Secrets Maroma or Sandals St Lucia

emcar30

Hello Ladies! Please help...My Fiance and I are trying to decide between Secrets Maroma or Sandals and we cant decide. St Lucia looks amazing but with flight and travel we would lose two days. Maroma I have heard nothing but awesomeness but is that special enough for a honeymoon as you only get one. Let me know your thoughts

tcnoble

@emcar30 we literally just had the same debate. St Lucia looked amazing, we were pretty much decided on Sandals Grande... but struggled a bit with how expensive it was, and with the travel time. That being said... We are booking Secrets Maroma Beach we were hesitant too because I've been to Mexico many many times and didn't want "just another trip" for our honeymoon. After speaking with several couples who went for their honeymoons, I was convinced it would be perfect!! I'm a beach bum and I've heard and seen nothing but amazing things about Maroma... I'm pretty confident it will be special enough!!

Jells2dot0

Do you want a super nice beach or do you want more dramatic views? Maroma is an awesome beach- one of the best in the world! St. Lucia is known more for its dramatic scenery. Also, what types of activities do you want to do? That may aid in your decision.

FWIW- a honeymoon is just a vacation that just happens to fall after an event. I would not stress too much over it. No matter where you go, you will be together and that is all that counts.

emcar30

@TCNOBLE thank you for ur input!! I have a feeling we will be doing the same!!

emcar30

I love the look of St. Lucia it is stunning, and we would like a place that is lively especially around the pools and such.

Jells2dot0

When I was at Maroma, it was not very lively by the pool. However, the beach was very active. It could have been an off time when I was there and it has also become significantly more popular since I was there. Secrets definitely won't have the dramatic mountains and cliffs that make St. Lucia so ruggedly beautiful. which of course you already know, but it's definitely a very nice resort. I have noticed that Secrets has gotten a lot more expensive recently, due to its popularity, so I'm kind of surprised that it's less than Sandals. However, the airfare schedules to St. Lucia are just horrible and that enough may deter me from going.

emcar30

Honestly the flight and travel is the main thing for me right now that is keeping me from choosing STL. Also, we have read that without a butler you can get screwed on some things but the butler rooms are quite pricey. Where at secrets you get 24hr concierge no matter what. Secrets is about 2K less than sandals grande.

muenginerd

Maroma will be super special for a Honeymoon.  FI and I are actually stuggling to pick a place because everything we look at we compare back to our trip to Maroma. 

I have not been to a Sandals property...but Maroma gave us everything we could every want and we weren't even at a perfered club level.  24 hour room service, you name it you get it.  I stopped ordering off the menu and just called it whatever I felt like.  They made it appear.  The staff and drinks were beyond amazing.  Friends went to a Sandals property at the same time, they did not have the butler service and when comparing we definitely saw much better emenities at Maroma. 

I also use to vacation regularly in Cancun and was worred Riviera Maya would be just another Mexico trip.  It wasn't, the beach really is amazing, and the interaction with wildlife was great.  FI loved to go see the Iguanas sun bathing everyday, I really loved playing with the Coatis (almost like racoons) that would come sit by our pool, and the staff gave us food to take out to the ocean to feed the fish.  We were there for a friend's wedding but it was really a honeymoon worthy vacation spot.

On the Sandals side, Maroma didn't offer alot in water sports.  Just renting Kayaks maybe.  I heard if you are into diving/snorkling that Sandals does include more of those types of activites.

beachyone15

We are going to Maroma in October! The reviews are great and the property/rooms actually look nicer to me than Sandals (and it's cheaper!). FI was originally not considering Mexico but once we talked to a travel agent who confirmed that Maroma was the best beach and had a better romantic atmosphere, he changed his mind quick!

emcar30

thanks so much Sarah! I have no hesitations about Maroma which is nice but I just dont know when ill ever get to go to St Lucia if we dont go now. However, I definitely have reservations about the sandals.

Starfish622

I personally am always more concerned with the location in terms of natural beauty and so I would choose St. Lucia. For example, I live in florida so I can see the beach anytime I want but I'm not going to see peeks jutting out of the water here . It does seem like Secrets now has a better reputation for accommodations and service and don't get me wrong that is high on my priority list as well but seeing a more exotic location is at the top.

kla728

Like a few others, we came down to the exact same debate as you -- Secrets Maroma versus one of the Sandals in St. Lucia.  Ultimately, we are going to Sandals La Toc in St. Lucia but I could have seen the decision going either way.  The deciding factor for us was one you mentioned -- we would never go to St. Lucia for a normal vacation.  We will probably go to Mexico at some point in time, whether it be to Secrets Maroma or another location -- and he had already been to Mexico, so I had that internal nagging feeling of it not being new to both of us.  

I will say that if we had done Secrets Maroma, I'm not sure we would have bothered with the club level -- lots of feedback out there that it is not worth it. On the flip side -- and this may be your big Sandals concern -- we are having a butler level room as this seemed to have way more of an impact at Sandals and I didn't want to have something like that potentially add frustration to our trip.  It does make it more of a splurge trip as compared to Secrets Maroma, and we decided we were okay with that.  

Also, we like the beach but are pretty equal on beach versus pool so that didn't weigh too heavily into our decision (La Toc is actually known as having a tricky beach... the Grande location in St. Lucia is the one to pick if you are a beach person).  Also, like someone else said -- I love beautiful scenery, so St. Lucia had that as a major plus.

Final random tidbit: we ended up working with a travel agent, and one of the things he said to us that I think rings true is most people say they want to do a 2 week honeymoon but ultimately book closer to 1 week.  This is what we did -- sacrificed a few days of the trip to make St. Lucia more realistic.  So I'm not sure how many days you are thinking, but that is another thing to consider.  When I really thought about it, I'd probably be a little bit bored by day 12 at the beach.  We are doing 9 days, and with our flights we will get to enjoy half of each travel day at the resort.

emcar30

@kla728 thank you for the awesome input, I really appreciate it!

nsalvatore01

Hi Everyone! I am having the same issues, well not really an issue but I am just torn.

 

We are between Secrets Maroma or Sandals Grande.(I understand Grande has the best beach)Mexico is Mexico to me, but I feel like St. Lucia would be better for a Honeymoon. Please I am open to suggestions. I hear St. Lucia is a similar to a lower scale Hawaii. I just want to make sure that I am not making the worn decision.

Has anyone been to either, if yes, when? We are planning, Sept 2014. Yes I know hurricane season, but we are getting insurance! 

tcnoble

I just replied to your other thread too... I felt the same way, that St Lucia just screams "honeymoon" but for us it came down to an additional 4 hours of flights, and we were drawn more towards the resorts in the southern part of St Lucia which weren't in our budget - Sandals was - so we decided on Secrets Maroma and will hopefully make it to St Lucia on a future anniversary trip everyone on here gave me great advice - you'll be on your honeymoon with your new husband, no matter where you are it'll be special and YOUR perfect honeymoon!

nsalvatore01

Hey @tcnoble thanks for all the info. Just saw that thread and then went to this most recent one. Yes we are so torn, and its not the end of the world, but ya know, we all want perfect! Well thanks for the help everyone! This was all so helpful!!

Good Luck Planning everyone!!!

May I ask what resorts in the southern part of St Lucia you were looking at. Curious, wanna check out the web site. 

tcnoble

@nsalvatore01 we looked at Viceroy Sugar beach, Ladera, and Jade Mountain.

nsalvatore01

PS Jade Mountain I hear is amazing!!

 It's very $$$ as you know but a travel agent told me, its incredible!!!

nsalvatore01

I am looking these up now. wow gorgeous!!!

emcar30

My cousin stayed at jade mountain on his honeymoon last year in october and a storm hit, it was a terrible experience for them. The rooms there only have three walls so they had to flip the couch over and hide behind to protect themselves from all the rain and wind. CRAZY!

@TCNOBLE when are you going to maroma? My fiance and have pretty much decided that we are going to go with that but we are talking to a travel agent today.

tcnoble

@emcar30 we will be going March 30-April 5 of next year. Seems so far away but I'm banking on time flying!

emcar30

lol it will!!!

emcar30

Hey Ladies! We just booked Secrets Maroma!!! so excited!!! We will be there in December!

tcnoble

@emcar30 YAYYY!! did you book yourself, thru the site, travel agent?? trying to decide best way..

emcar30

i went through a travel agent just bc there was no charge, and just in case something happens. She quoted us a price and then we found a cheaper price on allinclusiveoutlet.com and she matched that price. I really liked her I can give you her contact info if you'd like. She helped us confirm that maroma was the correct choice.