Sandals Halcyon Beach All Inclusive

What People are saying

Can't wait to go back!!

Heather Don 16/06/2017 02:31

Our first experience at a Sandals resort and we were impressed! Couldn't have picked a better place for our honeymoon! The staff was friendly and always happy to help. Can't wait to go to Sandals Antigua in 2019!

Not five star by any stretch

willowArgyllandButeon 15/06/2017 20:20

I'm so angry about this place I haven't enjoyed it at all. I paid £5000 for a week here. We weren't told about all the building work going on, so were unable to use some of the areas. Drills going, saws going, other main areas getting painted and some oceanfront rooms being maintained. Next, it's just off the main highway and we had traffic noise all day, lorries, motorbikes screaming about and ambulances with full sirens. We got stuck in a honeymoon hideaway at the back of the resort. There is no privacy between each row of rooms out on your terrace and it was annoying. Also being in the garden area means the mosquitos are severe, even with jungle strength repellant. The beach is very poor and the water is cloudy and choppy, not enough loungers. I've been to other Sandals properties and they were really five star, this one just isn't. Someone else said there were no robes, and no there weren't and I didn't bring my own because it's included in the Sandals package. Had mostly good food in the very few restaurants, but service unbelievably slow in some. Tried the French one night, only six tables occupied and the starter took 30 mins to come out and the main course was forty minutes later. Had to wait at Kelly's for half an hour to get a table another night. I asked today for a late checkout for tomorrow, we were happy to pay the extra $50 for four additional hours as we have an overnight flight tomorrow plus a four hour stopover then a connecting flight, then a three hour drive to get home. But no, apparently our room is already allocated so we're getting chucked out at 11am.
I want to say though that the staff are just lovely, and the gardens are beautiful and maintained by an excellent team. That's the only positive thing I can say. I won't be back here, and will seriously wonder about Sandals again.
If the management wish to discuss this with me, I'm in room 609, I bet you won't though.

bruce

kdbasiasl69on 14/06/2017 20:49

What a fabulous place. From the grounds that are well kept to the food which was excellent to all of the staff that were very friendly and helpful to the entertainment. Can't wait to return to this resort and the beautiful Island of Saint Lucia. I highly recommend this resort.

Honeymoon in Paradise

Ashley Lon 13/06/2017 18:52

My new husband and I just celebrated our honeymoon at Halycon. This place was perfect! It was quiet and serene, exactly what we wanted. We like to go to bed kind of early and get up and out early in the morning. Germaine kept the gym very clean and nice and we went every morning. He was there with a cheerful smile no matter how early. Yasmin and Natalie gave us a couples massage that was out of this world. June at the sushi bar made an amazing Dragon eel roll and crispy Philly. Jason from travel adventures was so friendly. The staff is INCREDIBLE. Our favorite bar tenders were Anouk and Jean. Every staff member was so relaxed and best of all, no one ever says no to anything! The water sports were awesome. We tried sailing, kayaking, and we got our scuba certification with Damian. Damian was a fabulous instructor. I was nervous but he made me feel very confident in my abilities to dive and we saw and awesome shipwreck at 42 feet. We especially appreciate Amelia and Melissa. When we first arrived our room was right by the construction that is taking place. It was very loud. Our room was moved to a brand new room right by the pool (very convenient) and they Amelia threw in a couples massage and the discovery scuba dive for our troubles. It really made the honeymoon great. This place is all about over delivery. Everyone goes out of their way. Joel took beautiful pictures of us at sunset. The food was great! We loved Kimonos (hibachi), Soy (sushi), Kelly's dockside (seafood bisque is out of this world) and the lasagna at Marios was awesome. We went to La Toc one night and it was extremely beautiful but way more of a party scene. The food at Neptune's was ok. The staff there was also very nice. I highly recommended Sandals. You can really get the true Island experience at Halcyon because it is small and chill. We recommend the Soufrie adventure cruise. It was $115 per person but you see the mud baths, waterfall, snorkeling by the Pitons, and cocoa plantation. Ann Marie at the cocoa plantation gave a fabulous tour and let us try all kinds of coconut and jungle foods.

You will feel like royalty on this vacation. Cheers!

Ashley

Small and intimate Sandals - but lots of building work and no robes!

Steve Won 13/06/2017 14:02

This was our second visit to Sandals after enjoying Barbados last year. Like Barbados, it is a smaller resort but we really liked the layout and the overall standard. It is set on a lovely beach which gave us a leisurely 30 minute walk each morning before breakfast. The service and food are outstanding as you expect from Sandals. Kelly's was our favourite along with the Teppanyaki at Kimonos. We were in room 405 (Honeymoon Hideaway) and blocks 4 & 5 seemed to be mostly British guests. We used the quiet pool which was a short walk from the pool (the main pool was busier with constant music playing and activities which we weren't interested in). Compared with Barbados the beach was far nicer at Halcyon St Lucia. It was warm, calm and great for swimming. Not great for snorkelling as the fine sand gets stirred up so the water is a bit cloudy but the beach is kept immaculately clean. We did snorkel on a free morning excursion which was a 20 minute drive away followed by a 20 minute boat trip out to a reef off the coast near Le Toc and it was much clearer there. We also really enjoyed the inclusive catamaran sailing at the beach. We had never sailed before but after a 5 minute lesson with Jonas I was hooked and spent hours out in the bay. It was so easy and enjoyable because the sea is so calm with warm breezes. Great fun!

This holiday was everything we hoped for and expected from Sandals except for two issues:
1. The building work. We were not given any warning of there being building works going on in advance but there were major developments going on throughout the 10
days we stayed incurring noise and inconvenience. If we had been staying in blocks 2 or 3 we would have complained as there was constant noise from the redevelopment near the Beach Bistro café where they were excavating a new swimming pool and knocking down the older accommodation blocks. They were also redeveloping the beachfront apartments and relaying paths throughout the hotel so there were dozens of builders back and forth through the resort. The path relaying wasn't noisy except for one day when they had to dig out a drain by the quiet pool and we had pneumatic drills going for a couple of hours. If we were the kind of people who were inclined to seeking compensation I am sure that Sandals would have had to refund us as we had no notice at all and there was significant disruption. But we wanted to make the most of our holiday and not focus on the negatives so we just focused on having a great time at this lovely resort.

2. The lack of robes. This may seem petty but there were no robes at this 'luxury included' Sandals resort. Even standard 4* hotels usually offer robes so for a 5* luxury stay we were very disappointed that we couldn't just lounge in our room in robes which is part of the joy of being on holiday.

Sandals Halcyon would have received 5 stars if not for these two points. I would recommend that anyone intending to stay during summer 2017 checks with Sandals that there will be no work. Kelly's restaurant is being rebuilt this summer so there will be disruption and the loss of use of one of our favourite restaurants. We will consider going back here as it was lovely but will ensure that we check on the building situation and take our own robes!