Beaches Negril Review

I will write a post about our wedding and our honeymoon, but I wanted to write about our experience overall with Beaches Negril first. 

When Chris and I decided to do a destination wedding we started researching destinations.  I wanted to do the US Virgin Islands.  After much research and meeting with travel agents, we opted for Jamaica.  The reasons we chose Jamaica were that it is an English speaking country, which makes it easier with our marriage documents, there are direct flights from Charlotte, and only a 3 hour flight away,  they have the most all inclusive resorts, so prices are less expensive than other islands since there is more competition, and since we would be staying on the same island for our honeymoon we wanted to choose and island where we could change locations and feel we had a separate honeymoon destination.  Originally, Jamaica was probably the lowest on my list of where I wanted to go.  No good reasons why, I just never thought much about Jamaica, all I really knew was about the island was Bob Marley, and I’m not that into Reggae.

Once we arrived in Negril, and at Beaches, I knew this was the best decision for us.  Negril is AMAZING.  It was all that imagined, and even more.  The water is so beautiful and the white sand beach stretches on for miles.  You can even see the mountains in the distance.  I cannot say enough good things about Negril.

Sunset in Negril

We had three options for destinations in Jamaica for our wedding.  There is Montego Bay, which is where the airport is, Ochos Rios, which is on the Northern side of the island and Negril which is on the western side.  We chose Negril because of its long white sand beaches, and because we read it has the best sunsets on the island.  I am a white sand beach girl; I like being right on the beach and seeing it from my window.  Negril seemed to be the obvious location for our wedding. 

Our room when we first arrived!

After we made the decision to have our wedding in Negril, we had to choose a resort.  Originally, I did not want to do a Sandals or a Beaches.  For one, when we looked through information at the travel agent’s office, Beaches was advertised with Sesame Street characters all around, and we did not want this setting for our wedding.  As for Sandals, I just never liked how it looks when I see adds for Sandals and ‘Sandals’ is written on the bottom of every pool.  Not a big reason, but I wanted other options.  Chris and I really liked the Couple’s Resorts, these were adult only resorts.  I knew my sister would be bringing her kids, but I figured they could come onto the resort for the wedding festivities.  We quickly learned, they could, but only for the one hour ceremony.  This would not work.

After much debate on resorts, we decided to choose Beaches.  When researching this resort more, we read only good reviews; the pictures were amazing, the options of restaurants, pools, bars and activities could not be beat. 

the main pool bar at Beaches Negril

I can say now, this was the perfect location for us and our wedding.  From the moment we arrived, we were treated like royalty.  We were upgraded to an ocean front, 3^rd floor, concierge room which looked right out to our wedding gazebo.  Our room and view were just amazing.  Everyone at this resort was so friendly and accommodating.  They went above and beyond what we expected. 

the main pool, The Mill restaurant on the right

The resort is just perfect.  The beach is breathtaking and the sunsets were just as described.  The Sesame Street characters were not all around us, which was good.  We saw them at the beach party parade, and a couple other times when they were walking to and from their events.  It didn’t feel like we were at a kid’s resort.  The kids at the resort mainly stayed at the water park and kids pool.  We were not bothered at all by having kids around the resort.  It was also great to see my niece and nephews all around and having a blast.  We went to the water park area each day to go down the water slides, which were so much fun!  Even floated around the lazy river a few times. 

Chris and Cassie catching a star fish

For me, personally, I liked being at a family resort because of my picky eating.  Every restaurant had children’s options, which I ordered a couple times!  The pool bars had specialty frozen kids drink menus, and those drinks were pretty good, and you could add alcohol for the adult versions.  There was never much of a wait to get food or drinks, anywhere.  I also liked that there were water dispensers all around the resort, with all different types of fruit in them to add flavor to the water, and you could help yourself.  The ice cream bar was an added bonus for everyone!

There were always more than enough lounges and chairs around the pools and beach, and you could also rent a cabana on the beach for a day and have your own personal server bring you food all day, keep a stocked cooler by your cabana and have a picnic table and lounges set up right there as well.  My family did this the day after the wedding, on their last day, and it was so nice.  Especially watching the sunset there while enjoying drinks.

how beautiful is this water?!

The water sports available, at no charge, were so much fun, you could choose from kayaking, hobie kats, banana boat rides, aqua trikes, glass bottom boats, snorkeling, scuba diving, and more.

The water is so calm and crystal clear water as far as you can see.  The sand is so soft.  I read that there would be many people on the beach approaching us to try to sell us stuff and this could be annoying.  Honestly, this did not happen very much to me, personally.  I did see people selling stuff, and did get approached a few times for Jet Ski rides or to buy a necklace, but it really wasn’t that often.  Also, all you had to do was shake your head no and they kept walking.  I think I was approached more on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii to buy stuff than I was in Jamaica. 

There are seven restaurants to choose from.  We had events three out of the four nights we were there, so we did not dine out each night, but I think between lunch, breakfast, and a couple dinners on our last night, we hit them all.  The Mill is the buffet and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We had breakfast here, lunch and this was the location for our wedding reception.  There is so much food to choose from at this restaurant.  The Venetian is the Italian restaurant on the resort, you do need reservations and the website says men need to wear dress pants and dress shoes, but when we were there we saw many men in shorts and sandals, so I don’t think they enforce this rule.  This is a four course meal, the restaurant is fancy, and the food is great!  Kimonos is the Asian restaurant and most people really love this one, as for me, I don’t eat that food, so I just went for the company and the dinner show.  Arizona’s is the Tex-Mex restaurant open for lunch and dinner.  I really liked this restaurant, self serve nacho bar and good food.  BBQ Park is open from 11am to 3am.  This is a walk up window for ordering and they have bar type food and snacks.  This place was always busy late night.  Café de Paris opened when we were there.  It is very cute inside, and is like a Starbucks, also serving ice cream.  Dino’s Pizzeria is the pizza restaurant and it has great pizza, many selections to choose from.  I loved the garlic sticks here.  They are open from 11-6.  Stew fish is the seafood restaurant on the beach under a beach hut.  We did not eat dinner here, but they do serve breakfast and the breakfast was very good at this restaurant, and nice being right on the beach.

the view from our balcony.  the white gazebo is where we got married.

The only negative thing I can say is that the teenagers visiting the resort were obnoxious at times.  Late night at the BBQ Park they hung out here and were rude and loud.  That is about it.

I cannot say enough good things about Negril and Beaches Negril.  I would recommend this resort to anyone.  We like to travel, and go to new places, but I would return here in a second.  I haven’t been to a ton of island beach vacations, but have been to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Australia, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Ochos Rios (Jamaica) and Key West.  The prettiest water/beach I have seen is Negril, Jamaica.  The best resort I have been to is Beaches Negril.  This was also my first all inclusive resort, so that might have a little to do with it.  Just the atmosphere and the staff made this stand out, and of course, the wonderful location.  We could not have picked a better location and resort for our wedding.  We will be back!

I will write another entry about our wedding and go into detail about the events the resort had for us each night and how well we were treated and how perfect our wedding was!