Sandals Grande Ochos Rios a Resort for Couples
The Welcome
Upon arrival at the Sandals Grande, the women are taken inside the lobby and given champagne to drink while the men gather the bags. This is a nice treat, however it feels very forced. Some uncomfortable with leaving their spouse or significant other might not like this idea. The staff who hand out the champagne are extremely friendly and nice and give you a hearty welcome to Jamaica.
The Rooms
The rooms have a lot to be desired. The garden view room is very nice, but not at all worth the price. Garden view rooms are on the first floor and look out over a small garden with a fountain, which is pretty and nice to sit out in at night. The room although large and airy is not very modernized. An old scratched desk hugs one side of the bed while a scratched beside table flanks the other. The bathroom is truly awful. Grout is coming out of the cracks in the vanity and in the tub. The tub was scarred making it look very dirty. It was not what one who pays a couple of thousand dollars expect.
The Restaurants
There are 8 restaurants at the Sandals Grande Ochos Rios. Each serves nightly and has a variety of foods on the menu.
The Bayside Restaurant is a casual restaurant that has international cuisine that is really quite good. The service is lacking however. Many times drinks went unfilled for long periods of time. At one point the bar close to the restaurant ran out of vodka and the waitress did not want to go to another bar further away to get the vodka.
Valentino’s Restaurant is the dressy restaurant on the resort. This restaurant is not worth the hype. Our party of eight was denied saying they could only put 4 at a table which was disappointing. When you pay good money to come to a resort they should cater to your needs. They could have easily put two tables together. This restaurant is air conditioned which makes it nice on the balmy nights, but the Italian food they serve could be bought at any low scale restaurant.
Arizona Restaurant is a western-style grill that changes locations each evening. This restauarant had very good Mexican food and the servers here were extremely friendly. This is one of the best restaurants to visit on the resort.
The Reef Terrace which specialized in seafood was truly awful. The restaurant is outdoors and stray cats lingered around the tables hoping for a piece of scrap food. The servers were rude to our large party and did not bring the correct number of drinks several times. They constantly rolled their eyes at our table and acted like they wanted us to leave.
The Market Place restaurant has an outdoor and indoor section and offers cooked to order specials. This restaurant also serves breakfast.
Orchids is the other upscale restaurant on the resort that offers Asian cuisine.
The Manor is much like the Market Place restaurant but is located on the other side of the resort.
San Genaro is an Italian restaurant and was by far the best restaurant on the resort. The food was delicious the servers attentive and nice and the atmosphere quaint.
The Pools
The Sandals Grande Ochos Rios offers many pools. On the Ocean view side of the resort they have two pools that have pool bars. Both pools are smaller, but were not very busy which made it nice and relaxing. The only downside was that the pool bars had specific hours and were not open very late. The resort had music playing at the pools and different water activities in the afternoon. The pools were well maintained and always clean. The towels were picked up right away after someone left the area. The mountain side of the resort has the huge pool which was very busy and loud. There were lots of activities going on at the pool. It was not as relaxing and you had to wait in line a long time to get a drink.
The Beach
There is not a lot of beach at the Sandals Grande Ochos Rios. If you are going to Jamaica for the beach, I recommend going to another resort. The beach that the Grande does have is very rocky and not good for barefeet. There was always staff on the beach making sure that it was clean. Not a lot of time was spent on the beach and not many people were even on it.
All in all the Sandals Grande Ochos Rios is not worth what you pay for. There are many resorts on the island of Jamaica that have better amenities and service. If you are going to Jamaica consider resorts other than the Sandals.
