The Sandpiper

Currently still at The Sandpiper, from the time we arrived they couldn’t do enough for us. Everyone remembers your name and it makes the visit very personal. Ken the GM recognised that I’m a football fan and as, I believe most of the rooms come without TVs he couldn’t wait to get one in place for us. The rest of the staff in the hotel, bar staff, housekeeping, concierge and rest of back office couldn’t enough for us. Would highly recommend, as good if not better than the larger brands in the area. If I come back to Barbados we will definitely lookup The Sandpiper again.

The staff and intimacy of this hotel make it a genuine 5* experience. Every morning the breakfast service was wonderful, everyone smiles and wants to help. The food and choice is great, never exactly the same so it always feels fresh. The egg station is a must, you just need to time it well to avoid a queue. We chose our garden room right by the sun deck and it was perfect. Greeted by the manager who showed us to our room with a rum punch in our hands, much needed after the journey. We ate at the usual haunts - Lone Star, Tides, LP Bistro etc but the food at The Sandpiper stood out head and shoulders above these. Sure the atmosphere was subdued but the quality of each course was amazing. Returning for our 3rd visit, many of the staff recognised us and greeted us as old friends, it sounds a small detail, but it makes a massive difference. You feel at home straight away and nothing is too much trouble. Lunch at Horold's Bar is a joy and the lunch menu lives up to the same expectations as the dinner experience - luckily without the need for long trousers - highly recommend the spicy prawn pizza. So any negatives... there are, but sadly they have nothing to do with the hotel. The sea was rough - really rough, red flag rough, and so the beach was pretty much out of bounds. This just highlighted the lack of space without the beach, for laying in the sun. There were beds on the grass but few and far between. Because of this, beds on the decking were a premium. This really became an issue as you had to employ a 'if you can't beat them' mentality. I was out at 6.20am trying to find an unclaimed pair of beds, not in a 5* resort. People must have been putting books on beds in the dark! It culminated in the last day of our stay when the 6 front row beds were 'saved' but not actually used until 11.00am - see picture. The other issue is really the monstrosity being built next door, The Royalton Vessence. This is nothing to do with The Sandpiper but you cannot ignore it. 220 adult only suites, 5 bars and a rooftop terrace. The construction noise is actually minimal, it's just the size and look of the thing. The concern will be how it affects the already small beachfront. There are no private beaches in Barbados so the footfall and number of people may encroach on The Sandpiper's already narrow beachfront, and we have no idea about the sound pollution from the rooftop bar. If you are travelling to The Sandpiper through spring early summer I cannot recommend it enough, but post late summer opening of The Royalton, I would see peoples comments on how it affects things.

Whilst we enjoyed our stay at the Sandpiper we would not return for a number of reasons. We have been lucky enough to travel all over the world and stay at top hotels but we found the Sandpiper very cliquey. It has a high number of returning guests who all know each other and who seemed to us to have a sense of entitlement over the service and facilities of the hotel. This is not something we have encountered to the same degree in other hotels and we also learnt that some long-standing guests had invested in the hotel at the outset and as such enjoyed certain benefits not available to others. This created a feeling of ’them and us’ which was difficult to ignore and when I raised it with one of the owners, Wayne Capaldi he admitted that we were not the only people to point this out but in the same breath then suggested we might like to become part of the club! The hotel itself is compact, small and quite intimate which perhaps makes the cliques more obvious. It can also feel a bit claustrophobic. It has two restaurants (one a beach bar) and we were told a new chef had arrived recently. The food was not of the standard we would have expected for a 5 star hotel but we would commend the breakfast service which offered an excellent choice of buffet and a la carte options. One of us did have food poisoning towards the end of our stay and we had only eaten in the hotel the previous days. This should never happen in a 5 star hotel and ruined the end of the stay. Our garden facing room was quite small by equivalent hotel standards and also dark. It had a pleasant terrace but sadly our enjoyment of it was marred by the road noise as the hotel sits adjacent to one of the main roads on the island. This noise was made worse by major road works going on as part of the development of a new c7-storey, 300 room all-inclusive hotel which now towers over the Sandpiper and this is another reason we would not return. Indeed we would not have chosen the Sandpiper had we been made aware of the major construction work at the time of booking which also caused water outages during our stay in addition to the noise of the building work. We also heard that a number of guests did not have hot water for several days. When the new hotel opens later this year it will exacerbate the traffic noise issues we experienced and will significantly impact the enjoyment of the Sandpiper’s beach (which is not private) due to the additional guests walking past it and the inevitable increase in watersport activity such as noisy jet-skis which are already prevalent along this small stretch of beach. As a plus to end on, the staff were all very friendly and helpful.

The sandpiper is a lovely oasis in a great location ( walking distance of shops, bars and restaurants) It has a lot of repeat guests , the reason being that EVERY single member of staff is like a friend, they are sincere in their good mornings etc and genuinely care about your needs. They are very well trained all across the sectors. Rooms are nice with ample storage, ladies you can sit and dry your hair as there is a mirror near a plug point. ( pet hate of mine) Good hairdryers in room too. Breakfast is lovely and well stocked. The pool areas are great, the beach is kept spotlessly clean ( as are all areas of the hotel) There’s a well run complimentary tennis clinic 6 afternoons a week which is a nice addition, also the non motorised water sports are complimentary ( the guys there are a lovely bunch and so helpful) There’s a proper lap pool which I used most mornings, it’s a great facility in my opinion. There’s a Padel court at the sister hotel ( which is short stroll along the beach) along with pilates and yoga. The sandpiper has a small gym and the Coral Reef has an excellent spa offering a myriad of treatments. Harold’s bar on site is a lovely setting for lunch and sundowners, you can also eat there for dinner, the food is casual but excellent. The main restaurant bar is well managed with a good fun team, food in the main restaurant is excellent & there are lots of different options each evening along with nightly entertainment. Long trousers gentlemen in main restaurant

Just the most wonderful hotel which cannot be faulted. The location is perfect, with a beautiful quiet beach and clear calm seas. The hotel has seen some really lovely updates since we last visited whilst at the same time feeling like nothing has changed. It's like coming home. However, the most wonderful part of the stay is the staff, many who have been at the Sandpiper for over 30 years and are like family. It's always so sad to leave. The water sports team are great and took us to the shipwreck and to swim with the turtles. We hope to be back with you very soon! Love the Mundays.