Just returned from Sandals Whitehouse Jamaica. My wife and I took a 4th anniversary trip, which was our 3rd stay in Jamaica since our wedding. We both agree this was the nicest resort we have been to hands down. First, the drive is a long and bumpy ride, but sit back and enjoy the scenery. Once you arrive at the resort you will realize it is well worth the potholes and crazy drivers.
Second, the beach is absolutely amazing, it is secluded not eroded (like 7 mile beach in Negril), and seems to go on forever. Every morning the highlight of our stay was the long walk north from the french beach. Stop and check in with security, but no worries we never felt threatened and were only approached once off property. Most mornings, Drident our new friend was waiting for us and by the 2nd day had remembered our names. There are no locals on the beach selling ANYTHING, which was an issue in Negril and Ocho Rios.
Third, the food especially dinner was delicious. Service can be a little slow at times, but just remember your on jamaican time. There are a lot of different types of food to choose from. Our favorite was Guisepes, the italian place. The french cafe is a must, ice cream, and pastries for your sweet tooth or munchies.
Last, the pools and bars are very nice especially the french pool for the party crowd. The martini bar is a great place to get a drink after dinner, and relax on there patio. The main pool is enormous with plenty of loungers. From now on when we go to Jamaica we will be staying at Sandals Whitehouse!!
Everyone that stays here should do the READING ROAD TRIP. Every Thursday at 9:00 for 20 bucks a person you can take a 5 min bus ride to a local school and be back before lunch. You get to spend about 2 hours with some young kids, ages 3-7. They break you off in smaller groups of about 6 kids with each couple, this was the best part of our trip!! Please check it out, well worth the trip, and back to enjoy the sun by 11:30

My husband and I stayed at the Whitehouse from the 31st of January to 7th February. This was our 2nd time (first time was 2005) and we found much improvement to service. We had a 1 bedroom with butler in the italien village and loved it. Our butler Kamar and David were just fantastic. They were always around when we needed them but never in the way. The room was kept very clean and stocked with whatever we wanted.

The beach is beautiful and the water warm. If you like to walk the beach this is a wonderful one. I must however report that my husband was eaten alive by sandfleas but that can happen on any beach. They could use showers when you come off the beach to rinse you feet from sand. I believe that this may have been the problem with sandfleas.

The food was good in all the restaurants and room service was outstanding. We enjoyed the Cafe de Paris with all the nice treats and coffees.

Drinks are good if you asked for the brand name alcool. They will use the other kind if you do not ask for the good stuff.

The ride to the Whitehouse is rough but the drivers are great and know what they are doing. We booked Clive Transport to get there (we spent the first week at Iberostar Grand in Mobay - review posted under that hotel) and took the Sandals shuttle back which was fine. Clive is the way to go because he gaves us a personal tour on the way in. He is reliable and on time and I would always use him when in Jamaica.

Entertainment was good and really enjoyed Reggae night.

My husband really made use of the waterports.

We will return to this resort in the future. We have travelled to many islands and really loved the quiet and service of this resort.

We just returned from our second stay at Sandals Whitehouse. This year was even better than last year…didn’t think that was possible!
We started our vacation with a few little glitches, but Sandals worked quickly to make everything great. We hired the Sandals private car and driver to pick us up from the airport. A 90 minute drive in a Mercedes sure beats a 90 minute drive in a bus and it is well worth the $400.00 return. T-Ray picked us up from the Sandals lounge and brought us to the resort in style. The orientation and the group walk to the rooms were fast and efficient. This year we did not get an upgrade and were placed in the French building third floor. There really is no bad room at the Whitehouse, standard fair, king bed, clean bathrooms, old world decor. They all face the ocean; however, some do overlook the pool while facing the ocean and could become noisy at times.
The beach is the outstanding feature of this resort…long, impeccable and beautiful soft white sand. If you have ever looked at the map of the resort you will find there are three sections, the French, Dutch and Italian buildings all with their own unique pools. The French is the party pool, you will find lots of activity, many pool and beach chairs and lots of music and pool volley ball. The Dutch has a much lower volume…no music, smaller bar and hot tub. The Italian is like the secret pool, tucked away from the crowd, intimate...there is no bar here so you need to wander a bit when thirsty. Finally there is the main pool, very large, surrounded by all the restaurants, activity people encouraging you to join in with pool bingo, exercises, or Bob Marley trivia games. The beach at this end of the resort is where we spend all our time. You can grab a chair at any time, set up your home for the day. The next person may be 800 feet away from you. Lovely, quiet and close enough to the main pool for a quick dip, cold drink or to wander in for lunch.
The restaurants are all amazing. Without a butler or consigners’ you may need to wait a bit or book reservations. However, if you prefer a later meal, after 7:30pm or 8:00pm you can generally be seated right away. Eleanor’s is the only one requiring a dress code of long pants and a shirt with a collar for the men to eat inside. Seems fair, keeps the ambiance of this restaurant where it belongs. Lovely! However, the patio seating is wonderful too and a little more relaxed. Jasmines, Giuseppe’s as well as Neptune’s and the Bayside all have in or outside dining and resort evening attire is appropriate. During the day some of these are open for lunch and cover ups are required. Bluefield’s is a “beachside patio” with local Jamaican fair and is found back at the other end of the beach beside the French pool. Here you can find burgers, fries, local fair on beachside tables.
Worth mentioning is the Beringer wines, excellent. This is such a treat as when we travel to the Dominican I usually have to bring along my own “tetra’s” of wine as I cannot drink the resort wine….here…yummy! There are always premium choices of alcohol, and many frozen concoctions to cool down a hot day. Oh yes, and Red Stripe!
Last year we took a sunset cruise on the catamaran…it was excellent. This year we chose the catamaran trip to the Pelican Bar! Do not miss this excursion…it is worth every penny. It was $85 USD each and we had a blast! The crew was all so much fun! The day started around 9:30 with a sail, for a bit of snorkeling or just floating around in the ocean for a bit. Back on the boat with an open bar, trays of foods and music! The destination is a bar on built stilts on a sand bar in the middle of the ocean. It is solely built out of drift wood…unreal! Those who new…brought something form home to leave at the bar. We saw license plates from Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Rhode Island. Canadian, German and Italian flags all signed but those that visit the bar. You can pre-order a lunch of Jack fish or lobster….they were both worth the $13-$15. A Red stripe or Fruit rum punch could be bought for $4 as well. Our tour stayed for about 90 minutes…non-Sandal’s travelers were there as well, hiring the local water taxi’s to take them out. We had so much fun. The owner, Floyde (with an e) was there and was happy to pose for pictures or to sign your bottle of Red Stripe.
For those that have been to the Whitehouse before they have been doing many upgrades to the property. There are new sidewalks going in, lovely new outdoor seating with monster umbrellas for shade. They were building an outside fire pit on the main patio…with two smaller ones closer to the beach. Understanding progress is always required you may read others complaining about the workers or equipment driving up and down the beach on occasion. But it was really not bothersome if you respect that constant improvements just keeps the resort fresh and appealing.
As for the entertainment…being a returning guest it is quite predictable. The White Night is the most fun…but they end it too early at 9:30 and try and scoot everyone up to the martini bar. I wish they would run the special musical evenings a little longer. During the Gala night they had a wonderful female singer, did not catch her name, she was great. Later that evening the regular house band plays acoustically and was one of the best performances of the weeks we stayed. The Cabaret is fine but the sound system is rough, a bit too loud and at times was reason to leave. There are the usual get the guests up to make a fool of themselves evening, one of guest and staff talent show, and an evening with the Jamaican cultural entertainers. The entertainment is an area Sandals could show some improvement…it just does not live up to the rest of the standard of Sandals Fair.
As for the Sandals staff…compliments to the HR department. Everyone working on the grounds, in the bars, or restaurants, front desk or Come back soon desk were all very friendly, helpful and went out of their way to make your stay a happy stay. Our requested driver was waiting for us at time of departure…it was great not climbing into the bus! Our driver for the returning leg was Pryce, very nice man. He had a tray of snacks, a couple of Red Stripes and some water for our ride to the airport. He shared some of his stories of living in Jamaica, pointed out some of the local sights. Gave us a good handshake and me a big hug and sent us on our way home.
Thank you Sandal’s for another wonderful vacation. We need to thank Alicia at the “Come Back Soon” desk. Before we leave we always check out what the specials are for us to return again next year, there is currently an air credit available not sure when is it ends…but by leaving a fully refundable $400.00 deposit you secure that deal for your next visit. Alicia was patient with our three trips to her desk, checking different resorts and dates. She came up with a few options within our budget for us to visit some of the other Sandals properties. We have been to The Regency La Toc in St. Lucia with shared privileges at The Grand and Halcyon (excellent as well). Although, we love the Whitehouse we are booked for Antigua for 2013…and I have my fingers crossed for a week at Xuma this fall if I am lucky!
Shout Out’s to:
Pool Bar: Copeland, Ornik, and Garth
Bayside: Big Kudo’s to Kelvin…he was always there!
Giuseppe’s: Murphy….you were fun, thanks for finding me some Merlot!
Eleanor’s: Thanks for the wonderful service Michel

We finally made it to Jamaica after staying at two other Sandals. This one was just like the others but in a remote location. The bus ride is 1.5 hours from the airport over a mountain on curvy roads. The property is very big but the beach is not two miles as they advertise. The guards don't recommend going to the rest of the beach once you get off Sandals property. We had a great time here relaxing but it wasn't one of our favorites.