Sandals Ochi

This was our visit to Sandals and it will not be our last! On day 3 of our trip I was already looking to book our next one. Shevy and Kayann were an amazing butler team. They both went above and beyond to cater to my food sensitivity… Shevy went back and forth from hillside to beach side to meet my request for GF pizza. My hero that day! We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary during our visit. On that day, Kayann surprised us while we were at the beach with a delicious shrimp lunch (one of our fav meals all week!) She set up lovely decorations, a bubble bath, and an amazing GF dessert for our evening. We felt taken care of but not smothered by our butler team. Every request we made was met with a smile. The resort did an amazing job catering to my gluten sensitivity, having many options available and even met requests. They had a gf chocolate cake that was amazing!! Every meal we ate was delicious! The beach was glorious- such clear waters! Our Romero and Juliet suite with private pool and hot tub was perfect! Bed was comfy. Having the sitting room separate from the bedroom was nice as I slept in and my hubby was an early riser. My only complaint about the room is that the little waterfall by pool runs 24-7 and is a bit noisy so it’s difficult to hear when room service/housekeeping knocks on the door. We will return for sure! And we’ll be requesting Shevy and Kayann as our butler team!

My wife and I just finished our trip to Sandals Ochi and we absolutely loved it. The entire staff was amazing across the board. A big shout out to Howard in Miss Ethel’s piano bar who went above and beyond as our bartender on a nightly basis. His service was fantastic and he shared his knowledge of Jamaica with us going over the local fruits that are used for their signature drinks (scotch bonnet peppers and sour oranges). Romario (both of them) that were part of the entertainment team also were great to speak with and they always would point us in the direction of a good time. We also enjoyed great massages at the spa with Theresa and Juleen who were very nice. I’d highly recommend this resort and will likely come back in the future.

Patrice from entertainment team was AMAZING!! She helped us find events and restaurants and was an overall blast. Kayan and Damain from the entertainment team were also super fun. They had us join in pool games helped getting to know other guests so well. Our first time in Jamaica was absolutely incredible! The drinks the food and the entertainment was out of this world. Try the curry chicken!!!

Our time at Sandals has been amazing! Great food and atmosphere! The pools were great and they had lots of fun games and great music. Patrice (from the Entertainment team) was sooo much fun and there was always something fun to do. Highly recommend!

We had originally booked to stay in SMB in an OBT room. Obviously as a result of the renovations this wasn’t possible. Firstly we got a bit of a bum deal as we’d booked with Virgin UK rather than Sandals, so we were very much at the back of the line. I pushed as hard as I could to get us in to Dunns River but it was unfortunately a no go. We were getting married whilst we were over there, and having stayed at Ochi 16 years ago I knew what to expect and wasn’t really thrilled about having to move to this resort (our only other option was Royal Barbados at an addition cost of £4K per couple so that wasn’t happening). We ended up being offered an OV1 suite (for those of you who don’t know that’s an oceanview butler suite on the hillside). Firstly, due to accessibility issues (stupid cancer) we asked SSG, Virgin and the resort directly to be in a ground floor room. This was ignored and we were put on the first floor in building 49. Not ideal. It then took us over 24 hours to sort out a room we could actually use. For those who’ve booked these rooms, they are right at the back of the resort and whilst there is an excellent ocean view, there is also an excellent view of a 24hr petrol station and an extremely noisy road. Not ideal to say the least. So we ended up moving down the hill in to an NV1 room which was better for accessibility but obviously a downgrade. As you all know Ochi is a split resort, hillside and beachside with access between the two via the hop. Now if anyone has any sort of mobility issues I wouldn’t recommend Ochi as there are steps to access absolutely everything. The same to be said of the toilets, there are little to no disabled facilities and the only disabled toilet we found was on the basement level in the manor which was only accessible by stairs! The resort itself has had an upgrade but it’s still not really close to the newer resorts in terms of aesthetics. As a group of four travellers, we enjoy our evenings sat in a comfortable bar with great drinks and a great view either before or after dinner, this wasn’t an option for us at Ochi. There is very limited seating in both lobby bars and they seem to have gone for style over substance in their seating choices, we were there for 10 days and I don’t think we managed to find a comfortable seat the whole time! The Ocean Beach Bar has pretty much zero seating and is designed with a much more club atmosphere in mind, absolutely fine if that’s what you’re after. We spent our days at the beach club and really enjoyed it, the entertainments team were really very good, the only down side is the pool is quite small so it gets very crowded and very dirty as the day goes on despite the best efforts of the staff to keep it clean. The Sunbed situation is also interesting, we are sun worshippers so tend to get down quite early (around 8am) and there was your pick of beds. They were pretty full by around 10am. We did find that a lot of these ‘reserved’ beds weren’t used at all during the day, at one point we had 30 unoccupied but reserved loungers round the pool! We did get married whilst we were over there and the wedding team were great, along with the location, absolutely can’t fault them for that at all. The rooms are perfectly serviceable with a great bed and bathroom, although even the renovated rooms are showing signs of wear and tear. The balcony furniture is extremely uncomfortable if you like spending time out there which is a shame. The food quality has been very good all round however I think the breakfast and lunch buffets probably could be better if you just want to grab something quick during the day. Options there were both limited and interesting! The drinks quality was a bit meh, the alcohol options are really pretty good but the mixers out of a bottle of opened Coke or sprite were pretty poor. We visited Sandals Dunns River one evening and the difference is stark, plenty of places to sit and watch the world go by with a drink, snacks on the bar and bizarrely the red stripe on draught here was excellent compared to Ochi. Now with the layout, Ochi is never going to fit the 2.0 vibe without being bulldozed and rebuilt which would ruin the old school Caribbean style it’s got going, but for those of us used to modern hotels with lovely airy spaces and a thoughtful layout this is not the place for you. The hop service is good and very necessary but it does get a bit wearing having to get on and off buses multiple times a day and if you are up the hill without a butler I can imagine getting from your room down to the lobby and back could be a bit challenging. We did have a butler for this holiday, which was a new experience for us having previously only stayed in Club rooms. Natalie and Andrae were wonderful and nothing was too much trouble, I don’t think we necessarily utilised them as much as others but they always checked in and suggested little things for us as well as dropping little surprises in our room for us. I would highly recommend these guys if you are coming over here in a butler room. All in all an ok holiday but we won’t be returning.