| better than expected |
| Hotel Sunset Beach Resort & Spa |
User Rating:
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alain >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| Second time in Jamaica, first time at Sunset Beach Resort. Will definitely come hear again. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
We walked a couple of times off the resort and down the road. About a twenty minutes walk you will see a shopping centre to your left hand side of the road. Souvenir shops with good prices. Cruise ships disembark nearby. Taxis come by steady to see if you need a ride.
We also went into Montego Bay(Hip Strip). With AirCanada we booked a tour into the city for 10$ U.S. each. there was four of us. Our driver was very friendly gentleman. He drove us to three different areas. One was up on the hill overlooking the bay, the other was at the Hip Strip(shops and restaurants also the Margaritaville.) There is a free shuttle from the resort to Margaritaville, but it is in the evening. Good for the Bar seen and late shopping. And the last spot was like a small village of shops. Our drive was in no rush and let us make the schedule.
All four of us just wanted to do a little shopping and then back to the Beach. Our driver was very informative and a Joy to talk with. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
Lets start with the Beaches; The beach was very good for snorkelling, lots to see, specially in the morning. The sea was very calm. Make sure to see the sun set and get your pictures taken. If you like long walks on the beach, not the place for it, limited. We walked also off the resort and down the road, past some good shopping near the port for cruise ships.
Now the pools: Lots of room at the different pools. We spent a lot of time at the 'themed water park' that features water slides and lazy river. (be prepared for lots of Sun)
The Grounds; very nice with many plants and different trees, Banana trees and see if you can find the Ackee Tree but do not touch its fruit, could make you sick. Lots of free space on this resort, nice. Grounds are very well keep, and a joy to the eye. |
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| Other Comments |
We have traveled much over the years and try to enjoy the differences a Country has to offer. Jamaica has a very calming effect for us. The Sunset Beach Resort is an all around excellent place for a vacation, couples, families, singles, Young and old will all find a special spot to enjoy at this resort. Take the time to talk with the Jamaicans you meet, they will bless you. Oh yes, on your walks near the shops in the city they will ask you to "take a look in my shop", if you have the time take a fast look and say Thanks, they will be blest. And if you don't have the time a simple "not today" works.
If you like a little Jamaican History and information go to tea time. The piano player will bless you. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
Main buffet; excellent choice of food and lots of tables(resort was full capacity). Friendly servers, always willing to help and chit-chat.
Italian restaurant; Very good, again the servers went out of there way to see that we were having a good vacation.
Asian restaurant: very good
Sunset Grill; Snacks, Chicken, burgers... Very good
All Bars easy to get yourself served. |
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| Rooms |
| We were to have a lagoon view room in one of the towers, at the check in we were told that we have a guest room suit. I did not know of the two guest room areas(Beach Inn) near the water park and Italian restaurant. Nice surprise. Room was very comfortable. Staff excellent. |
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| Your Arrival |
Modern Airport.
Arrival to the resort was very fast, only two other couples in the shuttle bus.
Check in and out very simple.
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| The brightest gem in Sandals crown jewels |
| Hotel Sandals Whitehouse Spa and Beach Resort |
| User Rating:
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Ivan >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Mar, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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My wife (29) and I (33) just spent the most relaxing and romantic week at Sandals Whitehouse from March 5th to 12th. I have been reading reviews here for so many months so I think I knew everything about this resort before we arrived. The positive reviews motivated me to go and the negative ones moderated my expectations but in the end they didn’t need to be moderated as Sandals Whitehouse exceeded all of high hopes. Getting a room upgrade at check-in without asking for it probably helped.
We have stayed at other 5 star AI resorts in the Dominican Republic and the Riviera Maya but this was our favourite vacation yet. After 7 days we came home (unwillingly) feeling refreshed physically and reinvigorated romantically.
Everybody else will describe the rooms, food, pools, bars, beach, airport transfer etc so I won’t rehash everything they already have said. For me a great vacation is all about the experience and our experience was fantastic.
A major contributing factor to that experience was the staff who are so friendly, helpful and fun we found this great attitude rubbed off on the guests as well. This was the first resort we have ever visited where all the guests say hello to each other, chat openly and have fun in the bars, restaurants, pools and beach. This incredible atmosphere made us great every day, so much so that after only 3 days we booked our next vacation at Sandals Whitehouse next year.
One other noteworthy point (as Sandals virgins) is the included water sports. We are used to paying for lots of extras but with Sandals we went reef snorkelling and sailing in the Hobiecats almost every day. For medical reasons I was unable to take the opportunity to go scuba diving which was also included and that blew my mind.
For anybody going to Sandals Whitehouse these are my tips:
1. The aim of your vacation is to have fun and relax. Don’t get caught up on silly little details as you will be the one that loses out.
2. Have fun with the Jamaican staff. Learn a few words or phrases in Jamaican patois. Just ask them and they will give you a few. You will have fun and the look of surprise on their faces when you use the phrases unexpectedly is priceless.
3. You know the old phrase “no pain no gain”. When it comes to the airport transfer the pain is minor and brief but the gain is so well worth it. |
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| What an awesome vacation |
| Hotel Sandals Grande Ocho Rios |
| User Rating:
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Deb >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Mar, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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| After reading some of the reviews for Sandal Ocho Rios I was a bit leary on picking the resort...but all of our fears were set aside the moment we arrived. |
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| Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel |
| We went on three off resort excursions and had an absolute grand time. From Dunns River Falls to zip line/bobled at Mystic Mountain to tubing down the river......fun was had by all of us. |
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| Beach/Pools/Grounds |
The grounds were spotless....the gardeners were at work everyday cleaning up any of the fallen leaves and when any work was being done they covered up stuff so that it did not look too messy.
The beach was a bit on the small size but very clean and as a rule we did not have a problem finding a place to sit when we went down there. The beach was split into three sections and the middle one by Jamie's Sports bar was our favorite. |
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| Other Comments |
| The only draw back of this resort is that it is quite large in size and there are two sides to the resort divided by the highway. But with the shuttles back and forth from the Manor side to the Riveria side transfer went quite smoothly. |
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| Restaurants and Bars |
Most of the restauants were fabulous...especially the Orchid. Their Filet minion was to die for. The only restraunt that I did not care for was the Valentinos but that is only because I have a cheese allergy and most of the food was prepared with cheese but I am sure that any Italian lover would really like this restraunt. Otherwise we can not complain about any of the food and there was always someplace to eat no matter what the time of day. From the beach grills to the buffet at breakfast we ate and ate and ate!
All of the bars were great....you sure did not have to wait long before you got a drink.
We loved the swim up pool bars and spent a lot of time in the water. Try the swim up bar on the Riveria side....say hello to Sharon....she is a great bartender and never let my glass get empty!
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| Rooms |
| Our room was fabulous. It was in one of the fourplex units with a pool right outside our balcony door. We had a seperate bedroom with a sitting room and a little kitchen....although we did not use the kitchen the full size fridge was kept stocked with all the beverages that we wanted. Our room was cleaned on a daily basis and we were always welcomed with a little treat of some kind on our bed when we got back from our daily excursions. |
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| Your Arrival |
| We were greeted by friendly staff and check in was smooth and easy. Our bags were wisked away from us and sent directly to our little villa (which we were upgraded into). |
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| Kids loved the lazy river and water-slide |
| Hotel Beaches Negril |
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Cameron from Minesing, Ontario >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Nov, 2009 | Leisure | Family
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Just got back from resort and having reviewed the comments posted would add the following, the food does need to be improved but is OK, we had Conrad as butler and he was amazing, if your going with the family and want your wife to enjoy holiday spend the extra money and get the butler service.
Rooms:
Rooms are clean, large and well stocked, no complaints....
Restaurants and Bars:
The Seville is overrated, Kimonos Japanese restaurant was by far the best, breakfast was average, the wild cats in the dining room are cute but also scary if they ever decided to bite one of the kids. My oldest daughter was giving them food and did not have any problems, events are first rate and the marching band was excellent
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Pools are are amazing, kids loved the lazy river and water-slide.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
SCUBA is well run and very safe, the guys and girls who run the shop are very nice once they get to know you.
Other Comments:
Conrad our butler was amazing, our 3 kids loved all the activities, women staff need to learn how to smile, security is first rate, if your a diver most of the dives are less than 60ft but you will see turtles, stingrays, large schools of fish and crabs and the equipmet is OK I dived 6 days and did not have any problems, the beach is safe at night, bus ride from airport and back is a great way to see what life on the island is all about, overall its a great holiday.
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| Beautiful soft white sand beaches with warm, blue water |
| Hotel Sandals Grande Ocho Rios |
| User Rating:
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Jessica from Cambridge, Ontario >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Nov, 2009 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
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Arrival was smooth and welcoming. We were met at the airport by staff and directed into the Sandals lounge for refreshments while we waited to board the bus. My only complaint was that once we were checked in and dropped off at our rooms, we had no idea where to find anything on the resort or where to go for dinner. We had no map or guide for the resort and had to go back to the front desk to request one.
Rooms:
Clean and nicely furnished. Some water damage on the wall near the balcony door but nothing that bothered us.
Restaurants and Bars:
Excellent food and drinks! And lots of choices. No reservations required for a la carte, and we ate at a different restaurant every night.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beautiful soft white sand beaches with warm, blue water. I snorkeled from the beach and we also took the boat out to the reef offshore (all included).
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We recommend the Catamaran Party Cruise to Dunns River Falls and snorkeling. We also did an ATV tour.
Other Comments:
Great resort and we are looking forward to going back!
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| Good value for what we paid |
| Hotel Holiday Inn Sunspree |
| User Rating:
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Lee and Mike >
2 contribution(s) Canada |
| Jul, 2009
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Arrival: July 11-18, 2009
This is a good choice for the budget traveler who does not expect a 5 star resort from a 3 star with 3 star pricing. Our criteria are a clean room with clean linens, good food and friendly staff and the Sunspree met all of these. The hotel is older and is under new ownership and renovations are underway. We stayed in Block #6 (5, 6, and 7 have been renovated or are in the process). It was close to the adult only pool and the quieter section of the beach. Blocks 1-4 are closer to the activities pool, restaurants, etc. Our room was nicely redecorated, but the bathroom was worn and in need of some attention. However, the room was cleaned daily and fresh towels were always provided (even washcloths which are sometimes hard to find in the Caribbean). Shampoo, lotion and soap were provided and replaced as necessary. There was also an iron and ironing board, coffee maker, clock radio and flat screen TV; nice touches for a 3 star hotel.
We enjoyed the variety of Jamaican foods offered at the main buffet restaurant, but if you are not the adventurous type, there was always pasta, pizza, etc at the buffet and lots of other choices (hot dogs, burgers, fries, nachos, etc) at the poolside and oceanfront snack bars. We found the food to be very good and had good service from the staff. There was good jerk chicken, pork, fish, etc available at various times in the main buffet and daily at the Just Kiddn hut across from the watersports booth. We ate once at the Jamaican a la carte and enjoyed the food and service there. The only complaints were the blaring Michael Bolton music played there and the dribbling of basketballs on the adjacent court during dinner. If you are eating here, ask for an oceanfront table to avoid the basketball court. We did not have the opportunity to try the two other a la cartes (Italian and International) because they were booked for the nights that we were interested in.
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We had a couples massage on the beach at sunset which was very relaxing. We also had a pedicure and reflexology treatment which were both nice, although a little costly compared to North American prices.
We did not do any day trips while we were there, but there is a tour desk at the hotel providing a variety of options.
The only disappointment to us at this resort was the lack of good snorkeling available off shore. There were a few fish, but for the experienced snorkeler, it was not exciting. There is a reef close to shore, but we were advised that we were not to swim there because of the danger of injury. They did have snorkeling trips available for $35 US each for 1 hour, but they went out to the same reef we could have swam to !!!
We felt that we got good value for what we paid and would return to this resort again on a sell-off. If you go with realistic expectations and can overlook the “bumps and bruises” of the resort, this is a good choice, in our opinion, for a budget vacation
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| We found Breezes Montego Bay to be a nice small resort with everything you needed |
| Hotel Breezes Montego Bay |
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Lucille >
1 contribution(s) Canada |
| Mar, 2009
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Arrival: January 2009
Great - 5 minutes from the airport, unlike Negril or Ocho Rios
Restaurants and Bars:
OK for a small resort
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
The best part of our trip was our tour guide/driver, Ken Gracey. Ken, a Jamaican-born Canadian owns and operates Hummingbird Tours (1-876-476-0818, email: kjgracey@yahoo.ca). Ken is respectful, courteous, friendly and enjoys showing Jamaica to tourists. Ken customized a tour for us that included a full day of sightseeing not offered by any other tour company. He also showed us some out-of-the-way places that only a local resident would know about. He takes pictures of the entire tour and burns a CD for you for free. His price is lower than tours offered by the hotel while offering added value (i.e. CD and customized tours). We went on 5 tours with Ken, so I can say with confidence that Ken is an awesome host. Thank you Ken.
Other Comments:
We found Breezes Montego Bay to be a nice small resort with everything you needed, although this property could use a little TLC. The cabin rooms are very small. So small you have to store your clothes in drawers under the bed. If you want one of the bigger rooms, pay extra for a deluxe room. Breezes has a great location, the best beach I saw while in Jamaica for 2 weeks. The surf is gentle, great for kayaking, snorkeling and swimming.
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| we had a great vacation |
| Hotel Riu Ocho Rios |
| User Rating:
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Dawn >
6 contribution(s) Canada |
| Feb, 2009
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Arrival:
Our trip to the hotel was not pleasant. Our flight from Toronto to Montego Bay was delayed by 5 hours due to flooding that had occurred in the Dominican Republic a few days earlier. Apparently the closure of the airport in the Dominican caused a back-up of other flights to the Caribbean.
SkyService really needs to realize that they cannot continue to cram people into the minute space they consider to be a seat.
When we arrived in Montego Bay at 2AM, there were only two customs officials on duty and we had to wait in line for one hour. Once we made it through customs, we had to wait on the bus for another hour of those who were behind us in line to clear customs. The trip to the resort was uneventful (we were sleeping for a lot of the ride) and we finally arrived at the Riu after 5AM.
Once there, we found the staff to be highly organized and were checked in quickly.
Rooms:
We had booked an oceanview room, and had a partial view of the ocean from our balcony. The room was very nice and housekeeping kept it spotless. The bathroom was a fair size with twin sinks and an adequate shower/tub. As noted in others reviews, the bed was quite firm (which I liked) but I found the pillows to be uncomfortable. If you have the space in your luggage, I would suggest that you take your own fave pillow from home. Satellite TV worked the majority of the time, however we did experience a couple of outages where certain channels were unavailable for a while, but this was not really a problem.
If you want to make calls home to Canada, buy a $20USD hotel calling card. There is a $2USD additional connection fee for each call, but if you are making multiple calls in one 'sitting', press the # key and you will only be charged one $2 connection fee.
Restaurants and Bars:
The food was amazing. I have never eaten so much in my life. The hotel has really improved the process for booking the a la carte restaurants. We waited in line a couple of times for a max of 15 minutes and ate a Sir John and the Steakhouse. Both were nice and the service was exceptional at both. The buffet and the Italian restaurant were my faves. As a vegetarian I had a wide selection of hot and cold foods to choose from and the desserts were quite delicious as well.
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Beach/Pools/Grounds:
We spent a lot of our time at the pool. We were able to reserve our chairs by putting our towels on them each morning and never had any hotel staff remove them. There were activities around the pool and the events staff did their best to get those who wished to, to participate. Service at the pool bar was great, The beach was large with lots of chairs. We spent more time at the beach towards the end of our vacation because the water was more calm and therefore there was no seaweed washed up on the beach. If you are not a strong swimmer, you should be aware that the water gets fairly deep (even within the roped off area)soon after you wade into it (unlike Varadero where you can walk out quite far before the water becomes deep).
There are some unauthorized 'vendors' on the beach trying to sell people jet-ski rides and parasailing. We were also asked if we would like to buy some weed, but if you politely decline, they don't continue to hassle you.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Dunn's River Falls: We took a cab there and back. The park and Falls were very pretty, and though we didn't climb the Falls, we were able to walk along them on a boardwalk (all the way from the top of the Falls to the beach) as well as being able to walk into a section of the Falls for some photos (just be careful because the rocks are slippery). If you go on your own, guys outside the park with try to get you to purchase their services as guides. I would suggest that you wait till you get into the park and get an "authorized" Dunn's River Falls guide (they have shirts that identify them).
Downtown Ocho Rios:
We took a cab downtown. It was quite an experience but I am happy that we saw the sites off the resort. Went to the crafts market where the vendors are very aggressive. I wouldn't suggest that you visit it if you are easily aggravated. There were some finds there, but keep in mind that the hotel also brings in crafts vendors in on certain nights, so if you don't want to deal with pushy salespeople, skip the crafts market downtown and opt for the hotel one instead.
Also, people will try to hustle you for various things downtown (women kept wanting to braid my hair), but you need to keep in mind that Jamaica has a large unemployment rate. If you are able to approach these situations keeping in mind you are in a country with a different cultural norms, you will be fine.
Other Comments:
Ironically enough, the negative aspect of our vacation was our Sunquest rep at the hotel (not the rep who held the orientation session). She was rude and not helpful at all and whenever we went to speak with her, she would take personal phone calls in the midst of our conversations or ignore us altogether. We found this to be totally unacceptable considering Sunquest is a major tour operator and should take more care in choosing who is representing them.
All in all, we had a great vacation. The weather was good (except for about a day and a half of rain) and the Riu Ocho Rios is a beautiful hotel with beautiful grounds and amazing staff. I would recommend it and would stay there again.
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