a tapas restaurant right on the beach, very small amount of tables, so make sure you get there. And get a, get a table. So brava, Sandals Negril. They have 8 dining options at Sandals Negril. Outside, I had every dish except one with our table. Our table ordered one of everything and we tried them all, including all the desserts. I don't even like desserts. And the dessert, I took one home. I took one back to my room. After I had— it was like a cheesecake. I'm not really a cheesecake person. Oh my God, it was so good. I don't know what's going on at Brava. I love it. I have a tip. So what I really like about Dunn's River— and I'm not eating the rest of this banana, I've eaten so many— what I really love about Dunn's River, a lot of the dining restaurants are small intimate and inside with air conditioning. Now, a lot of the other— some of the other resorts, you have majority of your dining outside, which is great, but if it's hot, depending on the time of year you go, it can be a little toasty. And if you're sitting outside, it seems romantic, but if it's like 85 degrees, it might not be that great. So Negril has a lot of dining outside. So I'm always kind of looking. Sometimes outside's okay. Sometimes I'm really looking for the air conditioning. So that's just something to be aware of. So I have a confession. I love some good coffee. In Jamaica, Blue Mountain coffee. Sandals has Blue Mountain coffee in the rooms. So that's great. All the Sandals resorts, all 7. It's a blend, so if you're a coffee snob like me, it is not 100% Blue Mountain Coffee. It's a blend of different coffees and Blue Mountain Coffee. But they have at Dunn's River the best coffee place I have been to at any Sandals Resorts. It is Blum, and I cannot wait till they put this at other Sandals Resorts. They have so many unique cool pour-overs, unique coffee drinks, coffee, nighttime coffee, like, uh, like a nightcap with maybe some Kahlúa or some other alcohol in your coffee. They have like a reverse osmosis process where they, they coarse grind all your coffee, put it in there, pour in the water, goes up, then it filters, then it reverse osmosis comes back down Oh my gosh, like the perfect cup of coffee. And then of course they have cappuccinos and everything else that you can imagine and all kinds of really cool like snacks and little pastries. They even have chocolate bars that they're making. They have their own like line of chocolate bars over there. So Blum, it's in Dunn's River. I can't wait till it goes to the other Sandals resorts in Jamaica. So if you love coffee, give it a go. One of the questions I get for Sandals in Jamaica especially is, is this a party resort, or I'm looking for a more chill kind of vibe for my resort? So party or chill? There's two resorts that I kind of classify as a little more active, a little more fun. So if you're looking for a pool with a lot of really cool activities, a DJ, and they all have activities and music, but two of them really stand out. First one is Sandals Ochi. That pool by the beach, man, they have some great pool parties down there by that beach. Like if you, if that's your thing, that's a great resort. Now also the speakeasy at that resort's loads of fun. So the Rabbit Hole over at Sandals Ochi is a load of fun. Right next to it is Sandals Royal Plantation, which is totally opposite. Small boutique hotel, quaint, relaxing, one small little pool, very intimate, all butler service. The other thing you can do, I think we talked about it earlier, is you can stay— like, if you wanted to stay at Royal Plantation and then take the little shuttle that's included to the more party resort where there's more activities, you can do that. So you get a little bit of both. My other one that's got more of a party vibe is the original, the original Sandals Resort, Sandals Montego Bay. Not currently open, will be open in May of 2026 because of the hurricane. That, when that reopens, is going to be amazing. Uh, lots of fun little bars, lots of places to hang out, really cool, uh, pool area with swim-up bar, great staff, has a little bit more of a party vibe. I'll talk about it also in one of my other categories about near and far. So that's it for the party resorts and the relaxing chill vibes. The next category, they're calling it Free Island Tour. So transfers for Sandals Resorts from the airport to the resort and back are always included as part of your package. Jamaica, is a large island, so there's a couple resorts that I recommend if you want to go. Like, I've gone, I've flown from the US, I've been there with a drink in hand and some jerk chicken because I love the Jerk Shack. By 10, 11 in the morning, I'm at the resort on the beach drinking a Red Stripe. So those resorts would be Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Royal Caribbean. Montego Bay is literally 10 minutes from the Montego Bay Airport. Royal Caribbean is probably 15 minutes from the Montego Bay Airport. So you can be there on the beach literally in minutes. It's also great when you're leaving because you don't think about this when you book your vacation, but when you're leaving and they want to get you to the airport 3 hours before your departure time, it's a lot easier to just go from Montego Bay and not have this huge drive. So you can stay at the resort on your return day longer as well. Now, the disadvantage— now, I've talked to everybody at both of these resorts, and they— most people don't care. Like, I don't think I've talked to anybody who cares, so I don't know why. For me, the air traffic is something you need to be aware of. So Montego Bay, literally almost on the runway, it's that close to the airport. So you're going to hear air traffic taking off and landing. So if that's bothersome to you, you need to know that about Montego Bay. Royal Caribbean, maybe 15 minutes away, not— there's still air traffic but not as loud. So that's the two things with those two resorts. Now your other resorts, your other resorts for your island tour. So Sandals Ochi took me a couple weeks ago about an hour and 45 minutes. Maybe, uh, Negril is a little less. South Coast can be up to about 2 hours. So Now, I enjoy all of them. You just have to know if you're booking a 7 AM flight and you got a 2-hour return, plus they want to get you there 2 to 3 hours before your departure, you're going to be getting up really early. So just keep that in mind. Also, I get motion sickness, but for some reason I'm okay I'm okay, you know, I take their transfers. I just look, I make sure I look out the window. I'm not like scrolling my phone. I can't like read, but like South Coast, pretty hilly. And they've redone part of that where they're like, oh, we redid, we redid part of the road. Oh, it's like, where was the part that was redone? Oh, you know that little part that didn't have any potholes. It was a little straighter. I'm like, oh, wow. Okay. So yes, they've redone part of the road, but that thing, the South Coast, is like a roller coaster. So if that's not your thing, then you need to know. Like, you can get a little motion sick going to South Coast. But that resort's wonderful. It's amazing. Ocho Rios is not as bad. I didn't feel like it was as bad. It seems like it's mostly by the water you're going, and it's, I mean, there's some parts that are up, but it's not like this. It's not like super curvy back and forth, but it's definitely, there's some parts that are up and down. And that's about an hour and 45 minutes. And the grill is kind of in the middle of that, right? So it's not as far as South Coast, but it's still a little bit of a haul. So that's it. Close and far. If you want a free island tour, if you don't, Those are your options. Let's talk about excursions. Now, Jamaica, all Sandals Resorts are all-inclusive, so there's a ton of cool things you can do already at the resort. So there's scuba diving, which is amazing, that's included. Golf, all these water sports, everything. But if you're looking for island excursions, then my top area is the resorts over by Ocho Rios, because that's where most of your kind of main touristy attractions are. So swimming with dolphins, the Blue Hole, Dunn's River, uh, horseback riding— a lot of that is already established over in Ocho Rios. So that means Sandals Ochi, Sandals Royal Plantation, and Sandals Dunn's River are kind of the top picks if you want to kind of go out and really explore kind of that area of Jamaica. And finally, what's my favorite Sandals resort in Jamaica? I have, I have a lot. So we already went over why certain resorts are great. So this is good for budget, this is good for time, this is great for dining, this is great for the beach. So you already have all that. My personal favorite that I just got back from was Sandals Dunes River because it just reopened and it looks brand new. It's just the right size. I like the size of the resort. I like the different types of room categories, really, and really great dining. I like air conditioning. There's a lot of those dining establishments that have air conditioning. My favorite coffee place out of all the Sandals resorts. Um, I just— and I really enjoy that part of Jamaica, Ocho Rios. Now, my number 2 in Jamaica, totally different coast, is Sandals South Coast. Now, it's, it's closed right now as I'm recording. It should be opening in late May for 2026 because of this hurricane. Overwater Bungalows, the Rendezvous over there, um, that resort, Swim Outs, a lot of— a huge resort, lots of cool options over there. Oh, I forgot, in Dunn's River also the Rum Club is really, really cool. So my number 1, Sandals Dunn's River. Number 2, Sandals South Coast. But again, great deals in 2026, 2027, because only you and I, you and I know that it's open, that Jamaica's thriving. The people are fantastic. They really need you to come back to Jamaica. They work so hard. Please go to Jamaica. Enjoy it. If you have questions, I know there's a lot, there's so much to know. So I tried to give you a brief overview. Of all 7 resorts. But again, if you need any more help, go to the description. There's links to get you everything you need. Happy to help you. Leave comments. Always trying to check the comments for years and on years. I'm always in there trying to help everybody out. Have a fantastic vacation.