I have traveled to Jamaica at least once every year for the past several years. I try to stay in a different area each time so I can experience different hotels. I have wanted to stay on Seven Mile Beach ever since I got to spend some time there last year. I selected Legends because it was inexpensive....they gave me a good deal for being an agent and January is a perfect time to escape the NJ blahness of winter.

ExplorerJamaica is awesome for transfers and day trips. I have used them a few times and their hospitality is much appreciated.

Legends is a perfectly situated, small hotel in Negril. I knew when we booked it that the reviews were a bit all over the place. Red flags for me are safety, cleanliness and food poisoning. I am happy to report that I always felt safe, the rooms were clean and the food was decent.

We were greated by the desk clerk who had a bit of a quirky personality. I wouldn't say it was an attitude, I just think she was trying to be funny but she wasn't. She told my friend and I that we were not fun enough to be on the beach side.....huh? She was pulling our leg but it was hard to tell that initially. Finally, she told us we were on the beach side but that the room was not ready. We were required to leave an imprint of my credit card with $100 held on it. Not really sure why because we couldn't sign anything back to the room. We left our bags in the lobby and grabbed some lunch and look around. We took a walk and got stuck at a little tiki bar when it monsooned on us. They had THE best dirty bananas! It's maybe a 3 minute walk from Legends going toward Margaritaville (which is a very far walk!)

OK, so the good things about staying at Legends:
* perfect location - close to everything and across the street from Times Square for shopping.
* cleanliness - while the hotel is a little dated, our room was cleaned well every day.
* big momma - greeted you with a smile every time she saw you.
* great water pressure in the shower......this does count for some people!
* the vendors on the beach - we made friends with mostly every vendor who tried to sell us stuff on the beach. while many people think that they are intrusive, i think they added to our experience.
* shopping brought to you - we could buy everything from fresh lobster, to fruit, jewelry, nuts, patties.....we did not have to leave our beach chairs if we didn't want to!
* massage by Nadine at the hotel......I got a deep tissue and she really worked on the knots in my shoulders!
* michael the safety officer - always polite and happy to help us get chairs.

The not-so-good:
* the beach - Seven Mile Beach itself is gorgeous. Legends' beach is about the size of a postage stamp. Guests are literally sitting within inches of each other. Thankfully Kuyaba is not that strict on property lines. We ended up moving our chairs closer to them to get away from some people
* the food - not worth the all-inclusive at all. Now that I know how easy and cheap it is to eat on the beach, I would skip the AI next time.
* the drinks - way too strong.....I know, who complains about that, right? Well, it was like they topped everything with rum and it was just too much.
* the "all-inclusive" - wasn't really AI. Many of the drinks were on the "not included" list.
* the beds - are like sleeping on concrete
* no beach towels
* AC - we had an older unit over our door - room 406. The condensation leaked from outside the door to inside the door and probably came into the room about 3 feet. Housekeeping only gives you 2 towels so it was hard to clean up. After the 3rd night, they left us 2 extra towels for the flood.
* charge for the safe - we ended up not getting one.
* inconsistent customer service - some employees were nice while others were not as nice. sometimes it felt like i was bothering them.

Some must-dos while you are there:
* go to ricks for sunset and watching the divers
* go to margaritaville - yes, it's way overpriced but it's still fun!
* get to know the locals - talk to them, they are great people! ask them questions, it's all about respect there.
* walk the beach - it's gorgeous! Be prepared to be bombarded with vendors. Just tell them no thank you or maybe tomorrow. Don't ignore them.
* buy a raft and just float - it was so relaxing and beautiful!

All in all, I had a great time, but it's difficult not to there. Chances are, I would not stay at Legends again, not because it was a bad place to stay, I would like to experience something different....possibly Samsara. We drove passed it on our way to Ricks - it looked ok from the road. It would be really difficult to give up Seven Mile Beach though!