I remember seeing Sandals commercials when I was a little girl and thinking, "man, how lucky would I be to go there one day." The resorts seemed too good to be true, so luxurious and fancy I didn't ever think I'd be able to afford it. Add on the romantic picture their commercials painted and I was sold. I was totally that girl who dreamed of finding her one true love since I was like...3. But that's a whole other topic we won't get into right now...
Anyways, back to Sandals! Like a lot of our travels in the last few years, we were invited along to photograph a wedding. When I heard Sandals I was IN, it didn't even matter where. I'd heard of St Lucia before, but it was never really on my radar as a place I wanted to visit. But I'm always game for a Caribbean vacation, so we started planning!
St Lucia has 3 Sandals resorts, and they offer free transportation in between them every day, so decided to stay at a different resort than the wedding. We landed on the Sandals Regency La Toc and were not disappointed.
Sandals includes free transportation to and from the airport. After we landed we were directed to the Sandals lounge, which had free beer, water, and snacks while we waited for our transportation. We waited for probably about 15 minutes, and then were loaded into a van with 2 other couples. I had been warned by a friend that the trip across the island made her super car sick. I'm prone to motion sickness as well, so we purchased some sea-bands for the ride, which worked pretty well. The ride is about an hour through some winding mountain roads, with some pretty crazy driving! So just a warning if you get motion sick easily!
Once we got to the resort we were greeted with champagne, which was a nice welcome! The check in process was super smooth and easy, and then we were guided to our room.
We stayed in a Luxury Poolside room. It was located above the activity pool, so at times trying to relax in the room was challenging, there was a lot of noise from the pool below. Had we known that we probably would've booked a room further away from the pool for a bit more peace and quiet. But other than that we had no complaints about the room! It was well furnished, clean, and very comfortable. Our room level didn't come with room service, which we didn't realize (but was totally our fault for not noticing when we booked).
The grounds at Sandals Regency La Toc are beautiful and very well maintained. There are lots of places to get away from the crowds and really feel like you're on your own. The resort is spread out over the beach and surrounding hill tops. We loved that! It almost felt like 2 different resorts, and the view from the hilltop pool was to die for! They have a shuttle that will take you to the top of the hill, but we always prefer walking (to burn off those extra vacation calories). It's a steep hill, but no more than a 2-3 minute walk from the pool. (see first photo)
This vacation for us was mainly for relaxation, so we spent most of our time either lounging by the pool or on the beach. A lot of reviews mention that it's hard to find a pool chair unless you get there early, which we found to be true for the most part at the main pool. We didn't have any issues finding chairs and the second smaller pool by the beach or the pool at the top of the hill. Service was great at all of the pools, there were often staff members walking around offering their daily cocktail special and ice water. Service at the swim up bars was always quick and the drinks were delicious!
We went back and forth from the Regency La Toc resort to the St Lucian Grande resort a few times. The ride takes about 45 minutes, which we didn't mind. We loved driving through more of St. Lucia and getting to see the city of Castries. It was nice to spend time at both resorts, the Grande definitely has more of a party atmosphere and is much larger.
The food all around was amazing. We typically did the buffet for breakfast and lunch. I wasn't too thrilled with the options at the buffet, they were a little limited in my opinion, but my husband was happy and all of the food was excellent quality. We tried out almost all of the restaurants, with my favorite being their hibachi style restaurant, Kimonos. You can't go wrong at any of them, and like always, the service at each was incredible.
Overall I would give this resort 5 stars! We had an incredible time and will definitely be back!
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