My husband and i have returned from a 5 night stay at Sandals Whitehouse--the resort and the staff were fabulous--
The ride from the airport is an hour and a half with a pit stop 1/2 way-the roads are narrow and bumpy, but what an opportunity to get a glimpse of jamaica--our drivers were knowledgable and enjoyed sharing thier countrys culture with us--
one we arrived, we were greeted with open and welcoming arms--checkin went smoothly and we were off to our room--
all rooms face the ocean and we could see the beach and ocean from our room--we stayed in the italitan village--
the beach is gorgeous--soft sand and crystal clear water--they also have the largest starfish we have ever seen--some are the size of dinner plates--
We went on the snorkellling trip everyday and the reef is blossoming with colorful fish--the crew are really alot of fun and will jump in the water with you and point out things--we even saw a 4 ft nurse shark--he didn't bother us--but very cool to see--
entertainment staff really work hard --we really enjoyed some of the afternoon games and especially the music at night--
food was also really good--our favorite restaurant was Guissipies--and we had a blast at the martini bar with the pianist Rodney--
we also had the opporunity to meet the manager Jeremy Jones who is awesome to not only his guests, but his staff as well--
we will be back to this resort--it is so lovely to be desolate and to be the only resort on this stretch of beach--what a wonderful vacation--
email me if you have specific questions and will be happy to answer-
thanks Mon !

My husband and I are not seasoned travelers actually outside of visiting family this was our first real vacation. Upon arriving at Sandals Whitehouse we were greeted with wine as they escorted us to our room (which they voluntarily upgraded). The room was nice, we were at the beach not like we would be spending much time in there anyway. After we settled in we went exploring the resturants are very nice and the food was great especially Eleanor's they had the best Steak. The staff was very well educated and extremely friendly. The playmakers (activity directors) were awesome. Keri ( our personal favorite) was so much fun. She gave dance lesson and taught us many other games like schuffle board and sink the ball. She really made our trip a lot of fun. The beach was beautiful and not to many people. You could choose from one of three pools which was nice because each had a very differant atmosphere. The main pool is where it was happening, the other two smaller pools we quiter and more laid back.
We did get married at the resort and my wedding was stress free. We met with the wedding planner the first day it took about 30 mins and we just finalized all the details. From there we did not have to do anything but, show up. Which is exactly what we did. The ceremony was beautiful, short, sweet and simple. The reception following was nice. We ate cake, drank champagne and danced. The photos turned out beautiful ( if anyone would like to see I will gladly email them drop me line mandysue64@yahoo.com). I truly would not have changed a thing. I can not wait to go back :)

We vacationed at SWH from 4/13-4/20 and wished we had another day or two to stay!
Previously, we have stayed at 2 other Sandals in St Lucia and Antigua. We found SWH to be exactly what we were looking for...beautiful beach, quiet, good weather, nice accomodations and good food. Sandals met every one of our expectations.

French Villiage: We booked a premium room and we did not get an upgrade...so as others have posted, book the room you want. I don't know that we would want butler service but if the price were right, maybe we would upgrade.I am not quite sure what we would do with butler service as we did not find anything lacking nor were we in the room that often to require anything else. We had absolutely no problem getting chairs or finding shade at all at the beach or pool. We were on the second floor in the French villiage. At first, we thought about moving our room but we quickly decided against it as we needed the walk in light of the food and drinks we were consuming! The grounds are beautiful and the walk is enjoyable ( cut by the tennis courts). The French area has a pool bar and Bluefield's restaurant, which I found to be fair. My husband liked the calamari on the menu so for lunch, I really didn't care where we ate and it was very easy to stay on the beach close to the bar, pool, & food. I found that the service here was not as good as the rest of the resort, (asked 3 times for a rum punch and never received it, so the next day, I ordered wine, thinking it would be quicker, but I had to ask a few times again, food orders coming out incorrect, etc. ). No big deal but I am not quite sure what is going here as the service everywhere else was great.
Our room was a good size, clean, bed comfortable, amenities sufficient, no bugs,ants, etc. Maybe people get ants in their room because they eat and leave food there? We had no problem whatsoever.

Restaurants: Bluefields- see my comment above. Jerk was not spicy enough, too bland. food was fair
Breakfast: did both Eleanor's and the buffet and very happy with both.
Lunch: I preferred Bayside's buffet over Bluefield's food. Tried Arizona's once- awful cheeseburger so we did not go back, some greyish looking hockey puck that had no flavor, what a let down.
Dinner: Eleanor's was excellent- I ordered the pumpkin soup, filet, a salad, and creme broule every time and I was very pleased with it. We would arrive between 6:15- 6:45 and put our name in and go upstairs to the martini bar for a cocktail. They would call up when our table was ready. bartenders, CJ & Anthony, were very funny and made perfect drinks. If you have a good appetite, don't be afraid to order a few things or ask for an extra portion when ordering. I can see that some guys would find the filet is not enough so don't be afraid to ask! service was excellent.
Bayside was great, too. Different menu from Eleanor's but alot of tasty things, esp the pork. We ate here twice and enjoyed the al fresco dining very much, esp. one night during a full moon. This is al la carte as well. very attentive and excellent service
Guiseppe's: good, but not great. Service was also excellent. We have great Italian food in RI so we know that whatever we order in the islands will not be as good. white pizza was very good, did that as an app, caesar salad, and I did the chicken parm w/the sauce on the side and I found that I preferred it that way and it was tasty. desserts were excellent and they had a waiter tableside with a cart for an after dinner drink, very nice touch!
Anytime: cafe - what can I say, great touch, you can find everything from biscotti to chochlate chip cookies to crepes to ice cream and coffees. we found that we always had room for something here.
Entertainment: the Elvis show was better than we expected and entertaining (and we are not really Elvis fans), and the African inspired dance show was terrific. We tended to get up early so making to the shows at night after a full day was hard.I used the book exchange and found 2 books that I have been meaning to buy so I read them there and was very happy they have such a decent lot of books to chose from. Took a ride on the glass bottom boat- not worth it , nothing to see, coral is dead, and several on board, including me, were feeling a bit queasy, I thought it was worse than the bus ride in!
Red Lane Spa: wonderful massage, nice spa, worth it!
Ride to & from resort: goes by quickly, tour of the island to the south coast, you will see alot of poverty, which reminded me of how fortunate I am, I sat in the front and found that to be very helpful during the twisty ride.
Overall, we enjoyed our Sandals vacation and relaxed, which was our only goal. The resort is beautiful, lovely, expansive beach, with lots of choices of food, activities, pools, etc. Service was excellent. We would definitely return to this Sandals and stay in the French villiage. I found teh resort to be very quiet and the crowd to be older (40s +) which is our age group so some younger couples, incl. those on their honeymoon, may find it too quiet for them. Don't worry if you have booked SWH, you will have a good time!!!!!

I stayed at Sandals Whitehouse on 4/11 – 4/20/2008. We had our Sandals Group WeddingMoon at this resort and 25 of our closest friends and family joined us. I’ve been to Jamaica about three years ago but stayed at the Sunset Beach Resort & Spa. Our expectations of all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean are pretty low. My husband and I are really easy going and when you’re on vacation…it’s all about having a good time. This resort exceeded our expectations. We will definitely vacation at this or another Sandals resort again. There were some blips along the way but it’s easy to overlook when the sun & sand are a few feet away. Below is a brief outline of the entire trip below.

Airport & Shuttle Bus:
MBJ has greatly improved since the last time we were in Jamaica. We didn’t have to get off the plane on the tarmac and there was some A/C inside. We arrived on Friday morning and we breezed through customs within 5 minutes. I suggest you arrive on a weekday morning because our friends arrived on Saturday afternoon and waited for an hour and a half to get through immigration. We took a direct flight from JFK on AirJamaica. Our luggage arrived and we hurried along into the Sandals waiting area. You can’t miss it and there are several people asking you which resort you are heading to. It was a bit of a mess to get everything sorted out with the Sandals lady giving us tags for our bags. Mainly because there was 12 of us and there were too many bags. We were afraid to leave our bags outside but all our bags were accounted for. We had to wait 25 minutes for the next shuttle bus and went inside to get some refreshments & restroom. Finally, we got on the shuttle bus (medium sized van with A/C) and they made sure to tell us to tip them $1 per bag. That seems reasonable since my suitcase alone weighed 50 lbs. The trip really does take 90 minutes but there was a lot to see along the way. I recommend you to take motion sickness pills beforehand because the drive through the mountains is bumpy. We stopped half way at a rest stop.

Arrival & Rooms:
We arrived at Sandals Whitehouse in good time, sorted out our luggage from the van, and were ushered into the lobby. They provided us with a wet towel and champagne to cool off. Since we had so many guests stay with us we were automatically upgraded to the Honeymoon Beachfront Penthouse Concierge Suite in the Dutch Village. All of our guests stayed in the Premium Beachfront Room in the French Village. We all booked 8 months ahead of time and received a decent rate of $380 per night. It’s still pretty pricey (compared to the resorts we’ve stayed at before in the Caribbean). We headed to the Concierge office to get our room. We had to wait about 20 minutes so we headed to lunch at Bayside (buffet style). The Concierge office has entire library of books so you can read while you’re on the beach or pool.

Our room was relatively clean but the whirlpool bath looked a bit dingy. We didn’t try it out since we had the pool, hot tub, and beach outside. We had a separate shower area and double vanity counter. We also had some extra shelves to put our luggage. Other than that, the rooms compared to our guests were the same. I thought our room was decent, spacious, and clean. We had a fully stocked bar (rum, scotch, red wine, and champagne) & fridge (at no additional cost and they refill every night). They cleaned our room (room 2409) by noon and all the rooms had turn-down service nightly (and they replaced all our towels). They say that all the rooms are beach front but some of the rooms are definitely blocked by trees or building structures. Our view was amazing. We sat out to see the sunset on several occasions. I couldn’t stay out for long because the mosquitoes kept biting me and they somehow ended up inside our room.

General:
The resort itself was large but not large enough that it required a shuttle (which Principe Bahia Principe did have in Dominican Republic). I welcomed the exercise; otherwise I would have gained 10 lbs. instead of 4 from all the food & booze. Entertainment was really lacking and since we stayed 9 days we realized they had the same entertainment repeated every week. You really can’t stay at this resort for more than 7 days. I think 4-5 is more than enough. We went to the disco a few of the nights but no one was really dancing except for my friends and me. One night was oldies, then 80’s, techno/dance, and the other night was reggae. Most of the guests at this resort are either coming for a wedding, renewal of vows, or middle-aged couples. This resort is not for Spring Break. It’s more for rest & relaxation. We had to wake up early to really enjoy the sun. The clouds & rain rolled in around 1-2 pm and didn’t clear up until 5-6 pm (dinner time). The sun was scorching by 9 am. We spent the majority of the day going napping on the hammocks, shooting pool or playing ping pong at their arcade, going snorkeling, sailing, and hanging out at the main pool or beach. We tried all their water sports activities (all included in the package). I’m prone to mosquito bites so it wasn’t a surprise when I was bitten in 20 different places. Luckily most of the bites were small and I armed myself with a ton of bug spray before leaving the room (day and night). There were sand fleas but I was able to get through the week… just remember to bring bug spray and Gold Bond to ease the itch.

Pools:
The Riviera Pool is their main pool and it’s huge. We mainly stayed at this pool. The pool by the Dutch Village is relatively small and it smelled like garbage at night (because it’s right next to the bar). We took midnight dips at the hot tub. I liked the pool by the French Village. It’s a decent size. There are a lot of people hanging out there during the day (younger crowd) and Bluefield’s restaurant is right beside it. We played volleyball there at night (whenever they left the net up). All the pools have a swim up bar.

Beach:
The beach was lovely with soft sand and the water was a clear blue green. We saw fishes and star fishes in the shallow waters. There’s a lot of seaweed and rocks (our friends got cut on their feet from the shells & rock), so be careful and bring water shoes. There’s an area between the Dutch and French Villages that does not have any seaweeds. The water was pretty wavy so we could not snorkel there. The beach chairs w/ umbrellas were usually taken by 9-10 am so you have to arrive early and place a beach towel there (available at the pools). Also, be careful if you’re going to get up on the floats they have in the ocean. My friend cut her knee pretty badly trying to get up on it. The bottom part scraped her up and she was bleeding all over the place.

Restaurants:
The resort did not seem to be full (it never seemed crowded) but there was always a 30-40 minute wait at the restaurants for dinner. For breakfast we ate at Eleanor’s (decent omelet) or Bayside’s (buffet style – their spicy pepper steak was delicious and you can have them make your omelets any way you want). The fruits were not in season because they were all tasteless (except for their mangoes and papayas). I love their coffee and Jasmine Green Tea. For lunch we ate at Bluefield’s (their jerk chicken, jerk sausage, Jamaican beef patty, and jerk calamari were awesome). We also tried Bayside (okay food, nothing spectacular) and their TexMex restaurant, Arizona’s. Our favorite places to go for dinner was Bayside’s (order the steak … medium rare… you won’t be sorry) and Arizona’s (the steak here was also pretty good). I’m a meat lover so I had steak 4 nights in a row! The food at Guiseppe’s (Italian restaurant) and Eleanor’s were alright but not great. You can’t really expect much from an all-inclusive resort (in terms of food) but I thought the food was okay. My favorite was Café de Paris (the French pastry shop). The pastry & ice cream was awesome. You don’t have to make a reservation for dinner but the wait can be up to 30 minutes (unless you go before 6:30 or after 8:30). Dinner can take up to 2 hours because they serve you extremely slow. This is probably why you have to wait for a table but oftentimes we saw a ton of empty tables that were “reserved” already. You can call ahead to reserve the table at the front desk. Definitely call ahead if you have 8 or more people in your party. Each restaurant can only fit 6-8 people at a table (and only a few of them are set up).

Here are a few drinks that we liked – Jamaican Smile, Dirty Banana, Purple Rain, BBC with Amaretto, & American Flag. The pina colada was pretty good.

Shops:
You will most likely get stopped by one of their photographers during your stay. They keep the pictures up to two weeks and you can receive it on a CD or printed (the cost is the same). It’s pretty pricey…it’s $15 per image, 10 images for $95, etc. We bought 11 images on a CD for $110 from their SnapShots store and we had a 10% discount coupon that was given to us by their gift shop. However, the lady ringing us up didn’t know how to use the coupon and there was no manager in the store. Instead of giving us the discount she gave us a free Sandals picture frame. I thought this was a very nice gesture from her. You’ll find most of their employees always have a welcoming smile on their face. Their gift shop was pretty pricey but we were able to find picture frames and key chains for our family & friends back home. We spent about $400 throughout our stay. The resort gives you a card that’s linked to your room so you can use it for all the shops. This is good because you don’t have to carry cash or your credit cards (and worry about losing it). Of course, you can overspend without knowing it!

Wedding Consultant / Experience:
Our wedding consultant was Rouchelle Harvey and she was very pleasant to deal with. We arrived Friday afternoon and our wedding was Sunday afternoon. No one contacted us on Friday and we were very concerned by Saturday. It turns out no one left the wedding book in our room (our appt was at 9 am on Saturday). Luckily, we headed to the wedding office after brunch. She apologized profusely. Then we realized the details she was giving us didn’t include what was in our contract. We soon realized she thought we were having a regular WeddingMoon package instead of the Group WeddingMoon package (which includes a free massage for the groom, mani/pedi for the bride, a free welcome cocktail reception and a private rehearsal dinner for our guests the night before). It turns out our Wedding Consultant in Florida never told her we had the group package. Luckily I printed out our contract and all the e-mail correspondence I had with the Sandals. She couldn’t do the rehearsal dinner because it takes a week beforehand to book the place & plan it out. Instead she offered the dinner after our cocktail reception in one of their banquet halls. It really worked out better for us because a few of our guests had trouble with their airlines on Saturday and did not arrive until late at night. The dinner at the banquet hall was amazing and private… our guests thought we spent a fortune to book it.

Overall my experience at Sandals Whitehouse has been wonderful. I plan to try out another Sandals resort (maybe the one in Antigua or Bahamas) but may come back to Whitehouse for our anniversaries.