Ocho Rios has some beautiful beaches, but this is not a safe place to go to visit. The bus ride from Montego Bay took over two hours and the bus only needed chickens and pigs to finish the tourture of this ride. We'd just gotten started on the ride to Ocho Rios from the Montego Airport, when the driver announced we'd stop for a break at this little place with shops and a hokey bar. We sat there for 20 minutes and then finally headed to the hotel. We were all very tired from a long day of travel and this was aggrivating to be forced to stop at some hole in the wall place and to make our trip to the hotel even longer. I understand this is their policy to do this to their customers. Same thing happened on the way back to the airport. You have to leave 5 hours before flight time so they can stop at some dump for you to stand around for 20-30 minutes and then continue.
The hotel looked impressive with it's open entrance and we were greeted nicely, but check in was kind of a mess. We ended up in a nice junior suite room on the 3rd floor overlooking the ocean, but our AC wasn't working and had to get maintenace to come take a look. Finally got that fixed and we decided to look for a place to eat. Their web site had said 7 restaurants, with 2 that required reservations and 5 open to all. It was just the opposite! Five required reservations, which we did one night and had to wait until 9:00 p.m. for dinner. The other two included a buffet style restaurant and a pizza type restaurant. We ended up eating mostly all our meals in the buffet place and the food was OK, but not great for the price we'd paid for all inclusive. To get reservations for the 5 required was a nightmare and we finally quit trying. The strange thing was, there was hardly ever anybody in these place having dinner.
My wife won some money at their small casino down in the sports bar on the second night and the next morning, we placed the cash in our lock safe, located inside the closet. We returned an hour later and discovered we'd been robbed and all her winnings had been taken from the safe. We finally got a security man to our room after a few hours and we were coached on how Jamaican thiefs think. We were advised to forget the safe and to hide our valuables between the matresses. I said, "oh, sure, nobody would think to look there". After a supposed security check by some guy at the front desk, we were told finally that "nobody had entered our room". I was PO'd, but decided not to let it ruin our vacation.
People all over the hotel keep trying to sell us pot, hash or anything else we wanted and I got tired of that. The beaches were beautiful and the water nice. The two pools were also nice, but nobody picked up any trash during the day and the water in the pools always had the smell of sewer water. By the time the pools closed at 6:30 p.m. it got pretty bad.
We did go on some great excursions, including Dunn's River Falls party cruise and a horseback excursion that allowed us to ride our horses into the ocean for them to swim and run. Lots of fun! The people were very nice at these places. But after traveling to many other countries with beautiful beaches, I'd never return to Jamaica!
The very worst was the trip back home. Mostly everything we bought in Jamaica was stollen out of our bags by Customs people as they told us how much they'd enjoy our Rum and gifts later. You have to stand there and watch them rob you and there's nothing you can do. People told us their shoes had been taken from their bags and clothes had footprints all over. I tried to get help for all we were put through, but had no luck at all. We never had any problems like this in Mexico from all the times we'd been there.
To make it worse, customs in the Houston, Texas airport stole from us what was left from getting through Montego Bay airport. When I questioned them about it, they got very angry and surrounded me as if I were a criminal. I told them to back off unless they were ready for a lawsuit and that seemed to work magic. But i failed to get names and decided to just try to make it home safely. I have written letters with no replies, so learn from my mistakes and if you do go to Jamaica, pay with Visa and have it all mailed home. That's the only way you'll get home with anything you buy.
This hotel is rated at 4.5 our of 5, and that's WAY too high. It's a very pretty place, but the staff is mediocre and it's not a safe place to be. Save yourself the aggravation and go to Cancun or someplace else. Some of the staff was very nice and polite, but the rest were very unpleasant and do not make you feel comfortable whatsoever.

We stayed at the Riu Ocho Rios Resort from May 2nd - 10th and all I can say is awesome!! After reading all of the previous negative reviews, I was a bit nervous about going, but let me tell you, the place is fantastic. My review is long.

Arrival: We traveled to the resort via Jamaican Tours (large comfortable tour bus). The trip from the airport was just under 2 hours, but we stopped at a rest stop for about 20 minutes to have drinks and food. The bus driver was great, gave us a wonderful overview of the people, the island, lifestyle etc. The check in at the resort was great, gave us rum punch and upgraded us (without us even knowing) to a Deluxe Oceanfront Suite - room 3257. It was a beautiful room and we were so excited to get such a big room with a great view and huge balcony! Fabulous view of the resort and ocean. The only slight downfall was that the Sandals Dunns River resort was next door to us and the generators were a little loud. No complaints though!!

Resort: BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I cannot express how wonderful this resort was, so clean and well maintained! The people that work there are constantly working to keep the place clean and it is in excellent condition. The beach was cleaned each day and the water was wonderful. There are vendors selling their goods on the beach, but if you say no thanks, they leave you alone! No problem mon! We did not see an issue with the pool being dirty, it was sparkling clean! I will mention that the floors do get slippery, 3 folks fell while we were there and 2 women actually broke their leg from slipping...be careful! The resort is so huge, that it never felt crowded. We were always able to get a chair at the beach and pool (we were with 30 people) and had no complaints about this ever!

Food: What can I say, there is sooooo much food that anyone can find something to eat. The buffet at St. Ann's is fantastic, more food than you can imagine! It was always fresh, and the hot food was hot, not cold like some reported. I have to say that I ate so much and tried so many things that I gained 7.5 lbs! It was that good!! I've been to plenty of all inclusive resorts over the years and this one is by far, the best ever as far as food goes! The speciality restraunts were really nice as well. We ate at all of them except the Japanese, and the food was excellent. If you felt that the portions were not enough, you could always visit the buffet afterwards for more....they never ran out of food, always plentiful. The jerk hut on the beach was out of this world, I definately recommend you try it. I ate lunch there everyday! Additionally, they had 2 lunch buffets and a grill on the beach, each day offering something different. We never felt that we were eating the same thing everyday, as there is so much to pick from. The Italian place was good for a late night snack, but we did not eat there on a regular basis. The snacks in the Sports Bar were okay, nothing great. As far as the drinks go, they are not loaded with liquor, so if you want more rum, vodka in your drink, all you have to do is ask. We did bring insulated mugs and it was the best advice ever, I definately recommend that you bring them.

Staff: Wonderful! We had no problems with anyone and met alot of great people. Look up Nash at one of the bars, she is the best bartender ever! We miss her already! I had an issue with my hairdryer in my room, I called 2x to have it fixed and because of my inconvenience, the front desk sent us a complimentary bottle of Appleton Rum and a large fruit plate! The people were all friendly and accomodating and everyone was willing to talk and share stories!

Excursions: We took the 2 hour bus trip into Ocho Rios ($8.00 per person) and it was worth it. 2 hours is a bit short, but we had fun looking in all shops. We did visit the vendors behind the fenced area and if you don't want to deal with pushy vendors, I suggest you do not go there. There are plenty of shops in town and I did not feel that the tent vendors were very friendly. There are vendors at the end of the beach at the Riu and they are great, not pushy, very friendly and have everything you could want. They deal with you and are very fair. I bought most of my souveniors from them!
We took the River Tubing Tour ($118.00 per couple) and that was a total blast. I recommend this for all, even small kids, it was great! We were gone from 1:20 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. so it did not take up the whole day. Friends that we were with went to Dunns River Falls and they had a blast as well. Find out which days the cruise ships are in port, and avoid those days for excursions as it gets really busy!

Weather: As suggested, do not read the weather reviews before you go. I did and it called for rain everyday! We only had rain one day out of 9 and it was over in 30 minutes. We sat in the pool while it rained, did not even impact our day! The sun came right out after the rain and it was hot! 87 - 89 degrees each day. Boy did we get good tans!

Entertainment: Each night, the resort puts on a show. It was not great, but better than nothing. The entertainment crew practices and works hard, and they were fun! There is not much to do at this resort at night, the disco is just okay, so if you are looking to really party and stay up all night, you may want to find a place in town to visit. Ask the staff, I'm sure they will give you ideas. We found ourselves to be tired by 10:00 p.m. so it was fine for us!!

All in all, I have to say that we had the best time ever! We met a couple from Indiana and now have new lifelong friends! The place is great, the island is beautiful and the people are wonderful. I hope this review helps and if you have any other questions, please feel free to email me.

Food, Beach, Service, Respect, Beach, Pools, Entertainment, Disco, Room, Personnel - Hey, Everything was better than I expected. Definitely going back there again and taking the kids this time!!

Just returned from Riu Ocho Rios April 20 so this is a late review. We had a great time on our trip, loved Jamaica, its people, and the resort as well.

We were told by a tour guide that the Riu Ocho Rios, to date, is the largest resort in Jamaica (but soon to be second largest when a new resort being now built is completed). This being said we still found the resort quite small as to what we have been used to in other areas. But even though we found it small we still found lots to do and plenty of room by the pools and on the beach as well.

The beach is very clean and the water crystal clear, though you are limited to walking just within the resorts property...there is a wharf on the right side and nothing to speak of on the left side, but still very open with lots of chairs.

The pools are very clean also with the one on the left side being alittle quieter then the other. We never had a bad time getting a chair there either. We spent morning and early afternoon on the beach and later afternoon we headed to the pool areas.

The resort, grounds, lobby, rooms, bathrooms, etc ...were all very clean as well. We found the restaurants and buffet good, we enjoyed all the food, and the service was good too. We loved the morning omelettes. We enjoyed the drinks as well, loved the Miami Vices- my afternoon choice for drink, also enjoyed the fresh coconut milk and rum right off the tree. The Jerk Hut on the beach was the best, awesome chicken and sausages, there also is a beach BBQ everyday. The pizza at the Italian restaurant at night was good too. We tipped our maid, bellboy, waiters, and the boys at the bars, they all work hard.

The entertainment at the resort was very good, they work very hard and look like they are having fun doing what they do. No its not Broadway, but still very good!

For $10US you can go into town shopping which we did. We also booked with Chukka Cove and did the zipline tour through the rain-forest, great day. Also booked with Yardie Tours for the Ocho Rios highlights...including Dunn's River Falls, Fern Gully (make sure to stop and say hi to Jack in the Bush, $1US for a pic with) the Wassi Art factory, finishing up in town for souvineer shopping. Another great day! Also on the resort every other day the main lobby hallway is filled with venders so you can shop right from the resort if you wish. We prefer to get off the resort on occasion and felt safe doing so as we were always escorted by bus group or tour group.

So in all, would I stay at this resort again- yes! The only "not so" faults that I could see were that it is smaller than what I'm used to from other resorts that I've stayed at and the beach has less walking distance then I'm used to as well.

So if you go, you will have a great time, it is a mind set, a willingness to enjoy different places, peoples, and customs beyond our own that makes our travels so wonderful. Enjoy!