Iberostar Selection Rose Hall Suites: Back Again To Iberstar Suites

We have been to many resorts and islands, yet we have never been back to the same place twice, until now. I had my friend Eric Mclean from Eric’s Chillout Tours (876-790-3154) pick us up at the airport and bring us to our resort. When I go to Jamaica I always call Eric in advance for our airport pickup, he also gives me the price when I call. Using him, we beat everyone to the resort, Eric had a beer for my wife and me and anything else we need. In the middle of our 2 week vacation we use [... read more]d Eric to take us for an afternoon trip to the mountains. He is a safe and knowledgeable driver. If you use him, tell him Wayne sent you and he will give you a good price. The Iberostar Suite is a friendly, large, clean and well run resort. My friend the Desk Manager Andrae got us the same room as last year. It was dead center top floor, king size bed, and a tub. I called Andrae for the same room about 3 weeks from us leaving and I got what I requested. Plus a well stocked fridge with a bottle of good Appleton Rum. They also gave us matching T-Shirts for returning. Last year Orlando checked us in. When he saw us checking in, he was all smiles welcoming us again. These 3 guys made us feel like we were home again. It only rained one night in the 2 weeks otherwise the weather was very good. We did the beach everyday and it was great. There was always a nice spot with shade near the lifeguards, Bruce, Norris and Sanjay. I talked and joked with these guys everyday. They are knowledgeable about the ocean and Jamaica’s culture. I did some snorkelling off the beach in front of where we sat and WOW, fish, stingrays, coral and no boat ride required. I tried many different drinks but my favourite was Ice coffee with Baileys, and Tia Maria or Kalua. The bartenders are first rate; they make and serve the drinks quickly with a smile and a few words. Staff like Christopher, Radane “Jellybean”, Glenroy, Jules, Doreen (the hardest working waitress on the island), Nicole and the rest ensured our glass (or Bubba) was full. There supervisors (Hugh and Raymond) remembered our names and always came over to make sure the drinks and service was first rate and it always was. This resort has the best Chef’s in the world. I have never had such good food anywhere. We only ate suppers at the buffet because of Managers like Patrick, Isaiah and Jermaine they make sure the staffs are always making meals that will not be forgotten. When I did not see lobster tails on Valentine Day like last year, without asking Isaiah put some on for me. I have never met such nice people who work so hard for so little. We like to eat outside at the Buffet with the smell of the ocean and view of the palm and coconut trees all around. I loved that. My friend at the Pasta Bar Courtney made me a dish of pasta with shrimp, garlic and vodka. I did not need to go to any of the a la carte restaurants. We had lunch at the steakhouse because of how open it was. The service by, Nadine, Clifford, Brandese, Renae, Gavin was top notch. If you want coffee and Baileys for breakfast just a nod to these people and I got it. The entertainment team was also good with OMG, Peaches and Rick Hollywood. They talked to us every day on the beach. We came to relax and they understood why we played no games. The live music (from 7:30 to 9:30) in the bar was fantastic. We requested songs and they played them. We walked to the other resort called Iberostar beaches to watch different entertainment. I liked this, from Suites we can use there stuff, but they can’t use ours. We watched the late show once. We like to go to bed early and get up early and here we did. The property was spotless and always being cleaned with workers likes Orlando who never stopped working or smiling when I would say hello. The beach was kept cleaned and raked every day. I had so much fun everyday talking and joking with the valets Dale, Ricardo, David and Hyron. These guys made it feel like I was hanging out with my buddies back home. I go to Jamaica a lot because of the music and everyone there speaks English. These people have a spirit not found anywhere else in the world. Iberostar is “No problem man” Wayne

Riu Ocho Rios: Beaufitul resort.

We were on the deluxe side (oceanview) of this resort and it was beautiful. The rooms were spacious and clean and very nice all way around. The pool was amazing - I specifically liked the infinity and swim up bar pool. Lots of very nice lounge chairs to sit and relax on at the beach and around the pool. The food was one of the best I have had during any of my travels. My only vice is that you were not allowed to make a reservation at the a la carte restaurants - it was first come first serv [... read more]e - so if you preferred to have a late dinner you would sometimes miss out. However no complaints about the food at all. The staff is amazing and super friendly and they are all absolutely beautiful people :). We decided to go off the resort to do a bit of site seeing to get to see some of the Jamaican life style and culture - we used an off site company called "KnowJamaica" which is owned and operated by a Mother and Son team born and raised in Jamaica! They are truly awesome people and provided us with a fun filled day. Their prices are very reasonable and also Javia (the son) is very easy on the eyes! (tee hee). Jamaicans are truly beautiful people. Check out their website - www.knowjamaica.com! If you see some pics on their website of 6 crazy looking Canadian women having fun - well that very well could be our group! We were smiling from ear to ear and had a wonderful day. It was money well spent!

Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton: Amazing resort,amazing people!!

I was so sceptical about booking because I was unsure what to expect based on reviews;however, from the moment we got to the resort we were not disappointed with our choice. From the service to the food to the cleanliness , all around amazing experience!! Head to the adult Coral bar and get a drink from Rodney, he is a phenomenol bartender , such a kind soul!! Everyone made you feel right at home and so welcome, the customer service is on point. We will definitely be returning!!!

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Beautiful but!!

This resort is absolutely beautiful.the rooms,view,grounds,beach is amazing.but,the tv and hairdryer did not work in my sons room.he was moved to a different room because we booked king bed rooms and he was given a room with 2 double beds.in our room the toilet ran continuously.we phoned 3 times about the toilet.it ran all day and all night.all week.asked for an extension cord for my husbands cpat breathing machine.it took 4 phone calls,2 nights and then we had to go y the front desk to try to g [... read more]et one.he could stop breathing without it.the a la cart restaurants were really good.beautiful place but please fix things that are broken

Sandals Dunn's River: Friendly staff!

We just spent 10 days at the Jewels Dunn's River Resort. We enjoyed the small size of this resort, and the rooms were very comfortable. Our maid was amazing! The entertainment staff did a great job during the day, but the night entertainment was lacking. The "Bling Disco" was kept way too cold and smelled very musty. When ever they had a "special dinner" planned on the beach or pier, the buffet dinning room was closed! My husband & I travel quite a bit and we've NEVER been to a resort were the m [... read more]ain buffet is closed. When the buffet was open, they'd make you stand in line to give your name and room number before you we're seated. The lady working that post was NOT friendly at all. In 10 days, we never say her smile once!! There were two peacocks and several loose cats at the resort. That was nice for an animal lover like me. The cats would quietly sit by you and wait for a hand out... no jumping up, loud meowing or rubbing up against you. Very polite cats! Lol The biggest disappointment of Jewel Dunn's River Resort is that the beach is so small! You can ONLY walk the water front of this resort cause there's a pier blocking one side and a high chain link fence on the other.

Sandals Inn: Super Holiday

This is the sixth time we have visited this resort and it still maintains the charm it had the first time. Quiet and intimate yet allows you to visit the other 2 resorts via a shuttle. Due to the high repeat of visitors we were able to connect with people who have been coming over the years. While it is not the normal 5 star rating that the other Sandals location have it still provides the typical Sandals philosophies and amenities.

Sandals Ochi Beach Resort: Disapointment

There is not enough room here to list all of the problems we had with Sandals Ochi. 1. Concierge Check-in, took about an hour and a half. 2. Reserving dinners, took 2 days to get this done, with lots of arguing with concierge. 3. Room was in the "babbling brooks" section, water not running, disgusting smell, trees being cut down all week, brooks empty of water. 4. Dislocated my finger while there, nurse had no water, ice, bandages or interest in helping. 5. Almost no drink service, and whe [... read more]n we went to the bar, mostly ignored by bar staff. 6. No seating at pools unless you get up at 6am to claim your spot. 7. Dinner service very slow, waited 3 hours one night for dinner. 8. Twice ordered Crown Royal, whatever came out of the Crown Royal bottle was not Crown Royal, some sort of scotch. 9. In room bar was the cheapest alcohol I have ever seen. 10. By far the tiniest resort room I have ever seen. Overall, our group will not be going to Sandals again.

Riu Reggae: Riu Reggae Review

We had a fantastic stay at the Riu Reggae! We were a little nervous after reading some of the other reviews but it was a great week! The food was 5 star and the hotel was immaculate in cleanliness. We were so impressed with just how clean the facilities were. The beach is small, but the pools are huge and very nice (2x swim up bars) We didn't like the line up's for dinner. However, the food was worth the wait in the end! Also we were sort of disappointed that they did not have pool side  [... read more]/ beach side drink service but again, it's a smaller resort and beach area so the drinks are only steps away. We noticed that there were not many "ocean view" rooms and those who had a garden or street view had sort of a nasty view. We didn't mind because we did not spend a lot of time in our room but if we were to go back, we'd opt for an ocean view. The room however was very nice and modern, comfortable bed and working AC.

Sunscape Splash: Fantastic holiday

The staff were exceptional and the service was outstanding. The room and facility was very clean. Food at breakfast was extremely good however the lunch buffet needed some variety. The a la cart restaurants were very good. Beach and water was extremely good. Although advertised as a family resort, there were sections for adults only which made it nice. Entertainment was good. I would definitely return to this resort and would recommend it to friends.

Riu Reggae: Riu Reggae first Jamaica Trip

Hmm ok here go , traveled to a lot to other Caribbean Islands so I have a fairly good basis to make a unbiased review. Food - very good you will put some pounds on , something for everyone Staff- fantastic , great service , great attitude , never hustled for a tip Rooms- clean and modern well stocked with water, pop, beer and 4 -26ers of hard liquor all included Resort- clean, modern design , well laid out ,very little walking , two pools always found a lounge chair any time of day Beach- h [... read more]mm its only weak point when your used to beaches you can walk until you drop.Its small cramped and man made ,hemmed in by two man made rocky outcrops that there is no walking around possible ,hard core beach bumbs will be disappointed. Its on the airport flight path , good or bad depending if you like watching passenger jets flying by at a 1000 ft 20 times a day Excursions - make sure you read all the other reviews , some were disappointing and others were great so choose well, food -booze off resort is expensive , this is what I gathered from other guests that took some trips , as for me my Catamaran trip was canceled and refunded due to weather. Local Tourist Markets- thats a rough one , very very aggressive vendors , put your armour on and prepare to battle , don't pay asking price haggle it down.Learn to politely say NO Thankyou Buy your booze at the airport on the way out , huge duty free like the one in the Toronto Airport , good prices and huge selection For the Rasta in all of us well lets just say Bob Marley is alive and well there and drifts by in the wind occasionally LOL IMO good value , got one hell of a tan , put a few lbs on and met a lot of great people , adult only so not too many drunk ass punks thank god,I have been in some places on the reading week S--T Show

Sunscape Splash: Great resort!

This is a great resort. The food is fantastic! The lazy river and water slides are great for both kids and adults. You need to try the free guided snorkel tour (you swim right off the beach). We saw many beautiful fish! Bring your own snorkel gear if you want to be able to go whenever you want. The entertainment at night was also great. We were actually upgraded to their sister resort (Secrets St James) and it was absolutely incredible. Incredible beach and food everywhere. Lol. If you can af [... read more]ford the upgrade, do it. :)

Bahia Principe Escape Runaway Bay: A not so great vacation

Booking through trip central started off easy but when I never received my travel documents that was the issue. The travel agent was not helpful and kept sending me documents I could no open. After asking him to send the documents to another email, the email was not received and he told me that he didn't know what else to do. No offence but that's your job. I had to figure out my booking numbers and such on my own to get my travel documents. Would not use trip central again. As for the vacati [... read more]on itself. Transfer to the hotel was good and efficient. We arrived around 3:30 and were told our room wasn't ready. Check in was at 3pm. So staff were left scrambling to find something to do with us as the rest of the bus load of people. We were taken to a buffet on the Grand side with a cart. The butler told us to ask a security guard to call the front desk to have them bring the cart back to get us. Once finished our lunch we search high and low for a security guard but no luck. We ended up walking 20 minutes (without knowing where to go) back to the luxury lobby in our clothes and backpacks. Once we got to our room, we had a nice clean room with a terrific view. The fridges are stocked with water,pop and beer. However house keeping is a mess. We did have our sign on our door saying not to clean on the second day. We thought there was no need since we got to our room so late. But that's when the problems started. The third day house keeping didn't come. The fourth day they came at 530pm and had no towels to give us. On the 5th day we finally got towels- this is the 5th day of vacation! We had used beach towels in lieu of bath towels because we never got any! But on the last day house keeping was so very keen to get us out and showed up at 8:30 to ask us to leave. No thanks!!! Other problems include false advertising. My boyfriend is into jet skiing and their website advertised them. We got different stories from the staff about why they didn't have them, but none the less they didn't have any. Also, money talks here. Don't count on getting a drink easy if you don't have a stack of cash in your hand. At this hotel you pay to get service which I find awful. I tip for good service and I didn't feel the service was great here. We booked an excursion through the hotel. It was easy to book but the issue lies with the transportation. We booked at ATV tour at YAMAN camp. We took a bus with 6 other people from different hotels and these other individuals were staying the whole day there, we were only doing one tour. Once our tour was done we were told we had to wait nearly 3 hours for a ride back. Really?? We weren't told this and we didn't want to waste a whole day. YAMAN found an alternative arrangement for us which was super kind and helpful. The food at this resort is good. We actually preferred the buffets over the a la cartes. We did three a la cartes. Our favourite was Picasso. Best service and food. At Takara the starters were great but we ended up waiting over an hour later until getting our mains. Other couples were leaving before getting their dinners. The last a la carte was Las Olas. Food was good here but we never got our beers after repeatedly asking. The beach is small but decent. Don't expect to swim. The issues are with the cabanas. You have to wake up by 6am to reserve one (no joke). We also watched people pay staff to reserve them and watched cabanas go unused while being reserved. I felt bad watching guests walk around endlessly looking for a spot while there were reserved unused cabanas. Also guests from the Grand side come over and use the Luxury side cabanas. The best part of the trip was a catamaran with Chukka tours. Snorkelling, duns river, dinner and a party ride back. We really enjoyed this!

Sandals Dunn's River: Excellent service!

No matter where we went... dining rooms/beach/taxis/room service/lunch hut, etc.... the service was excellent! There were always smiles and conversations, warm welcomes every time. Due to a prior concussion, we had to move rooms and the front hotel staff was very accommodating landing us in the lush patio clad lanai rooms. The variety of foods/restaurants was great. The beach itself was small and the fenced border to the public beach/park was not appreciated. However, the sun was hot, the o [... read more]cean beautiful, and the tanning great, AND you can situate further away from the fence if you don't mind the pool music. Definitely there were some aspects of the grounds that needed work (e.g. concrete steps to beach from pool) but overall it was a quaint, quiet, enjoyable adults only resort with beautiful rooms. And if you get the chance, take the sea kayak out and just park above the coral. The crashing waves will drown all the stress away :) IF you can get this hotel on sale, YES, I would recommend it. We haven't seen better service in all of our travels.

Zoetry Montego Bay: Good resort but bad location

We spent one week at Zoetry in February. The staff and service was very good, everybody tried to make our stay enjoyable. We asked for one day to be at the sister resort Secrets Wild Orchid Montego Bay. They arranged our short trip to Secrets property which is much bigger and the beach is nicer that the beach at Zoetry. Cons: -the location of the Zoetry resort is not so good. The beach is very small and the sea is not very clean. Also, you can see and hear all the planes taking off from the  [... read more]Montego Bay Airport and all the noise from the highway that are next to the hotel. Sometimes there are parties in the neighborhood till 2:30am, so you can hear the music if you want to leave the balcony door open - the food was not very diversified, not enough option of healthy food - the excursions they offer in this resort are extremely expensive. Maybe at any resort in Jamaica the excursions are expensive, but here is out of your mind Pros: - the staff is very friendly and try to do the best for your comfort - you have a dedicated butler - the massages at spa are very good. They offer a 20 min. complementary massage for every guest - it is a very small adult only resort, so it is not busy - the rooms are very nice and clean and very well decorated - it is a very clean resort - they offer snorkeling tours, yoga classes, meditation and tai-chi classes

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Great time

Hotel staff are very gracious. Our son has a peanut allergy and this resort is the best resort we have been to for managing peanut allergies. Beach is so great with warm water, and lots of room in the water. Close to a number of great excursions options.

Bahia Principe Escape Runaway Bay: ok resort

Luxury Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Very big resort and so not suited for everybody. Not the greatest beaches and the best part of the beach was 10 min walk from the luxury portion of the hotel. Cleaning of rooms was sporadic and had to ask for towels almost everyday. Food was tasty but no variety. The A la carte restaurants are not really a la carte. You could choose your main meal but the appetizers and desserts were all buffet. The Grand portion of the hotel was old and stinky. Ran out of  [... read more]ice on a daily basis. Hotel is located 1 h 15 min from airport and not 15-20 minutes as indicated in the brochure. Bar in the luxury side closed at 11 and had to take a golf cart to the Grand side if you wanted to go to the karaoke bar or disco. Didn't know or find about the karaoke or disco until last night. Did not replenish room fridge on daily basis as indicated. Very nice pools. Very friendly staff. Very large rooms. Amazing view from every room on the luxury side. Very clean hotel. Entertainment was ok. Would recommend anyways because the issues with the hotel were minor.

Riu Ocho Rios: First time trip to Jamaica in an Amazing Resort

I had such a great time at this beautiful resort. Not only was i there for a vacation but i was there for my Wedding! The staff were so nice and the weather was amazing! I would definitely go back to this resort! The food was great especially the steak! I thoroughly enjoyed my time!

Sandals Negril: Amazing...as usual!!

So this is our 4th stay at this resort and once again it did not disappoint,the staff is phenomenal...they go above and beyond to make your stay as comfortable and relaxed as possible,always with a smile and/or singing as they go,they are such a wonderful bunch!!!Now as for the food that too is 5 star,from the seafood to the steak and even the desserts everything was excellent.So our one and only complaint was the room which was very Caribbean(which I liked)but dated and run down,we were told th [... read more]at renovations will be done to them this year as the rest of the resort has already been done and it was quite noisy as the building next to us was for,I believe room service.This is the only resort we've ever been to so we have nothing to compare it to but I believe why mess with something so great so we booked for next year and I'm looking forward to it already.Thanks tripcentral and Kim Hartlan our travel agent.

Catalonia Montego Bay: HOLIDAY INN RESORT

We had a fabulous time with our friends and family and we had great weather. First off, I would more likely to recommend this resort more to families with small children. There was an adult section pool but it was always full. We were in building 1 which was a very nice room with a great view but very noisy at night. I found the entertainment stage is too close to the restaurant and our room. The music got very loud at dinner and until 10 or 11 p.m. We would turn up our air conditioner so  [... read more]it would block out the noise. We asked to be move towards the adult building but they said it would cost $50 more a night. We also found a problem getting a lounge chair because some people would run out at 6 am. to put towels on chairs and never sit on them. Very frustrating. The island is a very nice but again the entertainment stage with a microphone would echo over to the island. We enjoyed the snorkelling around the island.

Catalonia Montego Bay: Holiday-Inn, Montego Bay,Jamaica

Convenient location. Good service. Good and quality entertainment. Booking with agent Jack Gentile was very convenient and we got best booking experience. All has been delivered as advertised without hiccups.