Sandals Grande Antigua Reviews

We loved Sandals Grande Antigua - the beach was beautiful and the campus was just like in the pictures. We had butler service and they were amazing. They really attended to all of our needs. Food was good and the services were excellent. We recommend staying in the Mediterranean section - more updated

Wonderful, wonderful venue. The coordinators were very friendly and fun. They did not pressure me to purchase anything and they surprised me by going above and beyond. Not to mention the gorgeous views!

We had our dream wedding at Sandals Grande Antigua. we wanted a unique wedding on the beach but sadly the beach wasn't as private as we wanted. But we found a beautiful gazebo with flowers surrounding it and had our ceremony first dance and cake cutting there....then had our reception in the reflection pool area..which was gorgeous. We wouldn't have picked it any other way. We had beautiful weather...80 n breezy. Everyone was soo nice. The wedding is free if u meet the rewuirements. They provide u with a bouquet, boutineer, hors d'eurves for reception, music if u don't have it, cake etc. My wedding cooring was wonderful. My hair and make up absolutely perfect...u have nothing to worry about in their hands and it is soo stress free which we like :) even tho we wanted to get married on the beach...and didn't we took pix to last us forever...we had pix after the reception by the beach as well as during ceremony n reception then came back at sunset in our wedding attire and did sunset photos...we had two photographers and they were both different and out of this world..they were beyond incredible. I would highly recommend destination weddings in sandals grande antigua for a dream come true stress free wedding ceremony :)

We spent our Honeymoon at Sandals Grande Antigua. It was beautiful! The staff was very friendly. Wendal our butler was just the best! He made sure we were well taken care of and went out of his way to make simple meals enjoyable and romantic. Thanks so much Wendal and everyone else in Antigua!

We loved Sandals Grande Antigua. They made the whole wedding planning process so easy!! The people were so nice and accomadating. They even let my younger brother have dinner there! Everything was absolutely beautiful!

I chose a destination wedding to avoid headaches at home. My wedding was gorgeous and I would not change a thing about it. Sandals did a spectacular job and I was stress free even the day of my wedding. I would highly recommend a Sandals for any destination wedding!

We had never been to Antigua, nor had we ever visited a Sandals facility prior to our honeymoon. We arrived at the airport, and after connecting to the Sandals staff outside of the terminal, we didn't have to do much of anything!! We selected a butlered beachfront suite, and spent the next 9 days just enjoying everything we wanted - food, pool, cocktails, private beach dinner, horseback riding, boating tours, etc. We didn't particularly enjoy the snorkeling event (their reefs and scenery are pretty bland relative to other locations in the Caribbean), but thoroughly loved the sunset cruise!! We were told that it was best to coordinate everything through Sandals and not use external vendors (questioning whether that was truly for our safety or a sales-ploy to keep our dollars in Sandals). Unlike other islands, I believe the island was very safe. I would NOT recommend renting a car for your visit - the roads are pretty rough and frankly you can get shuttles anywhere you need to go. We actually booked another trip in the spring to another Sandals location. TRIP PLANNING ADVISORY/WARNING - we flew though Miami - which was just under 4 hours of flying - BUT the Miami customs is MISERABLE... you'll need nearly 2+ hours just to get through that mess. I highly recommend you fly through ANY OTHER CITY than Miami if you're heading to Antigua!!! The payoff will be a delightful experience at Sandals.!!

We had a beautiful ceremony on the beach at Sandals. 10 guest were in attendance and accommodating such a large group for pre-wedding fun and dinner was a breeze for the staff. They were so friendly and made everything special, even a last minute decision to get my hair done. Our onsite wedding coordinator was bomb.com!! We all enjoyed our stay. Our guest are still raving about what a great time they had.

If you are looking for a hassle-free, intimate wedding, Sandals is exactly that. We chose to book our wedding at Sandals Grande Antigua because we feel that weddings are something special to be shared between the bride and groom. We wanted the romance of being at a luxury resort with a memory that will forever be shared between the two of us. The staff at Sandals handled everything. They helped us with planning, kept my dress (so the groom wouldn't see it) until the day of our wedding, handled our marriage license, had a romantic dinner for our wedding night, decorated our room with rose petals and champage and fruit plate, took our photographs, had a private reception on the beach, and so much more. Sandals Grande Antigua was truly a dream come true.

It was a beautiful resort. Good food, good drinks. Clean rooms, prompt room service. Be advised of a few things...the beach does not belong to Sandals. It is a public beach and vendors tried to sell us something every time we stepped foot on the sand. Not one day passed that we weren't approached to buy a locals jewelry, go horseback riding etc. Also, there are cats at all of the outdoor restaurants. I am highly allergic and it wasn't an issue until one tried to get in my lap while dining at "Barefoot by the Sea." This next complaint is not Sandals fault but there is a very "Sorority Like" mentality with a lot of the honeymooners we met there. It seemed they always had to "one up" us and compete with us. Some of the couples intentionally tried to group up and we would see them eating all meals together in groups of 20. It was like they couldn't be alone with their new spouses. That is not what my husband and I wanted for our honeymoon so we quickly caught on and avoided the "latching onto other couples" mentality. We would rather be alone by the ocean or alone enjoying a chocolate martini on "chocolate night." How can you have romance with 10 other couples around? I will never forget the other honeymooner...a Tori Spelling wanna-be "Katie" who I met and quickly found so irritating with her pompous attitude and her need to recruit other couples to be with her so she could avoid her new husband "Jay." We felt sorry for her husband.
Back to the review of the actual resort....the staff's attitudes all varied. I don't think they have natural "hospitable" attitudes. The staff seem irritated to serve you. Especially the bartenders in the large pool bar. The exception was the excellent service given to us by the manager at the restaurant called "The Drunken Duck." Also, Gwen & Efay were AMAZING! They gave an excellent couples massage and were so professional, courteous and sweet. Kudos to Gwen & Efay for making us feel like honeymooners.

There are limited options for flowers, decor, etc...so if you have your heart sent on a completely customized wedding, this may not be the place. They also didn't have my first-dance song even though I previously requested it. Other than that, it was exceptional value for my guests. They were all pleased with the amenities, food, drinks and staff. We had a great time!

My husband and I traveled to Sandals for our honeymoon earlier this month. Our experience was disappointing and far below my expectations. As honeymooners, we wanted a true first class experience. We were hardly greeted with smiles and were not greeted as "Mr. and Mrs." or "honeymooners".

Throughout the trip, numerous things turned our moods down (very hard to do when you are just married and on cloud 9)

-When we arrived to our room, again no "honeymoon" recognition. We had someone's old sandwich in our mini fridge and a used bar of soap stuck in our shower.

-The restaurant staff was miserable and unfriendly. No one smiled or made small talk or asked us how we were doing. We were treated as a burden.

-The reservation-only restaurants are hard to get into. When we finally made it to Eleanor's at 9PM, my husband was told to go back to the room and change his clothes because he had khaki shorts on instead of pants. There were 4 people in the restaurant.

The icing on the cake was opening my wallet to find over $100 missing. We filed a "report" with the manager. Her report consisted of her writing down my name on the back of a sheet of computer paper. We were told "too bad" and that we "should have used the safe". At this point I am in tears. I know $100 compared to the $5000+ we spent on our honeymoon should not make me this upset however this was money given to us at our wedding by our loved ones.

We STILL have yet to even receive a phone call from management. This is truly a HORRIBLE resort and I have taken every opportunity I can thus far to tell my friends, families and coworkers to stay far away from Sandals.

On our honeymoon at Sandals,housekeeping proved to be an issue;I had to leave a note each day with instructions like "please leave new shampoo.”On our 8th day at the main pool,a large group disrupted the peaceful precedent that had been set during our first days.They were rowdy,and as the tequila shots flowed,the behavior escalated.At times,one would go to the swim-up bar and yell across the pool to his friends.The group joked about the illegal drugs they were offered on the beach,and how they'd buy some later.At one point, one of the gentleman went inside the hotel building,ascended to the top of the tower, and yelled to the group in the pool,approximately 1,000 feet away.The group responded with a resounding, "Wooo!"My husband and I first asked our waitress to ask them to settle.She refused. I asked a security guard to help, but he refused as well,saying his role was to make sure non-hotel guests don't enter the property from the beach.We went inside and asked to speak with a manager.We were directed to Brett, the general manager.He suggested we go to another pool at the resort and that we ask other s to complain, as that might persuade him to do more.The service was poor. We ordered drinks from our cabana on the several days that we'd rented one,and they never came.When we checked in,our jacuzzi in our room wasn't working;when we called to have it fixed,it wasn't fixed until the following night.Turndown service would come at 6:00 each night, and when I asked them if they might come back later,she showed me her list of rooms that she had to do, explaining how busy she was.Our impression of Sandals was sour.The staff was inconvenienced when asked for anything,and the management was incompetent when asked to help with a problem.It is unlikely that we would return to this or any Sandals.I have written two emails to Sandals corporate and wrote the review on Trip Advisor over a week ago,and still have not heard back from the Sandals organization.