Sandals/Beaches vs. RIU

Please forgive me if I am violating any rules or asking a repeat question.

But for the ladies who have decided to go with RIU instead of sandals/beaches what did you base your decision on?

Also, the ladies that decided to go with Sandals/Beaches instead of RIU what did you base your decision on?

Again I'm sorry if I'm violating.

you aren't violating anything..

for me the deciding factor was my 12 year old sister. she was too young for sandals but she is old enough that i felt we didn't need to do such a family oriented resort as beaches. so.. we landed on the riu.

I picked RIU b/c my parents are divorced and I felt they would be uncomfortable at a "couples" resort. We also wanted a more upbeat exciting resort. Not quiet?? If that makes sense. The RIU was new and I heard such good things about it. I felt Sandals was too small and quiet for what we wanted. And our siblings have kids and were thinking of coming. They ended up not coming but if they had they would of been fine with the RIU.

My reasons were pretty similar to above... my younger siblings are coming and at the time of my wedding my brother will be underage so adult and couples only resorts were out. Plus looking at different photos and reviews of the resorts... the Riu seems to offer the young adult "vibe" we are looking for.

Also, the Riu fit into our and our guests budget a little better. We are still in college as are a good portion of our guests... when we compared prices Riu fit the needs of our guets and let us extend the length of our trip for what we would paid at one of the others for the week.

Thank you. We plan on taking our son he's only 7 months now.

I agree with what's been said above. 2 of my nephews are coming (2 and 8 yrs. old), so I couldn't do Sandals. I looked at Beaches Boscobel and loved it, but ultimately decided to go with the RIU because it had more of what I wanted - a very large resort (with 80+ people coming I wanted to give people room to spread out and not see each constantly if they didn't want), 24 hours all- inclusive (a lot of late night drinkers coming!) and I heard great reviews and loved the look of it.

I'm getting married at the RIU. I wanted a family resort, so family members could bring the babies and kids :-).

Price was also a big factor for me. The RIU (at least when I was researching) had lower prices than the beaches resort (to me Sandals/Beaches tended to be a bit high). Plus RIU was one of the newer resorts!

Hi our wedding will be at Beaches for various reason. First I was in love with Rose Hall in MoBay but so many families wanted to bring children so I had to look around. So ultimately Beaches offered name recognition that was really important. The majority of my family has never left the country and the more I talked about other resorts the more worried everyone became. So Beaches has commericals on everyday and its located near other notable activities for those that want to party off the resort site.

I hope no one minds me jumping in here !

Each Sandals & Beaches properties are slightly different from each other and there are differences from Riu Ocho Rios to keep the thread from getting too long I'll focus on the family properties Beaches Boscabel & ROR!

Riu is a larger (846 rooms), new, moderate resort- family oriented with a children's program that provides activities for kids 4-12 years old. There is a party vibe here, great beach and the rooms are fairly spacious. Prices fairly good. In room mini bar & liquor dispenser. Includes sailing, windsurfing, kayaking & snorkeling for non motorized wattersports.

Quirks- need to wear a wristband, keep towel cards, make reservations for dinner that night early in the morning ( may not get the restauraunt you want). Food is good but not gourmet (you won't go hungry though!). King beds are actually two beds pushed together. pretty sure they water down the alcohol.

Beaches- Boscabel. Mid sized property (223 rooms). This property will cost more but overall it delivers a lot more also! Property has a family vibe but delivers a really good time for the twenty-something crowd.

Childrens programs are broken up into age appropriate with certified nannies-Camp Sesame ages 2-5; Pirates & Mermaids 6-7; Survivors 8-12; the Teen Scene 13+ ( this group is the hardest to keep happy and Beaches has organized activites like karaoke, beach xtreme games, bonfire parties, teen only clubs, theme parties ect)There are also the Sesame St. characters, XBOX game oasis, waterpark and kids Golf clinics. These activirties are not limited to just the kids-ok well maybe the baking cookies with Zoey but you get my drift!

The food quality ranges from snacks to adult only gourmet dining. Food quality ranges from pretty good to incredible. No reservations needed except for the adult fine dining. Pretty sure they do not waterdown the alcohol ( not that I know from any personal experience that I am willing to admit LOL!)

Have rooms that can accomodate up to 5 people.

As far as water sports there is scuba diving ( not just a class - if you are PADI certified your dives are included), snorkeling, sailing, glass bottom boats, hobie cats, kayaking, windsurfing, Aquatrikes. Outside of watersports there is golf ( caddies are mandatory in Jamaica and cost extra).

No towel cards.

All gratuities are already added in ( this can really add up at Riu!).

Quirks- older property, only upper category rooms have minibar. The beach here is smaller than the Riu but perfect for the size of this property. The rooms are older and may need some sprucing up ( although Beaches & Sandals is undergoing an overhaul to all of the properties.)

A few factors to consider-

If your guest are price sensitive (just graduating or recently got married, whatever..) or are only going for a couple of days then all of the extras that are included at Beaches will go to waste and I'd recommend the Riu.

BUT if they are going longer, you want to have a late night reception (and need sitters for the kids) or have kids that are usually high maintanence and need to be entertained (or some of the grown ups for that matter hee hee!) I'd recommend Beaches!

Hope that helped some!

TA Jennifer

I chose RIU b/c I have 2 friends that did destination weddings in 2006. One went to RIU Negril and is still raving about what a fabulous time she had and that the wedding day was totally stress free. The other went to Couples and came back with only 4 pictures from her wedding b/c the photography was so expensive and had very few guests b/c no kids were allowed and the trip was quite pricey.

But honestly i think its hard to go wrong in paradise!