Sandals La Toc Review

My husband and I recently returned from seven days in paradise.  We relaxed in absolute bliss at Sandals La Toc in St. Lucia.  This post is going to be a review but I will have one or two follow up posts with additional observations about our trip.

The Resort:
Gorgeous. I’m not sure how else to explain it.  We stayed in the Honeymoon Hideaway Butler Suites.  I was a little disappointed in our view (palm trees to privatize the balcony and the front of the building below us) but I got over it really quickly.  The room was gorgeous, modern, and spotless.  We had a private pool. I thought it would be tiny and useless, but it was approximately 8X12 and 5’6″ deep, so it turned out to be pretty awesome.  We used it every day!

Very comfy bed (but awful pillows)

Lounge Area

Fully stocked bar

Sitting Area

The resort is HUGE but in July it’s not busy at all.  My favorite area is up on the bluff near Armando’s restaurant where the view is spectacular.  There is a quieter pool up there with a swim-up bar. It can be hard to get chairs, but if you have a butler s/he can get them reserved pretty easily.

See? You can’t beat this view!

My husband and I would take walks from one end of the property to the other; they made for great leg workouts because it’s very hilly.  The main lobby and Pavilion eating area was really nice.  It’s surrounded by the “Party Pool” (our name for it).  It’s really large and a lot of people hang out there.  We prefer the quieter Armando’s pool, personally.

We spent most of our time at the beach (in front of the cabanas is the quietest spot) and it was absolutely gorgeous.  The view can’t be beat.  They have little tent-like things you can put your chair under and your butler will stock a cooler and put it at your chairs.  Perfection!

The view from our beach chairs.

We went to the Grande one day to eat at Gordon’s on the Pier.  We had a nice afternoon there but were glad we were staying at La Toc.  The Grande is beautiful but a lot more compact.  It’s a flat stretch of the beach (reminiscent of Negril) and it seemed a lot busier.  There were TONS of people at the main pool and had a party time feel to it.  The patios and main lobby are really nice.  Like really, really nice.  We also noticed that the staff there was really friendly.

Food:

Armando’s- We ate here for lunch and breakfast.  The lunch was fine and the view was perfection.  We ate breakfast here FOUR TIMES! (Can you tell we liked it?)  We would walk from our room all the way up there (probably farthest distance you can walk) and settle in for a leisurely breakfast with a view like the one above.  Casey ate omelettes every time and I ate the frittata with potatoes, zucchini, and peppers every. time.  It was de-freaking-licious.  On our last day, which was our anniversary, we had Armando’s breakfast at the lookout where one of our butlers, Titus, set up a beautiful breakfast with a special butler-made bouquet, white linens, balloons; it was awesome.

Gordon’s- The food at Gordon’s was well worth the trip over to the Grande.  We had a four course meal featuring appetizers, salad, (palate cleanser), the entree (I had beef tenderloin and Casey had a beef chop), and dessert.  It was all delicious.  And the view was spectacular.  It’s at the end of a pier and we were seated right near the water so we could watch the fish and enjoy the view (until it got dark).

Service & Staff:

We had butlers (I feel stupid saying that) and they were fantastic!  Titus and Laban went above and beyond to do what we needed/wanted.  When we arrived, all of our dinner reservations were already made.  This was excellent because we got into some of the restaurants that are harder to get into (Gordon’s, for example).  We didn’t pack very well (BRING DRESS PANTS AND CLOSED SHOES FOR MEN!!!) so we checked in the Duty Free store.  The only pants they had were ginormous but Laban, the saint that he is, brought pants for Casey to wear! That’s definitely going above and beyond.  Titus thanked us at the end of the stay for being so laid back and easy going (which I’m sure is different than a lot of the demanding couples they deal with).  All in all, they were worth it and we enjoyed their company. 🙂

I had a spa treatment done by Valerie.  She was friendly, professional, and really good at her job.  I enjoyed the entire experience immensely.

Overall the staff was really helpful.  We found that they weren’t as outgoingly (not a word, I know) friendly as those in Jamaica.  For example, in Negril everyone was really outgoing from the maintenance men to the managers.  At La Toc, we found that people responded to us when we greeted them, but they were not as forthright with the greeting.  We didn’t find them unfriendly, we were just interested in the difference.


Complaints:
I don’t think we have any!  Can you believe it?  We truly loved our vacation.

We enjoyed our trip so much, as a matter of fact, that we visited the Soon Come Back desk and booked another trip!  We’ll be headed back to Jamaica to visit Grand Riviera in November of 2015! Yay!!