Beaches Negril is a great place for a family to share a fun filled vacation! The four of us enjoyed the beautiful ocean, the pools, the hobbie cats, the kayaks, the glass bottom boat, and the snorkeling. We had an absolutely great time!

The food was very good and you have the choice to choose from a diversity of restaurants and food types. The large array of various fresh fruits provided at breakfast in The Mill restaurant was a particularly tasty diversion from the boring breakfasts we are used to having at home.

As other reviewers have said, the staff is very accommodating and friendly.

Our room was a bit small for two adults and two children but was well planned out with the sink outside the shower/toilet room. The housekeeping staff came twice a day and kept things neat and clean. The network internet cable in our room did not work but we were able to connect through Wi-Fi in the Great Room sitting room. The TV received the Disney channel (great for our kids) and WGN showing us news from our home base of New York.

A few minuses are that mosquitoes sometimes bothered us at night, especially at the beach watching the Spiderman 3 movie. (Yes, they have movies on the beach projected onto a very large screen!) Also some of the buggers found their way into our room on a couple of occasions. The other thing was the intensity of the sun combined with high humidity was something we were not accustomed to. We planned our activities in the morning or late afternoon and had to keep applying sun block through the day.

All in all we had a great time and my wife and I are planning a return trip for next year.

This was our second time to Beaches Negril. Both times we have had wonderful experiences. The staff have always gone out of their way and have always been friendly. This time we took 2 excursions which were wonderful. The food was great and we ate at all the different places moer than once. The new addition of the water slides and the lazy river was great. We feel like kids again playing all day. My 2 girls, ages 20 & 18 had a great time. No one wanted to leave. The room was very comfortable and kept clean. There is so much to do, we were busy every day. We will be back for a 3rd visit in the future.

Our family of 4 (kids 12 and 9) just returned from a 7 night stay at Beaches Negril. Overall, we had a great time. We had been to Beaches Turks & Caicos twice before and love the Beaches AI concept. We decide to try Negril just for a change of pace and we got a nice deal booking through Beaches “Soon Come Back” desk on our last trip. The trip wasn’t perfect – but no place is. There were things we really liked and some areas that need improvement. Overall, I think the key to enjoying your stay at Beaches Negril is going with the right expectations. We know things in the Caribbean aren’t like home, but even still, we had to adjust our expectations somewhat on this trip mostly because we kept comparing it to Turks & Caicos. I will post a separate comparison of the two properties and will try to keep comparisons here to a minimum, however, I believe Turks & Caicos is definitely the premier Beaches resort. If you go to Negril before Turks, you will be blown away. If you have already been to Turks, expect several things to be quite different.

Arrival – Our arrival was fairly uneventful and we were cheerfully greeted by the staff at the Sandals/Beaches lounge. We grabbed a soda but were hoping for a snack or two. Just a small bag of pretzels would have helped the growling stomachs since neither flight offered a snack (not even for purchase) and our first flight was late so we couldn’t grab anything during our layover. We waited less than 10 minutes and boarded our bus. We waited another 10 minutes or so for another party to join us and we were on our way. The drive to Negril from Montego Bay is long. Our driver was great – pointing out the sights along the way. We stopped half way there for a bathroom break and were able to grab a bite to eat. Then we were on our way, dropped a couple off at Sandals and headed directly to Beaches Negril. We arrived on a Wednesday, not your typical arrival day, so no punch or cold towels waiting for us. We were escorted into the Concierge Lounge (we booked the Beachfront Suite) and waited 10 minutes or so to get checked in. It was about 2pm and our room was ready!

Room – We had the greatest location and the greatest view. We were in Room 607 which is in the Savannah block. It was on the first floor with a gorgeous 180 degree view of the ocean. The room was ample size for the 4 of us with the rollaway bed. Unfortunately, we requested the rollaway 5 times, including 3 trips personally to the concierge lounge. It arrived mid way through the second day so the first night our kids had to share the sleeper sofa. I felt they could have done a MUCH better job with that. We had a King size bed that was surprisingly comfortable. The A/C unit was over the doorway between the main bedroom and the sink/closet area. That was a strange set up. The closet was made from various 2x4’s – which was quite functional but not very elegant. I took some pictures which I will post. No problem, we didn’t go for the closets anyway. Our A/C unit did drip water occasionally, but never so much that it was a problem like I’ve read in other reviews. We never reported it or complained. The bathroom looked like it could use a little TLC. Several tiles were cracked but it was clean. The windows are also unique. They have slatted windows with screens nailed over them. I’m not sure how this design was thought up, but it did allow some mosquitos to sneak in and also isn’t terribly energy efficient with the A/C running. We had a nice patio with a table and 2 chairs and a rack to hang our wet bathing suits. Overall, we were pleased with the room. But the location and the view certainly made up for any small annoyances!

Pools – There are 2 pools and we spent most of our time at the Main pool (just steps from our room). There are not a lot of chairs by the pool although for the chairs that were there, they had nice new umbrellas so there was ample shade, assuming you got a chair in the first place. Despite there only being 30 chairs or so, we had no problem grabbing them each morning. Granted, we were out before 8 am each day! The bartenders at the Main Pool bar were great. We immediately got to know Andre who took care of us all week. We spent lots of time playing volleyball and tried water aerobics a couple of times. The water aerobics instructor was great! We ventured over to the lazy river and water slides a few times. The slides were actually pretty fun. Warning – they are super strict about the height requirements. It wasn’t a problem for my kids but several other guests seemed to be surprised their kids couldn’t go on them. The lazy river wasn’t at all what I expected. It was about 2 feet deep – max. Everyone wears a life vest which allows you to float on your back, but honestly it looked bigger and better in all the brochures. It was still fun – but it is a matter of realistic expectations.

Beach – the beach was stunning. I couldn’t believe how big it was – meaning how wide between the resort and the ocean. Plenty of room, tons of chairs, ample shade. Sunsets were stunning. They had a couple of rafts for people to swim out to – although no jumping or diving allowed.

Watersports – this was a bit of a mixed bag. If you asked me what I thought on days 1 through 5 I would have given them dismal ratings. However, somehow on Day 6, they were superb. The first several days we went, they were never offering the lessons listed in the daily activities. The answer I always got was “the guy who does the lessons isn’t here.” When I asked when he would be back, I got an irritated look and was told “come back later.” The line ups for the banana boat were chaos the first couple of times we went and despite showing up promptly at 2pm, the guy didn’t put our name on the list – he said we were early, then around 2:15, while I was standing right next to him, he walked toward a group of people and started taking their names. We avoided the watersports for a few days then stopped back again on the last day because the kids really wanted to try water skiing and sailing. (We needed lessons for both.) “The guy” who gives lessons was there and was so helpful and informative. My kids didn’t actually get up on the skiis (you get 3 tries) but they loved trying. Not sure what the difference was but it seems to depend on who is working there on any given day.

SCUBA Diving – Not sure is this is the same staffing problem as the watersports but my husband did not have a good experience with the dive staff at all. Compared to other places he has gone diving, including Beaches T&C, this group seemed very lax. Not something you want when you are relying on your equipment, buddy and divemaster to keep you breathing underwater. He went on one dive early in our trip and while the quality of the dive (i.e. he saw sting rays, star fish, barracuda, etc.) was great, he had a bad feeling about the crew. After he got off the boat, he realized he didn’t have his mask (his own equipment, not rental) so he ran back to the boat to get it. Less than 5 minutes had passed since they got off the boat. The 2 guys on the boat acted like they didn’t know what he was talking about and gave each other a look. My husband told them exactly where he had left it and what it looked like and started looking around for it. Then, suddenly, one of the guys opened up a cabinet full of personal stuff and pulled out his mask. Were they trying to keep it for themselves? We don’t know, but he didn’t dive again for the rest of the week. This was a huge disappointment.

Dining – the food was good, but since the resort is smaller than T&C, there are fewer dining choices so the menu gets a little old after a few days. The Adults only restaurant, Seville, was outstanding. We ate their twice and the food and service were both excellent. We ate at Kimonos twice for dinner and once for lunch. Our favorite chef was Bones. He is a riot and kept us all entertained! Definitely request him if you go!!! I was surprised at the pizza station. When we went to Turks back in February, the pizza place they added there was new and it was amazing! They used real dough, cooked it in an open brick oven and had gourmet pizza options to choose from. You could grab a slice of whatever was being served or you could order your own pizza. At Negril, the pizza was made from pre-made crust (not exactly Boboli, but that same idea) and there were slices available to take – no gourmet options. Again, this is a matter of expectations – we thought it would be the same, so we were a little disappointed.

Activities - there was only one lawn chess game set up and it was right near the wedding pavilion so we didn’t play chess this time. This is one of my kids’ favorite things to do, but it seemed like there was a wedding going on each time we went to play. I think it would be smart to move this to another location. The ping pong table was rarely open for use, another disappointment. Even the pool table was closed 2 nights when we went to play. Again, we expected to have these available since at T&C, we would go as a family to play pool or ping pong after dinner.

Entertainment – the shows were pretty good. The theater, called The Big Top, was a nice set up. Here is one place where Negril has a better set up than T&C. The ampetheatre style seating afforded everyone a great view. The staff did a great job of getting the audience involved.

Excursions – we decided to do an excursion for a change of scenery. I think Beaches Negril is small enough that a day or two off the property during a week stay will help keep things fresh. We chose to do the Riverwalk and booked through the tour desk. This was a fabulous trip to the Mayfield falls. You walk through the mountains to a beautiful river full of waterfalls and walk up the river with your guides. The guides were amazing and very helpful. I am surprised I haven’t read more about this trip here on TA. It is fantastic and I highly recommend it! We also walked up the beach one day to Margaritaville for lunch. We felt we needed a change of scenery and some different food, so decided to give it a try. They have 2 large water trampolines you can use if you are a patron, so my kids got great use out of those! It was a nice relaxing break and just a short walk down the beautiful beach.

Spa – the spa facilities themselves were somewhat sparse, however, I had 2 massages which rank up there as some of the best treatments I have ever had. I had the Tropical Bliss massage and the Hot Stone Therapy massage and they were amazing. I booked my second massage because Tropical Storm Fay was passing by and there wasn’t much else to do on a rainy day. What a treat!

Kids Camp – my kids didn’t take part in the kids camp. The camp seemed to be very well run for the kids under 8 and for the teens 13 and up. I noticed the teen counselors recruiting kids at the pool each day and all seemed to have a great time. My kids fell into the 8 – 12 group which didn’t seem to have much going on. Even the activities listed on the program weren’t of real interest to them. We did stop by the day TS Fay was blowing through to see what they had going on, figuring that would be a good way to keep the kids occupied. I was disappointed they didn’t seem to have any real plans. All of their posted activities are outdoors, so it would stand to reason they should have a rainy day schedule. They didn’t so we left. That’s something they could definitely work on.

X-Box room – the X-Box room was a big hit. The room in Negril was better lit than the one in Turks which was nice. The first few days most of the games needed to be reset but we couldn’t find anyone to help. Miraculously, by day 4 they were all working again.

Concierge – I found the Concierge to be pretty much useless. We had never booked a Beaches Concierge room before, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but the brochure they gave me at check in told me they would handle all my reservations for me. When I called them to make reservations for Kimonos, they gave me their number and told me to call myself. After that, we didn’t bother calling the concierge for help. I did follow up with the concierge on a few of our maintenance issues – the rollaway and a power outage. The power would go out periodically and on Saturday it went out for about a minute. When it came back on, half our room still didn’t have power (including the A/C, TV and refrigerator.) It took 3 requests and 5 hours to get someone to come fix it. Eventually, it was taken care of.

Overall – overall, we had a relaxing vacation. Beaches Negril has a lot to offer but it manageable in size so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Once we adjusted our expectations, we had a good time. If you’ve been to Beaches Turks & Caicos before, don’t expect it to be as lavish. It is smaller, has fewer options and everything is on a smaller scale. If you’ve never been to Beaches before, don’t expect the pictures in the brochure. I think Beaches does itself a disservice advertising the high end luxury the way it does. Beaches is great – we love it – but it is not the Ritz. Unfortunately, some of Beaches marketing material suggests that it is – which is another reason I think people are often disappointed. If you are thinking about an all-inclusive vacation, Beaches Negril is a good place to start. I highly recommend going here BEFORE going to Turks & Caicos or at least manage your expectations accordingly. If you’ve been to Beaches Negril and had a good time, you will fall in love with Turks & Caicos!!!

We got back a week ago from 14 nights there and it was Fantastic. Lots of things to do for both the kids and adults, we thought that being there for two week we would have gotten bored...but no way, I wish we stayed for three weeks....this was our third time there and will go back next year as well, the Beach and Pools are perfect, the staff were excellant with my 5 1/2 year old Daughter and really remembered her from the previous years, even some of the guest remembered her too, the nightly shows were great, the food was great and a special thumbs up to the people in the Seville, and the return guest barbaque. The drinks were great, my daughter and I drank Mickey Mouses all the time, Kids camp was great too, my daughter learned all about the plant life on the property and even went snorkling too.
I could go on and on about how fantastic the staff and the resort is but I will have to say one thing...about the negative reviews from others, the staff at Beaches Negril and the Resort are just beautiful, we had time to observe things and found that a certain percent of guest just expect too much, making messes on the beach, like just leaving cups and towels on the beach and pool areas like litter bug do and expecting staff to pick up their trash when there are places to put your trash in around really got us upset, and in the mill resturant (buffet)..guest really need to learn how to use the serving utensils and not there bare hands, we did find this a little disturbing but not enough to say negative things about the resort. Its a wonderful place and the beach is the best.....
REALLY. Check out the tours too...we did Dunns River Falls with our daughter...it was her first time and our second time climbing it.