Mangos Boutique Beach Resort: Happy Canadians at Mangos!

We had a great 9 day visit in February at Mangos. Having stayed at many 5* resorts at many destinations, as well as past visits to Jamaica, we knew our stay here would be "different" and "unique". It was - in a good way! We set our expectations in accordance with the rating (hence the better cost compared with the 5*'s at the same time of year). We loved the quaint, rustic, exotic feel of the place (much preferred over the concrete resorts up the beach). Food, staff, weather, ocean, pool/ [... read more]slide,rooms (the view!) all wonderful and found absolutely no fault with anything! If we had any issues (and minor, as chillin' in Jamaica then everything should be "minor" and Irie) we just asked and staff obliged. Loved the poolside grill and food served during the afternoon! Enjoy the wait for it, sip a cocktail, the wait is worth it! If you want high end, fancy, marble, etc....then you should consider somewhere else and pay considerably more. Thank you Mangos for a great "chillin" Jamaica vacation!

Bahia Principe Escape Runaway Bay: Great resort

The property is very clean and we'll kept. No complaints with our oceanfront room. The beach bar was a nice touch but maybe could be open a bit later. Closed at 6:00 and a few days was still very crowded leaving everyone heading to the lobby bar. Over all this place is worth checking out.

Riu Negril: Awesome Vacation!

We just returned from a week at the Riu Negril. We went with a group of 12 and really enjoyed our holiday. Just a few points you will want to know about this resort. You cannot make reservations at the Al la carte restaurants. They do have two dinner seatings and three at the Asian restaurant but be prepared to line up for dinner. Or if you don't want to do that you can just go to the Buffet which was excellent every time we ate there. You must try the Jerk Chicken they serve on the beach  [... read more]for lunch. It is amazing! The lunch buffet at the Seagull was also very good. The Entertainment Staff were fabulous. Happy Feet, King Burger and the rest of the crew were so much fun. If you want to do an excursion I would recommend the Catamaran tour to Rick's Cafe and Margaritaville with Big Bird and his crew from Scuba Caribe. What a fun and amazing day and the sunset was just beautiful. Special thank you to Tricia at Scuba Caribe for being so friendly and helpful. All and all we had a wonderful trip and would not hesitate to go back.

Riu Negril: Amazing

This was our first trip South. The Hotel was great I would have to rate it as a 10 note a 5 star. The staff grounds and food was outstanding. I will and have told everyone I know it was the best trip I have ever had. Thank you for making a dream come true for my husband and I. We will be going back

Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton: Something for everyone!!

We loved our week at the Lady Hamilton !!! The service was exceptional, the resort was clean and beautifully landscaped. There's a variety of things to do there so no one in our group was ever restless or bored . We did not travel with children, but this reaort is definitely family-friendly ! We were very impressed with the Lady Hamilton staff , they all seemed genuinely happy and friendly and made us feel very special ! The outdoor showers in the honeymoon suites were absolutely incredib [... read more]le! We will totally return whenever we have another opportunity !

Sandals Jamaica Dunn's River: Very nice resort

All in all this was a great resort. The only negative would be the short beach ...... so if you are a beach walker or runner, this is not the resort for you. On the plus side, staff are very pleasant, lots of organized resort activities, and everything on resort is close.

Sandals Jamaica Ocho Rios: Sandals Ochi Beach Resort

We went to this resort with 3 other couples and stayed in the honeymoon hideaway rooms on the beach/sea side of the resort. The airport shuttle bus was a full size travel bus that we waited to be fully loaded before leaving the airport, then travelled a few hours to the resort. (The bus made a 30 min stop, encouraged people to get off and have a 'look around'). We were met on arrival and told to wait to be taken to the concierge. After some time we were herded with several other couples into  [... read more]a small waiting room and checked in after about an hour or so. Sa-J however, was incredibly helpful and tried to improve our experience and get us food and drink while we waited. We were led to our rooms which were not much more than a basic hotel room. The advertised 'babbling brooks' were not babbling, the only thing in them was a bad smelling sludge until the last day of our vacation. There was a small balcony, but we were on the ground floor near a walkway. When we opened our balcony door passer by's were able to see directly into our room and we heard the very loud sound of service carts clankering by our room at all hours. We attempted to make reservations through the concierge at a few of the restaurants where this was required. We were met with resistance and a lot of 'no, that's not possible' comments stating that they were unable to accomodate group reservations. This did get done after several hours of persistence and speaking with manager after manager. The food (other than room service) was quite good and other than it took 3 hours or so to have a sit down meal, I thought it was really good. Drinks were good, again-other than the fact that it took quite some time to get a drink and some staff seemed quite inconvenienced by the request. We did meet a few service people that stood out and were really fantastic (Reginald at the Polo lounge, Milton who seemed to be a manager of the restaurants on the hillside and Natoya that we seemed to run into at every restaurant sea side). Unfortunately most of the other employees we met were evasive, avoided eye contact and not friendly. The pool at the hillside was large, clean and well maintained (along with the grounds), the pools on the beach side were not nearly as large or maintained. If you choose to go, I would highly recommend staying hillside. We thought we would want to be closer to the action (restaurants, night life, etc), but we ended up taking the hop hillside almost everyday-it is just generally nicer. The playmakers did an amazing job at entertaining. They were inclusive, funny, engaging and made our experience better-this particularly goes out to Chad who was incredible. Also...there are random cats (some pretty mangy) all over the resort. It's a bit bizarre and kind of put us off. I do recommend the snorkelling and stand up paddle boarding...well worth doing and the self proclaimed 'Fat Albert' that water shuttled us to the snorkelling site just off shore was great. We witnessed one of their swing benches by the manor pool hillside break with 2 people on it. They fell to the ground hitting their heads off the concrete. We ran over them to see if they were ok, the lifeguard was more concerned about getting them up from the pool deck before anyone else seeing the incident than ensuring the people were ok before moving them. We are Paramedics in Ontario and had huge concern with this incident (probably more than any other concern we had), both of them had pretty large bumps on their head and the man seemed quite dazed. Overall, we were able to find places in this resort that we enjoyed and had a great week. We are really not that hard to please as a group (despite this rambling review) and can have fun anywhere, but after quite a bit of travelling I consider the price point for this resort quite high and the value lower than what you would expect from a 5 star resort. It's more like a 4 or solid 3 1/2 star kind of place. Based on this travel experience, I would never travel to a Sandals again and would be hard pressed to vacation to Jamaica again.

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Good Resort- Grounds Public areas, rooms dining, features

All and all, I didn't mind this resort. People were great but service at times slow. I preferred the buffet to the A La Carte except the Italian restaurant. Rooms/Resort/Grounds were very clean & well kept.

Riu Reggae: Average 4*

We had a good time at this resort but i will include an honest review of it. The resort is close to the airport so a quick shuttle and you are there. There are planes that fly over the resort but they only last maybe 5 seconds and there are not that many. We found all the staff to be friendly and helpful. The resort itself is very compact so there is always lots of people everywhere. The restaurants were good with the steakhouse our favourite and the Kulinarium our least favourite(lobster w [... read more]as not great and beef was just ok.) Pumpkin soup was very good. All a la cartes are first come first served but we did all of them and only waited a short time for 2. Buffet has a moderate selection and there is always something to eat. Chef's night has grilled lobster - very tasty. Bars serve brand name alcohol and there are blender drinks and redstripe and red stripe light on tap. Most people queued up and when they asked who is next would indicate the next person with a few jumping ahead. The jerk hut only served jerk chicken (no pork) and sides. Flavour was not what i am used too (too sweet) but there was some pepper sauce which brought it around. Our room was mountain view and was quiet. There is a fan in the room which eliminated the need for a/c. Bathroom has double sinks and a frosted glass wall between the shower and the main room. Annoying at night if your partner gets up, turns on the light and you are a light sleeper. Has the standard Riu mini bar and it is restocked every other day. There was enough channels on the tv and included a few HBO channels. The beach is not very big but you can walk through the Palace to the riu mo bay which adds a bit to it. Sand can be coarse and muddy/weedy the more you go out. Swimming area is small and there is very little to see when snorkelling. They don't want you going out of the designated area. The pools are like swimming in a fountain they are about 3' deep. They are advertised as infinity pools but to get the infinity effect you would have to submerge part of your face and ignore the chairs in front of you. One person was injured entering the pool from the beach side. Transitions are very uneven or large steps from pool deck to beach. Watersports were good and included stand up paddle boarding and were always in use but you did not have to wait long or at all at times. The vibe is very much a party hotel. We had fun but it was too tight with all the people in such a small area. Would i recommend it - if you are into a party place and catch a deal and what i have noted works for you then yes. If you are looking for "luxurious adult's only"(straight from the brochure) then no. Depends what you are expecting.

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Nice Resort

We travelled to Grand Bahia Principe Jamaica the week of February 11-18, 2017. The resort and grounds were very nice. The rooms were very clean and the staff at the resort were very friendly. The food at the buffet was very good, however it was odd to see dinner menu items at the buffet for breakfast. We visited 3 restaurants that require reservations. The Don Pablo restaurant was our least favourite and took forever to get our food, we also didn't get any napkins after asking for them 3 ti [... read more]mes. We went to the Japanese restaurant twice, once at a table and once when they cook in front of you. I would recommend booking a seat when they cook in front of you as the food was much better. The last restaurant we went to was the Italian Restaurant on our last night, it was by far the best food we had the entire trip and would have attempted to go to the restaurant again if we knew it was that good. The appetizer/soup/salad/dessert was buffet style and the food was amazing. The beach near the kids waterpark was very nice, with lots of places to get shade and tons of chairs. There were some stones within the first 3 feet of the shoreline but they could easily be avoided. The pool areas were very nice but if you didn't find a chair with shade by 9:30am you were out of luck. The carpet in the hallways needed to be replaced as there were many stains, however it didn't bother us. The drink selection at the bars was lacking. Bartenders continually said they didn't have the proper items to make certain drinks. I would visit this resort again if the right deal presented itself, but would try somewhere else if the price remains high.

Melia Braco Village: Paradise Resort !!!

This resort is just heaven on earth...My husband and I were in the LEVEL, a beach front room. The view was just spectacular ! Service was wonderful, the resort is gorgeous and the staff are just wonderful ! Restaurants were lovely, and the food amazing ! If you want to be pampered this is the resort for you !!!

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica 2017

Very immaculate place, the grounds, pool area, beach all met our expectation. Food was great and always something good to find. Lots of on ground or off site activities.No shortage of Rum or bar area to find, plenty of seating on the beach or pool side. Scuba should be an adventure for anyone at this site, great dive site

Bahia Principe Escape Runaway Bay: Mixed Feelings

This resort has beautiful grounds, nice layout and nice rooms. The beach was disappointing and there is no escaping the constant noise, even in the room, it echoes through. For the most part, awesome staff. A little disappointed overall based on experienced with other Bahia properties.

JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar: Iberostar Grand Rose Hall

First and foremost this hotel has the most INCREDIBLE employees. From the cleaning staff, to the chefs, to the landscapers, to the housekeepers., butlers.Everyone is happy, friendly and Sooo service oriented. The rooms are spacious and tastefully decorated. The hallways on the hotel room floors are in dire need of freshening up. The carpeting is torn,and has waves, the walls need painting and brightening up. ( it's quite dark and dingy) The food as beautifully displayed and plentiful,So much c [... read more]hoice. Quality wise it was not the highest as was Sandals. The trip from the airport to this resort is short and easy. We were greeted at check in with warmth and very welcoming. We were even upgraded to an ocean view room by Barington who works at the front desk.We requested a quiet room prior to our arriving and they put us near the pool and the thump thump of the music. They felt bad ,so they moved us up to the 3rd floor with an ocean view. The only real complaint was the lack of umbrellas and covered space on the beach. In order to get a covered lounge chair on the beach, you need to be there at 7 AM. You must sit on your beach chair until at least 7.30 AM to claim it. Unfortunately, we did this one morning, went to breakfast, only to come back 1 hour later, our personal belongings( books) were removed and someone took our beach chairs. The staff said " we weren't there " so they took our stuff off and someone took our chairs. We then had a 1 hour run around to find our books. The beach towel hut person told us security had our things, and security said "they never get involved and the beach hut person had our stuff. Indeed, that's where it was. The solution to this problem would be to have 1) the butlers reserve chairs wherever their clients wanted to sit. This is done at some other resorts or2) Have more covered umbrellas on the beach. There are 2 covered areas on the beach and all chairs are taken. In between them is an uncovered section of about 40 chairs and only 3 chairs were taken. I don't think that makes sense. The butlers were amazing. They didn't annoy us nor did they ignore us. O'neill,Carson and Duran really work hard. They were always professional and wanted to help wherever they could. Our cleaning ladies were Soo special ( Cardella daytime and the evening lady, Kardesha?) Friendly, hard working and eager to please. The wait staff in all the restaurants were great, always smiling and worked hard to please. In conclusion, this vacation was relaxing and enjoyable. I think I would rate it a 4 star instead of a 5 star because of the poor quality of food and the renovations that are so desperately needed.

Fun Holiday Beach Resort: Too Tired

The resort we stayed at (FUN HOLIDAY BEACH RESORT) was too run down and our expectations were not met!! We were travelling with a group of 20 people and when we arrived at the resort we found out that 17 of them were relocated to another resort!! The frustrating part about it is we don't know why it happened, no explanation was given at all!! My boyfriend and I usually travel 4 star but the group we were traveling with did not have the means to do so we compromised and boy did we pay the price.  [... read more]The beach was beautiful and the seven mile beach you can not beat.......but the is the only positive thing that I can say about this resort!!

Royalton Hideaway Blue Waters: The Royalton White Sands Beach Resort was awesome.

We had a room on the 7th floor, which had a great view of the mountains, and a nice view of the beach. The room was spotless, the bed was perfect. The grounds were beautiful, and again spotless. The beach was small, but the water was great. We found all the Restaurants to be very clean, good food, good service, All in all, we where very happy that we stayed for 2 weeks.

Couples Sans Souci: Couples Sans Souci - best place ever!

This was our 4th trip to this amazing hotel, and once again, it didn't disappoint us! We've tried the other Couples hotels and this is definitely our favourite. It's a little quieter than the others (which suits us) with a number of Brits and Americans and a few from other countries, our room has always been lovely (they've just been refurbished too), the weather was great, the beach lovely and no vendors to bother you. There are 3 vetted vendors there and they set up their tables and quietly [... read more] offer to have you look at their wares and that's it - no pressure. The staff are always friendly and the service is great. We love it and will go back just as often as we're able.

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Awesome resort!

Loved the resort, staff was super fun and friendly, food was amazing, only problem was making a la carte reservations we were told when we arrived on Thursday we had to wait till Saturday to make them then we were first in line Saturday and told they were full we should have made them online. Standing at the desk doing this we talked to several other people with the same issues. Besides that it was a great vacation.

Catalonia Montego Bay: Great place for families.

Comfortable resort with beautiful beaches and plentiful food and drinks. Very satisfactory vacation and lots of happy beach time. The a la carte restaurants were an enjoyable change from the buffet, especially the Japanese one where they put on quite a show and allow you to get to meet some of your fellow vacationers as well.

Sandals Jamaica Ocho Rios: Fabulous Vacation - First Time at Sandals

My husband and I travelled to Ochi Beach Sandals resort for a fabulous vacation. You do have to take the hop to get from the hillside to the beach but it runs every 5 minutes and is only a 2 minute ride. The beach is not long but they do have multiple sections of beach front with floating docks. The pools are everywhere and always lots of activities happening.