Despite how wonderful the facilities are I always believe that the lasting impression of your stay, anywhere, will be your interaction with the staff and the level of service that you receive. Sandals South Coast (SSC) have this cracked in the best possible way with some of the most delightful staff and outstanding levels of customer service. Staff are uniformly polite, helpful and quick with a smile but will also invariably check that you’re having a great time as well. Its almost unfair to single out any member of the team for individual mention, there were so many instances of superb service but I offer this one by way of example. I chose bread pudding for desert at the Bayside restaurant and casually remarked (to no one in particular) that it was a shame there was no ice cream to have with it. Overheard by Carona, she offered to get me some and asked what flavour (which she would go and get from another part of the resort). Sadly my choice of Rum and Raisen was unavailable, so Carona got vanilla, found raisins to add, plus a shot of rum. I was delighted….made my day.
SSC (formally known as Whitehouse) is, not surprisingly, located on the south coast of Jamaica and it takes about 90 mins/2 hours to get here by road from Montego Bay airport (less when the current roadworks are complete). We came this route but understand it takes about 4 hours from Kingston airport. The resort is organised into villages (including over water villas), so a fairly sizeable estate, and we were staying in the Italian village in room 1106, which gave us ground floor access to a patio and also use of the extremely helpful club concierge facilities. The Italian village has been recently refurbished and our room was spacious and beautifully appointed with all the facilities we could need on our stay.
There is a large selection of restaurants to select from and the food was superb (as my increasing waistline attests too) in each of the ones we tried. There’s also a selection of bars to choose from all offering a wide range of premium brands. Latitudes, an over the water bar, was our favourite, a great place to watch the sunset whilst enjoying a pre dinner drink and be entertained by Josh.
Being an all inclusive resort, in addition to the food and drink, there is a huge selection of activities; water sports, classes (Jermaine’s Aqua class is awesome), entertainment etc. to engage in or just do nothing at all except laze in the sunshine.
The grounds are beautifully landscaped and meticulously maintained, so we enjoyed just going for a wander around the grounds or along the beach. As you walk around the site there’s Pelicans, Peacocks, hummingbirds and other wildlife to enjoy.
They also have a social conscience and do great work via the Sandals Foundation.
In all honesty you could write a small book describing this resort in detail, so I’ll just say that we loved it and will be delighted to return.
