Sandals Montego Bay Review

Sandals Resorts are for couples, so I convinced my husband to join me for a trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica! I fell in love with the country last year on my travels to Negril and Ocho Rios, so I thought I would explore a different location this time.

We had previously been to Montego Bay one other time, which was on our honeymoon cruise back in 2005. The reason we chose this particular resort was the proximity to the airport. I gave Aaron the option of 10 minutes or 90 minutes from the airport and he picked 10 minutes. So Montego Bay it was!

We used the Club MoBay fast track service and it was worth every penny to speed through customs. Sandals does have a lounge you can wait in for your transportation, but we went over to the ClubMoBay lounge instead and had a quick snack and drink and they also had much better offerings than what was in the Sandals lounge. We were on our shuttle to our resorts in probably less than 30 minutes.

Once we arrived at the resort, we were greeted by the staff and shown to the Club Lounge. This is where Club and Butler category guests wait to be checked in. It is air conditioned and there is a welcome beverage and cookies. This is also where you can make any dining reservations needed once you arrive.

Our room was ready, so we were fairly quickly shown the way by our concierge, Marcus. He showed us our room and asked if we needed anything different for the mini bar. If we did, all we needed to do was call and he would bring it right over. 

View from our balcony

At Sandals, only Club and Butler guests have access to room service and the concierge (your butler serves are your concierge in that category). This is the main reason I upgraded to Club. I don’t order room service every day but I like to have the option if possible.

Our room service snack

We tend to eat fairly early, so we never experienced a wait at any of the restaurants. I am not sure what capacity the resort was operating at, but it was easy to be seated each time we went to a restaurant or the buffet. Two of the restaurants at this property have a more strict dress code. Men must wear long pants and a collared shirt and women must wear a dress and nice sandals (no flip flops). Aaron opted not to pack long pants (it is so hot and humid in Jamaica during July) so we did not get to experience these restaurants this go round. But we did eat at pretty much all of the other ones. All the food I had was good, but my favorite by far was Soy. I love sushi.

We ordered room service one day and got ice cream and pastries from the coffee shop, but there isn’t much else for snack type food unless you want to sit down at one of the lunch restaurants and order something more substantial.

During the day, there are various things you can do around the resort. We saw a bags tournament on the beach as well as volleyball, but didn’t participate. Your app lists the activities and times daily.

I will be honest and say it was very difficult to get a chair in the shade. If you are in a butler category room, your butler goes and saves chairs for you. Each time we went to the beach, the chairs in the shade were reserved by those butler guests. I have heard others say if you get up early and put your things on a chair, you  have a better chance of finding one, but I did not want to do that. I understood we were not likely to find a shady spot so I wasn’t mad about it. We did get lucky one day and found 2 chairs after lunch.

The pools at this resort are not large. The one pool with a swim up bar was also not great compared to some other resorts I have visited. The chairs by the pools were also few and far between and I never saw any empty spots. The beach is nice and the roped off swimming area was large, so we spent most of our time in the water there.

At Sandals Montego Bay, you have exchange privileges with Sandals Royal Caribbean, which is just down the road (and vice versa). They run shuttles about every 30-45 minutes from the main lobby. This is great if you want to try a few different restaurants. We did not take advantage of the food, but we did go over and use their pool. It is bigger than the ones at Montego Bay and the swim up bar was also better. The beach is smaller there, though. We had a fun time playing Name That Tune in the pool before heading back to our own resort.

Each evening featured a different type of musical entertainment. Sometimes it was a singer, sometimes it was a band, sometimes just an instrumentalist. They also had a silent disco during our stay (we didn’t participate). It always depends on the other guests staying at the resort the same time as you, but I found the vibe to be very low key and not at all a party atmosphere. 

White Party

Evening entertainment in the Living Room

The great thing about Sandals as a brand is that each of their resorts is similar but also different. If the vibe of Montego Bay doesn’t sound like it is for you, there are plenty of other options both in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. I would definitely go back to a Sandals resort again and think it is the right fit for couples looking for a mixture of relaxation and activities.

Do you have any questions about Sandals Resorts? Or Jamaica? Ask me in the comments!