We had a fantastic honeymoon at Sunset at the Palms in Negril. The Hotel and grounds were excellent and the gardens were beautiful. It wasn't overly busy which was great, as some days there were only a dozen guests around the pool. The pool area was great, with a lovely sun bathing area and a great pool with a swim up bar, the Mango Daiquiri's were lovely. This bar stay open until 1am and the bar staff were great, especially Omar (He's so special!!) and Garth is the main man. The lifegaurd Ian was very helpful also. The private beach was a great size and the beach and sea were very idilic. The beach bar and beach grill were fantastic also, serving some great food all day. The resturant was great, with a diferent theme each evening. The japenese evening was stunning. There was a great selection of food for all three meals. The A La Carte resturant was amazing and we were suprised that it was included within the package. The weather was great with only about an hours rain for the entire stay. The rooms are great and unique, with a great day bed and a lovely shower. the size of the hotel means that it is never too busy. the evening entertainment lasted just the right amount of time and was varied throughout the week.

The attentiveness of the staff and their overall helpfulness and friendliness made our stay that extra bit special.

We would definatly recomend the hotel and would definatly go back to this fantastic hotel.

My husband and I stayed at SATP from June 15 thru June 20. All I can say is that six days was just not enough and our only regret was leaving! We are already planning a 10 day stay or more at this resort next year. First, let me start by saying that we arrived at this resort at night and the ambiance created by the lighting was just awesome. We knew from this moment that we were in for a treat. Once we stepped off the bus we were greated by the sounds of singing frogs and crickets just like other reviewers had mentioned. We were quickly checked in to our treehouse which was just absolutely beautfiul. We had dinner which was quite tasty and then just crashed into our comfortable bed. The sounds of the crickets and tree frogs quickly serenaded me to sleep (which was a plus because I usually don't fall asleep very easily).

We were awaken the next morning by singing birds and if you are bird lovers like my husband and I are then this is the sweetest sound you could hear. We were in bird heaven! This place has a ton of birds and they sing straight throughout the day. As we had arrived at night we were anxious to see the grounds that everyone was talking about. We were not disappointed. This is absolutely the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The grounds are immaculate and the floral variety and colors mesmerized us both. Everything was green and beautiful and in bloom.

We got a botanical tour from Shorty who is just always so thrilled to tell you about the different species of Heliconas they have on the property. Omar treated us to fresh cocunuts right off the trees on the property each morning. We spent a good part of our days walking around the property and taking pictures of birds or just sitting on the daybed on the porch silently waiting for a hummingbird to show up so we could take pictures. We were even able to get close up shots of the Baldpate which usually stays hidden high up in the trees. As you can imagine, this was a dream come true for my husband.

As someone who has always opted for resorts right on the beach I wondered how I would adjust to the fact that this resort was not directly on the beach. It turned out that both my husband and I really enjoyed the fact that the beach was accross the street as this just added additional privacy. The beach was an easy walk and the crossing guard was always alert and quickly guided us accross the street. Loved the beach grill as it was never crowded and the food was always good. I enjoyed the jerk chiken and both the grilled and fried snapper. The beach bar was also never crowded and so a cool pina colada was always just footsteps away.

Now for the resort staff. Absolutely the nicest resort workers I have ever met! Someone mentioned in a previous review that they thought the staff were fake. I did not find that to be the case. We found them to be genuine, laid back and always very attentive. The front desk staff got to know us by name and would never let us go buy without calling us by our names and asking us how we were enjoying our stay. We have never had this experience before at any previous resort (see a list of the resorts we have stayed at in Jamaica and our ranking of SATP amongst those resorts below). Garth at the pool bar is the funniest. He always wears a smile and even though we don't drink any alcohol we enjoyed just sitting around the bar talking with him. Hopeton or Tallman as he is affectionately called is one of the groundskeepers and he entertained us with the funniest stories. I just don't know how he was able to keep a straighface when he was telling us stories. We sought him out everyday for a belly-full of laughs.

Entertainment at this resort was light and just right. Moses's performance was very memorable as his guitar and mello voice added a nice touch to our Italian dinner. Each night there was a different theme for dinner so you never really got tired of the food. The buffet selections wasn't as vast as some of the other larger all inclusives but we always found enough to eat.

Tours are also available if you so choose. We did do the canopy tour which was really good (but scary at first). We found however, that the resort totally satisfied our needs. We played tennis when we wanted something extra to do and we also did a pilates class. Yoga classes are also available and are included in the price. We found that because the main goal of this trip was to relax we could have stayed on the property the whole time without being bored. We had an awesome time and just can't wait to go back.

As promised here is a list of the resorts we have stayed in Jamaica and our ranking of SATP amongst these resorts.

1. Sandal's Dunns River (we honeymooned here 8 years ago)
2. Rui Negril (which is next door to SATP and RIU Tropical Bay)
3. Gran Bahia Principe
4. Breezes Runaway Bay
5. Breezes Montego Bay
6. Grand Lido Negril (really nice)
7. Grand Lido Braco (also very nice)
8. Grand Lido Sans Souci (stayed here briefly as we didn't like the resort and asked to be transferred to another property)
8. Hedonism II
9. Hedonism III
10. Couples Swept Away

And our verdict......drum roll.......SATP is a close second....and I mean a VERY CLOSE second to Sandal's Dunn's River.... I would recommend SATP to just about anyone and we can't wait to go back!

Well we just returned from a beautiful week stay in Negril Jamaica at Sunset at the Palms. We loved Negril Jamaica and were so sad to come back home. The worst part of our stay was not having our luggage for a day and a half. When we landed in Jamaica half of the passengers on the flight did not receive their luggage. Our luggage never made it on the plane. So we were pretty upset because most of our wedding stuff was in our luggage. That made the hour and a half ride to Negril from the airport very miserable. I felt so bad for the driver because he was trying to interact with the passengers but we were all still so miserable. We tried to make the best of it when we got to the hotel and went straight to the bar. We arrived on Wednesday around 1030 am and did not get our luggage till Thursday around 630pm. We got married at Sunset at the Palms with 32 of our friends and family with us. One tip of advice for anyone planning a destination wedding, have all of you guests stay at the same hotel. It makes everything sooo much easier! At first we didn't mind because we did not want to entertain EVERYBODY the WHOLE time. There were only about 10 of us staying at SATP the whole week. The rest of our guests were spread out at Riu Negril, Riu Tropical Bay, Samsara, Merrils Beach and beaches Sandy bay. We tried to organize a couple of group activities for everyone but had to rely on calling our guest rooms from our hotel because our cell phones did not work (we have AT&T). Make sure you talk to your cell phone provider before you go to Jamaica because you might want to have the ability to use your cell phone to call friends to coordinate activities or trips out there. Some of our friends cell phones worked but no one knew what the charges were for calling from Jamaica so most people only text messaged. Be careful because we did not know that the front desk charges you for evey phone call that they connect you to another hotel. We did not know that until checkout when they told us that we have a balance of $18 for phone calls. I will try to give my most honest review of the entire trip.

Hotel: We arrived to SATP around 2 pm to be welcomed with the cold towels and a bottle of champagne waiting for us at the front desk since we were getting married.The SATP is a really awesome resort and the pictures do not do it any justice. It was beautiful and wonderfully manicured. The hotel was very clean and had a really nice open air vibe. We stayed in room 414 and thought that was an awesome room. We were a little further back at the resort and barely heard any noise besides for nature. Our friends were assigned room 604 and 605 by the main road but were moved to a different room after they requested to be moved somewhere quieter. Don't be afraid to ask for a different room if you are not happy. We loved our room and rushed right in to check it out.

Rooms: The hotel staff had rose petals sprinkled all over the floor of our room, bathroom and bed to welcome us along with a second bottle of champagne. The room was very clean and the five headed shower was very nice and worked perfectly the entire time. We did have some problems with our toilet bowl not flushing a couple of times but the maintenance staff took care of it right away. The day bed on the deck was awesome and the room was basic but nice. The only complaints I had were the lack of storage in the room and how dark the rooms were. My wifeand I are heavy packers so it might have been us overpacking. There was only one dresser with four drawers and the closet in the bathroom to hang clothes up. The room was very dark. At first it was cool because of the ambience but after stubbing my toe on the bed a couple of times and not being able to find my shoes or sandals at night , it got really old. There is only one light in the entryway and the two lamps by the bed. There really should be a light right above the bed to illuminate the entire room. You are immersed by nature so be prepared to see some nature in your room. We saw some lizards on our balcony which I thought was cool. But then we saw a pretty sizeable cockroach on our bed which I did not think was so cool. But hey, you are in Jamaica and surrounded by nature so be prepared to be surrounded by all kinds of creatures.

Staff: The staff at the hotel was very friendly. I think that people will always react and treat you the way you react and treat them. My wife and I are very outgoing but it was not our goal to meet every single person that worked there and get to know them by name. We smiled and said hi to everyone and they did the same. They all kept asking if we were the ones getting married. We met a lot of awesome people that worked there like the bartenders (45 (that's his real name), Greg and Esroy). The front desk was also very helpful and really nice. Do try and tip them because they do work hard. At first we didn't know who to tip and when to tip but you will eventually know who and when.

Wedding: The wedding was beautiful and the staff did a really good job of making it all come together. The only suggestion that I have is to get your wedding coordinator involved. We thought that she would be really involved but she really was not as involved as we thought. We did some practice runs and should have invited her but we thought that she would have volunteered to take part. Also try to ask if the wedding official can be involved as well. We just kind of went with his flow and he kind of threw off our order of the ceremony. We had a sand ceremony and we thought that he would explain the relevance of it to our guests but he just sat back as we poured the sand. We had a garden ceremony and the staff did a really nice job decorating the gazebo area with flowers for us. They also set up the dining area really nice for all 32 of us at the Palm Grove restaurant. The wedding photo and video packege was reasonable ($570 for 24 5X7 pictures and half hour video from Lasting Impressions). The photographer was really cool and did a great job with the pictures. The videographer on the other hand could have done a little bit of a more professional job in my opinion. He spelled my wifes name wrong on the DVD but we didn't get it till our last day so we didn't sweat it.

Food: Honestly the food at the Palm Grove restaurant was not that bad. We got there both early and late and the food was always good and seemed fresh. If there isn't something you want left in the buffet, just ask someone and they will bring some more out for you. They had a good variety of food and did a decent job switching up the menu. I just wish that they had more jamaican dishes at all meals. They would throw in a little curry chicken and goat here and there but I wanted stuff like that and curry goat at every meal. I mean we are in Jamaica after all. We ate at the Lotus Leaf one night and honestly the food was passable and we should have just eaten at the regular buffet. The Lotus Leaf is their upscale dining restaurant and I honestly liked the buffet food a lot better. The Beach grill was awesome and where we ate most of our lunch meals. Leonie was cool and the food was always good. The Grilled cheese, Jerk Chicken, Chicken Melt and Red Snapper were always so delicious.

Jamaica: Everyone loved jamaica!!!! We went out to The Jungle, we did Alfreds a couple of times and Bourbon Beach. Just expect to be offered Marijuana because it is plentiful there. A polite no thank you is all it takes. Remember the locals only offer it because many visitors come to Jamaica looking for it! We did the Wild Thing Cruise and swam to Ricks Cafe (We did not know that we had to swim 1/4 of a mile to Ricks!!!!). This coming from a couple that does not know how to swim but we did it anyways with a lot of help. Once in a lifetime experience is what we call it. We had a rehearsal dinner for everyone at Khristyls restaurant at the Palms hotel. It was right on the beach and they had an awesome bonfire and set up the dining area really nice for all of us. They had a guitarist who entertained us and was actually really good. Just remember that this is Jamaica and everyone is on Island time. It took a long time for the food to come out but they said that they make everything from scratch so that was what took so long. Jamaica can be a little on the pricier side for souvenires and alcohol than other islands that we have visited. Everything is negotiable but after a while I got tired of getting hawked by the local stores staff and owners.


Taxi: The only cab drivers name that you need to know is Garry if you are staying at SATP. He is usually hanging out there all day. We had an awesome time with Garry. He will try to pull a fast one on you but you gotta expect that. He is trying to make his money and tourists pay his bills. Garry knew all the hot spots and knows Negril like the back of his hand. Wherever he took us he would stay with us the entire time and make sure we all got back to our hotels ok. He even got the girls into VIP at the Jungle for free and took the guys to some pretty cool clubs. He always made sure everybody was safe and having a good time which he didn't have to do at all. He also never asked to be paid till the drive back home. Everybody knew him around Negril and he was honestly a good person. I really liked getting to know him instead of switching cab drivers every day. I think he had a really good time getting to know us as well and we told him we would see him next year. Garry was the man and made our trip that much better (He even took us downtown so my wife could get some jamaican patties). I used another cab driver once and got hustled out of some money. If Garry is not in front of SATP ask the front desk to call him. If anyone wants his number let me know, we still have his card. Cab rides can get expensive in Jamaica but when you have a good driver it makes it a lot better. In jamaica they charge about $5 for most car rides but that is per person. We would pile like 10 people in Gary's van and even though we were all going to the same place and using the same gas it was still $5/person each way.

All in all we had a really great time at SATP but do not know if we would stay there the next time we come back to Jamaica. We honestly loved the resort and knew what to expext but our personalities did not mix with the resorts vibe. All of our friends are all so loud and outgoing that I felt bad for some of the other resort guests. The front desk was called to tell us to quiet down a couple of times because people were trying to sleep. We would stay there again but only if it was the two of us and not a group of us. Everybody loved Jamaica and want to come back so we want to get a different taste of another resort. I'm not saying this to discourage anyone from staying here because it truly is a nice resort, just not a good fit for us.

This was our second stay at SATP in as many years and prior to arriving my wife and I were wondering if our excitement and expectations would be met following our wonderful stay last year. I'm happy to report that it was!

Check-in was a breeze - a cold towel with a glass of fruit punch and lots of smiles plus they were actually able to get the exact room that I had requested - very nice! Just after getting to our room we were treated to a comp' bottle of champagne which was a nice touch as returning guests (I assume). It was also very nice to see a lot of familiar faces of the staff from last year - Kurt, Carrot, Esroy, Garth, Kenroy, 45, Omar, just to name a few. The entire staff at SATP from the front desk to the cleaning crew have always made the difference for us and this year was no different so thanks to all at SATP!

There's not really too much to add from my review from last year. FOOD - We're not picky eaters and thought the food was pretty good and on par with last year. Please note the Palm Grove buffet is open-air so I would recommend getting your meals early to ensure the food you get is as fresh as possible. While we were staying in the West End we ate out quite a few times at some recommended local restaurants - Rockhouse, Xtabi, LTU, etc... Although their food was very good and better than what's offered at the SATP buffet, we didn't think they were THAT much better so I don't really get the bad SATP food reviews unless again, you get to the buffets late. If you happen to get bored with the buffets which is understandable there is the enclosed Lotus Leaf restaurant at SATP three times per week plus there are several great places near 7-mile which is a short cab ride away.

RESORT - The grounds, including the beach, at SATP are meticulously maintained 24/7 and really add to the overall experience. The maintenance staff really work hard everyday and do a terrific job! The pool area is one of our favorite places to relax. Ian keeps the water cystal clear and we absolutely love the intimate, tropical, yet social atomsphere. This is a great place to simply relax or mingle and meet other resort guests - mostly couples. Once again we're lucky to have met quite a few guests that made our stay extra special and we can now call friends.

My only complaints would be the jet ski "vultures" that hang out just tto the left of SATP near the dive center and the lazy security guards. The jet ski guys are always speeding around the swim area making too much noise and unnecessary wakes and pestering you for business - "jet-ski!, jet-ski!". That gets old after a while. Although we did noticed a police boat trolling Bloody Bay some days which kept these guys away but as soon as the police boat left they came back. I don't think SATP has much control over this since it's not on their property but they seem to do their best by at least alerting the police. I would also like to see the beach "security guard" do a better job at keeping the beach "higglers" from approaching you while relaxing in your chair. If they're allowed to solicit business on the SATP beach-front then what's stopping somebody from possibly trying to take your beach bag or something else?

If you're looking for a beautiful, romantic, and intimate AI resort and want to avoid a crowded and noisy atmosphere then we feel SATP is an excellent choice if you're staying in Bloody Bay. And just because you're staying at an AI doesn't mean that you're bound to the resort. Get out an explore what Negril has to offer - visit 7-mile beach, do an excursion to one of the falls or Half-Moon Bay, and by all means check-out the cliffs (West-End). If you keep an open mind without too many expectations you're more than likely going to have a great experience. Why go on vacation and be uptight? Keep it light and the heavy can be handled!