I am going to start this review by quoting myself on my last review which was of Couples Negril.

"I must start this review by saying Jamaica is not for everyone, nor is Couples, but for my husband and I it is paradise found, and as much as I do not like returning to the same place again and again, the country and the resort have a pull for us I find difficult to describe.

Jamaica is a beautiful island, extremly lush, everything and anything seem to grow wild here. As beautiful as the island is there is much poverty. There are many vendors on the beaches selling a variety of things, including drugs, a simple no thank you will suffice, realize this is the way many of these people make their living, respect that and them, and all will be fine. One of the things about the people of Jamaica that I envy is that material things are not important to them. The Jamaican people do not have much in the way of material things, but they could teach us here in the U.S. a thing or two about the things in life that really are important. Maybe this is a part of the draw that keeps me wanting to return there. It reminds me when I visit of those things we tend to take for granted and in our frantic lives we tend to forget until sometimes it is too late. The Jamaican's live it everyday."

Hence our third trip to Jamaica and our third trip to a Couples Resort, but this time to Couples Sans Souci! After two trips to Couples Negril, my expectations were very high of this resort.

Couples resorts are a smaller chain, right now exclusive to JA, and not at all the "big mega resort" Couples are known to be more of a "boutique" type resort. You will not see the glitz of marble and the true 5 star rooms you may see in Mexico or other places, a true Caribbean flare and feel is what you will see, This resort is small only 150'ish rooms. We were at this resort when it was at full capacity and you would never have known it.

This resort has a Wow factor! You are greeted at Couples with a glass of Champagne and a cool towel and escorted to your room where your bellman will give you a brief tour of the room and show you how to use the thermostats etc. From the minute you enter the lobby you are saying Wow!

We were thrilled with our room, we booked a One Bedroom Oceanview with Balcony. Our room was located in G block at the very top! Sans Souci is built into a cliff, therefore there are many many steps, so if that is an issue for you then you may not want to book this hotel! The rooms have recently been refurbished and are decorated in blues and whites. The bedroom in our category was separate we got lucky and had a huge bathroom with two sinks and a very large shower. Others in our group in the same category had a normal sized bathroom, and were in bathroom envy! Our living room area had a mini bar, refrigerator stocked with soft drinks, juices, water and beer. Wine and Champagne were only a phone call away. Our view was over the ocean to the right and the mineral pool to the left. The balconies are quite large, they have either a two person chaise, or two chaise lounge chairs and a table and chairs. Very nice to sit with coffee in the morning or wine in the evening.

Room service is available for Continental breakfast, lunch and full dinner. This was very nice as only Continental breakfast is offered at Couples Negril. The Filet Minon for dinner was excellent! We also tried various appetizers to tide us over until dinner. All were quite good.

It always amazes me when I read reviews about food at Couples. The food at the two I have stayed at has been incredible! It is a wonderful opportunity to try things you may not try otherwise because quite simply if you do not like it, you order something else or go someplace else or go to your room and order room service.. The presentation of the food at this resort was 5 star all the way! We ate at Cassanova twice, and Pallazina once for dinner. We had the Repeaters dinner one night and did Room Service for dinner as well. The Beach Party and Starlight Gala are the buffet nights, but again if you are not into buffets, go to your room and order Room Service. This is not a resort where you are limited to the ala carte restaurants by the number of nights you stay. We ran out of time and never ate at Bella Vista for dinner. I have no complaints about food here at all, only rants and raves, and I don't think I ever took so many "food pictures" anywhere, again because of the beautiful presentation. There are 40 chef's at this resort and they do a wonderful job!

The staff.

Another Wow! I will admit I am an avid follower of Tripadvisor and this site has helped me plan many a trip. I realize you can only take opinions as just that opinions, but you tend to go with the majority of reviews and trust in that. I personally have found that to be very true.

Well the staff here is outstanding! When you take into account this is a non tipping resort (although you will see people tipping)
and you realize how little the Jamaican's make. It amazes me to see so many of them really enjoying their jobs so much, and going so out of their way to make your stay enjoyable. Will you see an occasional unhappy person yes, but again you must go with the majority, and that majority amazed me all week.

We had 3 days of pretty solid rain in fact there was flooding in Ocho Rios which from what we were told was pretty bad. In spite of that, the staff went out of their way to make sure the guests were having fun. We were sitting in the rain under a palapa and Simone aka "Fluffy" comes walking over to play Dirty Minds with us, that turned into some dancing lessons, some cultural information, the water sports guys were close to where we were sitting and since the red flags were out to shut down watersports they came over and joined in our fun and what turned out to be an around nice afternoon minus any sun!

We had scheduled an "included" trip to Dunns River, but unfortunately because of the weather cancelled it. There are many inclusions at Sans Souci, aside from Dunns River Falls, Water Skiing, Boat Snorkel trips, Golf Greens fee's to name a few.

Friends of ours got married while we were there, and we were very honored to be there for their special day. Well it was pouring that morning! We felt so bad for them. The staff kept telling her that in their country and in their culture it is considered a "blessing" if it rains on your wedding day, well they were blessed twice then that day, because the sun came out long enough for the ceremony. The General Manager was also concerned about the weddings scheduled that day, and we saw him checking the sky and trying to decide which way they were going to go if need be, his presence was felt everywhere throughout our entire stay. The staff were using leaf blowers to clear and try to dry the walkway for her. Now again that made me say Wow! She did not see any of this, but we did!

Can you find little things to complain about? Yes, I'm sure I could if I tried, but instead I choose to look at this resort for what we saw. An absolutely beautiful romantic resort with hidden surprises around every corner, from Mineral Springs which hold Charlie the resident sea turtle who was injured during Hurricane Charlie and was placed in the Springs to recover. Charlie who turned out to be a girl has lived there ever since. There is a healing Mineral Grotto on the grounds as well as a Mineral Pool. The next turn you find a hidden hot tub up in the cliff. Turn around again you will find the Parrot saying hello to you. Beauty and lushness everywhere with beautiful pathways along the way.. Romantic strolling musicians....... Yes surprises everywhere. How can you nitpick here? Let me tell you we found it near impossible.

The Spa.
The Massage huts are built up the cliff, some of them over the ocean. It does not get much better than this in my opinion. We had two massages while there and both of them were among the best I have had. The sound of the ocean crashing below and the wind blowing puts you in a state almost trancelike.

There are two beaches and 4 pools at CSS. The Lobby pool, Mineral pool, Main pool with swimup bar and the pool at Sunset Beach the AuNatural area which becomes clothed at 5 for the sunsets for all to enjoy. The SSB pool has a waterfall, cove and swim up bar. There is also a grill here.

The main beach and Sunset Beach are both private cove beaches.

The steps can cause your calves to burn if you are in the upper buildings like we were, but sometimes you have to pay a price for the views.

We knew when we decided to go to CSS instead of CN this year that there were many steps, we knew we were giving up Negril's beaches........ and we quite frankly were a little nervous. Were we dissapointed? Not at all. Were our expectations exceeded? In a word Wow!

WOW.
This is a late review, but my hubby and I went to Sans Souci jan 4th for one week. Our room first of all was unreal! Our VIEW was straight out of my dreams. We would walk around the resort , or sit out on our huge balcony and go on and on about how amazing and romantic this resort is. The food was great. Service too. We love quiet , romantic, not crowded places and this was it for us. The ONLY complaint, as most people have said, is the beach. If I could take the Negril sand and water and put it with Sans Souci, I would come back there every year . But honestly, we had the most wonderful time there, and will go back ( and we NEVER do places twice, and have been to some VERY nice, expensive places).
Go!!!!

My wife and I had a wonderful vacation at Couples Sans Souci the last week in March 2008. We had been to Couples Ocho Rios in 2003 and 2005. The food and drinks were very good. The staff was nice and had plenty of help. Some people complained about the steps, so if you hate steps… But we did not mind at all, as we needed some exercise because of the amounts we were eating. Room service worked great, we had coffee, fruit and pastries delivered every morning. We especially liked our room. The grounds are tropical and quiet. I would like to think that we would be back soon.

My husband and I landed at Sanger International Airport on April 4, 2008 for a 5 night stay for our anniversary. Got thru customs quickly (make sure your forms are completed BEFORE getting off your plane). We were greeted warmly at the Couples lounge inside the airport. Hubby grabbed a complimentary Red Stripe and off we were to the resort. The drive is about 1 hour and 45 minutes to the resort....beautiful drive. The ocean was just beautiful.

We arrived at the resort and were greeted again warmly by the front desk and shown to our room (beach front jaccuzi suite- A22). Our suite was clean, although the furniture and TV were dated badly (more on this later).

Our first stop was for some lunch at the Bella Vista. Great little lunch & dinner (more on this later also) spot. Although we got "server in training" and she seemed less than happy to be there. Unfortunately, every lunch we ate at the Bella Vista, she was our server. But the food was always great, whether lunch or dinner! So I high recommend this restaurant. We actually ended up eating more than one dinner at this restaurant because every morning I tried to make reservations at the Palazzina or casnova, I was always told it was booked...the only reservations available were 8:30 or 9 pm. Although everytime we walked by those restaurants at our requested time (7 pm), there were always several tables empty. So we ate every dinner at Bella Vista or room service. The breakfast in the Palazzina was adequate. The omlettes were divine! Service...so so.

Now...onto watersports. The watersports staff was awesome! Clayton took my husband and I out on the catamarran and he let us just chill out for a bit. We went snorkleing everyday. Although we found out on our last day that they offer an intertube ride on the back of the power boat...book this early in your trip as it fills up quickly. We missed out because they were booked up.

We did the shopping excursion.....Soni Shopping Plaza. You can skip this.... pushy vendors. Definately avoid the market across the street. The marijuana smell was horrible! We also did the Dunn's River excursion....and had a blast! We are in our 30's and physcially fit. If you are not, you shouldn't climb the falls. There was an older gentleman who had no business climbing these falls. He moaned and groaned the entire climb....and slowed the whole group up. Regardless, we did have fun. Take caution when tipping the guides. We had 2 guides, my husband handed the one "head guide" $10 assuming the guides split the tips....not so. He told my husband not to forget to tip the other guide. Hubby told the "head guide" that he was to split the tip in half....that sent both guides off. Ugh! Regardless, don't be swindled out of your money.

Back to San Souci..... the entertainment was second to none. We saw A.J. Brown perform at the Gala Night. He was soooooo wonderful! He did an Andrea Bocelli song and it was so beautiful I almost cried. The entertainment staff was great also! A big shout out to Kimberlee! She always recognized us and greeted us by name.

In our room....we had a king bed. I think this bed is left over from the 80's. More like a slab of concrete. Every morning our backs and hips hurt. Although other rooms, not in our category have been reburbished. We did speak with a few other couples that had our type of room and they also remarked at the shabby furniture and uncomfortable beds. But Sandy was our housekeeper and she was great!!! Always made sure we had everything we needed. The bathroom was clean and well stocked. Hubby used the jaccuzi tub once and said it worked well.

On our last day, we had $60 stolen out of our room. Actually out of my wallet, money that was put aside in a hidden spot in my wallet for our return parking. We suspected a "rouge housekeeper" who upon our return to our room at 4 pm stated she was replacing some towels. We left it at that, but then about 45 minutes later discovered the money missing. We added up that there were no fresh towels in our bathroom as we were told, there was no housekeeping cart outside our room to indicate a housekeeper inside and she made a quick exit when we came back in the room. The whole incident just put us in a sour mood. The manager came to our room, then sent security....but we never were followed up with. End of story so to speak.

Overall, Couples San Souci was a beautiful resort. Well maintained, charming and very private....best for honeymooners, anniversary celebrations and couples wishing to reconnect. This is not a party resort in anyway....mind you, you will enjoy yourself if you are looking for a relaxing vacation. Will I return....probably not. Too many other places in the Caribbean I think I would rather check out.

Pros: ground maintenance, Bella Vista, free excursions, food, watersports & entertainment staff

Cons: beds, furniture, restaurants requiring reservations, servers in training (smile some more!), theft

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING STAFF: Kimberlee in Entertainment; Sandy in Housekeeping; Maureen & Fabian at the Bella Vista; Easton at the Pool Bar; Adrian in the Bella Vista kitchen; the ENTIRE Watersports staff! Thanks...YOU made our vacation great!