Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Virgin rating

The hotel

This family resort sits on the edge of a half-mile stretch of white sand beach, a 15-minute drive from the lively resort of Montego Bay where you’ll find shops, restaurants and bars. Offering clean, simple accommodation at a good price, it’s great for families with suites spacious enough for everyone. If you’re part of a large family or group, some suites are also conveniently interconnected. Families will appreciate the kids' club, which will keep the little ones occupied. Adults have a dedicated pool, spa and an electronic casino for those feeling lucky.

Amenities

  • Kayaking
  • Snorkelling
  • Tennis
  • Babysitting service
  • Kids Club
  • Wheelchair access
  • Families
  • Bar
  • Casino
  • Fitness Centre/Gym
  • Free Parking
  • Games Room

Where is it

Along a half mile stretch of coastline, a 15-minute drive from Downtown Montego Bay. Transfer time from Montego Bay Airport: 15 minutes.

Hotel information

518 rooms on 4 floors in 7 buildings each with 2 guest lifts. All with air-conditioning, balcony or patio, satellite TV, complimentary WiFi, clock/radio alarm, coffee maker, safe, hairdryer, iron and board. Standard Rooms have 1 king-size bed or 2 double beds, sleeping maximum 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 children. Standard Rooms have tropical, garden or courtyard views.

All Inclusive of: all meals, snacks and local brand drinks, facilities, activities and children's programs as provided by the resort. Food options either include a la carte or buffet meal service, depending on the resort schedule. For certain specialty restaurants, as well as certain menu items in other restaurants, there is a moderate surcharge applied to those items / restaurants, which is not included in the daily rate. These items /restaurants are clearly marked, and items highlighted on all menus. Beverage selection includes house brands, as defined by the resort. The use of non-motorised sports is included (excluding floats). Refundable deposits may be required for equipment rentals. Airport transfers are not included.


Maximum 1 child, 11 years and under, is free per paying room. Second child (11 years and under, sharing a room with paying adults) will have an extra charge of USD 50 per child per night, payable locally. Additional children (regardless of age) or additional adult will incur the extra third person charge of USD 80 per night. 'Kids eat free' may be limited to specific outlets on the property. 

Superior Rooms as per Standard Rooms but with partial ocean views. Sleeping maximum 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 children.

Deluxe Rooms as per Standard Rooms but with oceanfront views. Sleeping maximum 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 children.

1-Bedroom Suite has a separate living room and oceanfront views. Sleeping maximum 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 children.

Sorrento Restaurant (dinner; Italian fine dining; antipasto bar; elegant dress code). Portside Buffet restaurant (breakfast, lunch and dinner; buffet-style International cuisine). Sea Breeze (dinner; à la carte grilled specialities at the beach). Kenko Japanese Restaurant* (Teppanyaki à la carte. This restaurant is not part of the All-Inclusive plan. A premium charge of $20 per person (payable locally, subject to change) applies and children 12 and under eat free). Barefoot Bar & Grill (light lunch bites including hamburgers, hot dogs etc). De Terrace Restaurant (Jamaican à la carte; dress code applies) De Lobby Bar. Port Royal Pub/Lounge. Big Smaddy Bar (by adults-only pool). Reservations are required at à la carte restaurants.

2 swimming pools (1 freeform lagoon-style pool and 1 adults-only with a swim-up pool bar and whirlpool). Spa*. Salon*. Health and fitness centre. Recreation and sports court (for volleyball and basketball). Private beach with island. Snorkelling, kayaks and pedal boats. Tennis, table tennis, pool table and mini-golf. KidSpree™ Vacation Club (supervised activities for kids). Children's playground. Electronic casino* (over 18s only). Off-site water sports centre nearby* (not connected to hotel).

Self-service laundry room with washers and dryers*. Babysitting*. Concierge. Complimentary parking. Complimentary Internet access. Convenience Store. Newsstand. Gift shop. Cash machine. Unstaffed business centre*.

Wheelchair accessible rooms available on request. Please note that these rooms are subject to availability and may be restricted to specific room categories and bedding arrangements. Rooms and facilities vary between hotels so please check at the time of booking. For more information and contact details please check out our Special Assistance page

3 nights between 2 Jan-22 Dec

7 nights between 23 Dec '19-1 Jan.

* Denotes local charge.

Please note: child ages at this property up to and including 11 years.

Dress code: only elegant resort attire is permitted in the restaurants. Flip-Flops, t-shirts, shorts or bathing suits are not allowed.

Rating summary

  • Location Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Sleep Quality Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Rooms Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Service Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Value Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Cleanliness Image of the Tripadvisor rating

Traveller rating

  • Excellent (1891)
  • Very good (1578)
  • Average (761)
  • Poor (310)
  • Terrible (320)
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Old resort that could be better

Mar 27, 2024 FellowTraveler624429

Cons This resort is old. Staff at guest services is very rude. You will not be able to get bottled water in all inclusive. Out of 4 nights, housekeeping forgot to replace towels (they took dirty towels but never put the new ones). Bathrooms shower curtain is not long enough to reach floor and after each shower bathroom is wet. Vegetarian food… Read more
Cons This resort is old. Staff at guest services is very rude. You will not be able to get bottled water in all inclusive. Out of 4 nights, housekeeping forgot to replace towels (they took dirty towels but never put the new ones). Bathrooms shower curtain is not long enough to reach floor and after each shower bathroom is wet. Vegetarian food doesn’t have that many options in Sorrento and De terrace restaurants and there is no even option to customize. Food at buffet gets repetitive after few nights. When you check in they ask you to fill the allergies/ dietary restrictions form at guest services which is really waste if time as they never really use it for the speciality restaurants. Not sure why they even collect this information. Cons They had vegan dessert each night in buffet and vegan food was labeled. They also had labels for food if it contains dairy or gluten. I wish they had labeled it from contains eggs also. Resort has very good place to do beginner snorkeling (we had our own gear). You can do kayaking and paddle boarding activities for free and the helpers there were very helpful. But make sure to go in the time they are open. Nice place to take photos if sunset. The employees working at barefoot bar and grill were very nice. There were various activities for kids in day time and music each night. Music was too loud for us to be able to enjoy. They had drying rack in balcony which was very useful to dry swimsuits. Checkin is at 3pm. if you arrive early then you can leave your luggage in storage room and there was a lounge where you could take shower or rest but you won’t get room before 3 and its a good idea to get into the queue of getting room keys at 2.45 pm as there are lot of people waiting. Property was clean and staff at the buffet were hit or miss. Some were willing to find if any dish contains any of the things we are allergic and some would just say no idea and move on. Overall, I might stay there again if i get a good price as i enjoyed their water activities and snorkeling. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Entrapment

Mar 26, 2024 Brian H

We stayed at the resort in January with my wife and two kids. I knew going in that we weren't staying at a top notch place, and that was ok. What was not ok and ruined the vacation. Was the bait and switch that happened. I booked the stay on the hotels website, entered all the information. Two adults, two kids. Received a confirmation email for… Read more
We stayed at the resort in January with my wife and two kids. I knew going in that we weren't staying at a top notch place, and that was ok. What was not ok and ruined the vacation. Was the bait and switch that happened. I booked the stay on the hotels website, entered all the information. Two adults, two kids. Received a confirmation email for the booking with all fine print. When we arrived at the hotel at 8 pm, kids hungry and tired. I was told that there was an additional Fifty usd per night fee for an extra guest? About Four hundred cad for the trip. Talk about a kick in the teeth and borderline entrapment. I showed them all my documentation, and nowhere did it say anything about this fee. Also, wouldn't the hotels website account for the "extra person "? Why am i finding out about this at 8 pm on arrival, where we have no choice?. They tried calling corporate, but the lines were down (for 3 days, I'm not buying it). After finally getting through to corporate myself. Their response was that its a franchise, and they can have their own policies lol What can i do? Im in jamaica with my family at this point. I can't exactly go elsewhere. It's literal entrapment we are in. All that aside, the island is nice, and it is a decent spot, good food. But the customer service (in all aspects, not just the one mentioned) is absolutely horrible. This is the only recourse i have. Write a crappy review. I'm pretty disappointed with the whole situation and will go out of my way to never stay at one of their properties again. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Beach good...but that's about all

Mar 25, 2024 Adam L Chandler’s Ford, United Kingdom

Hotel enjoys a long and nice beach. We found reasonably quiet spots to sunbathe. Sea is clear and good for snorkeling. Watersports was frustrating because it was never open when it should be: they were closed between 11am - 2pm and by then the winds had picked up and the tide had gone out (every day of the 7 days we were there). Catamaran was a… Read more
Hotel enjoys a long and nice beach. We found reasonably quiet spots to sunbathe. Sea is clear and good for snorkeling. Watersports was frustrating because it was never open when it should be: they were closed between 11am - 2pm and by then the winds had picked up and the tide had gone out (every day of the 7 days we were there). Catamaran was a quick supervised 500 yard dash out then back again - dont expect to sail yourself :-( Sometimes they ran out of beach towels - best to keep the towels from the previous day and exchange when convenient. Buffet was ok if you dont mind them. We prefer a la carte but these were very disappointing. Rooms were good, although no sound proofing at all. Road noise is loud during the day/eve. Staff were hit and miss. Sasha-Gaye from Terrace restaurant was nice and friendly to us :-) . Entertainment was basic - some live music and maybe dancing - Prince "Purple Rain" rendition was good though! Found it uncomfortable having to watch it sitting on the pool sunbeds. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Great beach

Mar 25, 2024 sofiazU3194LI

Overall, it was a good experience. The beach was especially nice and close to the rooms. We stayed in adult only part. O’Neil who cleaned the beach from seaweed every morning did a fantastic job. If you like snorkelling it’s a perfect location.
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Don’t let the dated facade fool you. Good value for money.

Mar 24, 2024 danak144 Ottawa, Canada

We just returned from a 7-day trip. Overall we had an excellent experience at this resort. While it could use a bit of a makeover the food and service were great and frankly exceeded our expectations. That said, we did have a bit of a hiccup at check-in, when despite arriving after check-in time we still had to wait about an hour for our room to… Read more
We just returned from a 7-day trip. Overall we had an excellent experience at this resort. While it could use a bit of a makeover the food and service were great and frankly exceeded our expectations. That said, we did have a bit of a hiccup at check-in, when despite arriving after check-in time we still had to wait about an hour for our room to be ready. We were put in a “renovated” room in building 6 (quiet and away from the lobby and entertainment area) with a partial ocean view. While the renovations appeared to mostly consist of a coat of paint and some new art, it also meant a new heat pump unit that kept us nice and cool at night. However, the bathrooms were not at all upgraded and tiny. We also sometimes didn’t have hot water but it usually didn’t last long. The room was also immaculately clean when we arrived. The buffet did get a bit repetitive but it was good and you could book one of the restaurants every night. I would recommend the Italian one as there was no extra charge and it had the most variety on the menu. We aren’t pool people so I can’t comment on that. The beach areas were nice enough but if you like deeper water for actual swimming or enjoy jumping into the waves this resort is not for you. There is a reef about 100 feet from shore where the waves break and the swimming within the buoy lines is very shallow and there is a fair bit of sea grass on the bottom. It was hard to find spots to get even waist deep. Overall this resort provided good value for money and we would recommend it. Read less