Sandals Royal Curacao: Great Place - Loved It!

We really enjoyed our stay at this beautiful resort. The grounds were gorgeous - so many beautiful palm trees - and very well maintained. Staff were very friendly and helpful. We spent most of our time at the beach, there are always plenty of beach chairs and there is a small beach hut to get drinks and bbq hamburgers, hotdogs, and delicious chicken or beef kabobs. If you want more variety the pool restaurant is nearby. At first I was a bit disappointed with the beach since you can only swim ou [... read more]t so far and then get cut off by a long pier. But I ended up loving it since it had a nice sandy bottom (which I found out from other people I met is not the case at some of the other hotels) was great for swimming and snorkeling and had a nice gradual slope from shallow to well over your head if you want to go that deep. The pool area was also very well appointed with never any shortage of chairs nor beach towels. And the Splash restaurant nearby for food and drinks. We had the all-inclusive pkg which you have to understand is a relatively new concept for this hotel since it is primarily an EP resort. So don't expect it to be like an all-inclusive in Mexico for example. Having said that, we were not at all disappointed, it was just different and going to the SunWing briefing made it easier for us to understand what was included and what wasn't so there were no surprises. All in all, we loved this island for its authenticity, its people and culture, and we absolutely loved this resort - would definitely return!

Sandals Royal Curacao: Can't wait to go back!

This hotel exceeded our expectations for an all-inclusive resort. We travelled with two small children (2.5 and 4.5 years old) and stayed in a partial waterview room (West Wing, nearest the beach). The positives: - The exceptional service and sincerity of the staff. As they say, they were "Dushi!" Everyone we met seemed genuinely happy to work at the resort and to interact with guests. Even us, with our family chaos, felt welcome at even the most formal restaurant (Shore). The hotel is truly a  [... read more]family-friendly resort. - The private and protected beach was extremely calm and we felt very safe with small children - The tap water is drinkable - The kids club was a nice option - The tastefully appointed decor and well-maintained gardens - Hot weather (30C) every day (early January) - The food was good. Medi (the main restaurant) provided healthy options at all meals and the food always seemed fresh and generally well-prepared - The international flare of the guests from around the world (we met mainly Canadians, South Americans, and Europeans) lent a cosmopolitan vibe to the resort Room for improvement: - Lidded plastic cups with straws for children - Foot-level taps to rinse off sand around the beach entrances in the West Wing would help control the amount of sand tracking into the hotel suites - Slightly warmer pool temperature would have been nice - A playground for children would have been a nice touch on the grounds

Sandals Royal Curacao: Incredible Stay at Santa Barbara

My fiancé and I stayed at Santa Barbara during the week of New Year’s Eve & had a fantastic & fun filled experience, we regret not booking for 2 weeks. For the past 5 years we travel to the Caribbean for NYE/Christmas and Curacao has hands down been the best vacation spot, with the weather being the #1 highlight. The Santa Barbara resort is a beautifully situated on an old plantation, it is very isolated and about 30 minutes to Willemstad or 20 to Jan Thiel, that being said if you need to be  [... read more]able to leave the resort for excitement, either get a car or stay closer to the city. We rented a car which gave us the freedom to tour around the island, there is a lot to do, but everything is pretty spread out. Resort: The scenery at Santa Barbara could not be more beautiful, you’re in the middle of a lush but rocky desert situated on pristine blue waters. The resort is well maintained and very modern. There are 2 pools and then a long strip of beach. The beach is in front of a blocked off waterway in a bay, so when sitting on the beach you see a wall where boats go by on the other side and then a large rock mountain on the other side. The resort is fairly large end to end and all you need is centrally located with the exception of Shore Restaurant & Golf on the East side and Ocean Encounters on the West, that being said stay on the East side if you plan to golf & on the West if you plan to dive. The resort has perfect Wi-Fi, but you pay quite a bit for it. The customer service in all areas of the resort was top notch, we received the best experience from Sugheeny who manages reservations and Medi as well as Missy at the pool, we never went hungry or thirsty during the days at the pool! We also had several run-ins with the Director of Food & Beverage – Rob, I believe it was, he was a very pleasant man who you could tell had extensive experience in the industry. He does a phenomenal job with the food and beverages, everything was outstanding! Another thing I liked about this island/resort is that you can tell people were living well & well educated - we never felt a culture barrier and no one bothered us for a tip, although we still did tip. In terms of the room, we upgraded to the premier ocean view and the view was spectacular. The cleaning service did not come until later in the day, but this wasn’t a problem since we were never there. Plus, there were no bugs anywhere, not even outdoors. Food: The food was absolutely delicious and very easily accessible all hours of the day. We had the all-inclusive package and it included everything except Jun’s Sushi & Bella Italia, which is an Italian style café with Gelato (It seemed like we received ~30% off at these locations because the bill was always less than expected). The buffet, Medi, was excellent for all meals and changed daily for dinner. In addition to the buffet, you are able to have lunch at the pool at Splash (fish tacos are amazing!) or you can go to Pincho’s on the beach. For dinner you also have the option to dine at Shore which is on the East side – this restaurant was incredible! Everything from the food to the service to the atmosphere was impeccable! Try to go for the sunset – such a beautiful view Activities/Entertainment: Each night there is something different playing at Medi, also the resort puts on a beach party once a week with dinner and entertainment. For NYE they went all out and they put on a fantastic pool party with a live band, food/drinks & fireworks – it was a lot of fun! During the day they had music at the pool once for the week and you also have the option for golf, tennis and scuba/snorkeling. They do not have a busy bar or nightclub scene, so you would have to leave the resort if you are looking for night life. Also, there is a fee for tennis and if it’s a windy day, I recommend not wasting your money. Overall our experience at Santa Barbara was our favorite thus far, it was a luxurious vacation with the best weather we have ever had on an island this time of year. I would mostly recommend this for a family vacation as we saw a lot large families and kids around. There weren't any other couples around that were our age (high 20's) but this wasn't an issue for us, we didn't feel annoyed being around all families and kids. We will return 100%, probably even NYE 2016!

Blue Bay Village: Great experience!

Accommodations are spacious, clean and very well maintained. The whole village is fantastic to live in, very family oriented, a very pleasant experience. The beach is just right and the people are amazing, very european feeling.

Sunscape Curacao Resort: Beach vacation ruined

Thank you very much for your follow up regarding our trip. We did some scuba diving, which was awesome; as well we spent a day in Williamstad. For the most part, we had a good time, mainly due to the mostly excellent service and friendly staff. There were however, a few disappointments. 1. Beach - not sure if you were aware, but it was under construction for 5 of the 7 days we were there and that was because they did not work on Sunday's. Given that was our travel days we did not get a chance to [... read more] enjoy the beach at all. They were trucking in sand and regrading beach. The noise from the heavy equipment was unbearable. It was like being in the middle of a construction site in downtown Toronto! If we had known, we would have gone somewhere else. 2. Snorkelling at the resort and water sport activities such kayaking, canoeing, etc. - not only was the beach being dugout, they were dredging the protected/lagoon area and repairing the breakwall. Therefore the water was so murky one could not see anything while snorkelling. Also, as a result of the dredging, non-motorized water sports were very limited as you would have to stay away from the extreme large machineries. If it hadn't been for the friendly staff, our rating would be "zero"! We would recommend this resort since the beach construction is now done. What we are asking is for reimbursement of 2 of the 7 days per person for the beach and lagoon areas not being available. We believe this is a fair request as we did enjoyed the rest of the resort.

Renaissance Curacao: Great staff in a make believe resort.

The place has some unique and surprisingly good features like the man made infinity pool that is filled with ocean water and which has an artificial sandy beach with palm trees. It has a great location due to its proximity to the floating bridge and downtown area. On the negative side, the lobby is filled with cigarette smoke from the Casino. You can even smell the smoke in the hallways close to the elevators on the other floors. You can tell that this place was not designed to be an all inclusi [... read more]ve resort because of the very limited number of restaurants and staff. Besides, one can get a sense that the overall policy of the Hotel is to slow the services down and short change the all inclusive guest in different ways. This included long line ups at Starbucks as well as persistently fully booked reservation space at the Cru Steakhouse due to limited capacity. The food and staff at the Cru were excellent but food was below par at Nautilus in both selection and quality and the staff were generally unfriendly. The pool side service is nothing like the all inclusive resorts of Mexico and the Dominican Republic. You are lucky if waiters are in sight and you have to waive hard to get their attention. Once successful, you can wait a long time for drinks and even longer for food. The rooms were clean and well stocked. Surprisingly, the noise in the hallway was usually from the housekeeping staff yelling "housekeeping" or communicating loudly in the early morning. During our stay, there was no hot water for the whole week. Sometimes it was cold and other times lukewarm. There was no letter of apology under the door or any warning! They probably hoped that we will not notice. When we brought the matter up with the front desk they admitted that the "boiler was broken" and that the "parts have been delayed". On our first day, the pool was closed until 1 pm for maintenance. The Nautilus was closed on one of the other days due to " an unfortunate event" which turned out to be due to water backup. Room service was offered instead but we did not take advantage of it because the situation was not very appetizing. In the end, there were many great employees that made up for the shortcomings of the place. You can tell that they are frustrated with the lack of support from their own hotel and that they have become experts at making up excuses on their employers' behalf.

Sonesta Great Bay Beach & Casino: Amazing Staff,dated rooms and so.so food

Rated 4 star for location,more like a 3 star for rooms and food,staff was fantastic,maybe pricing itself out of our range.This is our 2nd year at Sonesta Great Bay but maybe too pricey in 2015 .Please try to keep the price reasonable.

Sunscape Curacao Resort: only the weather was amazing

The resort is small, the beach is small and full of coral shells, personal friendly but lazy , some of the rooms with cracks on the walls, not fancy food but enough. I rate this resort 2.5 stars. The weather was great

Sunscape Curacao Resort: Great vacation!

Great overall resort! Excellent location and service! We bought the deluxe king size room with ocean view which resulted in an upgrade to the Preferred Member's Club area. Room was excellent, very clean! Very good a la carte restaurants however they do not take reservations and work on a first come first serve basis which can sometime result in long waiting times. Location of the resort is 6 km from downtown Willemstaed which was a huge plus for us. The town is charming and has a unique characte [... read more]r - we haven't seen anything similar in the Caribbean. The island is very safe, a pleasure to walk around outside the resort... Highly recommended!

Sunscape Curacao Resort: I really enjoyed Sunscape with a few exeptions

Not much on the dessert table at the buffet, it was pretty much the same all the time including the food, the alacarte's were good with the exception of the staff at the Oceana, but the food was good, the drink's were watered down, overall the staff at the front desk and most in the buffet were excellent, they changed our room when I told them that my wife didn't want to stay on the main floor, the bar in the lobby had great drink's if that's what you wanted, overall we had a great time and woul [... read more]d consider going back. wish I was still there

Palace St. Martin: quite resort

the hotel should be fully functional now with 3 speciality restaruarnt. rooms are very quite. staff is excellent. excellent beach. french side seems to deal all in us dollars. they have a full stock of any kind of drinks/alcohol

Palace St. Martin: Great resort....

We were very impressed with the hotel, but especially the staff. So, friendly, and go out of their way to please. Great beach,and pool area was also wonderful. Clean, and tidy and easy to find a place there. The only thing that I feel would make this better is if they had more entertainment that was not in the lobby, as there is not enough seating for everyone to sit and enjoy. Over all the place was great. There was some construction being done, but it was not disruptive or overly loud as some  [... read more]people have said. Good job for Riu who has recently taken over...

Sunscape Curacao Resort: Good times in Curacao

All of the staff were really nice. Room was clean and adequate to our needs. Food was excellent in the seafood restaurant. The beach was beautiful and the entertainment really added fun. It is close to an excellent sea life park and has bus access to Willemstad

Sunscape Curacao Resort: service

Too slow serving coffee at breakfast time. Should have had the same waitress every day so we could have tipped her got picked up for the airport at 5.30 AM There should have been at least a coffee and a muffin for us.

Sonesta Great Bay Beach & Casino: staff and resort was good however

i did not like waiting at the buffet for dinner lunch or breakfast.. ive been going there for 15 yrs and it was never like that or at least not as bad . i do understand that with the new renovations going on at the other building that we have to wait now because the dinning area is closed ...still i dont like the wait ..not at a buffet.

Sonesta Great Bay Beach & Casino: Another great trip to St. Marten

Although we were booked for our 13th trip to Sonesta Great Bay we could not stay there as the hotel was damaged by a hurricane a week before we were to travel. We were then booked into the New Riu Palace. on the French side of the island. The hotel in total was very nice and although still under renovations and opened 2 weeks early to accommodate the displaced Great Bay guests all was really good. The rooms were nice, beds comfortable, nice bathrooms beautiful beach and pool. All the staff were  [... read more]great and the food was delicious, plentiful and well prepared even thought we only had buffet for the week as the other resturantes were not yet opened. Our compliments to all the staff... great job. The only issue we have with this resort is it is isolated and transportation into Phillipsburg on the Dutch side for shopping or to Marigot on the French side by taxi can be expensive. ( best taxi driver is Albert Rogers, just have the front desk call him a great guy ) We did suggest to Riu that a free daily shuttle to either town would really sell this hotel. Would recommend this hotel to anyone. Special thanks to Lawrence Solomon of Trip Central for all his help and working Sunwing to get us to this hotel. .

Sonesta Maho Beach: Great Location

This hotel needs to be renovated in some areas. Overall the rooms were clean and the resort was nice. The main pool needs some work (fix or replace the liner). The other pool was under renovations and so was a couple of restaurants, so that limited your options of where you could dine.

Sonesta Maho Beach: Good place

This hotel offers quite good service. During our stay big section of the facility was going through significant renovation, so better days will most likely come there soon. The room was decent and kept clean. Depending on your luck, you may get a room from a nice inner courtyard side (with swimming pool or beach view), or you may get a "dark side" placement (with very noisy massive central air conditioner and non-maintained back of the building grounds). Unfortunately, the second placement was o [... read more]ur "destiny". Hotel personnel were quite friendly and helpful in general, but our several requests for room change were always pushed to the next day. It wasn't the end of the world, since in that wonderful warm climate you spend most of your life outdoors (not in the room), but that part could have been nicer. Another thing that was surprising is that all people were kicked out from under beach umbrellas before 6PM (they were locking chairs and umbrellas away; that never happened to us in any other country). You could still remain on the beach, but only on sand. The food choice in several restaurants was decent, but I expected a bit more selection of fruits - I guess it's limited because nothing grows on St. Maarten (due to very poor soil). Absolutely everything must be transported to this island, except for fish (and those were very good). If you enjoy watching air planes landing or taking off, then this is the best place in the world to do that. The small beach (compared to Mexican or Cuban standards) adjacent to that hotel is just beside the runway. You can sun tan, sip very tasty margarita (all served drinks were really good) and admire 747 "monster" tight-fit landing into this small bay almost on top of you (if you wish to place yourself on the approach patch). For that reason alone, this hotel is worth visiting at least once in your life. But if you are looking just for beach life, then you can do it for cheaper in Mexico.

Sonesta Maho Beach: This resort is every thing l want when on vacation

The grounds are kept beautiful the Sonesto Maho Resort is very clean the rooms are a nice size the beds were comfortable The entertainment was great we were four people we enjoyed the casino Royale it was right across from the resort

Sonesta Great Bay Beach & Casino: Great place to be!!

We were a group of 6 ladies that travelled the week of Sept 25-Oct 2 and had a great time!! All of the staff were super friendly and the food and drinks were amazing. We stayed on the 8th floor and had no complaints about our 3 rooms what so ever :) THe grounds were clean and the beach the place to be everyday- the planes landing made it very interesting. The pool needs some work and I think a new liner is required but it wa still clean and refreshing.