24 from Thatcham, Berkshire, UK. Please take time to read my Riu Negril (Jamaica) review. Catch yo...
24 from Thatcham, Berkshire, UK. Please take time to read my Riu Negril (Jamaica) review. Catch you soon Scott :)
Member since:18.12.2003
Reviews:47
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This place is simply the best hotel and holiday I have ever, ever had. Now I could leave it at that but I expect you want a bit more information to as why?
The Riu Club Hotel Negril (also refferred to as Riu Negril) is all inclusive so you don't need to worry about paying while away.
Please remember if you go to Jamaica they charge you to leave the country at the airport. The cheapest way to do this is to take Jamaican dollars. It worksout about £10 stirling each. However if you pay in US dollars it equates to about £15 stirling or if you pay stirling it works out around £13. We took the Jamaican dollars and just kept them to one side.
Oh go on then....
My wife and I decided to go to Jamaica for our honeymoon, originally we were booked to another hotel and had to change late due to renovation work, but boy were we glad we changed.
On our arrival in Jamaica we were met at the airport in Montego Bay by the Thomson rep. Put into what can only be described as a "Scooby Doo" style van/people carrier along with half a dozen other people. Our cases dumped on the back seat and had a driver who was affectionately called "Shaggy". We wondered what we were in for.
On arrival at the hotel we were in awe. An absolutely huge reception area, high ceiling, tiled floor, bar to one side and desk to the other. With a view straight on across the complex out to sea. The inital rain had left off by now and the sun glistened on the sea.
The man behind the desk greeted us with the customary Jamaican welcome of "yeah man". Now what with it being our honeymoon we thought we'd ask for an upgrade if possible and yep they sorted it straight away so that we had a sea view at no extra charge. We were shown to our room, luggage taken for us and
once there were shown how to operate the air conditioning, the location of the mini bar and all the other facilities in the room. And the guy didn't even ask or wait for a tip!!!
The room itself.... One kingsize double bed, with fan above for extra cooling, with the switch to the side of the bed for easy control. 14" portable tv which had around 25 channels, although we didn't really watch it that much and they were not all english channels but most were. We had the mini bar which was restocked every two days and had pepsi, diet pepsi, red stripe larger, red rock larger, an orange fizzy drink (about 3 or four of each of these) and two 4 litre bottles of drinking water. PLUS above the mini bar was spirits in a locked cabinet so you could help yourself to shots of rum, whisky, etc. Although I only tried a very tiny bit of the rum as it was very, very strong. We then had a double fitted wardrobe with safety deposit box in plus two chest of drawers. The bathroom had two sinks, one huge mirror, a shaver point, a toilet and bath with shower over. Hot water was always available and never had to have cold shower (although in the heat i did do one day through choice). We also had a balcony which was accessed through double patio style windows and there was a third partion on the door that slid across which was like a mosquito net so you could leave the door open then slide that over to stop insects coming in. The balcony had two chairs and a table and overlooked the beach.
The beach itself was really clean and lovely soft sand. As it is a new complex some of the beach is still being maintained to get rid of stones, but this was nearly done when we were there in August 2004. There were absolutely loads of sun beds all along the beach so you never had to worry about putting your towels out or anything. The sea was lovely and clear, there was some seaweed but I think they are clearing that out. The sea water is also really warm and you can just walk straight in and not feel cold at all. It was just lovely.
After walking along the beach we decided to go and get some food as time was getting on by now. Now I like to eat and boy was I in for a treat at this place. Food like you've never seen, I don't mean the type but the amount and the variety. A typical evening (which were always themed. ie. Jamaican, Chinese, etc) would give you cheeses and hams, melons and other fruits, bread rolls, a hot counter cooking steak, chicken, fish, squid, chips and potatoes, plus another counter where they would carve straight off a joint of meat. This was all help yourself buffet style too, as was the dessert counter where you had a freezer full of ice cream plus chocolate bits and chocolate sauce to pore over the top you also had fruits and cakes of different types too. I stuck to ice cream mainly though. This was just the evening and just the buffet restaurant. There was also a pizzeria and two other restaurants which you had to book for. We didn't get to these as we liked the buffet style. You could also help yourself to drinks. You have the standard coke/sprite/7up/etc style dispenser machines plus another one with fresh fruitjuices but the thing that really done it for me was the keg of Red Stripe that you could help yourself too which was next to the the red wine you could also help yourself too. The only drink you had to ask for was white wine (which was actually more yellowy than white, but tasted fine).
The morning buffet you would find everything from scrambled eggs, to pancakes, doughnuts, cheese, ham, toast, bread, sausage, bacon, beans, cereals and much more too. Again just help yourself. At lunch you could help yourself to bugers, hotdogs, chicken, steak, fish, cheese, ham, rice, pasta just to name a few.
The drinks machines by the way were dotted around the complex not just in the restaurants and you could help yourself at any time of the day. Although it was only in the restaurant that the red stripe was, you had to ask at a bar for a normal glass of
Pictures of Negril (Jamaica)
view from the reception/entrance area
it.
There were three bars. Firstly the pool bar. This was a swim up bar in the middle of the pool, you had seats in the water around the bar, plus seats and tables around the edge of the pool. Above this was the main "day bar" where you could sit around and dry off or just chill out.
To give you an idea of the level of service and how good the staff were listen to this. The floor in this bar was tiled, now this obviously will get slippery when wet and being next to the pool could cause danger. Nope no need to worry here, they have a lady all day mopping up the water litteraly as it drips off you she's there. At the bar itself you rarely had to wait either and the staff were all really friendly. Orville wanted to beat my wife at Scrabble but she wouldn't take the challenge (I never win myself) and we were playing cards later, rummy, and Marlon the assistant bar manager joined in too, but he did try to cheat, didn't get away with it mind. But they were such a good laugh and all relaxed. I think everyone of them at one point or another must have said "Yeah Man".
The third bar was in the evening entertainment area and we really only used this for drinks at night when watching the entertainment. But again found the staff friendly and happy.
The entertainment was really, really good. Unlike most places you go to there was always something going on. In the morning at about 10am you'd have Reggae dance lessons on the beach followed by water aerobics in the sea, followed by the "crazy games" which were just silly events where you could win bottles of rum. Things such as throwing a frisby through a hoola-hoop three times. At about 2pm they'd come round the second pool and doing some games and music entertainment. Each of these was probably about 2 hours each. In the evening you had the kids entertainment from about 7.30 to 8.30 then at 9.30 you had the main entertainment. And I take my hat off to these guys they really do put on a good show and really work for their living. There was varying things from different music and dancing from around the world one night, to a love story cleopatra style with fire breating, flame hoop jumping on another night. You had a perfect couple night where four couples from the audience went up on stage. The day we were leaving they were going to have Grease. They even one night had a beach party down on the beach.
The pools were excellent too. There were two, the one with the bar, and another which as a normal one. Both had more sun beds than you could imagine, but not so many it looked untidy or cluttered. Plenty of sun shades too. Now what we really liked about the pool was that they weren't deep. They were one level all over. This was really good for my wife as she doesn't like going under (although I did dunk her once... ahem) and isn't a strong swimmer. So normally she'll stay in the shallow end but here she was fine all over the pool. The pool was always really clean. You could also swim under the water with eyes open and come back up without eyes stinging from too much chlorine like you normally get. We spent most of our time in the pool.
There were also watersports available, you could get rides on jet-ski's (but I think you had to pay for that) but non-motorised sport was free. We took a trip out on a pedalo, you had to wear a life jacket but that was ok and were allowed upto 45 minutes. It does get a bit choppy when waterskiers go by though.
There was also two small shops on the site that sold various little bits. Prices were ok, but you have to watch the conversion rates. They take Jamaican dollars as well as US dollars.
Now I’m sure your wondering if we actually left the complex at any point. Well the answer is yes we did but only for one day. They say it is safe to walk the roads but personally I wouldn’t. We went on an excursion arranged by our Thomson rep. It was a day out on a catamaran that took us scuba diving in the middle of the sea then to a private beach for a bbq, Jamaican style. The food was lovely and the day was lovely too. However please remember that this is Jamaica and typical of Jamaican sense of humour they don’t tell you that you have to walk waist high in the sea to get on the boat in the first place. We were ok as we had our swim wear on. However people wearing tight white trousers ended up see-through. It was fun though.
All in all we had an excellent time. The people were great, the place was perfect and it was all maintained wonderfully. Maid service was daily and everything was superbly clean.
I would recommend going here. We want to go back but don’t think we can afford it at the moment. I think we ended up paying around £1000 each or just under for one week. But that was with flights and transfers.
If I have missed anything you wanted to know just let me know and I’ll try to update with an answer for you.
****IMPORTANT TIP****IMPORTANT TIP**** ****IMPORTANT TIP****IMPORTANT TIP**** Please remember if you go to Jamaica they charge you to leave the country at the airport. The cheapest way to do this is to take Jamaican dollars. It works out about £10 stirling each. However if you pay in US dollars it equates to about £15 stirling or if you pay stirling it works out around £13. We took the Jamaican dollars and just kept them to one side. ****IMPORTANT TIP****IMPORTANT TIP**** ****IMPORTANT TIP****IMPORTANT TIP****
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Good review! personally I prefer being off-resort, but for an all-inclusive this sounds okay, Zed
Kingseany 02.01.2005 18:47
We have booked the sister hotel, the Tropical Bay in Negril for later this year - sounds like you absolutely loved it. It sounds very much like the Riu Merengue in the Dominican Republic, I guess they are all very similar being a chain. Save up, go again, but make it a couple of weeks!
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Advantages: Everything - its an amazing place! Disadvantages: None that we encountered, although we heard it wasn't safe to venture out into Negril on your own.
Sam-Hay 11.01.2001 ·
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