Sandals and Me

*cues Pitbull's "Time of our lives"* Hey Rocstars! i am back with a brand new post. If you are following me on instagram you would have seen me posting pictures of my stay at Sandals Resort in Ochi Rios. I have recently been appointed the role of Public Relations Officer for the Tourism Society at my college and one of my first call to duty was the annual Leap Retreat curated by Sandals Resort. The Executive Members of the Tourism Action Clubs and Tourism Society at NCU, UTECH and UWI, respectively, met at Sandals Ochi Beach to chart the way forward for their organisations and share ideas and discussions with Sandals Executives and various Youth Leaders.

Sandals Resort offers the most beautiful scenery, service and meals (especially the meals lol) Sandals gave everyone on the retreat their own room and with that room came a beautiful pool, a fully stocked fridge :) and our own personal butler, listen! i could never afford all this so you know for sure i milked every single second of my stay. Every single person that works at Sandals Resort Ochi Rios were extremely professional and very much inlove with their job. I found that so refershing! The fact that they genuinely love what they do. Sandals is a really special place. I got so inspired there in more ways than one and i am not even a tourism major. After the seminars and workshops and the conversations with people who work there i left that resort with so much passion and love for the art and business of tourism. Who would have imagined, me, Neko Kelly, falling in love with tourism.

The resort has three properties which are all in close proximity to each other so i spend most of my time going back and forth to each one. It was'nt all work and no play. I checked off a few stuff of my bucketlist while i was there and Rock climbling was one of them. And oh! i also witnessed a wedding taking place on the beach front. I have never been to a wedding before so i guess that i can now say that i have been to a wedding (univited lol). I even got turnt on a yacht in the middle of the ocean and best believe i dance my life away with my friends. Sandals offers activities and entertainment that you would have to see to believe. I barely scratched the surface of all that was there to enjoy but next time i am sure i will experience everything.

One of the main things i hate most about myself is the fact that i procrastinate a lot, especially when it comes to packing. I started packing the morning of the retreat and i had to be rushing so i just threw in whatever and did'nt care. I thought that as long as i brought enough underwear i will be alright lol. I did not even planned on making a blog post about my stay so having the perfect outfits was not something i payed attention to. When i got to the resort i realized all that was there and all the places and functions i have to attend i started to regret just throwing stuff into my bags, but all was not lost. Being the style whore i am i sorted out my pieces and i made them work and i was able to give a few little resort fashion moments here and there, especially at dinner.

Top: DKNY

Pants: H&M

Shoes: TopShop

Top: H&M

Pants: H&M

Shoes: TopShop

Watch: Lipsy

Top: H&M

Pants: H&M

Top: Zara

Pants: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Thrifted

Glasses: Betsey Johnson

Besides from the fact that i need to start putting more consideration and time into packing my bags, my experince at Sandals Resort Ochi Rios has taught me a whole lot. it opened my eyes to a bigger world of tourism and the people who work there sent me off with a great deal of inspiration and knowlwdge. I have learnt so much from the youth leaders and Sandals execs who all presented at the workshops and also hanged with us until we left. Sandals is much more than a resort. It is one big family. From the outside it seems as if their prestige and popularity is heavily powered by the money from the thousands of tourists that visits them each year but after visiting there it is safe to say that this resort is entirely powered by love. Genuine love. Love for what they do and love for everyone who enters onto the property. They make sure you leave feeling as if you just visited heaven. They make sure your experience with them is one to brag about to your friends when you go back home and this is why they are one of the most popular and loved resorts in the entire world.

Have a great week Rocstars!

P.s Thank you for the 10k followers on instagram