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My Romantic Getaway at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios

By Tina La Rocca

After honeymooning at Sandals Royal Caribbean (in Montego Bay) last year, my husband and I were eager to visit some other Sandals properties. We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon but hadn't had the chance to visit Ocho Rios on that trip so we decided our next big getaway would be to Ocho Rios.

We booked a four-night stay at Sandals Ocho Rios Grande in March. We had a choice of regular hotel rooms on the beach side or villas on the hillside. We decided to try a villa to see how we liked it since we've never taken a villa vacation.

The hotel was about a two-hour drive from the Montego Bay airport; Sandals has a welcome room at the airport and we waited there for our ride, the Sandals shuttle. The drive was interesting (we drove right by Sandals Royal Caribbean) although it was a little longer than I thought it might be.

When we got to the resort, we were asked which side we were staying on; there are two checkout desks for the two sides of the resort (which apparently used to be two separate properties.) Our check-in was in a large building that looked like a greathouse. We were met with glasses of champagne and the check-in was very fast; soon we were hopping on a cart to ride up the hill to our villa.

Our villa was in a building shared by four villas; the four shared a fairly large swimming pool. Our room had a living room, large bedroom, private balcony, and bath. It also came with a full kitchen (which seemed a little unusual at an all-inclusive although we enjoyed having the refrigerator and coffeemaker in the room.)

On our remainder of our first day, we just hung out by our pool. Two of the other villas in our building were occupied but we never saw the occupants so we had our own private pool that day. For dinner, we went down to the "greathouse" and had dinner at the Market Place Restaurant (which was also where we had breakfast the next morning and every other morning.)

On our second day, we hit the big pool behind the Great House. It is surrounded by lounge chairs and some cabanas; we weren't sure about the procedure for getting a cabana, though, so we stuck with the chairs. The pool had a big swimup bar and it was very relaxing just to hang out there until lunch when we headed across the street to what they call the "Riviera" side of the property by the beach.

The Riviera side of the property looks very different from the villa side; the tropical vegetation there is really lush (and later we hit the hammocks by a huge stand of bamboo there.) We grabbed some burgers for lunch then hit the beach for a little more R&R. For dinner that night, we went to the Italian restaurant which was very elegant. it was a really pleasant evening and a good end to a relaxing day.

On the third day, we signed up for a tour to Dunn's River Falls. We'd seen the falls a million times on postcards and in brochures but it was even more spectacular in person. Our group climbed the falls, hand in hand, and it really was a great tour. Unfortunately there were a couple of cruise ships in town so the falls were pretty crowded; if I were doing it again, I would try to find out if there was one day without cruise ships and I would visit the falls on that day.

At the exit of the falls, there's a huge crafts market with some pretty pushy vendors although we bought a really beautiful wood carving of a fish and were very happy with our purchase.

From the waterfalls, it was back to Sandals for a little more pool time, this time at our villa, before heading over to dinner at the Asian restaurant (which turned out to be my favorite.)

On our last day, we booked a couple's massage at the spa which was wonderful then hit the beach again. For our last evening's dinner, we went to the Terrace restaurant; it was great to have a seaview for our final dinner.

In looking back, the real pros of Sandals Grande Ocho Rios are the villas (we probably would never had the chance to try a villa vacation otherwise) and the many dining options at the property. The cons? It's a long walk from the villas to the main public area and a long, long walk to the beach from the villas (or you can ride a shuttle.) We had a great trip and I loved Ocho Rios.

My name is Tina La Rocca; I am a math teacher in Atlanta but enjoying traveling with my husband whenever we can!

Labels: Caribbean

posted by Lovetripper.com @ 7:57 AM