Sandals Dunn's River FULL REVIEW | I Take You On A FULL TOUR

I'm at Sandals Dunn's River. They are back open. If you're planning to come to Jamaica in 2026 or 2027, they just had a hurricane. I am here 5 weeks after the hurricane because I wanted to see what it's really like on the ground, what the airport's like, what the resorts are like, what the roads are like. What's open, what's closed. So if you're planning to go to Jamaica in the next 2 years, keep an eye on this video. I'm going to take you all around Sandals Dunn's River. Uh, I mean, you can tell it's almost Christmas time. It is December, and I'm at the front lobby area of the resort. They have it all decked out for the holidays. It looks stunning. It's amazing. I have to tell you, it looks like nothing happened here at all. Now, Montego Bay, we'll get into it. Montego Bay, the airport is fine, perfect power, very quick, very easy. Club MoBay to get into Jamaica, very easy to do. Sandals Dunes River, Sandals Ochi, Royal Plantation, all look like your favorite sandals from before. There's absolutely nothing. I mean, there's a few little trees where they've done some pruning. I mean, even the grounds look stunning out here. So let's see where I should take you first. It's starting to rain a little bit. It's very early in the morning. It's about 6 AM in the morning, 6:30. Uh, they have this— if you like coffee, they have this amazing coffee place called Blum, B-L-U-M. I love coffee. This is my favorite coffee place out of all the Sandals Resorts. So we're going to go get a cup of coffee. I'm going to show you around there. Fancy, super fancy coffee. Lots of great little appetizers or kind kind of pastries for the morning. Just off to my left, we're passing the Red Lane Spa. So all your spa treatments. I took a tour of this yesterday. I can show you some of the spa rooms, some of the couple massage areas, kind of the oasis area. This right here is right where you first come in. Sort of, this is, the resort is very, it's kind of narrow. The thing I like about this resort, very tropical, right on the beach, but kind of— it's a smaller footprint, so it's a little more quaint, but there's still fun places to explore. So up here is where Blum is. There's also Zuka. And the, uh, Dunn's Rum Club, which is your late night spot. So last night, right up here is where we had our silent disco, and then this place, the Rum Club, is happening all night long. That's the place to be. Just past this, so you can see this banyan tree At least that's what I think it is. See how it's kind of cut down? Well, here's one right here, so there you go. So that was probably a huge tree. So you can see where they've done some kind of drastic pruning, but with it being so tropical— I mean, I'm here 5 weeks after the hurricane, Category 5. And all these trees had almost all the leaves taken off of them. And I mean, the palm trees look perfectly normal, so it looks absolutely beautiful in here. So here's Blum. This is the coffee shop. It might not even be— it might not even be open, I'm so early. So they do have— they do have a coffee cart. It's like a bicycle. I just had a coffee there in the lobby and very nice guy over there. I don't even know if they're open yet because I get up too early, but we will see. I think they're in here.

Let's see. Oh, they are open.

Good morning. How are you? What time do you guys open?

At 6.

Okay, good. So this is Blum. Oh, look at the artwork. So they got— it looks so good.

How are you?

We're doing good. Okay. So you've got all your pastries. Later in the day they have more pastries over here. You have these little chocolate bars that are awesome too. They're going to start doing their own roasting probably later this year, so they've got a roaster over there. And then what do you call this coffee contraption that does the like reverse osmosis coffee thing? That's the siphon. Oh, the siphon. So I had a siphon yesterday. It was really good. Lots of coffee. It was really, really good though.

Strong?

Yeah, super strong.

But that's really good.

It's nice air conditioned here. It looks beautiful. We beat the crowd. Thank you. You're most welcome.

Enjoy.

So that's Blum. It's really nice. And outside, look at the seating area. So all these little quaint seating spots around here. It's like a little cozy living room. You get a coffee, get a book. They've got these little streams that go through here. It's really pretty in here. Since we're out this way, they're building a convention center, not open yet. It looks from the outside like it's almost open. So if you want to come here for a convention, if you're into pickleball, they've got pickleball courts that look awesome too. So we're going to walk, since we're out here, I'm going to take you to the pickleball courts. This building right back here is the new convention center. Oh, and if you want to do a wedding or reception or dinner, this whole area here is a great spot too, right next to the coffee. So when you come into the resort, it's right off to the right. I also have to warn you, because I'm up early, the leaf blowers are out. They're always following me. There's always a leaf blower somewhere.

So we're gonna—

I can tell we're already getting close to one. We're gonna run into one here in a minute. Okay, so pickleball right here. I mean, they have 2 courts.

Pretty—

they've got the paddles out here. Look, they got it set up early. Towels, paddles. I don't play pickleball. They have those little balls, but the courts look really nice, right?

I don't know.

I feel like I don't— I just want to know why it's called Pickleball. Like, out of the all— all the oddest name ever. So we're going to go from here down here to the Rendezvous. So now the Rendezvous are over here on the left. The nice thing about the Rendezvous is if you want a private place, like your own little house, they're like a little, like, tiki huts almost. They're complete, they're round, they've got the thatch roof. When you're in there, the ceiling looks amazing when you look up. King-size bed. Stunning, stunning. They are all connected to like the swim-out pool. It's pretty stunning. Disadvantages is they're not by the water. They're over here in this kind of tropical area. So just right here. So this is where you come in. This is where the main road is. You drive down here. All your Rendezvous are off to your left. Ocean is right back here. Plum Coffee on the right. So it's all kind of like a rectangle, and right here is your first Rendezvous. So this one, see these stairs? So this one has the sky terrace up top, so you can look at the stars at night. It even comes with like a little telescope. That they put up there. There's a soaking tub up there. There's a covered area. There's lounge chairs. There's lots of places to hang out. So that's the one with the sky terrace. Over here is your traditional Rendezvous that has the thatch. So it does not have the upper level. But let me show you, let me take you through here so you can see what's behind these, cuz it's pretty amazing. So each of these are right out here, so they all have this beautiful pool that's kind of connected, so they all kind of come out to here. Oh, and the water feels great. It's like the perfect temperature. It's not freezing, it's not super hot. I toured both the one with the upper sky deck and the regular one yesterday. So I'll go ahead and I'll take you on that tour now. And then when we come back, we're gonna go back over to the main lobby as the sun is rising. Take you through the main lobby. It's getting ready for Christmas time, so they've got the lobby all decked out. It looks amazing. So let's go to there.

So for me, it's a bit lighter.

Is it lighter in color? Yes.

And the design—

oh, the design is better.

Yes.

Oh, it is. The ceiling is maybe different.

I can't—

I don't remember. Oh, it is lighter. I like it.

That's pretty.

So you've got the rendezvous, you got the bed. I like the ceiling. So are you in Ochi, in the area, or where do you live? Do you live close by? I do, cuz this area looks better than like when I drove through, uh, Montego Bay, cuz that's where— yeah, it looks like it got hit a lot harder. Yes. But then you start to get out of there and it looks like almost like hardly anything happened in some other areas, or not as bad.

Except then you got the— oh, the pool or the tub area is nice. Super nice tub. That was nice.

Pretty. So it's the same down here, pretty much the same. It's just got the upper walkway that goes to— I remember they used to have the different—

that this one came with the sky. You also have—

oh, you got your, uh, you can look at the stars, stargaze. They've got you locked in.

All of them also has the French blue.

So there you go, there you go.

Once you open your door, oh, so nice, you have your little pool and then you—

oh, it's nice up here.

And then it's open. Well, all right, I'll come up real quick. Round the bowl.

You've got a tub up here.

Oh, it's nice. See, you've got all little seating area up here. And then you have all this area. So pretty. Oh, you can jump right in. Yes, that's what you do. That's like a secret. Or if you wake up and you go out the wrong door and you're half asleep. Then it's like an awesome surprise.

Okay, so what'd you think of the Rendezvous? You're gonna get the one with the upper deck where you can watch the stars at night, or you're gonna get the one that's a little more quaint? Let me know what you think, leave a comment. And as you do that, we're gonna— I'm gonna walk you over here to the main lobby area. So we're still walking past the Rendezvous. Main building is right here. This has your luxury rooms. You can see these are the garden-facing rooms. On the other side of this building are the ocean-facing rooms, which is your concierge. This building to the right is Butler. And that has your Sky Suites. And then this building right here is the spa, the Red Lane Spa that I told you about earlier when we started the video. And then just off to my left are the Rendezvous. So about 15 minutes from here is Sandals Ochi, which is more of the party vibe resort. But if you want to go to Sandals Ochi, there is a bus So go to the lobby. They'll tell you what the times are and you can take a bus to Sandals Ochi. Uh, Sandals Ochi can come here, but it's only for dinner reservations if you have a dinner reservation. So how that would probably work is if you have a butler at Sandals Ochi and if they're able to get you a dinner reservation at Dunn's, then there is transportation from there to here, about 15-minute ride. This area up here is really nice. So we're right across from the main entrance. Right there is your main building. That is the waterfall coming off of the Rondavels. And then over here is this amazing little space So yesterday they had wine and painting classes out here. So you could learn to paint and they had all kinds of wines set up. So there's a couple activities like that here at Sandals. There's the painting class, there's a pottery class, there was a jewelry making class, Haidae, and maybe one or two others. So those are included, but the guy was like, you got to tell everybody that you got to— as soon as you check in, you need to sign up for them because they're very popular and very quickly they book up. So if you want to do the painting with the wine tasting, if you want to do the pottery class The tie-dye. The tie-dye, I think, looked like it didn't take as long. The pottery looks like it takes a while because there's like one pottery wheel and then he spends a lot of time with each individual person showing them how to make the actual pottery. And then I guess they must fire it and then you decorate it. So that takes a little bit more time. But I'm trying to keep you away from the leaf blower. So as soon as the leaf blower leaves, I'm gonna take you back over here to the main resort, and then I'm gonna take you over to the Butler Suites, and we're gonna go to the beach as well. Okay, so I'm in the main lobby when you first arrive at Sandals Dunes River. This is— they've got the poinsettias out, it looks amazing. And then right behind us is where you walk into the resort. So like I said, they have decked the halls. It's a really beautiful lobby space. Front desk is just off to your left, and then up the stairs is if you've been to the other Sandals, they have a sushi restaurant called Soi. Over here it is called Hana for dinner. I was here last night, so I'll take you in here to show you what this looks like during dinner. So that was Hanah. We're in the main building. We're going to go back downstairs and I'm going to take you outside to see some of the pool area and see what all that looks like. Now they're getting set up for a big event today because they're reopening, so they've got all kinds of stuff set up out here that is normally not here. So normally this is all seating areas. There's a really nice bar down here at the end, and then outside they're setting up for a big production later today. So this is usually kind of more seating area Sandals Dunes River. At night, this is all lit up. They have a really great bar here, and then it kind of surrounds all of your restaurants. The Mandi— I am horrible at pronouncing names, but most of your restaurants are right out here, and they kind of go all along here, and then the ocean is right there. So French restaurant is right here. Different than your other French restaurants at, uh, your other Sandals. Vanya, a couple nights ago, had dinner here with a group. Uh, really good kind of Asian fusion Italian is right here. So right here, all three, and they are really well done inside. So again, this is that bar that I showed you just from a little farther away. And then up over here is a good breakfast spot, like a breakfast buffet spot. So Salt Air Breakfast Buffet. They're probably just getting set up cuz it's still early in the morning. You've got all your tables, chairs. This is open air. And then right back here they're getting set up for the breakfast buffet. Right next to Salt Air, which we just left, is— I can't— I don't know if I can pronounce it. Oh well, this lounge right here is also great. Late at night. Let me see if— oh, it's locked right now. So this lounge right here is also great late at night. I'll show you. Let me show you what this looks like before the party starts. So this is around later at night when everyone is at Dunn's Rum Club, and then they also come over to here to this lounge. Also a nice little bar closer here to the ocean. And then over here, your last restaurant in this long row. This is Greek and Mediterranean food. So as you can tell, all the restaurants are done up for the holidays. Your Aqua Center right here, your— all of your rentals. So kayaks, paddleboards, windsurfing, hobie cats, your Island Roots catamaran is out there, uh, snorkeling and scuba diving. In the mist back there is a cruise line coming in. You can just barely see it. And then they're getting the beach ready for a big beach party later tonight. So they've got a beach party event going on. The beach looks— I mean, look at the beach, look at the water. And once all these clouds burn off, 'cause it's super early in the morning, you'll have amazing emerald green water with all the greens and blues, perfect for photos. So again, this building right back here is the main building. That I showed you at the beginning of the video. So this had— these are the ocean views. So these are the concierge levels that face the ocean. Your luxury rooms face the garden views. And let me show you the pool over here. So you've got your infinity edge pool. I love these little rafts that have little Sandals logos on them. So infinity edge pool, loads of lounge chairs out here. About 7 AM, loads of lounge chairs available. There's also another bar that's really popular right next to this pool. It's right up here. So this bar during the day is great. They also have cocktail service where they're walking around so you can get drinks. Another little hidden spot is right up these stairs. So this is where the beach is, and then if you go right up these stairs, you get a great view of the beach, of the sunset, and there's all kinds of little lounge chairs up here. So look at this little spot. You have all these little beds. I feel like I have to whisper. Shh. I mean, look at these little beds. So you're sitting on one of those little beds and then you've got the ocean right there. I mean, this is a great little spot. I mean, that's pretty nice. So yeah, this gives you a better idea of what the view is from these rooms. So right up here is your concierge level, and then your Sky Suites that are butler are right next door. So let's go down. So this pool runs all along here. There's a bridge, it runs all the way over here, and then it ends. Then there's another pool that has a swim-up bar. So I'm going to take you over to the other pool with the swim-up bar. We'll take a look. Oh, and we're going to walk right past the pizza restaurant over here as well. This little booth here, this is a DJ booth. So during the day, they're like live mixing tunes. Pizza oven, great pizzas here. Burgers, fries, BLT, chicken sandwich, all kinds of great food here. You can eat right here, um, and they'll take your order. What we did yesterday is we ordered here, got it to go, 15 minutes later we went back to the pool and we ate over by the pool. So that's another option that you can do as well. So this is the other pool that I was just telling you about, another one of these infinity edge pools. So it looks beautiful, right? So that's the pool. This one is right by these Butler rooms. Now these all have— the bottom ones have swim-outs. I'll go show you. Let me take you over there. So let me show you the swim-outs, and then I'll show you the coolest thing. Like, this is the coolest thing ever. So, all right, here's the swim swim-outs. So this pool ends here, another pool starts here, and then these have swim-outs. So, and the water— I was in this yesterday— the water in this is a little cooler. So if you like it a little cooler, the water in this pool is a little chillier, but it's kind of refreshing. The water in all these other pools is like kind of the perfect temperature where it's not cold and it's not hot. So what is that? It's a mongoose. That was a mongoose. Did you see the mongoose? What's the coolest thing ever? Release the mongoose. Okay, so these here Second, third, fourth floor. These all have balcony pools that are awesome. I think I'm in the one with the fan on. I think it's mine. So I'm up here. So we'll take you— I'll take you up there as it's starting to rain. So let me take— here, we're gonna hide under this palm tree. Let me take you to my room. It's a sky suite. It's pretty spectacular. And then after the room, we'll go to the Jerk Shack, and I think that's— that might be it. We'll go to the Jerk Shack, we'll see what else we have to do.

So we just checked into 3305 Sandals Dunes River.

This room is crazy.

So You first walk in, you have this little butler pantry. Off to your left is this amazing bathroom, and then we have giant sink, giant mirror, tons of storage. You have a really nice shower. I mean, I don't even know if I can get far enough back so you can see the entire shower. So that's the shower, that's the tub. It's amazing. So this is the bathroom when you first walk in. Then you have a closet and a toilet over here, and you have a safe in here as well. I haven't unpacked yet. So we'll do that next. So it comes stocked with whatever liquor you want. So you just let the butler know what you want and they will bring your liquor. Then also down here is your fridge, which they'll go ahead and stock with whatever you want as well. So you just let them know. And then your, your, uh, Blue Mountain Coffee is right, right here. And then you walk into the main part of the room. It's unbelievable. So desk area, TV, king-size bed. So that's spectacular. I like the artwork above the, the bed also. USB outlets on both sides of the bed, reading lights, then a little desk area. Then you have a living room area. Right here. We've got some champagne, some fruit, and then outside you have one of these soaking tubs, and then you have your own pool. And we're on the third floor, so this pool is on the third floor, and it has a glass edge, and then right there, it's right here by the pool and the beach. Oh, it's heated! Oh, it feels good, it feels really good. So this is the room. So if you want more information on the room, get with us.

We got Pixies at Pixies Pixie—

at Pixie Vacations, we can go ahead and help you out, uh, finding the perfect room for your vacation.

I mean, it's, it's stunning.

I mean, just the living room and the bedroom. I mean, from this view, look at that. So this is from outside looking back in. Yeah, this is one of my top favorite rooms.

So that was the Sky Suite. It's amazing, right? The pool is nice. It's like a perfect temperature. It's not too cold, not too hot. Really nice. I guess it gets a lot of sun. If it's raining, it's covered because it— for just like 2 minutes yesterday it rained and I was out there and it's completely covered. So that's perfect too. So we are actually Having a little liquid sunshine in Jamaica. This get— it's, it's similar to Florida if you've been in Florida. Like, it'll rain and then 10 or 15 minutes later it'll be done. So Jerk Shack seating right here, right on the water. Beautiful views. This is where the Jerk Shack is. During the day. They have— the one thing they have here is they have, oh, they have Red Stripe, which is the Jamaican beer, which is perfect to have. And then this hard dough bread, which I haven't seen at some of the other Sandals Jerk Shacks. There's also this little hidden bar. This is the end of the Sandals property, right past that bar, but that bar The Triple B is like a little quiet bar, and then all this little beach area out here, like, nobody's at because it's kind of off to the right of the resort. If you're looking for a fun selfie, all this stuff out here is getting set up for a beach party tonight, but there's a big I Love Sandals sign sign that's also lit up at night, uh, so that's also super cute. I'm going to cover you up, we're going to make a run for it to the lobby because I want to tell you more about Jamaica, the hurricane, should you come to Jamaica overall in 2026 or 2027, because I know the news, the news does this thing. All right, hold on, let's cover you up. Are you ready? All right. Oh my gosh, here we go. One, the first part's the worst. Here we go. One, two, three. Oh my gosh. Okay, so Jamaica 2026, 2027. You watch the news and the news does all this dramatic stuff where they're like, Jamaica, there's this huge hurricane, nothing's open. Which is not the case. It depends on what part of Jamaica you're going to, right? So Ocho Rios, all Three Sandals Resorts over here, perfectly fine. Like the palm trees here, look real quick, look. I mean, the palm trees even look fine, right? So Jamaica actually looks perfect over here in Ocho Rios. There's power, the road is clear, there's water, there's internet, everything perfectly fine over here. It's like nothing really happened. Very minor damage over to these resorts. Now, Montego Bay, the airport is fine, went through super quick, super fast. Airport is beautiful. The Right over here, you can see power lines that are still down. They're working on them. So I would give Montego Bay probably 6 months, and then I would come back to Sandals. All right, so let's, hold on, we're gonna go this way. I'm gonna take you back up top where I showed you, where I took you before, where we can get out of the rain and then I'm going to show you this amazing view because this is already— it's only been a couple minutes and it's going to start burning off up here pretty quick. All right, we made it. Ah, if you have any questions about Jamaica, the reason a bunch of us came to Jamaica is to really see what it's like, not what the news is saying. So what's it really like on the ground? Airports, roads, water, internet, everything. And they— the people of Jamaica— the friendliest, nicest people ever. I was talking to the guy this morning at the coffee cart, and he was like, he loves it here, they want people back. And then when you go around to all the attractions and stuff, everything is up and running, so it looks amazing. So the resort experience is great and it helps all these people out. So don't watch the news and go, oh, I'm going to write off Jamaica for like the next couple of years because it is open. It's amazing. It's raining. It's raining. But you can see the sun. You can see the sun coming through.

That's the thing.

Like people, like 4 weeks ago were like, every, all the trees had no leaves. 4 weeks later, all the trees have leaves because it's like this, it rains real quick and the stuff grows so fast. Like you can hardly tell that a hurricane came through some of these places. It's hard to tell like anything, like Ocho Ríos, almost impossible to tell Like, if you're at the Sandals Resort, you have no idea. Everything looks just like it was. Now, some of the, you know, areas in the mountains or whatever, I'm sure they have damage and they have damage for a while, but this resort looks amazing. It helps people out. So come to Sandals, leave a comment, or go to the description of the video. I've got links to all the deals. That's the other good thing. The other good thing is there's all kinds of deals because nobody knows. Everybody thinks, oh, Jamaica's closed, so there's deals. So if you want a great deal on one of these rooms, look, if you want a great deal on one of these Sky Suites that I took you in earlier, where you've got the pool right there, it's amazing. These are phenomenal. Another trick is do the Sky Suite for part and then do one of the, uh, Rendezvous so you could split your stay, right? So you could do a Rendezvous for part of your stay and then do a Sky Suite for part of your stay. Any questions you have, again, leave a comment. Come to Jamaica, have a fantastic vacation. Let me know what your favorite thing was. It's still raining, but it's just about to end just a couple minutes later. And look at this rainbow, this rainbow, it's like landing right here at the Sandals. Really, like one end is out here in the water and it's coming right over here to the Dunes River Resort. And it looks beautiful. Oh, it's so beautiful. I hope you can see it on camera. It's beautiful here.