Azul Beach Resort Negril

The hotel is smaller than the usual Caribbean resort and therefore feels less crowded. It has a very wide beach and all the rooms have some kind of ocean view. Every time you walk from a place to another, you walk alongside the beach and ALWAYS looking at the sea. This was a plus and loved it ! The Wifi signal was super strong everywhere in the resort (unfortunately I had to use my laptop but was delighted that it worked well in the room, restaurant, beach or gym !). The staff is friendly and helpful. We were able to book kayaks and paddleboards without waiting time and the restaurants were busy but never crowded. The food at the buffet was ok and we always found something to our taste. Reservations to the Italian and Caribbean restaurant were rarely available and after waiting 3 nights to be able to to go to these restaurants, we were very disappointed with the food quality and the waiters/waitresses. We ended up leaving after only tasting the meal and decided to go back to the buffet where we had a better experience. The main swimming pool looks a bit dated but having the beach so near and with plenty of space, we never felt the need to use the pool. Getting beach towels were challenging as they only seem to be available from 9:30 to 10 - outside this window there were never any available. Rooms are clean and daily service was very good - ocean view mainly from the balcony. We enjoyed our stay there and only assigned 4 stars due to restaurant quality. Read less

This review is written from the vantage point of someone who has been to many high-end luxury all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. HIGHLIGHTS - I like to start any review (I don’t write many) with the positive comments: BEACH: pristine, beautiful, expanse of soft white sand leading to captivating turquoise waters. Plenty of lounge chairs and wicker cabanas. SPA: No frills, no lockers or changing rooms, but there is a wide variety of services for any experienced spa-goer. KEISHA-with-the-magic-hands was terrific. My husband says Michelle was great too. [You have to pay $40 for use of the steam, sauna or hot tub, even with your service, which I thought was an unnecessary cash-grab.] ITALIAN RESTAURANT: Plenty of offerings and everything but the pizza was outstanding – yes, we did try almost everything. CHAYANNE was an exceptional server. KAYDENE: was the greeter at a buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch. She learned our names immediately and was a bright ray of sunshine and cheer at every encounter. BARS: The two main bars at either end of the property were well-stocked, ample selection, and the bartenders could make almost any drink. (The pool bars were less so.) WI-FI: Great, everywhere. LOW POINTS – I’m going to try to explain why “Everything Else” fits in this bucket: CHECK-IN: Slated for 3pm, our room wasn’t ready (we’d already been travelling for 9+ hours). We were told they were cleaning it. We were then told “just finishing sanitizing.” Then we were told that the folks before us in the room hadn’t even left yet, so they were trying to find us another room. 2 hours later. [As an aside, we tried to check out on the morning of our second day, and we were essentially told that we could leave, but they were keeping our money for the week.] CHECK-OUT was a confusion of location, lack of information, and the ground transport almost departed with someone else’s bags in our trunk (and without ours). ROOM: The bed was comfortable. The A/C adjustable to your taste. We had to beg for sufficient towels. The coffee machine was broken (and we couldn’t get a different one). On our first morning, there was no water (at all!) and the toilet didn’t work; that problem was not unique to our room or building, and they had it fixed within hours. Most egregious, in my opinion, was the fact that we had paid dearly for a swim-up suite…and it wasn’t. If you could not reach or climb a 5-rung pool ladder that sat above-the-waterline to your balcony (I could not), the pool was merely near your room. POOL: Water-level very low. Dirty. PERSONAL CONCEIRGE: Is supposed to be the group of individuals who handle the little things for you, like restaurant reservations and spa appointments. They sit in an office right outside your building for easy access. [Our experience at other resorts with such amenities was incredible, above-and-beyond service.] This staff (mostly) made mistakes, was uninformed, or just didn’t care enough to make anything happen. “NINE” (?!?) RESTAURANTS: There is an Italian (see above), an Asian and a Caribbean place, two serve yourself buffets open for breakfast, and one buffet open for lunch (along with a beachfront Caribbean limited buffet) and dinner. (We were later told that many restaurants had closed). At the 3 actual restaurants, reservations were difficult-to-impossible unless you were rude; no availability for walk-ins. You cannot make reservations in advance of arrival, and we could not get a reservation on our first night. This resort is supposed to be “gourmet inclusive” and (except as noted above) the food quality was just OK. 2 grills set up near the beach offered ~6 items from 12:30-2pm and it took 20+ minutes to get your order. Room service offered (basically) a burger, club sandwich, burrito or a Caesar salad. All, meh. Oh, yeah, one of the “nine restaurants” is a coffee shop (great cappuccino!) with pastries. SERVICE GENERALLY: Beach service was basically non-existent – you could ask for something but would never get it. I asked for a spoon at the buffet to complete my place-setting (others had them), was asked why I wanted one, and told to get it myself over by the soup. I heard a bartender yell at a customer because she didn’t inform him of her choice in vodka quickly enough. The margarita tasting was a sales pitch with raunchy limericks. The rum tasting with Joseph was lovely and informative. We did not participate in any excursions or entertainment. The resort is 90 minutes from the Montego Bay airport on 2-lane winding roads. This is not a property for anyone who has difficulty walking or climbing stairs. To cap off our week, they tried to sell us a “membership” starting at $8,000! Read less

We are emerald members of exotic travelers and have visited several azul beach properties. The membership is built on gourmet all inclusive experiences. This was not gourmet, it was gross. This one is not even close to the level of luxury and service of the other properties. The trip had so many issues I stopped taking notes on day 4 of 8. Day 1- had to visit 4 bars before someone could make an espresso martini. All of the bar tenders rolled their eyes and made us feel like we were putting them out to serve us. Buffet dinner at mahogany was gross and there were few options. Room service took hours and arrived cold. Day 2- no tomato juice available at 8:30am on a spring break Saturday for bloody Marie’s. No edible fruit, it was all poor quality. Beach was nice but the stalking from the local merchants is constant and you have to just pay them off for them to leave you alone. Over the course of the trip we continued to suffer from items we requested that were out of stock. There was no salt and pepper at the restaurants. There were no snacks for the kids in the room and a bag of chips in the gift shop was $13. We asked for 7:30 dinner reservations and were told because we were 7 people that was too late and were booked for 6:30 nightly. Restaurants were just ok. The bright spots were the beach and the butlers Rashane and Shari who were wonderful and accommodating. The spa was also good except the hydrotherapy was out of order. We work hard and like to enjoy a luxurious spring break and this resort was a huge disappointment. The property is in need of a renovation and the management needs an upgrade yo fix the supply chain and staff attitude issues. We will never be going back. Read less