Sunset Beach Hotel And Spa Reviews

We have just returned from our second visit to this hotel. Our room was in A block which had a fantastic sea view with the sun shining on our balcony all day. Nothing is a problem in Jamaica, the staff are all so happy and friendly, they made us feel so welcome, if you need something all you have to do is ask. The lazy river and slides were so much fun, what a nice touch. There is so much to do here, watersports, crazy golf, tennis or plenty of sun beds if you just want to chill. They had a good variety of food in the restaurant, English, Jamaican and American, you will never have to go hungry, we also tried the chinese and Italian, made a change from eating in the restaurant and the service was great. They have a large variety of excursions with plenty to see and do. Dunns river falls, rafting, horse riding, dolphins, something to suit everyone. We went on the 9 mile tour where Bob Marley was born and laid to rest. It was a great trip which gives you an insight into his life. The tour guides are chilled out rastas who sing to you. When purchasing duty free goods, rum, cigarettes etc you will find it alot cheaper at the airport, so if you can, wait until your return journey home. Rum was $20 in resort and only $12 at the airport. If you smoke the hotel only sold Marlboro so get some to take out in the uk airport. Benson & Embassy were £13.00 for 200 at Mo bay airport. Be sure to take out some smaller denominations of US dollars as when you go on tours the guides & drivers are used to receiving tips, and although they don't expect it the hotel staff are also greatful of the odd dollar here and there. You do have a money exchange on site, but if you exchange sterling here they will give you Jamaican Dollars, and everything is always priced in US so it makes things more difficult. We had a fantastic holiday in this hotel and would not hesitate to go back. Sit back, relax and enjoy!! Arie mon!

Having recently returned from this hotel, I feel urged to write an up-to-date review. We arrived in the middle of August for a two week holiday with our two teenagers aged 18 and 15. The reception is a little slow, but there were quite a few checking in and hey - you're in Jamaica and you have two weeks.

We were given a room in the West Wing. Upon entry into the room, it smelt dank and musty. The safe was rusty inside and so were the bathroom fittings. On attempting to put the lamp on the bedside table on - the whole bulb fitting fell out into my hand leaving wires bare! This was the last straw and I quickly contacted reception, who immediately moved us into Block A which had been recently refurbished - wonderful no complaints whatsoever.

Meals were good, plenty to choose from with plenty of Jamaican food to try. Breakfast was the typical affair of bacon, various differently cooked eggs, toast, pancakes etc etc. Lunch was excellent with an array of salads and hot meals. Evening meal was varied with curries, roasts, potatoes, veg, rice etc etc or you could just rely on good old chicken nuggets and chips! The beach bar grill served burgers, hot dogs, pasties and wonderful jerk chicken! We also tried the Chinese restaurant on our daughters 15th birthday, where a cake was produced and the whole of staff sang happy birthday - she was delighted!!! What a lovely touch. The meal was excellent.

Facilities around the hotel grounds were excellent, but our two spent most of their time in the teen centre or waterpark - great. Plenty of sunbeds!

The whole of the hotel was very clean and tidy and even getting a battering from Gustov didn't stop service being resumed as quickly as possible, even though they were extremely short staffed. Well done to all staff concerned.

The only thing I think would let this hotel down is it's location. Being on it's own peninsula left you rather isolated and the access road was certainly not to be ventured down at night.

We went on the jeep safari and horseriding - both brill. We visited Rosehall via one of the Juta taxis outside the hotel front door. We were made to feel very special with our own personal chauffaur who was wonderful and took us to a little shop afterwards for Jamaican souvenirs.

Overall, I would recommend this hotel to families and couples. The hotel, beach and facilities are great!

we cant complain about any thing. Flight was great, hotel was great. We was in the east block, when you book this hotel ask for either east or west, you could end up in the towers and we heard alot of bad reports on them.Dont upgrade as some friends we met there did, they payed £200 more to upgrade and got the same rooms as we did. The kids loved the water park and so did we.

The food was good,didnt get board of it at all. Some thing for every one. grill bar was good, burgars hot dogs jerk chicken and chips, fantastic. Entertainment was good. I would recommend change all your money before you go into american dollas, we took some sterling, when you change it you get jamaican dollas back and loose out. We went on a trip to Dunn river falls, cost about £200 for the 4 of us, really good day out.Went into Montego bay to do some shopping,got every thing we needed. If your wanting duty free cigerettes get them at Montego airport £11.50 for 200.

All in all this was a great holiday...

i thought it was very good a tip for the ladies do not walk alone at night! keep to the well lit streets. it was brilliant weather beware of the jelly fish you must swim with the dolphins at dolphin cove.

After reading the reports on Holidays un-covered we were worried about going as we were getting married and wanted everything to be perfect...... we needen't have done as it was!!

The staff are all super friendly and nothing is ever too much trouble, the rooms are spotless and are cleaned everyday.

The Banana Walk restaurant has a good selection of food to suit all, the al la cart restaurants were excellent too.

The Thomsons rep is super efficient, helpfull and will make sure all your trips go perfectly to plan not to mention giving you some excellent advice on the various excursions and value for money.

The only negative thing (which is minor!) is beware if you use the spa services at all as the staff in there are unfriendly, un-chatty on not hlepfull in the slightest and to be honest all other staff put them to shame!

All in all we had the most perfect wedding and amazing holiday and we would all go back tomorrow!

We Had such a great time! we recomend getting there on a tuesday like we did as our night started with the bbq for dinner and beach party which was a great way to start off the holiday, join in the sunset beach olyimpics!(just not if ur drunk lol) a good laugh and a great way to make new friends).

most of the staff were very friendly, in some cases to friendly which started to get a little annoying by the end of the week,. but i think that was bcos there was just us two girls on holiday by ourselves.

Our Rep Tresan was brilliant, a good laugh and got us on all the trips we wanted to go on and got them sorted in half and hour! and she caught up with us in the week to see how we were getting on!

All the trips we went on, all our guides were really nice and friendly, , just make sure you have spare cash for tips!

We recormend swimming with the dolphins, its a great experience, climbing dunns river falls, quad biking and the horse riding through the countryside and in the sea!

Also check out the club Margaritaville -we had a great night there and got to see jamaican men doing there dancing it was fab! On monday nights there is a free shuttle that takes you there and back for free, plus its free to get in and free shots as its sunset beach night!

Flight: We flew with Thomsonfly (Britannia) from Gatwick. We thought that there was not much legroom, the meals were OK, but what they served as a ";snack"; wasn't really worth bothering with. The cabin crew were quite miserable, and we had delays both ways (30 minutes at Gatwick, 2 hours at Montego Bay), because of missing passengers.

Montego Bay airport: A nightmare. There was no air conditioning, and Ifelt quite ill because of the heat and humidity there. Also, baggage claim was very slow, and there were no toilets (go as soon as you land, before immigration). Immigration and customs were time-consuming. Outside the airport, watch out for the porters, who will grab your bags before you can say 'no' - and everyone wants a tip. On the return journey, it is worth buying any alcoholic drinks at the airport duty free, as this is where you will find the cheapest prices.

Rooms: We were in the East Wing, which is a low-rise, 2 storey building. The rooms were comfortable, and regularly cleaned, clean towels every day. There was not much sunlight, but we had a nice view of the gardens.

Food: Very good, good choice, plenty available. The Chinese restaurant was mediocre, and the Italian slightly better, we would have been happy with Banana Walk (the main restaurant) every night. No fuss is made about formal dress.

Drink: Good range, plenty of cocktails, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, plus machines for soft drinks. Bartenders willing to give you whatever you want. Freezers mugs are not necessary: I preferred having lots of different small drinks than one big one, however the bartenders are more than happy to fill up freezer mugs.

Staff/Entertainment: We had no problems with them, and they were generally helpful. Beach was kept clean, and there were lots of sunbeds. Jellyfish are only are only problem on the left hand side of the beach. The entertainment was OK - the steel band and Elvis impersonator were good. The kid's entertainment programme looked very full and fun. We recommend the Monday evening Manager's Cocktail Party - lots of good local food and drink. There is also a good craft market in the hotel grounds about 3 times a week - make sure you barter to get the best prices.
The water-park is no-where near finished, and there is some daytime noise, it does look like it will be good fun when it is finished, though.

Trips: We took a taxi into the 'Hip Strip and to Ocho Rios with Jumpy, who was an informative tour guide as well as a safe driver. It is 10 minutes into Montego Bay, there are lots of tourist shops, but you get hassled loads by local illegal market traders.

Dunn's River Falls was a 2 hour drive away (including a long wait in roadworks). It was a good experience. But you must be quite active to complete the whole climb. Water shoes are not necessary, an old pair of trainers would be just as good.

Dolphin Cove was also good, but expensive at US$99 per person. This includes a nature trail where you get to hold parrots and snakes. On the 'encounter' swim, you get ½ hour in the water, with about 6 people per group. There is a photographer who takes lots of photos and a video that you can buy afterwards.

We have just returned from the above resort, If your thinking of going my 1 word of advice would be DONT.
My reasons are as follows

1 We were told by Tomsons, that all the Building works had been completed, and that the on site water theme park (which should have been ready in April) was just in need of decoration. Well thats not the case, as they are still building, The block which we were originally in Sunset A, is right next door to the building works, and its EXTREMELY NOISY, hence we moved ! (the Management seem to think that the Theme park will be open in August) HA HA HA maybe August 2006

2 The staff (well about 80%) are always on the make, asking if you will leave them your trainers/ pool shoes, or in my case my England shirt. They also offered friends of mine Dr*gs,( and not just the normal ganja, but some serious class A stuff) we tried to tell the complex manager, but he basically didnt give a toss.

3 The pool area is filthy, pieces of food and cups from previous days were left uncollected, which resulted in about 50000000000000 (this maybe a slight exgaration but it felt like that many )flies decending upon the area. This area (during our time) was never seen to be hosed down, or indeed the sunbeds moved. The pool was also an utter discrace, cups, dead flies, straws, other insects such as crickets, human hair, and a shoe insole, were fished out by myself and other people during our stay, also the pool didnt close till midnight, which didnt give a great deal of pool cleaning time, if it ever happened.

There was no section of pool for the toddlers.

4 The resturant.
well the only thing i can say about the resturant was that they done a great Iced water !!.

Again flies are a major MAJOR problem in the resturant, (They should seriouslly invest in some fly paper or a fly zapper) Birds are also a hazard, as they swoop in and try to steal food from the plates, they also like to leave little packages behind !, and finally on our last day we spotted a Cockroach, we informed the staff about it, but 15 mins later it was still scuttling around !

Im sure that the other people who were there, Darren,Tamson n Kids, Jason,Joe n Kids, Kev n Anita (bev) !, and Chris, Kelly n Ebony, and who felt the same as we did, will leave their comments in due course.

Roll on Kos in 2006 !!

DO NOT GO!!!!!

Staff= rude!!!!, as for the thompson rep what a waste of time.

Restaurant got better on second week but food was awful on the 1st.

Snackbar was DISCUSTING.

Chinese and italian restaurants were suppose to be al a carte nothing al a carte about them.

Pools had dirty water.

Rooms seriously needed everthing replacing about 5 families i meet asked to be moved to a different room. (i wish i could download the photos of the room i had taken, you would understand)

Flies you have never seen as many in your life and its because of the smell and because nothing was cleaned.

Entertainment RUBBISH, if we was lucky to get some.

The waterpark we was told was finnised but we had building work going on day and night and i think it will be some time till it is finnished there was some dissapointed children! and the builders smoking drugs in front of guest.

Never spent as much time in My room on holiday at least the films were good.
Then to top it of we was delayed 2 days because of hurricane dennis (to be fair to the staff at this point they were very helpful).

Darren,Tamson n Kids, Jason,Joe n Kids, Kev n Anita, paul and family (who as already wrote a review) and pauline scott and her family of 12 who have also complained about the holiday to the holiday company. These are all people who were there and have complained.

Visited sunset beach in May 2005, booked at short notice thru teletext. Got a good deal price wise, but we were both wary of what to expect after reading mixed reviews on this site.
Situated on a absolutely beautiful part of the coast, you could not ask for a better beach. Unfortunately the novelty wears off after you discover it is not advisable to leave the complex day or night, we went on one guided trip into shopping area of Montego Bay could not wait to get back to the resort so much hassle off the locals to go into their shops buy stuff on the street etc. To be truthful after the first week we were ready to come home both had cabin fever.
Rooms were good, cleaned daily good facilities. The infamous water park still not finished will it ever be,in our block and the garden rooms no escape from noise of workmen.
Excellent choice of drink don't have to pay extra for branded spirits etc, food ok but practically same choice of buffet every night boring after 2 weeks.
Entertainment very poor night after night gets boring unless you risk going into the town to margaritaville we weren't that brave.
Was great when we were sitting round the pool or on the beach sunbathing apart from that I was not that impressed.
If you do go one thing I would say is you must go on the trip to swim with the dolphins it was fantastic and a good day out saved us from going insane!!!

This was our 2nd visit to Sunset beach, we got married there in Feb 2001.On arrival we were given free up-grades to the garden view rooms,the rooms are excellent, maids are in every day, kept rooms ammaculate ,clean towels and beach towels every day,t.v in room with good films on.

The food is very good in banana walk restaurant something for everyone roasts every day aswell as locall dishes, and cakes to die for!, beach grill excellent also with jerk chicken , burgers, hot dogs fries,etc, the chinese and italain restaurants are pre-bookable and excellent with waiter service.

The staff are lovely and everything is NO PROBLEM there is entertainment every evening at 8pm - 10pm with some great shows and brilliant bands, the english pub is good and the nightclub opens at 11pm. There is a free bus that collects you each night to go to Mararitaville in Montego Bay if you wish to escape from the complex.There is an excellent photographer that goes round the complex day and night taking your pic which you can purchase for $6 US.Must mention Frank he plays the piano for you at aftertoon tea each day in the english pub with sandwhiches cakes and tea and coffee from 4pm - 5pm what a lovely person.

Trips are available through the rep but if you go and see the taxi drivers in the hotel grounds they will do you a deal and its much cheaper, there is a bus at 10am and 1pm that takes you downtown shopping for $6 us and is very good including a stop at a bar with amazing views.You do get hasseled downtown, but a firm no is enough, a nice place where you dont get hassled is Half Moon shopping centre, lovely shops and a lovely English pub called Royal Stocks,nice and peacefull, this will cost you about $40 us return in a taxi.

Now the only part i could complain about is the building work that is going on there at the moment , firstly the waterpark they started this 18 months ago and it is supposed to be finished but i reckon it will take till the end of the year at least, they work on it untill about 10pm each day, and is very noisy if your by the second pool, it will be brilliant when it finished though.

Secondly they are builing 200 extra rooms and a new restaurant by the garden rooms, if you are siting on your balcony or in your room its very noisy and not peacefull like it should be,this only goes on during the day,i would suggest if you like sitting on your balcony or go for an afternoon nap that you ask to stay in the tower blocks.I have to say i am not a complainer and didnt let this bother me all in all i had a brilliant holiday and would return to Sunset Beach [when the building work has finished]