We visit the Caribbean every year,but this was the first to Jamaica. The hotel is very good (facilities as brochures), set in well kept grounds & situated on an excellent beach.
ROOM: Excellent sea view, large & spotless, bed comfortable although pillows rather thin & lumpy, plenty of hanging/cupboard space, fridge kept well stocked (all inclusive), Safe awkwardly situated but technically easy to use. However, bathroom though spacious the steps up/climb into jacuzzi is hazardous for those with the slightest mobility problem, or short stature. The water pressure was low at the best of times & almost non existant at certain times, yet the shower often managed to flood the floor.
NB. Only the front doors to Garden Rooms face the beautiful gardens; their terraces/balconeys overlook a large expance of plain lawn boardered by high hedges.
Some Sea View Rooms overlook the "Clothing Optional Beach" & the large terrace glass doors don't have net curtains, so if you don't want full frontal views on your door step, or to be viewed within, request another area. However, some thoughtless nudists not only walked to their front doors along the MAIN walkway, but also walked in & past the wedding pavillion & on past our room which was quite a distance from their beach! Come on Management, is it too much to insist that at least a towel be worn to & from the beach? I'm no prude, I've bathed topless, but I believe there's a time & place for everything & the place for full nudity in this case is that designated on the hotel map: the clothing optional beach, that's BEACH.
FOOD: There are plenty of restaurants to choose from, but they're not all open every night & some like the popular La Pasta don't have enough tables so queues can be a problem. The food is very good & plentyful, but we did not appreciate the DJ & Disco type entertainment at breakfast & lunch, the latter included games like Bingo! We can listen to disco music at home & for a change would have preferred background Caribbean music. As for the rest, it was a little too Butlins Holiday Camp for us. Then of course there were the other holiday guests Canadians mostly & Americans, who lean back in their chairs & shout to each other accross the tables, making it hard for us few Brits (I counted 3 other couples & met 2) to hear ourselves eat let alone enjoy a conversation. I did wonder if they have an inherent hearing problem.
ENTERTAINMENT: We avoided the main bar because of the noise & went to breakfast & lunch early for the same reason. The Piano Bar was very enjoyable early evening, but did become rowdy at times & no we are not boring, we just happen to like talking to each other/others without rasing our voices over, or listening to every word shouted around us.
BEACH: The large main beach is well kept, with plenty of tree shade. The two types of sunbeds: plastic blue material covered & plastic with foam mattress were confortable, but many guests took the mattresses from the latter to put on top of the blue ones, leaving uncomfortable plastic sunbeds! Plus after 9am beds were few if any, because guests visited the beach at some ungodly hour to towel every available one, sometimes not returning to actually use them till late morning/afternoon! Oh & most of them had 2-4 towels each; hotel policy being one per person, it's no surprise we were often unable to change our wet sandy towels = none left! Unfortunately staff didn't address these problems, because the culprits bring in lots of revenue to the the hotel/country & they didn't want to upset them! Thankfully following problems with certain European guests, the selfish act of towelling sunbeds has now been banned in many of the enlightened places we visit.
STAFF: Most are very friendly, as helpful as thay can be & extremely hard working, but it's impossible to tip so many, we had at least 4 maids in 14 days for a start. If maids kept to the same rooms, barring days off & the hotel implemented a central donation box (as provided by many others) all donations amassed could be evenly distributed to all, including those rarely seen at front of house, but also work to make everyone's stay enjoyable, 'fairs fair' as we say.
CHECK OUT: This is 11 am, but our pick up was 4pm & we did manage to keep our room till 2:30, so ask early that morning because it will vary.
Now your thinking why did we not do the same as everyone else?
Well 'two wrongs don't make a right', so please go and enjoy, after all 'forewarned is forearmed :-)
- Grand Lido Negril
- Grand Lido Hotel Negril
- Grand Lido
- Grand Lido Jamaica
- Grand Lido Negril Hotel
