For more pictures - Click Here
|
Sandy Lane is the most famous hotel in the Caribbean, an enclave of super luxury set on one of Barbados’s loveliest West Coast beaches, the winter getaway of celebrities and wealthy travellers. Since its recent complete rebuild, Sandy Lane has pitched its flag at the pinnacle of Caribbean hospitality. Everything is on hand to give the high-spending modern traveller with high expectations the most pampered Caribbean experience, including spa, fine dining, golf and a celebrity crowd.
|
KEY FEATURES
| Top Barbados hotel, 112 rooms in three coral stone wings, set either side of a stylish central patio, world class spa, 45-holes of golf (3 courses), 2 restaurants, 3 bars, swimming pool and children’s pool, excellent Club for children (3-12 yrs), Den for teens, tennis courts. Sumptous private villa with pool and bespoke service. |
STYLE
| Elegant, glitzy, and quite showy in season |
CLIENT PROFILE
| Celebrities, leading business people, sporting and media personalities |
|
| |
The view from the top of the amphitheatrical stairs at Sandy Lane is one of the loveliest in the Caribbean. Beneath you the arms of the coral stone staircase descend left and right in graceful Palladian curves, embracing the central patio. Your eye is drawn over the parasols and slender metalwork chairs to the mighty mahogany trees and beyond, over mounded, white sand to the sea horizon. Sandy Lane sits on its own stunning bay at the heart of West Coast, on one of Barbados’s loveliest stretches of sand.
As you arrive at Sandy Lane, the hotel announces itself in a series of coral stone obelisks on either side of the road. To the right are the golf courses and the villas that surround them, but to enter the hotel itself you turn left and cruise down among enormous mahogany trees to the neo-classical portico. Through the foyer, where the reception and the concierge are based, you come to the head of the amphitheatrical stairs. And to the view.
The hotel is laid out before you. The dining rooms are to your left -- L’Acajou upstairs, for more formal, gourmet meals, and beneath it Bajan Blue, the breakfast and more casual dining room. Beyond it and on the northern side are wings of rooms, three and four stories and fronting onto the beach, with balconies that look out to sea through the trees, suites on the top level. The twenty-six Orchid Rooms are set behind in the garden but have an angled view of the sea. Inside, the huge rooms are cool and calm, laid with marble and furnished with sleek wooden reproduction antiques. The rooms have all the modern accoutrements you would ever need, such as a huge flat screen TV. The bathrooms are laid with marble and have seven-jet showers.
While the main activity of the hotel is obviously centred on the main patio and the beach, Sandy Lane’s huge pool is set in the garden. Next door to it on one side is the Children’s area (with its Treehouse Club for three to twelve year-olds and The Den for teenagers) and on the other is the large spa building, with its eleven luxurious private treatment rooms and a small restaurant serving light fare. And tucked away behind this is the ultimate in privacy, a private five-bedroom villa within the compound of the hotel, with its own pool protected within a walled enclave. On the other side of the road (which you can reach via an underpass), are the nine tennis courts and the pro shop of the Old Nine golf course. The Club House for the two new courses is much higher up the hill.
Sandy Lane has been a flagship hotel on Barbados since the 1960s. It closed for a while at the turn of the millennium while it was completely rebuilt, but now has come back, fully revamped, and has pitched itself firmly as the leading hotel in the region. The hotel tends to bring strong reactions (often from people who haven’t been there) and is widely touted for being flash and glitzy. This may well be true in the season, when a host of the world’s stars gather here, but it is not the case year-round. It is true that Sandy Lane is flamboyant and suits a certain style of traveller who enjoys the West Coast scene. The management however, is easy-going and turns what might be quite a pretentious environment into something far more comfortable.
In its architecture Sandy Lane is a modern hymn to a Bajan neo classical theme, with pillars, porticos and triangular pediments given a slightly leaner look and sweeps of bottle shaped coral-rock balustrades. But some Bajan touches also lighten the effect, including the stylised dolphins of its emblem, clam-shell sconces and many plantation style features, such as the white louvres and wooden shingle roof-tiles. The whole resort is built in beautiful coral rock and render, giving a sandy colour that is offset by the delicate pink of the resort, which you will see in the marble, in cushions, in the staff’s shirts and of course in the Champagne. The ubiquitous green monkey also runs through the resort like a leitmotif, in the paintings in the rooms, in the Green Monkey Bar downstairs and of course on the golf courses (where real green monkeys roam).
Sandy Lane first opened in 1961, one of the first hotels to open on the West Coast. It was built by Ronald Tree, the consummate host, (who also wrote a history of the island - A History of Barbados, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972) and its roll call of famous guests and celebrities was established early on, with visitors such as Maria Callas, Aristotle Onassis and David Niven. The hotel was sold in 1970 to Trusthouse Forte, which ran it for the next 26 years.
In 1996 Sandy Lane was bought by its current owners, JP McManus and Dermot Desmond and Partners (there are five main owners). They took the decision to knock down the old hotel and to rebuild it completely. Sandy Lane is much larger now, and has lost the slender architectural elegance of the old resort, but it has been designed to appeal to the modern luxury travellers’ expectations of style and facilities.
In addition to this, Sandy Lane is also much more than a hotel. It is part of a larger development, on the estate across the road. Eventually there will be than 100 villas on plots around the new golf courses. |
| ^ back to top |
Beach & Swimming
The beach at Sandy Lane is excellent. It is set on its own wide, broad bay which has perfect sand that shelves gently to a sandy bottom. The loungers, rich blue in colour, are contained within wicker beds and the beach attendants will appear at the raising of an arm, to provide a chilled towel or a sorbet. It is definitely worth swimming out to one of the platforms in the bay just for the view - the hotel looks wonderful in among the vast mahogany and manchineel trees that line the beach. At night too, the view from the beach is equally spectacular, as the white walls is lit with luminous blue lights (these are used in order not to frighten off turtles that come to nest between March and August).
Watersports are available on the beach including windsurfing, kayaking and small boat sailing.
The large fresh-water swimming pool sits in the gardens behind the hotel, next to the spa building. It is multi-level and meanders among pretty foliage that creates several areas for sunbathing. There is a waterfall at one end in a grotto (grottos do date from the same time as palladian architecture, after all) and you can get a drink either at the swim-up, bar or in the spa building itself, where the café serves light fare. |
| ^ back to top |
Sports & Recreation
The Sandy Lane Spa is set in its own building and it continues the neo classical theme that runs through the resort both outside - with two wings either side of a cupola - and inside, where the centrepiece is an elegant curved marble staircase.
From the foot of the staircase, corridors of marble and coral rock render lead to the eleven treatment rooms behind hefty mahogany doors. Most of the rooms are in fact suites, with more grotto-like outside space and plunge pools, where you can relax after the exhaustion of your treatment.
A vast array of treatments is available at the Sandy Lane Spa, including (just a few examples) Ayurvedic body treatments, synchronised massage, detoxifying treatments, envelopments, facials, reflexology, aromatherapy, even iridology and ear candling. Staff will prepare half-day and full day programmes for one and two people.
Also on the lower floor of the spa building you will find a sauna, steam room, crystal laconium, ice cave and relaxation rooms and men’s a women’s changing rooms. On the floor above you will find a shop (mainly casual clothes and beauty products), a beauty room, an exercise studio and fitness studio, a personal training room, a personal training room, a lifestyle consultation room and, if all of these seem too much, then there is a meditation room. Outside visitors are permitted into the spa between 10am and 3.30pm, by appointment, t 444 2100.
Tennis at Sandy Lane - There are nine floodlit championship tennis courts (just across the road from the main hotel) with a tennis pro who will take lessons or give you a game.
Golf at Sandy Lane - Sandy Lane has long been famous for its golf and with the new development there are now three golf courses on the estate. The first course you come to across the road (or cross underneath it through the underpass) is the Old Nine, which was first built in 1961. The fairways wind among the pretty old stands of mahogany trees and the villas of the original estate, clambering up the limestone cliff that runs the length of the West Coast of Barbados. It has its own pro shop down below.
The two new eighteen hole courses, both designed by Tom Fazio, are served by a new clubhouse, t 444 2500 (to which there is a shuttle from the hotel) high above the coast inland. The Country Club course is a 7060 yard, par 74.7 course that uses the best of the space on the rising ground. The fairways are open but sometimes angled and often sloping and most holes have views of the Caribbean Sea. The Green Monkey course has some very challenging holes, built into a former quarry (over a hundred feet deep in one place).
The Old Nine and the Country Club courses are open to visitors from outside the hotel, but the 7343 yard Green Monkey course is reserved for hotel guests. For the latter two courses there is a mandatory caddy rule of one caddy per cart. Caddies themselves charge US$40 per round, paid direct. Carts are equipped with gps. There is a driving range close to the clubhouse.
It’s also worth noting that the name of the Country Club course hints at what’s to come in this area. The land between the two new courses is up for sale as villa developments, in one and two acre plots.
The World Golf Championships was hosted in Barbados in December 2006. Backed by the International Federation of PGA Tours, the World Cup saw 24 nations in competition for a purse of US$4 million. The tournament was played on the Sandy Lane Country Club Course and was won by the Germans, with Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem taking home US$1.4 million between them. |
| ^ back to top |
Staff
The Chief Executive of Sandy Lane is Englishman Michael Pownall, who oversees all aspects of the resort, including the golf courses, spa and of course the hotel itself. He has had 20 years of experience of working in luxury hotels and before his appointment in 2005 worked for Orient Express Hotels in the United States and in South Africa. The General Manager is Carl Henderson.
Many of the staff have been at Sandy Lane for decades, some for around 30 years. Jeffrey Holder and Angela Atkinson arrived in 1976, but they are both topped by Vincent Haynes who has worked on the golf course since 1969. |
| ^ back to top |
The Rooms
The rooms at Sandy Lane are all extremely large (they average 900 square feet) and the decoration is unfussy while still being elegant. There is a theme of marble and dark, polished mahogany, in slender-legged reproductions of tropical antiques, offsets by a colour-scheme of sand and gold (in the picture frames and curtain). Everything is electronic (curtains, lighting, even the Do Not Disturb sign) and controlled form a number of pads around the room. The beds face across the room at a large flat-screen TV on the opposite wall. The bathrooms are also enormous, with marble, mahogany and frosted glass. The bathroom products are provided by Penhaligons.
Each room has a large balcony, its view framed by pillars and a wrought-iron balustrade, and furnished with a glass table, sofa and a planter’s chair with extendable arms (on which you can rest your legs after a weary day on the beach). |
| ^ back to top |
Dining
Acajou is Sandy Lane’s formal dining room, which is open for dinner. It sits above the ground (on the first or second floor, depending on how you view these things), and has the atmosphere of a drawing room giving onto the night air, with curtains collected at the pillars. Service is candle-lit on white tablecloths and stylish, tall-backed chairs. The menu offers ‘Caribbean haute cuisine’, from the wide range of good ingredients that Barbados is able to offer.
Bajan Blue, on the ground level, looks straight out onto the beach and is open for all three meals, offering a broad mix of tastes from the Mediterranean, Asia and of course the Caribbean.
The Spa Café is next to the hotel pool and offer lighter and healthy fare.
The Restaurant, which takes its name from the restaurant at Sandy Lane before the rebuild, has a fantastic view over the golf courses and the Caribbean Sea from the Club House itself. It serves an international menu.
Twenty-four hour room service is available to guests. |
| ^ back to top |
Children
The Treehouse Club is designed for children from toddlers to the age of twelve. There is a playground, but there are organised activities including painting, arts and crafts and karaoke. Children can be taken excursions to snorkel, look for turtles and wildlife on land. If they are enjoying themselves too much, then they can be accommodated over lunch.
The Den, on the downstairs level, has facilities and activities for teenagers from age thirteen, with computers, a pool table and a jukebox. There is direct access to the pool. |
| ^ back to top |
Practical Facts
Annual Closure dates: None
Dress Code: Elegant yet understated. Gentlemen should wear trousers and collared shirts in the restaurants and public areas after 7 p.m. Pool and beach wear is not appropriate for restaurant and bar areas, and cover-ups should be worn during the day when not actually at the pool or beach
Facilities: Two restaurants – L’Acajou and Bajan Blue; The Restaurant and The Golf Club Bar at the golf course, The Monkey Bar with live entertainment on Wednesday and Friday nights, The Beach Bar, The Pool Bar; the Spa with The Spa Café and full service John Frieda salon. Spa facilities include 11 VIP suites, Chakra treatment room, relaxation and meditation rooms, crystal laconium, steam room, ice cave, a hydrotherapy pool, and 5,000 square feet of fitness facilities. Swimming Pool: Free form 7,500-square-foot swimming pool in garden patio setting, with adjacent changing facilities. Beverages and cocktails available poolside at the swim-up Pool Bar. Three golf courses: Guests can choose between playing on the Old Nine course, a nine-hole course or at the Country Club, a brand new Tom Fazio designed 18-hole course and The Green Monkey, another Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole course currently being offered to hotel guests only with limited tea times available between 8:30 and 9:30AM. Tennis Club: nine championship floodlit tennis courts with 2 different surfaces, a tennis pavilion and professionally recognised tennis management. Fitness Facilities: A 2,500-square-foot gymnasium plus a state-of-the art exercise studio, personal training room, and fitness lifestyle room located in the spa. 1000 ft Beach - services include reserved seating, refreshing cold towels, tropical drinks, sorbets, fresh fruit, water sports, and beach attendants. Library: There is a library next to reception with a number of computer terminals for internet access. Shops include: The Collection (Sandy Lane logo items), The Gatsby (high-end resort wear), The News Stand, The Jewellers and The Pro Shop at the Clubhouse. strong>Conferences: There are two meeting rooms and other venue choices within the resort for discreet and elegant functions. Special rates and group programs on request.
Complimentary: Welcome by airport concierge on arrival, transfers to and from the airport in an Executive car, in room guest registration, complimentary fruit in room on arrival, unlimited use of tennis courts and lit courts at night, unlimited non-motorised watersports including:- Windsurfing, Hobie Cat Sailing, Kayaking and Snorkelling, complimentary fitness facility, and a variety of complimentary daily group exercise sessions including floor aerobics, body sculpting, yoga & Tai chi.
Other Services: 24-hour concierge and room service, 24-hour concierge & room service, 24-hour pressing service, maid service twice a day, laundry and dry cleaning services, nightly “expression” treat, personalized private bar, storage of luggage, personalized in-room registration, chilled ice towel and cocktail upon arrival, Bentley and luxury car airport transfers, collection of books, CDs, and DVDs available
Children: Accepted. The daily rate for a child sharing the accommodation with their parents is US $350.00 daily for a crib or extra bed (US$500 between 17 Dec-06 Jan 2007-08) during Winter, Summer and Fall from 07 Jan-16 Dec 2008. This rate includes full English breakfast daily, complimentary use of the 'Treehouse Club' for children ages 03 - 12 during the day from 10:00am - 6:00pm. To provide this, Sandy Lane requires the names and ages of all children travelling at the time of making the reservation. A maximum of three persons can share a room or suite. Third person is a room or suite is a child 12 years and under.
Accommodation: 112 rooms
Room Types: 26 Orchid Rooms (779 sq.ft.), 6 Luxury Orchid Suites (1,575 sq. ft.): all have garden views. 10 Ocean Rooms (707 sq. ft.), 60 Luxury Ocean Rooms (867 sq. ft.), 5 Dolphin Suites (1,443 sq. ft.), 3 Luxury Dolphin Suites (1,575 sq. ft.) and 2 Penthouses (3,971 sq. ft.). Averaging 900 square feet, rooms are spacious and each uniquely feature a large private veranda, plasma flat-screen television, DVD and CD player, laptops and computers in library, private bar, phone and control panel on each side of the bed, reading lights, specially designed multi-spray showers, heated mirrors in the bathroom, electronic “Do Not Disturb” and “Make Up Room” features, and parabolic speakers on veranda and in bathroom
A 5 bedroom villa has been introduced. Full details are here.
Credit Cards: American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club |
| ^ back to top |
Rates
| | 01 Nov- 16 Dec 2007 | 17 Dec- 06 Jan 2007-08 | 07 Jan- 18 Apr 2008 | 19 Apr- 31 Oct 2008 | 01 Nov- 16 Dec 2008 | | Meal Plan | BP | BP | BP | BP | BP | | Orchid Room | 1,000 | 3,000 | 1,300 | 950 | 1,100 | | Ocean Room | 1,200 | 3,500 | 1.800 | 1,100 | 1,300 | | Luxury Ocean Room | 1,500 | 3,900 | 2,200 | 1,400 | 1,600 | | Luxury Orchid Suite | 1,800 | 4,300 | 2,600 | 1,700 | 1,900 | | Dolphin Suite | 2,000 | 4,700 | 2,800 | 1,900 | 2,200 | | Luxury Dolphin Suite | 3,200 | 5,800 | 4,100 | 3,100 | 3,400 | | Penthouse | 4,300 | 9,600 | 4,900 | 3,800 | 4,500 | | The Villa | 10,000 | 25,000 | 15,000 | 8,000 | 10,000 | All rates are quoted in US$ and include full breakfast (BP) and VAT but exclude a 10% service charge and are subject to change without notice. Rooms #224 and 233 (if requested) will be US$4,000 per day over Christmas/New Year, UD$2,000 during winter, US$1,500 during summer and US$1,800 during autumn (fall) plus service charge. The supplement for dinner is US$100 per person, per night. A three (3) night deposit is required at the time of booking, which is forfeited if you cancel less than 28 days prior to arrival. Special terms apply over Christmas/New Year. Christmas/New Year: There is a 14 night minimum stay over Christmas/New Year effective 22 December and a deposit of 25% is required to reach the hotel prior to 01 July to guarantee your reservation. A further 25% is required before 01 October and the balance must reach the hotel by 01 November. USA President’s Weekend: A minimum stay of five (5) nights is required effective 14 Feb 2008 Easter: A minimum stay of five (5) nights is required effective 20 Mar 2008 USA Memorial Weekend: A minimum stay of five (5) nights is required effective 22 May 2008 USA Independence Weekend: A minimum stay of five (5) nights is required 02 Jul 2008 USA Thanksgiving: A minimum stay of five (5) nights is required effective 24 Nov 2008 |
| ^ back to top |
How to Book
If you wish to make further enquiries or a reservation, please use the WEB LINK or DIRECT EMAIL ENQUIRIES facility at the top of this page to make contact with Sandy Lane Hotel Barbados, or if you wish to telephone them, please click on TELEPHONE CONTACT to reveal the number. |
| ^ back to top |
Tour Operators
If you wish to book through a tour operator or travel organiser, please follow the link below.
See List of UK Tour Operators
|
| ^ back to top |
Locality
Sandy Lane is just south of Holetown, right at the heart of Barbados’s West Coast and its independent beaches. The hotel is within a five to fifteen minute drive by car or cab of most of the finest independent restaurants on the island. These range from the Cliff to La Mer, Calabaza to the Lone Star and the Fish Pot, besides the pizza parlours and beach bars if the endless meals begin to pall. Nightlife is also just a few minutes away. You will find very lively bars in the restaurants in 1st and 2nd Street in Holetown which collect a good crowd of regular winter visitors.
Holetown itself, the spot where the English first landed in 1625 and came back to in 1627 to settle, is a small local community with a police station, a post office and, this being the West Coast of Barbados, a patisserie. There are two shopping centres where you can find a supermarket, a bank, photo centre, duty free shops, video rental, and various shops and boutiques. Opposite here is a gas station (as petrol stations are known locally). |
| ^ back to top |
Meet & Greet
You will be met on arrival at the airport by Sandy Lane’s concierge team. If you are travelling independently a taxi will be found for you at your own charge, but if you are travelling with a tour operator then the taxi should be at the cost of the operator and the company’s representative will be at the airport to greet you.
If you would like a limousine pick-up, your tour operator or the hotel would be happy to arrange this for you. The ride from the airport is around 30 or 40 minutes, depending on the traffic.
Registration takes place in your room. |
| ^ back to top |
Getting Around
Hiring a car to explore the island or go to a different beach for the day is easily arranged. Book via your tour operator or direct with Stoutes Car Rentals, who will deliver to the property and issue your Barbadian driving licence. Vehicles can be returned at the airport or be collected from the property at a pre-arranged time on your departure day. Be aware that in the winter season there is often a shortage of cars, so you are advised to book well in advance. Also book early if you want one for a week or more because the pre-booked rates can be more advantageous.
Taxis are readily available through reception, through drivers who remain on property. A perfectly good bus service passes straight in front of the hotel, heading north to Holetown and then Speightstown and south to Bridgetown. |
| ^ back to top |
Have you found this page useful?
We appreciate your feedback on our service.
I found this page useful
I would like to make a comment
All the information on this page comes to you free of charge. Please remeber to mention DefinitiveCaribbean when you contact the most famous hotel in Barbados, Sandy Lane Hotel, St. James Travel & Tours or Stoutes Cars for your Barbados car rental.
Thank you for your interest. |
| ^ back to top |
|
Print
page
www.sandylane.com
