Sandals: The time I stayed at a couples resort alone

Oh my gawd. The title sounds so sad and pathetic! A single woman staying at a popular resort amongst honeymooners and couples.

But it was not that bad!

I’ve always wanted to stay at a Sandal’s resort! Way back, before I actually even started traveling solo, I was always in awe of their properties. Their commercials are so enticing and dreamy. The hotels on the beach seem so luxurious, with infinity pools and overwater bungalows. I just knew the possibility of me ever staying in one was slim to none. First of all, the resorts are expensive. Second, they cater to couples. And lastly, I can barely stay in a relationship long enough to even secure a couples trip, let along an expensive one.

If you wanna get personal. Ever since I was a child, I knew that I would not give birth to any children. I also knew that the possibility of me getting married was about 50/50. Even two palm readers told me this. I’m just a whimsical, wavering, curious woman who doesn’t like being tied down. And I get bored rather quickly.

Here I go, sounding sad and pathetic again, but I promise I’m not. I’m just logical, and I know stuff.

But I typed all that out to tell you why I jumped at the opportunity to stay at Sandals and just didn’t wait it out, until I found a significant other to take me.

How it Started

So one of my best friend’s childhood friends invited us to Sandals Dunn River for her birthday. I had met the friend a couple of times before, so I was kind of surprised by her invitation. I’m pretty sure I was only invited because my friend was single and didn’t have a man to go with. I didn’t mind because I had always dreamed of staying at a Sandals resort. I also really wanted to go to Jamaica again because my first time was horrible. Let’s just say my family does not know how to act when unlimited alcohol is involved, and I’ll just leave it at that. Anyway, our party included my friend, me, the birthday girl, her husband, and two married couples.

The Sandals Dunn River is a new property in Ocho Rios, Jamaica that opened in May 2023. We stayed at the adults-only resort for five nights, and the room cost $2400. After booking our flights, I spent roughly $1800 on my trip, which isn’t all that expensive, considering that all the food and drinks were included. The hotel also provided roundtrip transportation to the airport, about one hour away.

I was immediately impressed by the hotel grounds and landscaping. When you arrive at the hotel and get past the guarded gates, it’s a cute little coffee shop serving aromatic Jamaican blue mountain coffee. It was love at first site! A few meters down is the hotel lobby, an open-air breezeway with a mixture of moss and live plants over rich natural wood. If that doesn’t wow you, directly past a grand stairway was a view of a sparkling pool, the beach, and endless shades of blue of the Caribbean sea. It didn’t take me long to know that it was already money well spent.

The Resort

My friend and I were the first in our group to arrive. We got there right around lunchtime, and of course, we had to get Jamaican jerk chicken as our first meal! The hotel has a total of twelve restaurants. I was quite surprised that each restaurant served different cuisine and wasn’t just all buffet style. It was an Italian, Greek, French, Latin, and Asian-inspired restaurant. The food was really, really good and comparable to food that I would purchase and enjoy at home. I was previously used to all-inclusive resorts serving crappy, bland, cafeteria-style food – but this was absolutely not the case at Sandals.

Throughout our stay, I dined at all the restaurants, and my favorite was the Japanese and Italian restaurants. The service was great at all of them, and getting reservations was not a problem. I was underwhelmed with the drinks, though. For some reason, I never feel the alcohol at all-inclusive resorts. Like I can drink all day and not get tipsy. Back home, I only need a good 2.5 drinks, and I’m giggling up a storm. At all-inclusive resorts, I need a good six! And I order top-shelf liquor, too, and I watch the bartenders pour it! I swear the drinks are watered down, but who knows?

I was also a tad let down by the rooms. The rooms were basic and didn’t wow me like I thought they would. Even though we got the most basic room, the setup still wasn’t giving $480 a night, which we basically paid. The other couples who got the upgraded fancier rooms also had the same setup; they just had a better view and an outdoor bathtub. The mattress was also very hard and uncomfortable.

I did sneak around to the private villa’s, and they were pretty nice.

Final Thoughts

As a single person at a couples resort, I initially feared that it would be a weird vibe. I thought it would be a bunch of couples attached at the hip, being all lovey-dovey, and everything would be centered around people in relationships. It ended up being like a regular beach hotel with no single men. Take that back: the male workers at the resort were extra talkative and flirty after finding out that my friend and I were single. So, all in all, it wasn’t that bad. There were plenty of free activities like scuba diving, kayaking, waterskiing, tubing, snorkeling, and paddle boarding. They had beach volleyball, pottery-making class, and bingo. There were entertainers and live music at night. It was a Rum Club that was pretty club-like during after-hours. All the couples that I met were very social and nice.

And I guess everything happens for a reason. Even though I really enjoyed my stay at Sandals, I’m unsure if I would return.

If I had a spouse willing to pay $4000 for us to stay at Sandals, definitely. If I had to contribute to our vacation, I would choose someplace else. After a while, all beaches start to look the same, and you can do everything and then some at a fraction of the cost in Florida. I’m also not one of those people who like to spend their entire vacation at a resort. I’m more of an adventurous style traveler. Even though we did do an excursion to Dunn’s Fall, I still like to get out and see and do more.

If all-inclusive resorts are your thing and you love a good bae-cation, I do highly recommend it! The food alone made it worth it.