Riu ClubHotel, Negril, Jamaica
Tad and Lee Ann
From: the greater Chicago metro area
Time of Vacation: 11/14 - 11/23 (9 nights)

Apple Vacations:
We has usual traveled with Apple Vacations - and as usual had excellent service from Apple.

Our Resort/Hotel Vacations:
Other All-inclusive Resorts: Thanksgiving 2005 at Sunscape Casa Del Mar in the Dominican Republic, the La Romana area. Other years, Bahia Principe, Grand Palladium Resort & Spa - both in Mexico's Riviera Maya
Hotels Vacations: Honeymoon in Aruba at the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino
and in Cancun at the Camino Real

Comparing Riu, Negril to other All-Inclusives (AI's) we have been to:
We truly loved this place and rate it a true tie with our other number 1 favorite resort, the Sunscape. The Riu is just as “new” looking as the Riveria Maya resorts we have been to. What sets our 2 favorite resorts in Number one place is their location. That is their location in a sheltered bay. Bloody Bay is almost like its own sea water lake - it is flat, shallow and offers incredible snorkeling accessible from the resort.

Planning our 2006 Thanksgiving Vacation:
We enjoyed our Caribbean vacation so much to the Sunscape that this year we also wanted to look for a place in the Caribbean. We again were challenged with the decision of going all-inclusive or not all-inclusive. The reason why we were challenged is that our main priority is the water - namely snorkeling. Hopefully snorkeling from the beach. We looked first at the great snorkel/scuba Caribbean islands of the Grand Caymans and Bonaire. We also spent a lot of time looking at the Virgin Islands. Because we have spent the last 3 of our 5 tropical vacations at AI's (All-Inclusive), it was very hard to not go AI and if we went to these islands the best places to stay where not AIs. This led to much discussion on comparing Hotel vacations to AI vacations. After much discussion, we realized that we both wanted another AI vacation and I would have to settle for a less "Snorkel" location (or so we thought at the time). Another big help in deciding to go to this destination located in Bloody Bay is that my Uncle and Aunt have spent many enjoyable vacations at the Grand Lido that is also located in Bloody Bay. My Uncle loves the snorkeling and excellent service at the Grand Lido.


First Day:
We enjoyed the drive from the airport into Negril. We knew that it would take just over an hour and a half and be on winding roads. The scenery is both beautiful and “eye opening”...
We soon checked in and I made sure that we got a room in building 4. (See Room section) We got off to a great start as they gave us a glass of wonderful rum punch. We soon were on our way and checking out the resort. We were very impressed with all that we saw at this very beautiful resort - the water - was just as beautiful as in the Dominican Republic.

Excursions:
-Snorkel tour by on-site Scuba Caribe
-Horseback Riding at Rhodes Plantation
-Rick’s Café tour with Apple Vacations
All of them were excellent - for more details see the end of the report

Location of the Resort:
Riu ClubHotel, Negril is located in beautiful Bloody Bay. Due to being on a Bay with natural coral reef helping shelter it, the water is very calm - almost like a huge swimming pool. The 2 points of the bay come in fairly close and there are islands that also shelter the bay. Therefore, the bay is almost like a huge lake. These islands are Booby Cay and a very small island. Bloody Bay is located to the west of Seven Mile beach. We very much preferred Bloody Bay to 7-mile beach. Riu ClubHotel is on the furthest west side of the bay. Then there is some wooded area and a public beach thing and then Riu Tropical Beach. “Couples” is on the immediate east side of Riu Tropical Bay. Then comes the Grand Lido, which is on the point and the furthest east side of the bay. The bay faces south or southwest and there is excellent sunsets to be seen. There are a few sailboats out in the bay.

Layout of the Resort:
This resort – and I think it is due to their piece of beach front reality is designed with the main “hub” on one end – the east end. This includes the lobby, the pools and all food. There are 4 large buildings housing the guest rooms. Building 1 is closest to the hub and building 4 is the furthest away. Each building seems to have 3 floors. It also seems that about 90% of the rooms offer some type of ocean view, with the rooms designated “ocean view” directly facing the ocean and the garden rooms or super savers being on the sides. The garden rooms and super savers seem for the most part to have some form of ocean view. We were in a garden view/super saver in building 4 on the 3rd floor and we had a really great view. There is a bit of a walk from each end. See Room section for more info. The main “hub” of this resort was more compact than other resorts that we have been to. I do not mean that the buildings were smaller than others – in many ways they were a bit larger. I just mean that the Main “hub” buildings were right next to other in a very eye pleasing arrangement. In many ways, this was very nice. There was not a long walk from the lobby to the buffet or to the specialty restaurants.

The beach front is arranged with the scuba center located on the east boundary then the designated swimming area. These areas are right in front of the main “hub” section. The beach stretches the length of the resort, thus the next section of water frontage becomes more of natural area and not a swimming area. This section stretches until the furthest west end. There are signs here saying “Fish Sauntuary” No Swimming. One can snorkel in this area. There are also a ton of beach chairs in this area – if you just want to hang out.

Beach/Water/Swimming:
(10+++ on a scale from 1-10 (Bahia and Palladium-7)(Sunscape 10+++) First of all, I can not say enough about the beach area of this resort.... Fantastic, GREAT, Excellent does not fully describe it. So here are some more details.... There is a beach with plenty of shoreline with many palm trees. Due to the sand, the shallowness and the water clarity the water consists of many different shades of vibrant turquoise/green and when the water catches the light sunbeams form. It looks just like the water you see in Movies, commercials etc.

The Beach has many beach chairs scattered throughout the whole beach from the east end to the west end. There are plenty of palm trees providing needed shade. The resort did an excellent job maintaining the beach area and each night they raked the beach.

The swimming area is fairly large and seems to accommodate people's swimming needs and never seemed to get overly congested. One can walk a long distance out without it being too deep. And, Yes, there are a few rocks in the swimming area, but nothing too bad.

There was Boat action, but it never seemed to be a problem and seemed to occur at certain times of the day. There were a dozen annoying jet skiers swarming about at times in the bay – more on these jetskiers later in the report.

Food on the beach... There is easy to grab food and beverage. There is a jerk chicken hut and a beach bar.

Snorkeling at the Resort:
(10 on a scale from 1-10 This is my main priority (along with the AI thing). The snorkeling from the beach was great. We snorkeled right in front of Building 4. There are a few fishes living among the sea grasses and we also saw star fish, sea cucumber, small rays, puffer fish and many others right here. There is excellent shorkeling out further in the bay. The easiest to get to is the west point. You have a bit of swim. Most of the swim is in fairly shallow water. The reef starts near the point, goes out into the ocean near the point, and then wraps around to the other bay. Snorkeling is excellent here and well worth the swim to it. When you get to the west side – just keeping snorkeiling and heading out to the bay – you will eventually come across the reef. The bay on the other side also has excellent reefs. I read that there is good snrorkeling at the little island and then there is also an excellent reef at the Grand Lido. (we did not snorkel at these last 2 place) We took the snorkel tour offered by Scuba Caribe that goes out to Booby Cay – this is ESCELLENT.

Buffet:
(9 on a scale from 1-10)(Bahia and Palladium-9) The buffet had a lot of everything for everyone. We enjoyed it each time we ate there. Each night had a theme night so it is somewhat different each night. . We like to sample food and eat a little of everything. Thus, we like the buffet idea and we thought they did an excellent job. We also ate all of our breakfasts here. They do an excellent job for breakfast too. Dinner Favorites were: great meat selection, excellent sea-food including squid, shrimp,octopus and many other fish, pizza, salads, fruits, cheeses, breads, fritters passion fruit and many good deserts including different tasty flan and cake deserts. They even have a good buffet table set up for children which included - hot dogs, nachos, pizza, french fries and many other child favorites. For breakfast, they have a great made to order omelet/egg station, different kinds of juices and smoothies, donuts, croissants, great bakery, pancake/french toast station, yogurts, cereal and many other healthy and tasty things. They have carving stations and show cooking. For the tropical night, they had a row boat full of oysters and a ice sculpture.

There are 3 choices for lunch. Shadows restaurant turns into a lunch buffet; Rudizio turns into Lugios, Italian pizzeria; and a jerk chicken hut. We ate all 3 of them.

Restaurants:
(8 on a scale from 1-10) We found all the restaurants to have excellent food, good menu selections, appetizing/pleasing/pretty presentation of food, above average service and pleasing aesthetic "look-interior design". We particularly liked Shadows Steakhouse restaurant. We ate their twice. I loved the charred-brioled made to order steak and Tad loved the shrimp and Red snapper. We found Sir Andrews a great place to dine. I really liked their coconut crusted fish and Tad liked the raw swordfish appetizer. We heard very good things about Rudzio’s but it was not a priority for us to eat there – so we ended up not eating there.

Drinks:
(9 on a scale from 1-10) They make most of their drinks from scratch - not pre-made mixes. The coconut milk is wonderful. They have outstanding bar service.

Room:
(10 on a scale from 1-10)(other resorts 8 & 9) After doing my research on the web I knew that we wanted to stay in buildings 3 or 4. And we prefer a top floor.
These 2 buildings might not be for everyone - especially families with small children. Tthey were ideal for us. It is a walk to get out to buildings 3 and 4 – we did not mind it. Buildings 3 and especially Building 4 are closer to the water than buildings 1 and 2. For snorkelers, you were closer to the part of the beach that you will be using for snorkeling. Also with being in Building 4, we were further away from the “hub” and thus the noise from the “hub””. We felt like we had more privacy.

Our room looked out to the east and we had an excellent view of Riu, Tropical Bay and the Grand Lido from our balcony.
We thought that the room was one of the most attractive rooms we have been in. I loved the crown molding, the interior decorating, the granite sink top and many other contemporary features. We also liked the bar area and the in room bar dispenser, which I read is one of Riu Resorts trademarks. The bed was indeed a King and not 2 twins/full beds pulled together. The bed was huge and just the right hardness (but this seems to be different for each person, but for us it was what we liked). Every day when we would get back to the room, the maid a beautiful tower arrangement on the bed that included beautiful flowers. We really liked our balcony. We liked that they have walls between the balconies so that you cannot see into your neighbors. They also have a drying rack out there. They do not have irons in the rooms – and you have to rent it from the lobby. But, we did not bring anything that we needed an iron for.

Aesthetics:
(10+ on a scale from 1-10) The Riu is truly a beautiful resort. There is plenty of marble and granite where ever you look and there are many hand painted tiles, details and ceilings. Being a graphic designer, I really loved the way that they used color throughout the resort. The Resort was designed in a modern style with many Caribbean touches and many colonial touches. There was also many Neo-classic sculptures and flourishes throughout the resort. The grounds and buildings are very well maintained. The best part is that wherever you go you have an ocean view.

Theater:
(Design 10, performances 8 a scale from 1-10,)(Other resorts-8) I have to say that I really loved the way that they designed this theater – they had bars around it and all of the night activity for the most part congregated in this center area. A lot of the resorts we have been to the theater seem to sit by itself until show time. At his resort, there were 2 bars in the area and that was the place to be at nighttime. This also made it very convenient in bad weather – the theater really worked for a place to congregate and play games, drink and just have fun. The entertainment was good. The bands they brought in were great and the entertainments staff did a good job.

Beach Party:
They had a really fun beach party one night. It started around 9 or so – when It was dark out. They had a reggae/party band play and then a guy who did amazing things with fire – the fire guy…. This was a very enjoyable evening.

Recommendation/Suggestion/Concern:
1. Jet-Skies. This is a tricky one for all involved with this… i would imagine the resort tries its best handling this tricky, messy situation. I hear that they do call the police on these people but they go away and then come back again. These Jet Skies are not with the Resort or the resorts on-site scuba company, Scuba Caribe. PLEASE avoid them. I ask you kindly to not give them any business. I have read all sorts of crazy things that they do to people on the trip reports on the web and know from personal experience - that they come awfully close to the reefs and a little too close for my liking to the snorkelers who are swimming out to the reefs and/or are at the reefs. We even saw some of the jet skiers as they are speeding along in their jet skies - using the “products” they are selling... One word for it is SAFETY… safety for the swimmer when the jet skiers are around. One day I counted 12 jet skiers out there. I was calling them “flies” like annoying flies zooming around. I do not think that it is Riu’s fault or any of the resorts - I think that Negril or even Jamaica needs to do something about the problem... or at the very least put up markers protecting the reefs. Enough Said - just be careful of them and if you have children just know that there is more to the fly in the water than what you see at first.
2. Specialty restaurants sign up: we were able to eat at the restaurants that we wanted and for the most part at the time we wanted to... I just think that maybe they could handle this a little bit better - maybe having more people eat at restaurant - I am not sure.... I know that a lot of resorts have same day sign up, but I wish that there was a new system where when you checked in you could mark down when and where you wanted to eat at the restaurants. For example, you would be given so many nights to eat at specialty restaurants based on the number of days you are staying. You would be responsible for marking your restaurants down and dropping it off to the front desk the first day. They would see what they could do for you and by the next day you would have a print out of your dinner reservations. No lines and no needing to waste an hour in your morning to stand in line, which for us and many others is the time of day we are the most busy on excursions or snorkeling. You would just have to work your schedule around the nights that you signed up for.

Service:
(10+++ on a scale from 1-10) We rate this resort extremely well on their service to their customer/guests. From their smiling faces, to the staff remembering your names (or at least faces) and what you like to drink. We could really tell that the staff enjoyed working there and really helped taking care of everything.

Conclusion:
We really liked this resort and definitely would return – maybe next year. The things about it that really stood out for us was the location of the resort being in bloody bay and the very “new” feel and look to the resort. We really loved our room and we really loved the excellent service and friendly Jamaican people.


Tours:
Snorkel tour by on-site Scuba Caribe.
We truly enjoyed this excellent snorkel trip. There was just 4 of us at the 2 hour morning snorkel. This number can vary. The first 45 minutes is spent snorkeling at Booby Cay. This island is very visible from the resort. The snorkeling occurs on the south side of this island which was a movie location for 20,000 leagues under the Sea. The snorkeling is top-notch. There are many really cool fish to see. We really enjoyed it. The snorkel tour then goes past 7-mile beach and the second snorkel spot is out in front of 7-mile beach on the east end of 7’mile beach. The snorkeling here is also some of the best that I have seen. Our wonderful guides then took us closer into the coast line and we were able to see some of the other all-inclusive resorts, such as Sandals, Hediuism, Couples etc.

Rick’s Café tour with Apple Vacations:
We knew that we wanted to go to Rick’s Café before getting to Jamaica… It is suppose to be one of the top 10 famous Caribbean bars. And we wanted to see the jumping off the cliff thing. I also had been listening to their fun Reggae Music that they have accessible from their web site. We found out that it was cheapest and the safest to book through Apple. There are many ways to go to Ricks, Taxi, booze cruise, shopping tours, etc. We just wanted to go and be at the bar. So we each paid for the $15 Tour that gets you there. We were very pleases we were on a Apple tour with a shopping group. Thus, we picked up the people who had been shopping and the ban took us to the lighthouse. This was a beautiful location and is located just to the east of Rick’s, From Rick’s you can see it. It was fun to walk around and see if for a few minutes. And see more of the Negril “Cliff area. We then Got to Rick’s. Rick’s was very nice, we saw the people jump and one Rick’s guy even jumped from a tree down into the water and he did gymnastic type stuff on the tree before jumping – very cool. There were young boys jumping also. The Reggae band was very good. We got back around 7 PM.

Rhodes Hall Plantation – Horseback Ride
This was truly a highlight of the vacation. Rhodes Hall is just a short 5 minute drive from the resort.
We did an early morning ride. There was just the 2 of us and 2 guides. The guides are very good at what they do and are very entertaining. The first part of the ride takes you up a mountain/high hill. From way up here, We could see down to the ocean, Negril, and even see Riu. The Ride then comes down and then along the ocean front. Where you are on horseback riding in the surf. This ride then goes inland a tiny bit to a freshwater lake where there are crocodiles. This was very cool. We then got back to the stables and the horsemen prepared the horses for the swim. Yes, this ride takes you on horseback into the water, where you swim with the horse. This was excellent and once in a life time experience. We then walked around the grounds of the plantation and hanged out at the beach for a while. They have a very pretty property and an excellent beachfront.

Things to bring:
-Bug Spray
-Avon skin so soft for the ants (the ants are only a problem at night – but they are out there)
-Beach Towels due to the large spread of the resort and being able to snorkel from the far west side (near Building 4) we brought our own towels and were very thankful we did. They do have the usual towel hut and towel service – but this can be hike from building 4.
-Travel iron
-Snorkel gear, I prefer using my own – and it is not that expensive