Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lords Castle All-inclusive Resort

I believe this was the only hotel in Barbados without a sports channel to watch the football. A group of English guests had to huddle around a laptop to see England best Switzerland. This is simply not acceptable for a luxury hotel. Food is great however. And the entertainment team so hardworking. Friendly staff. Remote. We were moved here by another hotel that was flooded due to Hurricane Beryl and have had to hire a car to compensate. Only drive daytime is my advice. Roads are rough. Read less

I apologize in advance for the lengthy review but I wish I had read more like this before our trip. We just returning after our 7 night stay at this property. ****Let me preface this by saying all reviews really are so subjective- meaning if you’re used to staying at a Ritz Carlton/Four Seasons your opinions will obviously be different than someone who is used to staying at a Holiday Inn. *** This review comes from the standpoint of someone who is used to staying at 4.5-5 star resorts and have a degree in Hospitality and worked in and grew up in the hotel industry, so I’m fairly critical when it comes hotels. I was born in Barbados, actually lived on Sam Lords Castle property as a small child (dad was the manager of the Marriott resort in the 70’s) So trust me when I say we REALLY wanted to love this property. MY Overall rating of Wyndham Grande Barbados - 3 stars. Here is why: Again, was born in Barbados but I’m now American. Given our tie to the area, we have visited many times over the decades, however, last time we visited it was 1989 when it was still Marriott and it was still fabulous. I have since returned to the island but stayed at The Crane back in 2011. Anyway, aside from the fire that ruined the castle, the new resort aesthetically has failed to bring the old Barbados charm that used to exist here. The hotel itself reminds me more of the big and sterile resort that you find on the strip in Cancun. There are fountains upon entrance, which would help soften the the look if they were actually working and would provide a more welcome feeling - instead of pulling up to what looks like a jail or hospital. Definitely does not look like a carribean resort at arrival. Also 99% of the time when I arrive at a resort in the Caribbean islands there is some sort of Caribbean/Calypso music playing. It was dead, silent, and occupancy was maybe 20%…. So you could feel the silence everywhere. Almost awkward feeling. I mentioned it at check-in and throughout my tour of the property. I went I asked why there was no music playing anywhere. I later found out that the Soundsystem that pipes in the music was broken and that they were “working on it”. Music was restored two days later but still not in the lobby area and places that felt cold and quiet. Lacking in ambience. Check-in was good. We were greeted with a cold towel and brought into the awkwardly quiet lobby area (which is more of a room than a traditional lobby) for a seamless check in. We had (4) rooms in our party - seven adults. ROOMS - The rooms were ready, and most of us were satisfied with the condition of our room. However, one of them smelled terribly- like nasty mildew masked with bad cologne trying to cover it up. They had to switch rooms 2 times. A couple of the rooms were missing some of the amenities, such as coffee maker, waters, and glasses/tumblers. After a few days of bad events, we were able to speak with the rooms manager who was very kind. He informed us that each room “should” have also been equipped with slippers and robes. These are crucial bc the rooms get very humid and the tile floors become very wet and slippery- so slippers would have made a huge difference not to mention general sand and debris that just naturally occurs. The floor in my parents room was so dirty that the bottom of their feet was black after walking around barefoot for only 30 min upon arrival to their room. (This was after they had assured my parents that they checked and double checked to make sure the room was ready to be occupied since this would now be the 3rd time they had to switch room due to issues). Even after the rooms manager found out we did not have slippers In our rooms, they still were not brought to us. In my opinion, slippers and robes are a bare minimum in an all inclusive 4+ star resort. Bottom line - at first glance, the rooms are very clean and well appointed. They look new and modern. The bathroom is very pretty and has great lighting. However, in all of our rooms there was substantial mold and mildew around the grout of the showers. Both the shower and the sinks did not drain properly. (Hence the mold). The baseboards are also dusty/not cleaned well. These are all easy fixes. It’s also important to note that we learned from the manager that this resort, even though it was just opened in October 2023, was constructed pre-Covid. They had to halt construction for all sorts of obvious reasons. So it sat dormant and vacant for many years. That is where a lot of the deterioration occurred and they have just been trying to play catch-up with many maintenance issues such as mold. The views from the balcony are fantastic, the AC worked well and there is a very intense ceiling fan! All in all, given that this is the Caribbean where rooms do deteriorate very quickly, I was not disappointed with the cleanliness of the room at all. I felt like they were made up nicely each day, and I did not have any complaints (other than my parents floor needing to be cleaned thoroughly. 😀 the AC didn’t work properly in my parents room either so they were pretty unlucky all around). FOOD & BEVERAGE : OK let me start off with saying that for an all-inclusive resort, this was the best tasting food I have ever experienced at an all-inclusive. The food was delicious, plentiful, and the chefs are definitely on point! So the food is good, but the lack of dining establishments is a dealbreaker for me. I don’t eat at buffets in general for dinner, or ever for that matter, breakfast buffet is fine but that should be it or at least given as an option but not the ONLY option. The buffet options were good and different every night. But again, I prefer a table service. It was also hard to get servers to come and even fill water glasses let alone bring you a drink. I will address the service in another area, because it was subpar. They recently opened their pool restaurant for dinner and actually that meal was good and a nice change of scenery…. But it’s got a muggy and not exactly a dinner setting either. Aside from the buffet, the pool restaurant, there is one other fine dining restaurant called Castle View (that also has a salad bar buffet, lol) and you must have reservations. We did eat there 2 times out of the 7 nights. The food was good. Also they claim they offer 24/7 room service as part of the all-inclusive. They don’t. They will charge you $25USD per order if you order outside of the house of 10pm-6am. And that is if you could get somebody to answer the phone. I called for an hour with no answer. Finally sent an email to guest services and room service called me. They claimed the phones don’t work. Bars - For me, a good resort can’t exist without a fantastic lobby bar! There is literally no bar to go sit and have a martini etc. IMO There has to be some sort of bar that people can congregate, have a nice conversation with a bartender, have some music around, etc. to bring in the feeling of being on vacation. Off of the check in/libby area there is a rum bar, but it is not a traditional bar, they only pour rum and do rum tastings. The opposite end, there is another room that has a bar in it, but there are no barstools, the bartenders do not know how to make many drinks, they do not have many options, there are snacks out on the bar it’s a grab n go area. It is really not meant to be a bar more of a sitting/waiting area as there are chairs and tables around and a TV. Very odd. So for me, I would never return just based on the lack of a good bar. There is supposed to be a swim up bar in the pool but it was empty and not operational which was also disappointing. There is a bar at the pool restaurant (Sam Lord’s Grill), which I spoke about, and the bar there is the best in the whole resort. I really enjoyed the cocktails that were made there. The bartender, Rohan, was FANTASTIC!! He actually was the only person I found in the whole place that could make me a dirty martini! My go to vodka is grey goose but that is not an option at any of the bars so I settled for Tito’s. Anyway, Rohan was so nice and had a great personality…. very hard to come by on this trip.!!! Also - if you have an opportunity to go to the west side for dinner, there are wonderful restaurants. The Tides is really delicious and has a beautiful view. I suggest going at sunset. Not cheap though. There are a couple other places right next to it that are also very good. CONCEIRGE/ GUEST SERVICES - I want to give a huge shout out to Nalani Carter. She is definitely the star of the show. She helped us with so many of our issues. She went above and beyond. She knew we were celebrating two birthdays on two different days and she made sure the rooms were decorated with balloons, etc. She consistently checked in with me to make sure we were doing OK. She arranged transportation for us and also gave her opinion on things for us to do. Her follow up, communication, empathy, and overall desire to make our stay as enjoyable as possible was superior to anything else we had experienced at the Wyndham and quite honestly at any other resort I have ever been to. If I was still in the hotel industry, I would steal her to come and work for me!😀 ENTERTAINMENT- there is none!!! It’s absolutely awful compared to other Caribbean resorts I have visited. There is a temporary looking stage out past one of the pools (almost an eye sore), but they did not utilize it. Any of the entertainment that happened was down by the buffet restaurant and only lasted till about 9:15 or 9:30. After that, there was nothing to do. Let’s just say I was able to get caught up on sleep by going to bed early every night! Super super super boring for nightlife so do not go to this place if you are expecting to be able to do some thing after you finish dinner. I had my kids (16,18,20) with me and they were dreadfully bored. Not to mention not other individuals their age at the property either. They did have karaoke in a room one evening after dinner, there was very minimal people there and it was more the staff just getting a kick out of themselves singing. Again, the ambience was not desirable, they should be utilizing their outdoor space more. I don’t know the name of the female who does the steel drum but she did do that one evening and it was very good and she’s also very sweet, so she was worth mentioning. Again, lots of potential, but they do not deliver in regards to keeping their guests entertained. Same for during the daytime, they play loud music out at the main pool which was almost like a techno and is not at all tropical or relaxing- again very weird. STAFF - overall we felt like the staff was rude. It was as if we had been pegged from the beginning as not being likable due to my parents needing to change rooms so many times and me complaining about the terrible ambience with the awkward silence etc. I will note that this is slow season so I am sure they were exhausted from peak season and just didn’t feel like dealing with anybody, but the bottom line is you are in the service industry and no matter what you think of a guest or how you feel, or what personal issues you have, you need to smile and be pleasant, no matter what. A guest should never feel unwelcome or like an inconvenience. We felt like that the majority of the time. At the Castle view restaurant the first time we went, we had a horrible experience. I have never experienced such rudeness at a nice restaurant. However, we returned two nights later for a different birthday dinner and Julissa was our server. She is hands-down one of the best servers I have ever had. Anywhere. Ever. She completely changed our view of the restaurant and made the experience fantastic! There is currently not a general manager on property. I’m not sure of the reason for his departure, but from what I understand they are still looking for somebody to come in replacement. It was very obvious that these employees need some additional management and training if they want to work at a “high end resort”. I just returned from a resort in Jamaica, 2 1/2 weeks ago and the demeanor, attitude, and overall politeness of the employees at the resort in Jamaica vs the employees of the Wyndham grand are night and day. I think due to slow season a lot of locals had staycations at this property. The employees are super nice to those locals. Hugging them, smiling chatting with them… We were like the black sheep. Very disappointing and disheartening. If we ask them for some thing, they will roll their eyes at us. If I said thank you very much, they just walk away. Tipping didn’t help either. We started out tipping every person who gave a drink or at breakfast/lunch/dinner… doesn’t matter. Still rude. We stopped tipping altogether unless they were actually nice. (Nobody else tipped either we looked at all the tables around us at every meal). LOCATION - we knew what we were getting into with the location. It is on the east side of the island… All of the fun restaurants and activity is on the west side of the island which is about 35-45 min drive (rent a car bc taxis are very expensive). The west side is calm and you can go in the ocean. The east side is very rough and beautiful but unless you’re a surfer you probably don’t want to get in the water! If you want to just hang out and relax at the resort, then you will be fine. We thought we wanted to do that until we arrived and found out there’s absolutely nothing to do at the resort - unfriendly staff, and no entertainment, no activities, no swim up bar, and a sketchy beach that they don’t recommend you go on (back when it was a Marriott property they had nice cabanas, servers, a bar, etc. and the beach was wonderful). So it was quite boring. All in all, it is our fault that we didn’t have a great trip. Our travel agent advised us against staying here and said that this property would not meet our standards, but we decided to go anyway because we wanted to stay by Sam Lards Castle. For the time being, I would not recommend this property to anybody unless you get a steal of a deal and want to just sit at a typical pool. Read less

This has been a great stay. Stayed June 27-July 4th. We were here during a level 4 hurricane. This has been the worst hurricane ever. We were all ok. But hats off to the hotel staff. Above and beyond making sure the guest were safe, food to stock up on and drinks were of abundance. We felt so safe. Besides the hurricane. All the amenities the gym, the kids club, nightly activities were all ran seemless. Round of applause to the kids club all the staff there so caring and gave a full run down of what each child did and ate on pick up. They had one of the world championship Cricket teams staying here which created a lot of excitement. They had free shuttles to Oinstins Fish Fry on Friday night. A free shuttle to Carlisle Bay on weds a day at the beach, snorkel a ship wreck and swim with turtles. Overall great getaway with family and friends. Read less

The rooms and grounds are beautiful. Staff very mediocre. Ongoing construction. Only one true restaurant and one buffet restaurant. Both good. Spa incomplete but received a quality massage. Four stars for the masseuse, Natara. Awakened at 6 AM on TWO of four mornings. Complained and was promised call by management. Never happened. Upon second complaint, still no call and had to get pushy. They refunded 5% of the total cost. Insufficient in my opinion, and when I gave feedback to Wyndham, no response whatsoever. Shameful! Read less

I stayed here from 11-16th June as the second part of my honeymoon. Needless to say some of these reviews I had seen horrified me and I was incredibly anxious about staying here, so much so we asked our travel agent for alternative options (even though we had already paid everything). I wanted to write this review to give those that may be experiencing the same kind of dread that I did. I'm not saying the reviews below didn't happen, but it does seem that Wyndham have pulled their finger out and have massively improved. On arrival, we were greeted, offered a welcome beverage (alcoholic or non) our bags were taken and we were ushered into reception. We were checked in within 5 minutes and walked to our room. Our bags beat us there. We were also given an entertainment schedule that covered everything happening over the week and where it was taking place. We were lucky enough to have on ocean view and it was breath taking - the whole room was stunning and I believe all rooms have a near identical kind of set up. During the stay, every single member of staff couldn't have been more polite. They were attentive, they were friendly and up for some fun and chat but similarly if you didn't want to talk, they left you to it. The food, I'm not sure about those that say there isn't a lot of variety in the mediterean market (the main buffet). There is a pizza oven on one end (this is served all day). I have a deep hate for tomato and the chef kindly made me a pizza to accommodate my taste, no push back, no questions asked. On the other end there is a grill - every day they were grilling something different, there is also a pasta station here. In the middle there is a salad bar and fruit bar that was always well stocked (this arguably is the only thing that was the same breakfast, lunch and dinner). There is then a different soup on every day which is help yourself, and then there was other buffet style hot foods and a sushi bar. The grill side in the mornings did fresh eggs - however you wanted them, including omelettes. There was also always different options on proteins and the sauces/spices they were cooked in. some days there were no chips on offer because they had other carbs available, but if you really wanted some chips that day you just had to ask and they were done for you - again no push back. The fine dining restuarant is a must, and its very easy to book once you have arrived but you must book beforehand. I don't know if it was because it was part of our honeymoon booking but the venue had already booked us a slot on our behalf before we had arrived. We actually ended up going twice! There is naturally still work going on but we didn't find this disruptive. One of the pools was having an incredible light feature installed at the time so that pool was out of action, but there were still 2 other large pools to use. One pool is where the entertainment happens (where the grill is - somewhere you can get snacks all day long). The other side of the hotel is quite and when we were there was barely used, so when we had had enough of the music, we went round that side for some peace. The only real issue there is with this side is there is no bar and no toilets close by. But this is only true for this pool. This hotel is really on the up, there is space on the map marked out for 'retail' but its not ready yet. It will come, it is still a work in progress but by no means is any of that a reason to not go to this hotel. The only reason I haven't given this 5 star is because I felt the entertainment was lacking. This could be due to a number of factors - in the day most guests weren't participating in things like aqua fit, bingo etc so they didnt really happen or if they did it was half measure. Not necessarily the staffs fault but maybe they could be abit more oomph in trying to get guests to participate. Similarly the evening, the live music changes every night and is GREAT, but it happens where the outside dinner tables are, so if you have already had your dinner, there isn't really any other entertainment going on elsewhere so you kind of just hang around the restaurant. I'm not sure what the solution is but this was something that felt is was lacking. finally my biggest bug bear of all is the plastic waste. Yes it is encouraged to drink bottled water but every single option outside of the restaurant is small plastic bottles. Install some water coolers!!! Read less