Sandals Resorts- Best time to book?

V6Matt

Hi All,

I am looking at planning a honeymoon for July 2018, and Sandals has caught my fiances eye !

We normally travel well in nice resorts but not ultra inclusive as Sandals appears to be.

Having scanned google, it appears that Sandals is a bit of a DFS of the resort market. Constantly offering deals/promotions.

Currently they are doing up to 55% off , and they appear to do 2 for 1 in April/May of most years.

Are there any avid Sandals 'watchers' that know when the best time to pounce is? Also if I wanted to April/May, would they have availability for July 2018 or has that ship sailed?

Thanks

hollie.weimeraner

Depends on where you're going but check Trip Advisor as some Sandals resorts are disappointing.

We were looking at them for a special holiday earlier this year when we went to St Lucia. In the end we plumped for the Rendezvous resort at Castries and weren't disappointed.

PS They have offers on all year round for a reason - they inflate their prices just so they can entice you with what is perceived as a good offer (IMHO)

theonlywayisup

As above. There are good Sandals and some quite average. I wouldn't say any would be disappointing. We have a house in the Caribbean and when friends come out they stay at various Sandals resorts so we've a bit of knowledge of a few - some we've stayed at and others purely on our friends' experience. We are staying in April as we're having renovations done, we booked direct (via email direct rather than the website) and got a very good rate. You could try to find the best price on the UK sites and email them. As said above, they frequently have 40% type sales - although that is generally for low/hurricane season. For most islands July would be inside the hurricane season, although for some islands you wouldn't even notice.

Where are you hoping to stay? If it's your honeymoon, you want everything to be as perfect as possible.

V6Matt

theonlywayisup wrote: »

As above. There are good Sandals and some quite average. I wouldn't say any would be disappointing. We have a house in the Caribbean and when friends come out they stay at various Sandals resorts so we've a bit of knowledge of a few - some we've stayed at and others purely on our friends' experience. We are staying in April as we're having renovations done, we booked direct (via email direct rather than the website) and got a very good rate. You could try to find the best price on the UK sites and email them. As said above, they frequently have 40% type sales - although that is generally for low/hurricane season. For most islands July would be inside the hurricane season, although for some islands you wouldn't even notice.

Where are you hoping to stay? If it's your honeymoon, you want everything to be as perfect as possible.

Thanks for the tip, will certainly try that if we go with Sandals.

We haven't settled on a particular resort and in fact very flexible, as long as the resort is rather special, there is plenty to do in/around the island and the beaches are lovely. Any tips as to which are the best in July ?

If July is a bad month, then there is still the option of delaying the honeymoon or looking more east e.g. Fiji

budgetflyer

Fiji is 26 hours away.

theonlywayisup

V6Matt wrote: »

Thanks for the tip, will certainly try that if we go with Sandals.

We haven't settled on a particular resort and in fact very flexible, as long as the resort is rather special, there is plenty to do in/around the island and the beaches are lovely. Any tips as to which are the best in July ?

If July is a bad month, then there is still the option of delaying the honeymoon or looking more east e.g. Fiji

July isn't a bad month, don't get me wrong, it can be amazing. It's officially inside the hurricane season, that's why I mentioned it.

The ABC islands will be the driest but not necessarily the cheapest. It really depends what you want to do. If you want beaches then, of the more visited islands, Grenada and Antigua would be my top recommends for every type of budget and holiday. For scenery I would take St Lucia (although it can be wet) or the BVI (bearing in mind the hurricane damage) and Barbados. To be honest you can't go wrong, although we do stay away from places like the Dom Republic. That said I am sure there are posters who would swear by it.

You need to establish what you want to do, look at the location of the islands and from the ABC's and slightly east I would take a pick of two or three, do some research and then look for accommodation.