We arrived at Jolly Beach on Dec 27. Check in took no more than 10 minutes. We were escorted to our rooms with our bags. I recommend if you like a nice room to upgrade. We had a King Superior overlooking the beach, it was clean and very nice. Room service was done promptly and well. We found the staff friendly and accomodating. This was a very busy week, still had no problems finding a spot on the beach close to our room. People on beach selling their wares were friendly and when you said no thanks, they left. If you want privacy they are not allowed in the hotel areas, including the pools. On New Years Eve, hotel went all out. Restaurants were decorated. hats and noise makers given to all. Show was very good, lots of dancing too. Champagne flowed prior to midnight. We had a blast, met some really nice people from England, USA, and Canada. Water is not clear, due to I think the undertow kicking up the sand, this was only downfall but no fault of anything hotel could do. Food was good, we were not expecting 5 star, you could not go hungry and especially good breakfasts. We would go back, was a wonderful relaxing time.

Having recently returned from Jolly Beach Resort I can only sing its praises and am somewhat dumbfounded as to the complaints of others for the price - ie, its cheap - you get what u pay for! I found it to be good value, the staff pleasant (unless you are rude to them) the food was better than i expected and the rooms although small v clean and the maid service excellent. We (12 of us) were part of a wedding party and couldn't have been better looked after. We had a brilliant time in all, i recommend the helicopter ride if you get chance which picks u up from the hotel (the scenery was amazing from above) the eco adventure & Shirley Heights is worth a visit. I would defintately recommend it - but if you want 5 star i suggest u pay for it!

We just returned from a week at Jolly Beach Resort (Christmas Day to New Year's Day). My group included my husband and our two kids in their early 20's. My travel agent would probably say that I am one of his "picky" clients, so take that into consideration when reading this review. We have stayed at some wonderful properties - Hyatt in Aruba, East Winds in St. Lucia, Maroma in Cancun, and Le Meridien in St. Martin, so I write from that perspective. I read other reviews on this site prior to our visit there which I found very helpful. I will be extremely honest in my opinion and hope that this review will be of use to others.

First, the positives.
The beach is absolutely one of the best we have seen in the Caribbean. It's long and walkable. The ocean was always gorgeous shades of blue/green. True, the water is not crystal clear, but neither did it contain seaweed or jellyfish. There is a great sandy bottom and the hotel will let you use floats. If you get out early enough, you can get one of the palapas so that you'll have shade when you want it. There are licensed vendors on the beach who will approach you, but when you tell them that you are not interested, they will wish you a good day and leave. My daughter and I had massages from Alex, who was wonderful! Thanks for whoever gave me that tip from this site. Also, Tony is a good guy to see for motorized watersports. As stated by others, the pool is unbelieveably beautiful.

The food was surprisingly good in the restaurants. Find out as soon as you arrive how to get restaurant reservations. We enjoyed all three restaurants, but the Italian was our favorite. Even thought we were there during one of the busiest weeks of the year, it is possible to eat at one of the restaurants every night. We only had to eat at the buffet our first night there. The buffet breakfast is very nice, but I would steer clear for other meals unless you have small children with you.

The staff was very friendly, helpful, and extremely polite. I specifically watched for rudeness from the employees because of other reviews that had been written, but I found everyone to be very gracious.

If you are looking for activities, there are plenty. We took a 5 hour taxi tour and decided that we would have enjoyed a little more time in St. John for shopping.

There is an adequate gym, a game room with pool tables as well as table tennis, and a small store on premise. The casino at Jolly Harbour is very nice and you can get a free shuttle to take you there and back.

Having said all that, here comes the negative.
The rooms are deplorable. We had two junior suites and they were both horrible. When we saw the accommodations, I immediately called the front desk to let them know that a huge mistake had been made. When I was told that yes, indeed, we had the best they had to offer, I was less than excited about spending a week in the room. However, we were there to enjoy the beach and be with our kids, so we just used the room to shower and sleep.

The buildings are in bad need of repair and sprucing up. With a face-lift, it could be a really nice property. The tennis courts need some attention as well.

What you must bear in mind is that Jolly Beach is a three-star resort. Don't expect anything more. It's not the romantic hotel to spend quiet time eating gourmet food and drinking nice wines with your significant other. It's a good family-style all-inclusive resort. I can't say that I was expecting more. I had a budget that I wanted to stay within during the most expensive week in the Caribbean. If I had wanted to spend more, we would have gone to Jumby Bay or Curtain Bluff! The old adage applies - "You get what you pay for" and we definitely got what we paid for!

As a pilot that spends 80+ days on the road, we were told this was the fourth best hotel that had rooms left during Dec 26 to Jan 1. . We normally stay at Marriott hotels when we can, and so this is what I compared it to. After leaving the airport in our rental cars, we had a heck of a time trying to find the resort because of the lack of road signs and poor directions. When we did arrive, we checked in with no problems and no waiting for the room. When I got to the room, it was a standard room, so small you could hardly walk around the bed, smelled horribly musty/moldy, had no screen on the bathroom window and bugs did get in and had no furniture except for a small stool. It was built in cement tables, nooks, and looked like a mexican jail. The toilet worked poorly, and the room was very noisy from other people in other rooms or by walking by outside in the hallway. The "door" on the bathroom was a sliding piece of wood that didn't work well. After spending ten minutes in there, I went to the front desk to see if I could upgrade or get a different room. They were all booked up and said no. I then made arrangements to stay at another resort across the island, but was very hungry, and it was getting late, so we decided to eat before we left. We went to the buffet and did eat, but the quality of the food was not very good. As we sat and ate, I couldn't help but feel sorry for all these people that were there spending their money on this bad food and accomodations. After we ate we left and went to another resort. Maybe if you got a deluxe room or better it might have been OK, but the food was still pretty bad. There are better places on this island, like bluewater inn. Do your homework before finalizing this place as your destination.