Lauren traveled to Jamaica last month for meetings with one of our travel agency consortiums, The Traveri Group, to tour resorts, discuss our best practices and learn from other agents.  She had the opportunity to tour multiple resorts in and around the Montego Bay area as well as meet top resort staff members. Lauren stayed at both the Royalton Blue Waters and the Hyatt Zilara/Ziva.

While the Royalton Blue Waters fell short on service; they delivered on room quality and amenities.  The property is located in Trelawny Beach about 25 minutes from the airport.  The resort opened in late 2016 and shares some facilities with the more mid-range Royalton White Sands next door that was renovated from a previous resort.  The Blue Waters offers 228 spacious suites with high tech features (your room bracelet is also your room key!) and lovely bathrooms with a split shower and toilet.  The resort features a lazy river and infinity pools, full service and beautiful poolside cabana rentals, excellent fitness facilities and fitness classes, plenty of dining options, decent size beach, small island off the beach for spa services, tennis, an air conditioned lobby and more.  It shares a water park with lots of slides, kids and teen clubs and large evening entertainment area with the White Sands which also has family suites for 5 with bunk beds in a separate area of the room.

Lauren also stayed at the Hyatt Zilara. This adult-only resort shares facilities with the family-friendly Hyatt Ziva next door; one of our most popular in Jamaica.  She enjoyed exploring all of the amenities and recreation including a long stretch of beach, great pools, plenty of dining options (most of the Ziva side), large spa facilities, excellent fitness facilities (the main one is open 24 hours), cabana rentals (we enjoyed with endless jerk chicken service and handy when a passing shower came by), evening shows, kids club and more.  All rooms will soon feature a king or two queen beds!  That makes us very happy.  Lauren’s room on the Zilara side was modern and spacious with nice ocean views.

A visit to the Hilton Rose Hall proved why this property is also very popular with our families looking for an excellent value and rooms with two queen beds.  While interior hallways and smallish rooms mark the hotel’s age, recent updates include updated rooms, new food venues, expanded beach (more than double in size!) and more.  The highlight here is the large waterpark area with slides, fast moving “lazy” river and pools.  The mature landscaping makes this quite the oasis with cabana rentals available.  Plenty of tennis courts, gym, lots of dining options and spa were all in good shape.  The children’s facilities could use an upgrade, but activities abound for children and teens.

The Jewell Grande is located between the Hilton and the Hyatt.  It’s a unique condo style and all-inclusive property that is ideal for families who are just looking to chill by the small beach with waterports, hang out at one of the two pools, play golf or tennis nearby (not on property), enjoy some spa treatments (including a Himalayan Salt Therapy Lounge) and eat in a wide variety of dining options.  There is also a children’s program, small playground and nice grassy area for little ones to run.  The resort features up to 3 bedroom condos with full kitchens (private chef services are available), spacious living rooms, washer/dryer and gorgeous ocean views from the expansive and furnished patios.

Our tour of Half Moon Resort covered the major renovation that will be finished by the winter holidays.  It will completely reshape this old-school Jamaica resort where Mindy and Lauren enjoyed their villa stay with our extended family several years ago.  Highlights will include new rooms and suites, a vegan restaurant and centrally located lobby.  We toured several beachfront suites that are spacious for families and one of the larger villas (that include cook and butler services) that was in need of some updating.  Their fitness, tennis, golf and equestrian facilities are still second-to-none in the Caribbean and their spacious and lushly landscaped spa was divine.  Especially when they treated us to foot massages!

Lauren also visited the Iberostar Rose Halls Suites and the adult-only Iberostar Grand where staff go out of their way to please their guests.  We toured the rooms (two double beds + day bed at the Suites), had a lovely dinner at the Italian restaurant and enjoyed a beautiful  sunset by the nicely landscaped pool at the Grand.  There is also a small casino between these resorts.  Our families really enjoy this property as well, but we hope future renovations will brighten up the somewhat dark rooms.

Visits to Breathless and Secrets also offered a glimpse into these adult-only properties and their facilities.  Especially enjoyable was an Indian restaurant on the roof of Breathless with amazing city views.

And of course a visit to Scotchies for some amazing jerk chicken, Red Stripe beer and festival!