Sandals Halcyon Beach

We had a lovely time during our week stay in St. Lucia at the Halcyon. Fantastic service, particularly from Trista during our meals at the resort restaurants. We can't thank the staff members enough for making our experience memorable and relaxing. Highly recommend visiting the island and staying at this resort during your time there. Being able to visit the Grande and La Toc as well was the perfect balance for us.

Okay, could be better. No reliable wakeup service & no clocks in rooms. Paridise pool bar mostly unattended, if you don t want to wait 10 minutesto be noticed you will need to leave the pool and go up to the bar on pool patio.

We have been to many all-inclusives, but this was our first time to a Sandals. We stayed eight nights in a butler suite. This was also our first time to be on St. Lucia for more than a day. This is our second time have a dedicated butler at a resort, so our experience and opinions are largely based on comparisons to other experiences and what we have heard and read about Sandals reputation. We took the St Lucia Helicopter to the resort. It was nice to be able to get there faster and it was a beautiful flight over the rainforest. One of our butlers was there to greet us and get us checked in. Returning we took the Sandals free shuttle and that was fine. Took about 90 minutes and I slept the whole way. PROPERTY and ROOMS Gorgeous property and the room was just amazing. The location of the room was second floor and literally steps from the sand. That could not have been better. The room was spacious, the balcony was large and most others had curtains, but ours did not...maybe they were out for cleaning or repair. They would be nice to use if you needed additional privacy from the balcony across the sidewalk, but would also block the breeze. We were never hot on the balcony and there was also a ceiling fan and a lamp that you could change the color of so that was cool. We spent a lot of time there in the morning and late afternoons. The location of the butler suites is a good walk to the nearest bar. But the upside of this is that it's very quiet at that end of the property. The crashing waves, tree frogs, birds, etc. were the best noises in that area. What I think of as the "back" of the resort with the lazy river pool is gorgeous and so very quiet. Also there are fire pits around the property and lots of cozy places to sit. FOOD This area was a disappointment. Very average. Our best meal on the Halcyon property was at Kimonos, the hibachi restaurant. Our other two best meals were at The Grande at Gordons and La Toc at the Pitons. On property we ate at Kelly's, Marios, the Beach Bistro, Bayside and the pizza truck. We also ordered room service once, but by the time it got to us it was lukewarm and the chips in the nachos were totally soggy. The butlers did put a snack in our room each day and those were always good. BUTLER SERVICE Our butler team--Pluta, Ria and Vibes--was nice and would have done most anything we asked. But we did not use them as we could have, partly because we knew they had so many other guests (5 rooms in addition to ours) and it took a long time to get anything if we asked (not their fault). The butler rooms are a pretty decent walk from the nearest bar or the Beach Bistro so if they try to combine things with what other rooms need it can take quite awhile to get it. Due to this we just often got things ourselves. We took insulated cups and our butlers would take those to the bar and get them filled with whatever we wanted and bring them back and those would last quite awhile. They check on you every so often so if they did that we'd order something, but we hardly ever called them to bring us something out of the blue. I had ordered a mimosa our first morning. The next morning a bucket of champagne and OJ was waiting at my beach spot. The next day one of the butlers just showed up at one point with a mimosa without me asking. These are the kind of intuitive things I expected from a butler and that can really make a trip, unfortunately that only happened a couple of times. The day we were leaving one of our butlers found us and brought us waters without us asking and also a couple of drinks from the bar. Again, THIS is what I'd hoped for from a butler. Two of the best things in having the butlers was that they secure your spot each morning, then walk you to it and you just have to put some personal stuff on it by 10am to claim it. It was nice to never worry about this. They include a cooler full of beer and water. And second, they make all your dinner reservations so it was nice to not have to bother or stress about that. They give you a weekly planner with everything on it that you have planned for activities, dinners, etc. and you can update it as things change. OTHER SERVICE Another area of disappointment. Multiple times we (and others) were solidly and blatantly ignored at the pool bar and main bar. Not even a "Hello, get you in a minute". Just blatantly ignored until we left. I was really unprepared for this. In other Caribbean locations the staff have been so warm and welcoming and all about service with every single employee greeting you. We were never greeted by anyone other than management while out walking around. If we spoke first we would get a brisk response, but we it was never initiated. Is this a cultural thing on this island? It is normal for Sandals as a brand? I don't know. Other staff just seemed miserable in their jobs and appeared bothered to be asked for anything. When we walked into one restaurant for our reservation the hostess/server watched us walk in as she was leaning against the wall giving a look that clearly said she didn't want to move. She never greeted us and only dramatically got off the wall when we were fully at the desk. She was that way through all of her serving duties. Same issue at the pizza truck...the worker was not even there for a few minutes, then was annoyed because he wasn't ready and couldn't find what he needed. We are used to jovial greetings, etc. and this just did not happen except with a few of the activities staff. Servers in other restaurants were reserved, but pleasant. It was so dramatically different than what we expected and from other experiences that we began to wonder if something had happened....loss of staff member, bad news about their jobs, etc. The management and activities staff were very friendly and welcoming. Also a shout out to Tres who was a server at the main bar one night, had our orders committed to memory and just kept us flowing all night with a smile. Also to Fernando (or Lorenzo?) at the hibachi grill who was our chef for our meal there. He was entertaining and the food was good. Also we went to the piano singalong twice and the piano player is a lot of fun. We only spent one day at the pool when the tide was too high for our beach spots and the activity people at the pool did a good job trying to get people engaged. EXCURSIONS My husband went golfing and had a good time with that. The butlers arranged for him to get breakfast from room service at 6am before his shuttle left at 7am. We'd heard that that Gros Islet street party on Fridays was a cool thing. It was not. It was $30 US to go. It was hyped to be drinks and food (additional price), vendors for souvenirs, local vibes etc. It was advertised as a 7-10pm event. But it was actually 8pm--midnight and if you wanted to come back early it was an extra $10 per person. It turned out to be some street food, mostly all the same at each little table, lots of what looked to be homemade drinks also the same at each table, only a couple of souvenir booths, dozens of dogs begging for food, some injured, and lots of repetitive loud music. No decent bathrooms to use, poor service in the regular bars if you chose to go there, etc. At one point a cruise ship group arrived and it got even more chaotic and crowded. We left after an hour. In my opinion they know no one wants to stay 4 hours and they are making extra money with people going back early. Every other couple we talked to shared our experience and went back early. Since the shuttle drivers for this were not Sandals employees we also had to tip them. The sunset catamaran was a lot of fun. Short shuttle ride, unlimited drinks and some food. We had great weather. Good music, dancing, etc. There was a photographer onboard who wanted to sell the pics to you before you got off. After looking at them all we decided to buy them all for $65, instead of each one we liked for $25. But later it was only about half that we got and NOT some that I really wanted. We messaged him through Pay Pal and he responded, but never sent the pics. So that was a bummer. We had booked the bamboo river rafting trip before arrival. It was supposed to leave at 1pm and return around 3:30pm. We had to get on a bus at 5:25pm for a dinner reservation at The Grande. After waiting 40 minutes we were told it was running late AND that it didn't actually start until 2pm anyway. There was no way we could make it back in time. This was something that our butlers should have noticed when making our dinner reservations, but somehow it was missed. I asked for a refund since there was a delay on their end and no way we could get back. The tour desk really pushed back on the refund, said it was a lot of work for them, etc., etc. I persisted and they agreed to refund me. It was not feasible for us to do it on another day due to other planned activities. I asked for days to get a confirmation about the refund. The day we left I went to the tours desk again to ask for it. The lady was extremely annoyed and did not directly address me other than to ask for my room number. The printer was supposedly broken and she scribbled a reference number on scrap of paper and handed it to me. No smile, no nothing. This was unfortunately how about 50% of interactions went and that we noticed with other guests as well. There are some very nice vendors onsite with handmade goods. They did not hassle you at all. Some others walk the beach, hopeful that you'll buy, but take a polite "no thanks" and move on. Tamarin was one fellow that walked by a lot and he was fun to talk to. We had hoped to kayak, but the weather interfered on the days we wanted to do. There were kayaks, paddle boards, hobie cats, etc. CONSTANT UPSELLING The spa ladies, the jewelry ladies and the return trip ladies are constantly roaming the resort (even the beach) wanting to pull you in. The return trip gal sat on the beach and got my husband to talk with her for about 1/2 an hour so she could draw up a quote for a future trip. He has a harder time saying a strong "no thanks" than I do. But it was aggravating to be constantly dodging them as you saw them around the resort. PRIDE and OWNERSHIP I have never been to a resort like this where glasses and room services trays, trash, etc. is just lying around. Seems it is really no one's job. We multiple times saw staff walk right past plates and cups sitting on top of the trash bins or on railings, side tables, etc. and not pick them up. Trash and cups had been left on the retaining wall behind our beach chairs that staff walked over multiple times before I asked someone to pick it up so it didn't get broken and end up on the beach. In other resorts we have seen any and all staff attend to those kinds of things that keep the resort looking nice and show pride and ownership amongst the staff for the property. The gardening staff works very hard and were constantly busy keeping things looking nice, but in the service sector a lot went undone until late in the day. CONSISTENCY This did not affect our satisfaction, but was notable that our room would have been done by housekeeping, but the room service or snack plates would still be there. At least once they were left overnight. Or butlers would have been in, but the fridge or beach towels would not have been replaced. All I could figure out is that each thing belongs to a specific department or staff. Like a very specific person would bring the things to refill the fridge. Butlers would bring beach towels, not housekeeping, etc. It was just curious. OVERALL Property, room, butlers and a few select staff were great! Beach is great, weather was great. It's nice to be able to go to other resorts, but also hard to get acclimated quickly in the other places so that you can make the most of your time.

I don’t have much to say other than good things for this resort (with a couple of slight grumbles only) The first and foremost thing I want to mention is the staff. Every single employee from the ground staff (Gardners/pool cleaners/maintenance etc) to housekeeping, to the bar, restaurant staff, reception, entertainment and especially club lounge staff to everyone in between are all so friendly, there are too many staff to mention individually and they all deserve recognition but a special thank you to Tracy from club lounge, Sam and Dylan from entertainment and the guy who’s name we didn’t get that always gets the dancing going at the main pool - he has some moves!! Also to the beautiful two ladies at the Bayside restaurant who loved my Scottish accent we never got your names but your service and smiles made our meals there so thank you!! We had club walk out swim room which we loved and was perfect for us. Room was clean, well maintained and only a few steps to the lagoon pool which was beautiful. Beach and sea are nice we had some rougher sea for half time we stayed here but when sea was calm it was lovely however I would say beach at Grande is much better, bigger and calmer and if your really into beach/water sports grande may be a better fit (however there is free shuttle to other resorts) Tiny grumbles which one of which is not really hotels fault. Firstly food - absolutely nothing wrong with it but it didn’t blow us away and with being smaller resort felt more limited choice however you can take free shuttle between the 3 resorts giving you more choice - id recommend Bombay at Grande if you like Indian and probably my favourite meal of the holiday! Sun bed situation - if you want to be around main pool be prepared to get up early to get a lounger most get taken by butlers early and then other hotel guests who prefer the more livelier environment there and whilst appreciate people have paid for privilege of butler service when butlers reserve them and no one turns up most of day or not at all it is annoying and maybe hotel could look at implementing something that if loungers have been vacant more than 2 hours towels/items are removed. There is other pool and lagoon but most also go quite early especially if you want a parasol but if you’re not too bothered where you get a lounger you will always find one! As you can see from post its the staff that really make this resort, its a lovely chilled vibe resort and all in all had an amazing time and was paradise - and I hope to get back here sometime soon!

My wife and I revisited Sandals Haycyon Beach in St Lucia in February for our 68th Anniversary. Again, we were greeted with great warmth and hospitality by management and staff! This resort is laid back from the usual larger Sandals locations. It has a very large pool area and multi-level floors. There is a smaller pool area in the main administration and food area. Their restaurants are a bit limited but, two sister locations offer a larger area and a variety of choices with a scuttle service to both locations. The personnel hiring requirement of “Attitude” and “Competence” was very event at every area of the location! At a particular level, was the “egg Lady”, as the Bayside omelet Chef, (Veronica). She methodically created outstanding omelets and other egg requests at two separate stations in the shortest of time. Management, staff and beach personnel went out of their way to accommodate my wife in her wheelchair. Personnel in the Membership Area were also vary helpful responding to special requests and events, just to mention Shenelle and Sachelle. Many of the quests that we talked to were multiple returnees to the location, that says something about the location and staff!