Beaches Negril

It’s hard to beat this resort for kids. It has so much to do and our kids were crying days before our departure saying they didn’t want to leave. The nightly shows are world class! The resort is smaller so staff get to know you and things are easy to find. The locals on the beach will try the hustle and sell you things but mean well and will leave you alone if they are told properly. I don’t like to say too much good about the resort because it is growing in popularity and prices keep rising, so I’ll end it there and keep the rest a secret for our next family vacation!

My husband and I and our 8 and 10 year old daughters stayed here for two weeks in early February. Based on the reviews and the hotel rating we were expecting a luxury resort on par with the Grand at Moon Palace that we stayed at in 2023. Beaches Negril definitely did not live up to our expectations, especially given the high cost. I want to be clear that the staff at Beaches Negril are great but the resort itself is in dire need of some major upgrades to make it worth the high cost. Accommodations: The oversized family Concierge suite that we initially booked was horrible. The furniture was broken, drawers wouldn’t open or close and the cabinet door was hanging off the hinges. The kids daybed/trundle bed was super uncomfortable with squeaky springs digging in. Neither girl was able to sleep the first two nights (which meant none of us slept). The second night our eldest tried the pull out chair which was creaky but marginally better than the trundle. We were able to arrange to move to an adjoining room where both girls got their own beds but had to pay an additional $13,000 cad (due to all the concerns raised here, we were refunded 10% of the upgrade fee upon check out). That’s over and above the already exorbitant cost of this trip. About a week into our stay, a pipe burst and we didn’t have water in our rooms on three separate occasions. One day we had no water in the room for 11 hours in a row. On another occasion, after the water turned back on it ran dark brown for a while which was unsettling. We were offered a “hospitality room” to shower in which we declined. Also, housekeeping was super inconsistent- sometimes they’d be done 11, other days not till 4 and we’d often have to ask 3 or four times to get our coffee and waters replenished. Food: We were served an almost totally raw steak at Stella when we asked for it to be cooked medium. They also served us spam (told it was ham) on the classic eggs Benedict. We also received more than one nearly raw cheeseburgers at the BBQ place on seperate occasions. I was often served drinks in dirty glasses. At one point I was given a martini in a glass with lipstick all around the edges (watched the bartender get it from a dirty dish tray and rinse it briefly) I mentioned politely that the glass was dirty and she poured the drink into another glass and handed it back to me. Finally, my husband was sick for a few days from something at the buffet. Amenities and grounds: the pool furniture is falling apart and very dirty in some places and the pool water at the water park is murky. There is nowhere comfortable to hang out before dinner that is air conditioned. We played pool before dinner most days but the space is not air conditioned and could be very hot. They were also doing construction in the lobby bar on multiple days and there was noise and sawdust everywhere. The water feature/stream that usually runs through the property is empty with exposed pipes etc and the children’s pool is disgusting. They were also pouring concrete throughout the resort and where the pipe burst the area is torn up just next to our building. There is no bank machine on site. They will allow a one time cash advance for $100 but that’s it and the “no tipping” policy is no longer in effect. We were told that on the first day and it was clear that tips were expected by some. We were told by our travel agent that there was no tipping so we didn’t have enough cash. I had to pay $25 usd for a taxi to go get money out. Lastly, the bathrooms throughout the resort are in pretty rough shape. Toilets don’t flush consistently or powerfully, lots of the doors don’t lock properly or at all or have broken slats. Many of the taps are loose or broken. Overall we made the best of things but we will not be back nor would we recommend to friends or family. The value is just not there Iand I wouldn’t rate this resort more than 2 stars. I reached out to Sandals customer service and they offered sandals reward points valued at around $200 usd but wouldn’t not consider any further compensation despite everything listed above. Would absolutely not recommend.

We just returned from 7 nights in the beautiful Firesky villas. We traveled with our kids between the ages of 7-12, and everyone had a fantastic time! Our kids loved the easy access to the beach and water sports. They especially loved the water skiing, knee boarding, kayaking, sailing, and paddle boards right outside our villa. The beach was beautiful and the kids loved playing in the sand with the provided sand toys. They also spent a lot of time in the pools and lazy river. Although the lazy river is not very big, they did not seem to mind! They also went down the 2 main water slides on repeat. The food was average to good, with our favorite being the Hibachi restaurant. The staff did such a great job entertaining! We loved it so much we went back a second night. The frozen yogurt was also a big hit! The highlight for our family was a boat trip to Rick’s Cafe (booked separately). We got to swim in a cave and go cliff jumping at Rick’s. The kids begged to go back before we left so the resort arranged a cab ride over on our last day. Special shout out to our amazing butlers - Novia and Nicholas. They did such a great job taking care of us and making sure we always had everything we needed. Thank you!!!

This resort is definitely one of the nicest places we've stayed at and with the amazing beach, being in Negril, it would be my favorite place for sure! The airport was hot and busy but as soon as we cleared customs Sandals (Beaches) had a lovely waiting area where they took our bags and provided free cold drinks & unlimited snacks. We changed out of our warm clothes there and they took all our bags out to the bus for us so we just had to follow along. It was a long bus ride to our resort, almost 2 hours, but it had a/c and the seats were comfortable so most of us just napped. Once we arrived at the resort we had a concierge check in so they handed us all drinks and it was in a nice separate room with comfy chairs and the kids were entertained with a show on a tv while we got organized. Then they provided a tour of the resort, where they answered any questions and walked us to our rooms. The rooms were really nice, our kids (5 &7) slept on a trundle bed which looked like a sofa the way it was set up but stripped the cushions off the top and it was a single bed with another single bed that pulled out underneath, it was perfect so we didn't need a separate roll away cot. Our room was a garden view which was so quiet AND we could still see the ocean from our little patio, which was big enough for the kids to go out there to do their colouring and still room to hang stuff to dry. We had a king bed and the bathroom was large, with a bathtub and shower. I think the closet/storage space was bigger at other placed we've stayed but that's about the only thing I could say it was lacking. They even had step stools for the kids to reach the bathroom sink! Our first night there we just ate dinner at the buffet and although everybody had a good meal, nobody was overly impressed with anything. We were all disappointed about not being able to get reservations until the very end of our week but there were lots of other restaurants to eat at so we tried not to focus too much on that. The other places did not require reservation and we showed up with our large group of 10 people every night around 6:30pm and never had an issue getting a table. The first one we tried was their seafood restaurant (jerk chicken bbq for lunchtime) and it was right on the beach and they served steak and lobster - which most of us ordered multiple lobster and it was all included, no extra charge! This was probably our favorite restaurant and since it didn't need a reservation we went back again on our last night there - for more lobster haha. The other restaurant we liked was the Japanese/sushi restaurant, they had a very cool Japanese style garden with a large table outside that we wanted to eat at but it was so warm we all opted for ac inside that night. Another night we did their beach buffet which was a cool vibe but the food wasn't anything exceptional. The reservation restaurants were Peruvian, which a few people didn't feel very good after this dinner but all seemed to think the food was decent, Hibachi style with everybody sitting around the grill (which was perfect for us because it sat exactly 10 people) and this was most of our groups favorite food - besides the lobster haha, and the Italian was a small restaurant at the beach which had the best food in my opinion. They had a full buffet for lunch that none of us ever ate at haha, but my favorite were the side by side food trucks. One was chicken any way you like it so chicken strips or on a burger, grilled or fried with french fries if you wanted and lots of seasoning options and dips. The other food truck was salads and they had so many different choices or you could customize your own and the fresh greens with poached prawns was just the best! There was also a stone fired pizza place open for lunch everyday and a Mexican restaurant (which was also open for dinner but we never went) or a BBQ burger joint so we were never without options. I think even the Japanese sushi restaurant was open for lunch. Late night burger/BBQ place was open until 3 am serving traditional Jamaican 'patties'. Food was so good everywhere we went - 5 stars. Oh ya and I can't forget the kids favourite place, the frozen yogurt self serve with candy bar. It was like make your own ice cream sundae every day and it was open all day until 10pm so we usually went there for dessert after dinner too. If you wanted something even fancier the coffee shop served gelato. The entertainment team there was unreal, absolutely the most talented group of people. They did all the performances themselves from singing, dancing, acrobat, magic show, Jamaican culture, fire show on the beach and at the pool with synchronizing - it was amazing and something different every night of the week. Not to mention it was the same people getting to know you all day around the pool and down at the beach, getting everybody into volleyball and other activities - they knew everybody by name and would stop to talk to us every time they saw us. Then to see them perform at night you felt like you knew famous people, and they were excellent with the kids too. There was one main pool with a swim up bar and then there was another swim up bar with a lazy river over by the kids splash park and waterslides, it was laid out so well. They had lifeguards all day at every pool which was impressive and they were actually paying attention. The lifeguards stopped at 5pm but the pools were open 24 hours a day, you could go for a swim at night if you wanted to which is unheard of. Our kids had a blast in the lazy river, it was their favorite spot every day and it was big - took quite awhile for them to go around but because there were lifeguards and they could touch we let them go on their own and it was great. The beach was so amazing, the best beach ever. White sand for as far as you could see, we just stuck to our beach and there was a great bar right there so you didn't need to go very far to get a drink. Just over waist height out in the water they had these little trampoline rings that I'm assuming you could plop your toddler down on to get them in the water and out of the sand but our kids had a blast jumping on and off them. Bonus they had drink holders haha. Our kid did get stung by a jelly fish which they said was very rare for them to come up but we were all heading into the water just after a big rain (the only time it rained the week we were there - perfect weather) so apparently sometimes the rain brings them up from the deeper water. Anyway the lady selling stuff on the beach told me to go up to the bar so I did and they told me to put gin on it (crazy right?) and then go into the hot tub, which was more like warm bath water than a hot tub. But it worked, by the time we came out the marks were completely gone and no pain or itch - I was worried so it was such a relief. We were a little nervous to get back in the water the next day but it was fine and we enjoyed the ocean every day, no big waves just mostly calm beautiful ocean. There was so much included with the resort, everybody went out on the glass bottom boat one day and another day the boat took them out to the reef to go snorkeling. The guide caught a puffer fish with his bare hands and so everybody got to see that and lots of other colourful fish, turtles and even a little sting ray. We could have gone tubing and water skiing too but we just ran out of time, there was so much to keep us busy. Oh ya and lifeguards on the beach too! My husband's favorite thing about this place vs. other places we've stayed was the booze - they had top shelf liquor all inclusive. There were bars everywhere and the bartenders tasted every single drink they made (just a drop on the back of their hand) to make sure it was just right and if it wasn't they'd fix it. My mom was chatting with the bartender in the lobby bar and she taught him how to make all her favorite drinks, including a ceasar which after a couple of days of searching he special ordered her in a bottle of Clamato juice, I don't know how he did it but he made it happen and we were all very impressed drinking actual ceasars down in Jamaica. They had a club there that was open until 2am every night and one night we closed the place down. It was a very small enclosed space so nothing fancy but there was nobody in there so we had our own private dj and the bartender was so much fun, we danced the night away and made some great memories. The one thing everybody kept talking about was the customer service and how far people would go above and beyond to make sure you had everything you needed. They had managers walking around the resort all the time checking in to see how your trip was going. One day my Mom over heard some of the staff talking about going for their lunch and how they were having ox tail, which my Mom loves, so she joked with them she wanted some. On her way back up to her room she ran into the manager so she joked with him about how she might get her hands on some of this ox tail the staff were having. Within 15 minutes he was at her door with a plate of ox tail for her - she was so impressed. The kids club area was probably the biggest building on the property, with a huge indoor jungle gym. It was so professional, you have to fill out lots of paperwork before you drop off and they ask for a password to pick up the kids and if a different parent comes to pick up the kids and they don't know the password they won't release them - I loved that system so much. Once you dropped them off, no parents in the building either and all their workers are certified nannies and they have so many workers to kid ratios. There was an arts and craft room and a relax area with bean bag chairs and movies too. The whole place was a/c and then outside they had a little kiddies pool for toddlers and a mini golf. They brought our kids to the pool but I felt totally fine with it because I saw the way they looked after them there, plus lifeguards! You could drop kids off in the am and leave them there ALL day, they take them for lunch and dinner if you want. It was amazing, the kids had so much fun. If you wanted they would keep them until 9pm and you could hire nannies until after midnight if you wanted to $$. There was also a sesame street show every night with all the characters (like being at Disney haha) before dinner and a big sesame street parade through the resort once a week. They break the kids age groups up so they have different things for different ages, our kids were pirates and it was perfect for them. Of course we didn't take our kids but they had entire X-box gaming room for teens too and another room with air hockey, foosball etc. Amazing trip, 10 stars we will definitely be back. We even ran into some adults from the neighboring Sandals resort that were with adults only. They said they moved from the Sandals resort because it was boring and came over our Beaches resort where all the families were because there were so many more options. Honestly I would come here even with kids and wouldn't feel like I needed an adults only place but it's also great with kids! A nice break when you want it and no guilt knowing they are still having so much fun!

From the beaches, to the rooms, to the staff, to the food, everything about our recent visit was perfect! Special shoutout to Roy who hunted us down to give us a jack of spades we accidentally lost while playing cards, Camisha at the beach bar who expertly accommodated all our funny drink request, and Charene who very sweetly made a bed out of chairs for our passed out 4 year old at Mariachi's one night. The only down side was hitting rush hour traffic on the way to the resort, but this was outside of Beaches' control. Pro tip: avoid flights that land at 2:30pm on the Friday before a holiday weekend :) We had a blast and will definitely be back next year!