Montego Bay -Rose Hall resort

I just came back from a weekend stay at the Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay and wanted to share photos and information.

LXR took over the resort from Wyndham and spent $35 million to renovate. The resort is located about 15 minutes from the airport. If you haven’t been to Jamaica recently, the airport has been updated and is now very clean, large and air-conditioned. When I was there a few years ago, I recall being solicited the moment I stepped outside the airport. That was not the case this time.

The resort offers EP, all-Inclusive or upgraded all-inclusive.

All the sleeping rooms at Rose Hall were completely gutted out. They installed some kind of air purification system in the resort so that it never smells musty in the rooms. Every room has a flat screen TV and iPod dock. They were all very open, clean and fresh.

There is plenty of meeting space and what’s great is when you walk out of the meeting rooms, you immediately have a view of the beach. There are lots of areas (inside & outside) within the property where you could hold private functions (weddings, dinners, receptions, etc.). There are two wedding gazebos.

The resort has a nice white sand beach that is very swimmable. It’s private and secure as well because both sides of the beach are protected – one side by the golf course and the other by a natural rock barrier. There weren’t any vendors or non-resort people on the beach. There is a main pool that overlooks the ocean and a water park that has a lazy river, water slides and hot tubs. Because there is a water park, there were families there but the kids were kept occupied so it never felt overrun by children.

The full service spa had plenty of treatment rooms and provided a variety of services. I had a sampling of a few treatments (facial, massages, pedicure, body scrub) and enjoyed them thoroughly. They used environmentally friendly and higher end products. The staff was friendly and well trained.

There are several restaurants on-site (Italian, Jamaican, continental, buffet, grill, etc.). The dining was better than what I expected. There was enough variety and service was decent.

For nighttime entertainment, there are a couple bars and a nightclub on-site. The nightclub needs a little updating but most people probably wouldn’t really notice. There were pool tables, a large bar area and dance floor. They had good music and it was full every single night.

To get into town, it’s about a 25-minute taxi ride that will cost $25 each direction (if getting a taxi from the resort). We walked outside the resort gates and got a taxi on our own and paid $9 roundtrip. I really wouldn’t recommend this to clients but I felt okay doing it myself.

There is a complimentary shuttle that brings you to the Shops of Rose Hall, where you’ll find mostly jewelry shops, liquor stores and clothing shops. Most of it was extremely overpriced and obviously aimed at tourists.

The resort has a beautiful golf course that overlooks the ocean but I’m not a golfer so I can’t really elaborate on this subject.

Click on the link below for pictures of the resort, golf course, swimming pool, water park and off-site activities (zip lining & river tubing).

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6jlnkdz.2guqimv7&x=0&y=ntrc20&localeid=en_US

Let me know if you have questions on the resort www.rosehallresort.com.
Sara K.