From My Point of View: My Review of the RIU Montego Bay

April 19 – 26, 2017

I know it is has been a while since I have been there, however this post is not something I just wrote. I have had this for a few years I just had no where to put it up on until now.

RIU MONTEGO BAY

Let me start by saying that landing in Montego Bay and getting through to pick up our luggage and getting a bus to our resort was smooth easy and relatively quick. Considering that everyone on the airplane with you and another full airplane landed at the same time, so it was a busy time. We had 21 people in our group and it went as smooth as it could have gone.

When we first came out of the airport to get on our airconditioned bus after I took in the mountain side and all the palm trees and the warm weather, there is (or least there was one when we went) a cart selling the most delicious fruit drinks. I never did learn what it was but it was a little taste of heaven after a long flight. We boarded our bus waited only a short time and then we set off to the resort. We drove for about 6 mins and we arrived at our resort. It looked like a white castle when we entered the gated area.

First Impressions: Wow! you walk into the big open lobby with tiled floor and a high ceilings. It looked beautiful. To the left was the check in desk and across from that was a lounge area with Caribbean style chairs, and couches with coffee tables that had palms trees behind them. (This is where you could get the free wifi). They had two gigantic tables with extremely huge bouquets of tropical flowers. It was stunningly beautiful.

The layout of the resort is very simple. From the lobby you are attached to the resort stage with indoor bar, dance club and the stairs (or elevator) to the sports bar upstairs .Behind the check in desk was the resort store. It sold everything from necklaces, mugs, bathing suits, t-shirts, sunscreen. Blue Mountain coffee. If you keep walking by the store there is a bar beside the stage area. Some parts of it were covered and then they had an out door section as well . With a bar. If you follow around the corner you go down a long pathway and you can either turn left and go to the beach, turn left and go back up to the main lobby, or go straight which is in between the 2 pools. If you continue through the pool area you are located at the lunch buffet/steakhouse restaurant. Continuing past you come to the different buildings. We were the building closest too the beach in the 4th floor. What a view!!

Our check in went very smoothly. Our Concierge was very accommodating and up graded our room to an Oceanview Junior Suite). We had 2 adults and 3 children with us. The room had a king bed and a sofa (that did not pull out into a bed). We requested an extra bed to be brought in, and it arrived shortly after we requested it. The only downfall to the room was the open bathroom area. It had a separate door for the toilet but had a glass shower door. If it was just me and my husband traveling it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but we had our 3 kids with us and that was a little uncomfortable and we ended up putting a towel over the glass door for a little privacy.

The Resort its self was very simple to navigate. Click here to see the resort map.

Let’s talk food!!!! There is a hut on the beach that does BBQ Jerk Chicken. It is the most amazing, delicious, mouth watering jerk chicken I have ever had. I truly am still thinking about it and my mouth waters just thinking about it. I am sure that they had sides with the chicken and I think you could get something else, but I honestly only ate the jerk chicken. And I ate it every single day we were there. I had to line up around 11:30 before it opened because there were days that they didn’t have enough for the entire line up. The buffet was good. Always a variety of food and choices. The egg station was nice, and the choices of fruits and cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, cheese and deli meats sweets, donuts and lemon grass tea. It was almost as great as the freshly squeezed juices. The boys devoured those fresh smoothie drinks every single day. For lunches aside from the jerk chicken that my husband and I ate each day, we were traveling with 3 growing and active boys that are always hungry. We would take them to the buffet beside the pool, and they always had sandwiches, fresh fruits, pasta salads, hamburgers, chicken breast, fish, pastas, lasagna, fish, potatoes, French fries, beef patties. You name it they had it. The boys loved the ice cream at that restaurant but had to learn quickly that it melts so fast because it is so hot outside. Dinners. You had 3 choices generally. The buffet was always a great choice with tons of variety for everyone. Always a carving station with meat, chickens, pastas, salads, fruits, vegetables, fish, gravies, always with some sort of theme. The Italian restaurant was really delicious. I had the best steak there the first night. We ate there twice while we were there, and we went to the steakhouse which was also very delicious in an outdoor setting. We did not visit the Asian restaurant as I have a severe allergy to shellfish and nuts and we didn’t want to risk any cross contamination. But I hear that it was very good. We also got married while we were there and had a private dinner for all of us, and it was very good as well. It was two different types of meat, veggies, potatoes and a pasta plus green salad with dinner rolls. Over all I LOVED the food here. we never went hungry at all. I still think about the food 2 years later. (hum makes me think that we should start looking at another vacation here).

The beach!! What can I say about the beach besides it was perfect. Soft sand under my toes and because of the break wall they put in front of the resort, we had waves but they were “perfect” waves. Not rough, but good enough for the boys to jump and have fun with them without having too much wave catching them. It was the perfect sound if you just sat in one of the covered lounges and enjoyed the sound. PS. I loved that they had lifeguards on duty!! And have I mentioned the palm trees!! The beautiful palm trees.

We lucked out that we only had a bit of rain once overnight and then in the afternoon of our wedding day. Someone says that it is good luck. I found that the day we spent on the beach we got more sunburned than when we were by the pool.

The staff were so accommodating and kind people. It was so lovely to spend a week getting to know the staff that you interact with every day. The entertainment staff is on of the best ones I have seen in a long time. Boy do they know how to put on a show. They also were very entertaining on and around the pool deck.

Over all I loved this resort. It was exactly what we needed and the resort wasn’t too large so that our group was all spread out. The more I think about it, the more I think that a trip to Jamaica is all that I need, right about now.

Chat soon XO