Last Updated on August 1, 2024 by Tori Pines
One of the best spots in the Caribbean for ultimate relaxation, is the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. This resort is the perfect place to spend with your significant other, partner, spouse, or whatever you want to call them! The two of you can stay here for a few nights or a few weeks and have the dream vacation. And with my review of the Sandals Halcyon Beach St. Lucia, you’ll be able to know for sure if this resort is the right one for you.
My husband and I stayed here for 4 nights in July of 2024 and fell in love with this Sandals property. We had been to one other Sandals resort before this one (Ochi in Ocho Rios, Jamaica) but we had been there twice and decided it was time to try somewhere new!
Why only 4 nights you ask? Well we didn’t want to be away from our one-year-old for longer than that, but if it weren’t for her we could have spent weeks on this tropical island!
Now, it’s clear we loved our stay at the resort, but a review of Sandals Halcyon Beach would not be accurate without sharing the good, the bad and the ugly, so let’s get to the details to help you find out if Sandals Halcyon Beach is the perfect place for your next vacation! And spoiler alert…there’s no ugly to share!
This post may contain affiliate links for activities, destinations and products that I love, and think you will too!
Where is Sandals Halcyon Beach?
Located on the northern side of the island of St. Lucia, Sandals Halcyon Beach is about an hour and a half drive from the airport. It’s located right on the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea in the town of Castries, the largest city on the island. It’s just minutes from the cruise terminal and the two other Sandals Resorts on St. Lucia.
The island of St. Lucia is located on the south eastern side of the Caribbean, close to South America. It is a member of the Windward Islands near Barbados and Grenada, among others.
How to get to Sandals Halcyon Beach
A review of Sandals Halcyon Beach wouldn’t be complete without including the logistical elements as well as the fun details of the resort itself! Getting to Sandals Halcyon Beach is very easy, but a fairly long travel day compared to some of the other Caribbean islands like Bahamas and Jamaica. Since St. Lucia is so far south, it means longer flights from North America. Still though, the flight from Miami is still only a little over 3 hours long, and doesn’t make for too bad of a travel day.
If I am being completely honest, I was kind of dreading the trip to and from the resort and wondered if we shouldn’t have selected a resort so far away with only 4 nights to enjoy. But the travel day went so fast and smooth that I was so relieved. Plus, we still felt like we had plenty of time on the island to make up for the lost time traveling.
Flying to St. Lucia
We found the cost of the flights to be super comparable to almost all of the other Caribbean islands with the exception of Jamaica, because those seem to always be the cheapest for some reason.
Once you land at the Hewanorra International Airport (UVF) you’ll go through immigration and customs, which were so extremely fast and efficient when we arrived. It took all of 5 minutes for both. We were immediately greeted by people ready to carry our bags and show us the way to the Sandals lounge.
We knew from experience in Jamaica that this is extremely normal and yes, you are absolutely expected to tip them. While I definitely could have carried my bags the 50 steps to the lounge, I understand that this is just part of the experience and when we are paying thousands of dollars to stay at the resort, we can definitely afford a few more bucks to tip the guy who wants to carry our bags. So be prepared with small bills, and American money is 100% acceptable to pay with. There is no need to exchange for their currency!
Shuttle to Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort
We waited in the lounge, used the bathroom, got some water and within ten minutes the shuttles started arriving for the 3 different resorts. Grande was called first, then La Toc, and then the room was empty; just my husband and I there waiting. We were quickly brought to our personal driver,who had a Mercedes there to drive us to the resort in style! Normally you have to pay extra for this, but we got lucky.
Was it luck? Yes, some, but also since our resort is the smallest of the three, there are less people going to and from the resort. And since they don’t make you wait an hour until the next flight arrives with people heading to your resort, you have a much higher chance of getting a private car instead of the shuttle. Now that in and of itself might be the reason to book at Halcyon Beach over the others on the island, but don’t worry, I have many other reasons too!
We timed the drive; it took exactly one hour and twenty minutes to arrive at the resort from the airport. And this was something I was dreading even more, getting to the island after traveling all day and STILL not being on vacation. But please don’t fret over it the way I did, because the drive was beautiful!! I personally am one who loves seeing the more authentic side of the islands and appreciate driving through the small towns to see what real life looks like here. And if you’ve been to the Caribbean, you’ll know what to expect.
But in addition to the small towns we drove through, the majority of the time we spent rolling through the mountains, in and out of the lush tropical forests, around bends with jaw-dropping views and sometimes a peek to the bright blue waters below. The hour and twenty minute ride felt like a quarter of that time since I was just admiring everything out the window the entire ride.
Heading back to the airport
On the way back to the airport at the end of our trip, we weren’t so lucky, and ended up on the shuttle. And I must admit, I got incredibly car sick. I had heard that the drive on the shuttle can be rough, and they were right. And I NEVER get motion sickness! So I think that Dramamine is an absolute must when visiting the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort.
Either way, it’s important to note that tipping your driver is expected. Although you definitely are not allowed to tip at the resort (excluding butlers, you are expected to tip them), the drivers are not employees of Sandals and are allowed to accept tips.
Other St. Lucia Resort Options
Before I get into too much detail about my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort, I want to quickly let you know about some of the other resorts on the island to let you know what your options are and what I am comparing this resort to.
First and foremost, there are two other Sandals resorts on the island of St. Lucia; Sandals Regency La Toc and Sandals Grande St. Lucian.
Grande St. Lucian is the largest of the three, set on a long white sand beach overlooking the rugged mountains of St. Lucia in the distance. This resort is home to twelve restaurants, five pools, hundreds of rooms and epic overwater bungalows. This is the largest resort on the island.
Regency La Toc is the next largest resort with nine restaurants, five pools and a long stretch of white sand beach. Half of the resort lies up on the cliff with stunning views over the Caribbean Sea, rooms and restaurants perched on the side of the rocks.
In addition to those, there are a handful of other resorts scattered around the island. None are as large or popular as the Sandals resorts. And while I’ve never stayed at any other on the island, I know that the Sandals resorts are some of the safest and easiest to get to.
Some of the other resorts include:
Harbor Club St Lucia, Curio Collection by Hilton
The Landings Resort and Spa
Zoetry Marigot Bay – All Inclusive
Royalton Saint Lucia, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort
Why We Chose Sandals Halcyon Beach
To be quite frank, we chose the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort because it was the cheapest option for the dates we were looking to go. We got a great deal on the room, but it also had many of the things we were looking for in a resort.
First and foremost, we had never been to St. Lucia before and had heard incredible things about the island. It was high on our list of places we wanted to visit. And secondly, we wanted to have a room right next to one of the pools, and this resort fit the bill as there are tons of rooms right on the beautiful resort pools.
What we didn’t know was that this resort is the perfect place for relaxing and tranquility. If you want to chill all day in the pool or on the beach, read your book and enjoy the sun, then this is the spot for you. If you’re looking for a super busy party resort, then I definitely recommend looking elsewhere.
Relaxing was exactly what we had in mind so we were incredibly happy with the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort!
The Size of Sandals Halcyon Beach
Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort is one of the smallest of the Sandals resorts. This is important to note for a variety of reasons. First this means that it is one of the most relaxing resorts as I mentioned. But this also means there are less restaurants and activities than some of the other Sandals resorts. However, since you can visit the other resorts during the day, you have many other restaurants to choose from; 21 to be exact!
Since there are less rooms on the resort, you have much more of the property to yourselves! We found the resort incredibly quiet and spread out and barely ever ran into people unless at the restaurants or the main pool. The two quieter pools and beach were barely occupied and made for the best, most luxurious experience!
This review of Sandals Halcyon Beach is based on our trip which was during the slow season which is basically the duration of the summer. They told us that the resort was about 75% full. Even with 25% more people, at max capacity, we imagine it would still be incredibly quiet and calm!
The Rooms at Sandals Halcyon Beach
There are many different room categories to choose from at Sandals Halcyon Beach. As I mentioned earlier, we got a really good deal for this stay which meant we had the cheapest room category that they offer, the Crystal Lagoon Poolside Luxury. But we would choose it ten times over, we loved our room so very much!
Sure, these rooms are tucked in the very back of the resort, but since the resort is so small, it only took 4-5 minutes to walk from front to back. So it’s not like it was too long of a walk. But it does mean you have a lot more peace and quiet, and the buildings are situated right in front of the best pool in the whole resort! They call it the lazy river, and although not a true lazy river, this super long and skinny pool is quiet with several relaxing waterfalls, and huge palm trees towering above to create the perfect amount of shade. I cannot recommend enough to bring your own floats with you so you can just camp out right here for the week.
The other room categories we would recommend are:
Crystal Lagoon Walkout Swim-up Club Level – Located just below our room style, this room is also in the back of the resort and walks directly out to the lazy river pool. I personally think if money is no object then this would be my favorite room style on the resort. Plus it’s not too much of an increase in cost!
Beachfront Crystal Lagoon Swim-up Butler Room w/ Patio Tranquility Soaking Tub – If you’re looking for a Butler level room, this would be the best option in my opinion! It has a great central location on property and has a semi-private room that you share with 3 other rooms.
The Beach Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach
Okay, okay it’s time to really dive into my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach. And we will start by talking about the beach itself! The resort sits right along a long white sand beach filled with tons of beach chairs, umbrellas and cabanas. You should never have trouble finding open chairs along the sand.
Since we were there during hurricane season, the water was pretty dark and a little rough. Still, the waves were tiny, it was just windy. But I’ve seen photos of the calmer seasons and the water is clear blue and beautiful, and definitely one of the best clear water beaches in the world during the calmer season!!
The views from the beach are beautiful, with a small island sitting just off the coast and small mountains poking up on either sides of the resort. To me, that is a much better view than just a flat island with no mountains!
At the north end of the beach sits the Aqua Center. Here you can rent kayaks, paddle boards and hobie cats to take out on your own into the ocean. You can also hop on a boat to go snorkeling, water skiing or wakeboarding. And finally, you can get scuba diving lessons and go scuba diving! It’s all completely free (aka included in the price you already paid) so I highly recommend making use of it and doing at least one or two activities during your stay.
As you relax on the beach, the servers come by on occasion and will offer you drinks, so feel free to order whatever you want!
But be aware, there are also locals on this beach trying to sell you things. One has a stand selling souvenirs, and others are trying to get you to buy tours. While this is not ideal to be bothered as you relax on the beach, they really are not bad at all and leave you alone as soon as you say “No, thanks”. The resort takes up almost the whole beach, so there are not tons of locals here which is nice!
The Pools Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach
My absolute favorite part of the Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach is the pools!! There are 3 pools, plus tons of private and semi-private pools for the higher end room categories. You’ll also find a handful of hot tubs around the resort, but be prepared, they are very hot!
As I mentioned earlier, our favorite pool by far was the lazy river pool located in the back of the resort. It’s actually called the Crystal Lagoon Pool. It was huge, quiet, and had a lot of shade to help you not get burnt (at least not as badly!)
Then there was the Honeymoon Hideaway pool, just next to the lazy river. This is more of a traditional style pool surrounded by pool chairs and featuring a swim-up bar. They piped music in on speakers here and had lots of places to lounge and to get some sun. This was much busier than the lazy river, but still quieter than the main pool.
The Sunset pool is the main pool at the resort, located just between the beach and the front desk. It is surrounded by most of the restaurants, and a small stage where they would have shows and activities throughout the day, and always loud music. There’s also a swim-up bar here, and servers bring you drinks and “bar bites” to your lounge chair. This was the busiest and loudest pool of the three. And while that’s a fun vibe for many, we much prefer having the peace and quiet of the lazy river pool.
No matter which pool you’d like to spend your time at, I highly recommend bringing your own floats. Sandals has a few of their own scattered around the resort, but they are hard to come by, and it seemed like many of the fancy rooms with their private pools had the floats permanently living at their pool. So if you pack one thing for your trip, make it a float. These are the ones we brought and they were perfect! They pack super small, and are the perfect balance of being in and out of the water as you float.
Restaurants Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach
Now if you’re anything like me, you’ve been reading my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach waiting on the part about the food! It is all included and might be one of the main reasons you’re looking into staying at a Sandals resort at all!
If you’ve ever stayed at a Sandals resort before, you know the food is pretty much always amazing! Honestly, for being “free” food they really out-do themselves!
Now as of the time I am writing this, the website says that the resort has 6 restaurants on property. But as of 2024, they have a new pizza food truck added to the lineup which was a nice bonus! More on that in a sec.
Breakfast Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach
For breakfast you can have a buffet at Bayside Restaurant located right in the center of the property. It’s a large buffet with over 10 hot items to choose from including bacon, sausage, potatoes, pancakes, french toast, local favorites and more, an omelet station and a large cold bar filled with fruits and cereals and such. Sandals always has the best breakfast buffets I’ve ever had. There’s so much to choose from, it’s all you can eat, and it’s super fast since you serve yourself as soon as you arrive.
Alternatively, head to Kelly’s Dockside that’s perched over the water for a plated breakfast. We enjoyed the food here more than the buffet, but that’s really just because plated food is usually a little better than buffet food anywhere you go. However, it takes much longer to eat breakfast here so be prepared for fairly slow service. For being plated, there was an incredibly wide variety of options from simple things like the All American, to omelets and sweet options including pancakes, waffles and french toast. Plus they have some breakfast starters; we LOVED the avocado toast, but I recommend ordering two because they’re small! And to top it off, Kelly’s offers great coffee options including iced lattes and the like!
Lunch Review of Sandals Halcyon Beach
For lunch, you’ll have three options to choose from. Bayside Restaurant has a buffet lunch after breakfast ends. And sadly, I cannot review that option because we never tried it. We aren’t the biggest buffet people for something other than breakfast so we chose plated lunches each day.
Secondly, you can go to the Beach Bistro, located right on the beach, just a few steps down from the center of the resort. We liked lunch here the best as they had a good variety of light and yummy lunch options including salads, sandwiches, hummus and pita, wings, quesadillas and more! We especially loved the fried fish sandwich!
And the third option was the new pizza food truck located on the back side of the resort near where we stayed. We tried the pizzas one day for lunch and while they were definitely delicious, we have kind of become pizza snobs (thanks Dave Portnoy, I blame you for my husband’s new found pizza obsession), so this pizza didn’t blow us out of the water, but was still a great lunch option in the middle of the long days chilling by the pool!
Dinner at Sandals Halcyon Beach
And finally, dinner time at Sandals Halcyon Beach! There are five restaurants serving dinner, which makes for plenty of options, even if you stay for a week or longer at Sandals Halcyon Beach.
First up, our favorite was Kelly’s Dockside. It’s located on the water which means the best ocean and sunset views on the resort. This spot requires reservations so be sure to make them before sunset if you want to enjoy the views I speak of. Making reservations is super easy and you can take care of that the minute you arrive at the resort.
Kelly’s offers a menu full of surf and turf options with things like crab cake and octopus ceviche to start, a long list of meats and sides for dinner and dessert trios at the end of the meal. I loved my crab cake appetizer, and although my crab cake loving grandfather would be disappointed in the lack of crab meat, I still thought it was delicious. I ordered snapper for dinner and my husband had the swordfish. Both were incredibly tender and melted in your mouth. The dessert trio was good, but none of the desserts at Sandals ever really blew me away, sadly.
And we finished off the meal with espresso martinis which was perfect. In fact, we came back to the bar at Kelly’s every night to grab espresso martinis since they were just that good. It was fun to have a ritual and get to know the bartender a bit.
Next up is Bayside Restaurant. The menu features a variety of French options including French onion soup, escargot, and ratatouille. French is not necessarily our favorite cuisine, so we only had a little bit of food from here late one night that we brought back to the room. I’m a big French onion soup fan and while not the best I’ve ever had, it was still delicious. But my husband’s steak and potatoes were wonderful!
Mario’s is the Italian restaurant on the property, and it’s important to note that this restaurant requires long pants to be worn by men. We felt like such rookies because we honestly forgot about this rule and my husband only brought khaki shorts. So, I cannot review this restaurant. However, we found a little way around this problem, and went over to Regency La Toc one night for dinner and had an amazing meal at the Italian restaurant there called Armando’s, which does not require long pants. So we still had Italian and got to explore a different resort, so it was a win-win for us!
Finally, you have Kimonos and Soy, the hibachi and sushi restaurants. While they are located in the same building in the back of the resort, they are technically two separate restaurants with different menus.
Kimonos requires reservations and is a teppanyaki style restaurant (as far as I can tell that’s basically the same as hibachi) where you and your new closest friends for the night sit around the grill and watch your vibrant chef prepare your meal. It’s always a fun time here and you know what to expect, fried rice, veggies and a variety of meats, chicken, steak, fish and shrimp. And you’re always guaranteed a few good laughs and some new friends. We had an amazing time at Kimonos and thoroughly enjoyed the company.
Soy is the small sushi bar next door with all of 10 seats at the bar, but we had no problem being sat here, there really are so few people at this resort that nothing is ever packed! The sushi menu is fairly small, but everything was super delicious. They’re definitely missing out on not serving edamame though.
Late Night at Sandals Halcyon Beach
And finally, if you’re up late and looking for a snack, you can head back to the Beach Bistro from 9pm to 2am for a small selection of yummy food to quench your hunger.
Food Overall at Sandals Halcyon Beach
I promised to be honest in my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach, so here are my final thoughts about the food. Almost all of the meals at Sandals Halcyon Beach are either really good or downright delicious. But what they definitely lack is dessert and snack options. I would love a 24 hour ice cream machine, or sundae bar or even just some warm chocolate chip cookies. Is that too much for a girl with a constant sweet tooth to ask? Hahaha! And it would be really nice if there were some snacks in the room, even just some simple non-perishable chips or crackers or something would be ideal! Maybe someone from headquarters will read this and take my advice. Ha!
Bars at Sandals Halcyon Beach
For those looking forward to the free-flowing drinks, you’ll be happy to know a freshly made cocktail is always just a few steps away.
In the room, you’ll have a bar stocked no matter the room category you book. All rooms have beer, wine and sodas and the higher end rooms also offer liquor. We don’t drink thaaaat much so we never even used our room bar for anything other than water and coke, but it was nice to have should we have wanted it.
Around the resort you’ll find 7 bars, 2 of which are swim-up bars I mentioned above in the pools section. They can make pretty much anything you want. They have sufficient liquor options, nothing super fancy, but that’s understandable when it’s completely included after all. As for beer they only offer the local beer, Pitons, and Heineken. At least that’s all we saw offered.
And for wine, there’s 3 whites, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and 3 reds, Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz. Again, not the best wines in the world, but I was perfectly happy with my Sauvignon Blanc all week.
And if you’re enjoying a frozen drink by the pool, you must try the Miami Vice, a mix between a strawberry daiquiri and a pina colada, my personal favorite!
P.S. People ask me all the time if Sandals resorts are worth it for pregnant people going on their babymoon, since they can’t drink. And I absolutely think you should go for your babymoon if that’s something you’re interested in because you could eat plenty enough to make up for not drinking!
Activities at Sandals Halcyon Beach
There’s plenty of things to do during the day and the night at the Sandals Halcyon Beach, and my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach would not be complete without telling you all about the activities to choose from!
Now, since this is a smaller resort there are a few less options, but honestly it has almost everything the larger resorts offer. I mentioned the aqua center above under the beach section, but that’s definitely the best option for activities at Sandals Halcyon Beach. Rent paddle boards, kayaks or hobie cats and get out on the water to take in the views and see the resort from another angle.
On land, you can enjoy shuffle boards, giant chess, sand volleyball, tennis, Pickleball, and our personal favorite, pool! They’ve got all of the tools needed to enjoy these activities so you don’t need to bring a thing. Inside the Club Sandals Lounge they even have board games and books to borrow which is cool!
And finally, there’s the Red Lane Spa. Honestly, the Sandals spas are super nice and always impress us. They have a good variety of services that they offer, the prices are very comparable to other resort spas and the masseuses are really great! We love getting a massage or body scrub at the Red Lane Spa; I just recommend booking your appointment early on in the week before you get burnt…
At the spa there is also a gym, which was actually really well stocked for a hotel gym. We went once during our stay and got a good workout with what they had to offer, from a variety of machines to free weights, kettlebells and more.
And if all of that isn’t enough, for an added cost you can book excursions to get off the property and see more of the island which I HIGHLY recommend you do! More on that below.
Entertainment at Sandals Halcyon Beach
During the day, there’s entertainment, games and activities at the main pool (we like to call the party pool for this exact reason). So if you’re the kind of person who gets bored laying around all day then this will be for you!
At night, you can sit on the patio and enjoy live music featuring a variety of genres and really wonderful local musicians. At the larger resorts the nightly shows are much larger, with amphitheaters, dancers and more. But since this is a small resort, the nightly entertainment is not as grand. So if that is something you are looking for then Sandals Halcyon Beach might not be the one for you. We personally never really go to the shows so we were totally fine that the nightly entertainment is much more low-key here. Our opinion might make this review of Sandals Halcyon Beach a little biased, but we don’t love the party vibes, so we adore this resort for that reason!
Stay at 1, Play at 3
When staying at any of the three Sandals resorts in St. Lucia, you are able to visit either of the other resorts for free. Knowing about this is an important part of any review of Sandals Halcyon Beach because it adds tons of restaurant options to your trip. There is a shuttle that runs from about 11am to 11pm, but only stops at Sandals Halcyon Beach at very specific times so be sure to check the schedule and get to the shuttle stop in time to hop on the bus. Getting to and from each resort takes about 15 minutes since Sandals Halcyon Beach is located in the center of the three.
We honestly weren’t sure if we were going to bother visiting either of the other resorts since we were only there 4 nights and had plenty of restaurants to enjoy at our own resort for a short trip like this. But as I mentioned above, we couldn’t go to our Italian restaurant so we figured that was the perfect opportunity to visit Regency La Toc.
We were SO glad that we did! The property was huge compared to ours and half of the resort lies high on the cliff with stunning views out over the water and of the sunset. Now, because it’s huge it’s much harder to get around and they even have a shuttle to take you up the cliff. So while we are still so glad we chose to stay at Sandals Halcyon Beach, it was fun to see the other resort and would consider trying that one some time in the future.
You could, of course, visit the other resorts for the day to enjoy the other pools and beaches, but to me you get basically the same experience at Sandals Halcyon Beach, so it’s mostly just worth it to visit for dinners in my opinion.
Excursions from Sandals Halcyon Beach
With the long flight from the US, or wherever else you’re coming to Sandals Halcyon Beach from, you must take this opportunity to leave the resort and learn more about the island and its wonderful culture!
We have spent a lot of time in Hawaii, where you could stay on resort in Waikiki but then rent a car to explore the island on your own. And unfortunately that is not really an option here, so you’ll definitely want to book a tour to be able to explore the island.
Book an excursion at the Island Routes desk when you arrive, or you could book it in advance online if you wanted, but that’s not completely necessary.
There are TONS of excursions to choose from, I’m talking four full pages of options. We chose the Joe Knows tour, since it seemed to offer a variety of things during a 5.5 hour tour. We didn’t want to be gone for too long but also wanted to experience many different things. Plus we got to see the famous Pitons, the beautiful mountain peaks formed from the volcano long ago.
Now, while that’s the tour we booked, it actually was run by a different company for our tour called JJ’s. The company was amazing, the tour guides were fabulous and an all around amazing day of sightseeing.
We took the boat along the coast to the Pitons and saw the stunning views. Then we hopped off the boat onto a shuttle into the volcano, where there’s a natural hot spring mud bath. The water was super hot, and the mud made your skin feel silky smooth, plus it was just a fun and silly thing to experience rubbing mud all over ourselves. After that we stopped at a waterfall and went for a dip before getting back on the boat for a stop at a reef to go snorkeling. It’s here that we saw tons of beautiful colorful fish and even saw an octopus! It was some of the best snorkeling I’ve seen! The tour ended with a phenomenal lunch on the water made up of chicken, fish, rice, veggies, plantains and more. It was the perfect day to get a taste of St. Lucia.
I cannot recommend enough, doing at least one excursion during your trip. Try to see some of the island and experience the culture.
Packing for Sandals Halcyon Beach
There’s some super obvious things you need to pack and a few things you might not think of that are extremely helpful. I’ll include it all in this review of Sandals Halcyon Beach.
Pool Floats
I want to start with some of the less obvious things that I think everyone should consider. Like I mentioned earlier, Sandals has pool floats but there are very few for everyone to share. If you bring your own you are guaranteed a float whenever you want. These floats are the ones that we brought and they were honestly perfect. We planned on only bringing carry-on suitcases so I wanted floats that folded up super small. I also like floats with lots of support but also a mesh bottom so you can stay in the water while you float. These ones were perfect and super inexpensive. I loved them!
Outlet Splitter
Okay this one might seem weird but is 100% necessary! I can’t speak for every room on the resort at Sandals Halcyon Beach, but our room only had ONE US style outlet in the room. The rest were a different shape. This meant only one of us could charge our phone each night which of course was super annoying. So, I HIGHLY recommend bringing a splitter like this one with you so that you can charge multiple things at a time. Alternatively, you could bring an outlet adapter, but that seems more difficult.
Insulated Cups
We always bring our own cups to Sandals resorts so that we can go to the bar and get a large drink to last us the day and have it stay nice and cold. Sometimes for a mixed drink, other times to have plenty of water to stay hydrated. Of course Stanley cups are all the rage now, so you can bring those, but we always bring our big Yeti cups. Anything will work. But more importantly, bring straws.
Reusable Straws
Okay this might seem a little crazy but hear me out. You have a drink at the pool and you’re whipping on it as you enjoy time at the pool. Within 30 minutes the paper straw they gave you is mush! It’s a pain in the butt and not to mention, bad for the environment. So whether you plan to take a cup like I recommend or not, either way definitely bring straws! These straws are my personal favorite and are all that I ever use! And if you want you can bring a straw brush and some dish soap…but I won’t judge if you just rinse it out each night instead haha!
Passport
Obvious, but super important! Make sure it’s up to date and ready to go for your trip. I find these passport covers to be really great to have as well, to keep it protected and so you can keep everything in one spot.
Cash
Like I mentioned before, you’ll need cash for tipping your driver, the guys who carry your bags and tipping the tour guides on your excursion. Don’t worry about exchanging your money, US dollars are completely acceptable. You can obviously tip however much you want, but here’s a guide for how much we tip to give you an idea.
Bag guys get $1-2 per bag. Shuttle drivers get about $5-7 since there are others on the bus with you. Private drivers get $20 and the tour guides get $20 to split.
Medication
On the resort, you’ll find some of the basic over the counter medications like Advil and Tylenol, but I still recommend you bring those to avoid paying higher resort prices. But in addition to that, of course you’ll need to bring any prescription medications that you use. And lastly, I highly recommend bringing Dramamine!! If nothing else, you will likely want it for the shuttle ride to a from the resort. I was miserable the ride home, my stomach was so upset from the windy roads, and Dramamine helped once I finally took it!
Sunscreen
Super, super super important. Bring sunscreen! The sun in St. Lucia is super strong no matter what time of year you visit. I mean you are super close to the equator after all! We just brought one small face sunscreen, and one small body sunscreen and that was plenty for the two of us for 4 days. And honestly probably would have been enough for the full week. Here’s the ones I recommend!
Swimsuits
Obvious, I know, but make sure you bring at least a few! They take a while to dry in the humid climate so I would say a minimum of three! If you’re looking for some new cute suits here are some of my favorites!
Sundresses
At night you’ll want to dress up, as the resort is, in general, fairly fancy. Pretty much every woman is wearing short or long sundresses in the evening, and it’s fun to fit the part. Of course dressy, flowy pants are totally acceptable too!
Here’s a few of my favorites. I can’t help but love a Lily Pulitzer dress while on a tropical vacation.
And P.S. if you’re looking for more tropical dress ideas, head over to my article all about what to wear in Hawaii where I include even more beautiful and inexpensive options!
Sunglasses
Like I said, the sun is strong and your eyes will be squinting like crazy without sunglasses. I finally upgraded and got Ray Bans for the first time in my life and I will admit I do love them. But these cheap ones from Amazon get the job done too!
Hat
The sun in St. Lucia is strong, so in addition to sunscreen, you’ll really want something to protect your face from the sun even more. Bring a hat with you, either a wide brimmed sun hat, or a simple baseball hat; either will help. I love how this baseball hat allows for high pony tails!!
Flip Flops
You’ll spend most of your time at Sandals Halcyon Beach in flip flops, so make sure to bring comfortable ones! I personally only wear these Vionic ones and swear they are the best! Women can absolutely get away with (nice) flip flops for dinner, but I like to bring one super comfortable pair of heels for dinners. These are just like the ones I brought.
Long Pants for Men
As I mentioned earlier, we totally forgot that some restaurants require long pants for men. A little silly to require that? Maybe, but I do like that they encourage people to dress up. Because if not on vacation in the Caribbean, then when?
Anyways, don’t make the same mistake we made and bring one pair of long pants for the men! Geez, you’d think it was our first time! Rookie mistake. These linen pants would be perfect.
Small Purse for Dinner
I like having a small little crossbody bag for dinner time. At night I throw my phone and room key in it as well as lip gloss or sunglasses on occasion. I have this exact bag and I cannot tell you the number of compliments I get every time I use it! It’s the perfect bag for any tropical vacation, so I used it several times a year!
Top Tips for Visiting Sandals Halcyon Beach
A Sandals vacation is supposed to be easy and relaxing with little planning to be done. However, a review of Sandals Halcyon Beach would not be complete without some of my top tips of things that I learned from our stay!
Sunset
The resort faces west, so you are treated to the most gorgeous views of the sun setting over the water each night. Be sure to look up the sunset time for when you are visiting and plan accordingly. We thoroughly enjoyed relaxing on beach chairs with a drink to watch the sunset. But you can also book dinner at Kelly’s Dockside to align with sunset time, or at any of the other restaurants that overlook the water at the other two resorts.
Tips
Sandals resorts are known for the fact that tipping is not allowed. This is definitely a big plus when staying at the resorts, since there is no pressure to tip and it helps regulate the cost of your vacation. And the staff truly cannot accept tips, so please do not try or it will risk them getting fired.
That being said, there are a few people that you are expected to tip. The people who carry your bags in the airport should get a few dollars, along with the driver who should get $10 to $20 depending on if it’s a private driver or shuttle driver.
Additionally, if you have a butler, then you will be expected to tip them for good service. The general rule of thumb is $15-20 per day.
In-Room Safe
If you’re worried about bringing valuables on your trip, there is a fairly large safe in the room that I definitely suggest using. It’s big enough to fit a laptop even. We stash our electronics, passports and wallets and then don’t have to worry about anything going missing.
Butler vs. No Butler
As you select your room for Sandals Halcyon Beach, you’ll notice there are three tiers of rooms, Luxury is the bottom and most basic level, Club is the middle level and then Butler level is the highest tier.
We have had a butler at the other Sandals resort and while there are nice things about it, we 100% do not think upgrading to this level is worth the money, unless you are doing it for the specific room location or amenity, like private pool, etc. Butlers are very nice and try to be helpful, but can honestly be a little annoying. They like to walk you to dinner, so you have to wait for them to come get you, which I think is kind of annoying. The one thing they are definitely good at is keeping your room well stocked with drinks and a cheese plate in the afternoon.
Club level doesn’t offer much. You get a special room on property to hang out, the Club Lounge. There you can make dinner reservations and get assistance for other things you may need. There’s also books and games to borrow, but they’ll let anyone use those if you ask.
And finally is the Luxury level, which has no added bonuses. We still got beer, wine and soft drinks in the room, but they were not the greatest about keeping that well stocked. We kept having to ask for more water.
Food for the Travel Day Home
One of my biggest tips that we learned this week actually has to do with leaving! Our shuttle back to the airport was scheduled for 11am and we knew we would be hungry for lunch by the time we made it to the airport. So we had a big breakfast and then at the breakfast buffet at Bayside restaurant we asked for to-go boxes and made PB&J sandwiches and salami sandwiches using things they serve at the breakfast buffet. We threw in a banana and were good to go, it was the perfect (free) lunch at the airport! Plus we knew the food was Sandals quality and wouldn’t be as suspicious as the food at the airport.
Facebook Group
And the last tip I have for my review of Sandals Halcyon Beach resort is to join the Facebook Group for the resort! This group is made up of people who have been, and people who are planning a trip to Sandals Halcyon Beach. People are constantly asking questions and sharing tips and advice that could be helpful for your vacation to the resort!
