Sandals St. Lucian vs. Sandals Royal Plantation Jamaica

lesliechappell

Our travel agent just got back to us and we can go to St. Lucia for 6 nights or Jamaica for 7 for roughly the same price.  Jamaica has a little more included in the package.  We're not hung up so much on the length of the trip, but the quality of our stay.  My fiance and I are mid-twenties/early thirties and are just looking for a relaxing trip.  We want to kick back and relax and also do some adventurous excursions.  We're not looking to "party" (though we do enjoy a nice drink...)  Any thoughts on which resort would provide the best honeymoon experience?

[Deleted User]

We've been to the Grande St. Lucian twice and also to Jamaica (Sandals Negril not Royal Plantation though). Reviews and pics in link above my siggy pic.

MrsGandthebeag

I've never been to St Lucia so I'd pick that one.

hoffse

I would do Royal Plantation.  This is probably the next resort H and I are going to book (we are leaving for Sandals Whitehouse for our honeymoon on Saturday!)

Read trip advisor reviews and then price them out... and include flights in that price.  Getting to Jamaica is inexpensive and many cities have direct flights.  Getting to St. Lucia is expensive and direct flights are harder to come by (it's literally twice as expensive for us to fly to St. Lucia than Jamaica, and they are about the same distance from Atlanta).  

Royal Plantation has the second cheapest butler service Sandals provides (the cheapest being the resort next door but it sounds like a spring break atmosphere over there).  You would literally have to drop at least $1,000 more for the next cheapest resort to have butler service, and $2000 more at most of their other resorts.  I priced it out.  In other words, it's a hell of a deal for the services you get, and the fact that the entire resort is butler makes it a more pleasant place to be - you don't have people fighting for chairs, shade, etc. because the butlers all coordinate (or so I read on tripadvisor).

RP also gives you reciprocal privileges with the resort next door.  So if you want to hang out at the huge pool or go to a party one evening or eat at a swanky restaurant over there you can, but you don't have to actually live in an atmosphere with people doing shots at the swimup bar all day if you don't want.  It's close enough to walk to on the beach, or your butler will arrange a private transfer.  Bonus?  While you can visit any other sandals resort on the island, none of them can visit you.

Anyway, I know I sound like an add for RP.  It was right at our budget when we were deciding where to go, and we came down to RP and Whitehouse, which together get probably get the best reviews of all the resorts that Sandals owns on TA.  We settled on Whitehouse because it was less expensive (we aren't doing concierge or butler), and we will get about $500 credit toward our next stay with their returning guest program. So we decided to do WH first and save RP for another year when we could use that returning guest discount to make the butler service an even better deal.  But if RP hadn't been right at our budget, we would have booked that one in a heartbeat.  We are happy with our choice - we have some great excursions and spa treatments booked - but RP makes us excited as well for the future

hoffse

Oh and also?  I would price those out on your own and compare to your travel agent's quote.  Travel agents can be great, but we saved about $500 booking things through the resort directly instead of having our travel agent(s) do it for us. Part of this was plane tickets - we waited and booked flights through Kayak when they dropped to $400/person - the price we got quoted by our travel agent was $500/person, because they would have just booked them while we were siting there instead of waiting for the price to drop. We talked to three different travel agents, and they all came in more expensive than just booking with Sandals/Kayak directly.  You can get a price quote really easily through Sandals website, and that's the price you will be charged when you call to book.  I think travel agents tend to be more useful when bundling multiple hotels, car rentals, etc. - booking an AI is so easy that it's worth at least checking before you pay through a travel agent.  Just my $0.02.

petesmpls

In Response to Re: Sandals St. Lucian vs. Sandals Royal Plantation Jamaica:
[QUOTE]Oh and also?  I would price those out on your own and compare to your travel agent's quote.  Travel agents can be great, but we saved about $500 booking things through the resort directly instead of having our travel agent(s) do it for us. Part of this was plane tickets - we waited and booked flights through Kayak when they dropped to $400/person - the price we got quoted by our travel agent was $500/person, because they would have just booked them while we were siting there instead of waiting for the price to drop. We talked to three different travel agents, and they all came in more expensive than just booking with Sandals/Kayak directly.  You can get a price quote really easily through Sandals website, and that's the price you will be charged when you call to book.  I think travel agents tend to be more useful when bundling multiple hotels, car rentals, etc. - booking an AI is so easy that it's worth at least checking before you pay through a travel agent.  Just my $0.02.
Posted by hoffse[/QUOTE]


Hoffse - Just sent you a PM with a few questions!