Sugar Bay Barbados - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

2475 reviews

• 

  Many good points but areas for improvement too

  Overall, we had a good time at Sugar Bay, and there are definitely folks who are over the moon about this property, but we saw a number of areas it could have been better. As a result we won’t be returning. First the good parts. The property is very pretty and we enjoyed the fact that the breakwater meant we could go in the water regardless of the roughness of the broader water. Our room was private and exceptionally clean. We had a garden view property, which I was very glad of as the oceanfront rooms are right in the middle of everything, meaning if you are on the first floor and on your patio you have people walking by on the sidewalk right in front of you. Everything was in good working order, though we could only get 1 hand towel and no washcloths. They did an excellent job varying the buffet so although it wasn’t huge, there was always a good variety and different food each day. The food was very good. The serving staff were all excellent; Kay particularly stood out. The 2 specialty restaurants were very good. The drinks at the bar were excellent. They don’t have mudslides on the menu, but I highly recommend them. The other guests were all pleasant. No one was obnoxious or loud. The nightly sunsets were gorgeous. One place they can improve is the front desk staff. Everyone was either neutral or curt. As first timers, it would really have helped to be given an overview when we checked in, but we were told nothing, causing me to return to the desk numerous times with questions. Examples include how do we get pool towels (on follow-up they gave us cards to get them), where do I make reservations for the specialty restaurants, what are the hours of the buffet, and can we get some drinks in our room (answer yes)? I would not have known to ask for the drinks if it weren’t for the Sugar Bay Facebook group, which I definitely recommend joining before you go. The nightly entertainment is a major area for improvement. There is no posting of the entertainment, so you don’t know if you are interested or not. The entertainment is so loud, I could hear it in my room (which was about as far away as you can be) with earplugs in (it went past when we go to sleep). However, the worst was our last night when we purposefully had chosen to eat at Umi as a special dinner overlooking the water. The entertainers went to the stage which was right in front of where we were sitting, plugged in music and jacked up the volume, and then sat down and scrolled on their phones. The music turned our romantic dinner into one where first we were having to scream at each other and the server to be heard, and then we gave up talking and hurried our meal so we could get out of there. It completely ruined the night and left a very poor impression. If you join the Sugar Bay Facebook group, you will see that the competition for chairs is a major topic of discussion. We were there in high season, and I believe pool chairs were usually gone by about 8 or so because people would reserve them with their towels. When the staff would try to do something, people complained bitterly. We like to sit on the beach, but while you could get chairs at any time, you needed to be there early to request an umbrella before they ran out, usually 9/9:30. And you really need an umbrella, even if you want to tan, because it gets quite hot. This removed the ability to enjoy a relaxing morning in bed because we felt we needed to rush so we could get out and get an umbrella. So in summary, while Sugar Bay has a number of positive points and excellent staff, they also have some definite opportunities for improvement.

  Jan 02, 2026
• 

  Kid friendly, all-inclusive, and fairly modern resort!

  Returned from a 7-night trip at this amazing resort. Will try to keep it short and simple so hopefully it helps fellow travelers. What we like: All-inclusive vacations when traveling to the Caribbean Islands during the most wonderful time of the year away from cold north east weather! What works at Sugar Bay: Amazing staff, great location, fantastic beach which is very very kid friendly, and an excellent bar setup. What about rooms?: Look, for the price we paid during prime season, the rooms felt slightly lower than our expectation. If you want to save some money, I'd recommend pool facing rooms. Tip: try requesting for the 3rd floor rooms. 2nd floor rooms just have trees in the way and you don't get that amazing beach sound which the Ocean Front facing rooms do offer. Everything was functional though, and the rooms are sufficiently furnished with a fairly powerful AC unit and plenty of wardrobe shelves. What about food?: They have two wonderful restaurants - The Reef and Colin's which served excellent buffet food and A la Carte respectively. Colin's was our favorite all throughout. Buffet had fairly limited options, but Barbados is also expensive food wise. Good meat selection for every meal, vegetarians sadly had very very limited options (primarily rice and peas/beans, and grilled veggies for lunch or pasta for dinner). What about drinks?: Their beach bar is where the life of the resort is. Helen, Andre, Joan, Dominick, and a few others that I might have missed is what keeps the party alive from 8 am through 11 pm every day! Drinks available at their rather secluded Irish Pub until 1 am ensure alcohol flow throughout the day (and night). The Irish Pub and Game room can use improvements and did not really feel inviting. What you might find missing: I read a few reviews which said they missed "eating on the beach" or beach service for drinks (which starts a later in the day). That's just not the resorts style or our style! This ensured the beach also remained very clean throughout. And how lazy can one be to walk 20 steps to get a drink from the bar! Any Advice/tips?: Ask for 3rd floor rooms if you can and especially if you chose the pool/garden facing rooms. Tip the water-sports/umbrella guys as well as bar tenders! Specific shout-outs to Tremence, Antonio, Javan, Chloe, Kishon, Mya, Nikki, Carissa, and Kay for always putting on a smile when they saw us throughout our stay. Overall, a very relaxing and happy vacation. Definitely on the expensive end as compared to other Caribbean Islands we've been to, and with some slight improvements, has a potential to be a perfect 5.

  Jan 01, 2026
• 

  Fantastic place!!

  Me and my wife visited early December and neither of us have a single bad word to say about it! We are not the type of people to go to the same place twice however this place has potentially changed us. Justin, akeel and Joan (I think) were the best members of staff by far, the latter making the most incredible cocktails. Beach was beautiful and cool floaties in the sea to relax on. Food was small to suit the size of the hotel but honestly it was top class 90% of the time and both of us are relatively fussy. I wouldn’t particularly say it’s a great place for kids as there is only one pool however there were quite a lot there during our stay and they were all loving it. Genuinely, anyone that writes a poor review on this place are to be totally ignored! Yes they’re entitled to their opinion but I’d strongly suggest that they’re the issue, not the hotel

  Dec 29, 2025
• 

  Beautiful setting, friendly staff, a great holiday

  Just back from a 10 day stay over Christmas, ages ranging from 10-74. We stayed in an oceanfront family room. Positives: -the view from our balcony was amazing! -watersport, restaurant, bar staff and cleaning staff really friendly and helpful (special thanks to the crew working at Umi on Christmas Eve for sorting out a special meal for my fussy 10 year old, and at Colin’s for giving us big takeaway cups of ice cream every afternoon) -pool was refreshing for a dip or a drink at the swim up bar, and just the right size for kids to splash about in -cups and rubbish were collected around the beach and pool all day, so no gross leftovers to attract bugs -feels like a small community rather than a hotel -manager is available during his cocktail hour if you want anything addressed -always able to get a spot on the beach and the watersport guys found us umbrellas and tables -sea is beautiful and clear -some of the singers in the evening were really fun and entertaining -Christmas day was great and schedules for the week were given out in advance so you didn’t miss anything (including Santa arriving in a special way from the sea and giving good quality presents to all the kids) -delicious cocktails! The daiquiris and mudslides were my favs -it’s kid-friendly without it being dominated by kids Areas for improvement: -our sofa bed had the saggiest mattress I’ve ever seen! After muddling through a few nights on it, we spoke to reception who sent up 2 single rollaway beds very quickly. These were perfectly comfortable, but did take up most of the lounge area in our room -concierge service let us down badly, took up a lot of time trying to get a single trip organised and took no accountability when it went wrong. The people on duty literally looked at me and said your option is to go or cancel, without so much as an apology for it taking nearly 3 days to book and not actually getting us the trip we had asked for -the beach is covered in debris from the palm trees and coral from the sea. It’s quite painful if you accidentally step on these things and we all got small cuts on our feet. Aqua shoes or sandals definitely recommended. -it’s great that the buffet restaurant has a kids menu, but it was so slow to come that the adults were usually finishing when the kids food arrived. Having a simple pasta and sauce station (plus kid friendly veggies like carrot and cucumber sticks) in the buffet at lunch and dinner for the kids would be really helpful Overall I would have no problem recommending Sugar Bay.

  Dec 29, 2025
• 

  Some positives but sadly more negatives.

  As almost all reviewers say the staff, with the exception of the Spa staff were very friendly & welcoming. The Spa staff gave the impression they were not interested in arranging the massage which was included in the package we booked. The setting of the hotel right on the beach with access to safe bathing & snorkelling is excellent. There was the usual sun lounger reserving in place on the beach & around the pool which is always disappointing to see. However, it didn’t bother us too much as were hired a car for our stay so were not around during the day. We were impressed when we entered our Deluxe Signature room as it was very spacious with a sitting area & balcony with a good view overlooking the outside dining & bar area, then the beach. It was a shame it lacked basic amenities like slippers & a shower cap as expected in 4 star hotels. I noticed when looking at the website on arriving home there should have been a coffee maker in the room, which there wasn’t. There was black mould in the shower & around the hand washbasin which was separate from the shower & toilet. There was a mosaic tile missing from the low step into the shower. We thought the food in The Reef was generally good especially the hot food from the lidded Bain Maries.But we were concerned about the lack of covers on other foods such as salads, fresh fruit, desserts, pastries & cakes as there were many flies around. Also, the lack of hand cleaning facilities on entering the dining areas was a concern. We were surprised about that. Similarly there were no facilities for hand cleaning when exiting the toilets in the public area near the reception. Worse than that, no hand drying facility in the ladies toilets apart from a box of tissues by each hand washbasin. There were pigeons flying around the Reef dining area, landing on tables where people were about to sit. Glasses were knocked off the table & broken as they landed on the ground, pigeon poo was on the white table cloths where afternoon tea was served. Eggs were cooked to order in The Reef and the omelette was very good except on the last day when it was burnt. I wanted a plain bread roll with my omelette so requested this as there were none on display. A kind member of staff said these were normally available at lunch time but she would see what she could do for me. After a wait, which was to be expected she brought me three freshly baked warm bread rolls. That was excellent service but sadly my request the following day was not met with the same response. ‘That’s a special order and you have to request it 24 hours ahead’ was the response I got. Explaining that I got some the day before didn’t help but I was asked if I wanted to order for the following day which I did. Inconsistencies in service like this should not happen. How can a plain bread roll with breakfast be considered a special order? We were entitled to use one speciality restaurant during our stay so chose the steak one. I can’t eat anything with sugar in it so asked if I could have two starters & a main course as there was no sugar free dessert on the menu. This was not possible! So I had a starter & a main course. The food was fine. Most tables had a green leafed plant in a pot, though ours didn’t. I touched one at the next table when it was empty and found it was plastic. I find it hard to understand why some of the beautiful tropical plants in the grounds of the hotel are not used on the tables. The glassware was thick & cheap looking, not what would be expected in a specialty setting. Coffee or tea was not offered after lunch or dinner so we used a machine which had a supply of paper cups next to it. Frequently this machine was not working as it needed replenishing or was in cleaning mode. Was it too much to expect to be served with coffee or tea served in a cup with a saucer following a meal? One time when the machine was not working after dinner I asked a member of staff for assistance & was told to take a paper cup to the bar where it would be filled for me! .On the first evening after dinner we were enjoying the entertainment but had to move as the people on the table behind us were swearing loudly. I know Sugar Bay management cannot be responsible for the behaviour of guests but it was very off putting. Needless to say we won’t be returning to Sugar Bay. It was booked for us by SixStar cruises as a package with a Regent Seven Seas cruise. The two are not compatible! This was our first experience of an all inclusive hotel & will be our last. However, to end on a positive note we enjoyed sightseeing in Barbados very much & plan to return as there are still places we want to visit. We will be looking for self catering accommodation on the West coast.

  Dec 28, 2025