Couples Tower Isle

This is our first stay at a Couples resort, but have been to Jamaica several times. We thought it was beautiful and well taken care of. The ocean views were absolutely breathtaking and peaceful, especially the from our room. We also loved the extra special touches, such as having choices to stock your mini fridge every day and having coffee and croissants while watching the sunrise. We like stronger coffee, so the staff went out of their was to give us espresso shots. The resort also doesn't use bottled water, you use a refillable water carafe and can get refill it in the hallway. They are making an effort to reduce plastic and also by using paper straws. They staff were 99% friendly and attentive. Our favorite restaurant was The Veranda. The Eight Rivers was fancy but our waiter was unfriendly, which kind of ruined it for me. The food was always good throughout the resort, especially the fish!The veggie bar has amazing sweet potatoe chips with dip. We also enjoyed the nachos and soft serve icecream.My new favorite food is snapper, so good everytime!!! We are afternoon coffee drinkers, so we found it weird that it was hard to find a good cappuccino. We found out that Jamaicans generally don't drink it as much as other counties in the afternoon. I found the jerk chicken dry because the jerk sauce was too spicy for me to use. They should have a more mild version available. The beach was nice and we always could find lounge chairs, which were in good shape and so comfortable with a removable floatation device. The sand was gorgeous, wifi always available and the red flags worked great when you wanted a drink. The water sports equipment was in good shape, first come first served that day, even though it is written that you need to book a day ahead, very confusing. It was hard to find a chair at the pool with the swim up bar, but that was ok because we are mostly beach people. The entertainment was also great and very professional. The steel drums bands were both amazing, the singers, saxophonist and magician was a lot of fun! We also liked movie night on the beach and went to one rooftop Martini night,which was ok, just poorly attended unfortunately. It would have been nice to have a small band or singer for entertainment up there. The disco was a lot of fun, well appointed and good music. Lots of people were there having fun the night we went. The piano was a bit of a disappointment. The same people, same songs etc. every night, not enough song books. The damp carpet smell was awful, as smells can really bug me. We really liked this resort, no resort is perfect for everyone, but it came very close for us and probably would go back another time. Read less

Couples Tower Isle was amazing , we were a little unsure having never had an all inclusive holiday , having just returned our challenge now will be finding something to beat it . Amazing place , great facilities , excellent choice of restaurants and everyone was incredibly friendly really making sure you had a fantastic time . Water sport for all levels and well supervised , snorkelled several times and a different place each time . The room was ample size and well maintained with a Wonderfull view of the ocean . Everyone we spoke to spoke very highly of the resort and a number of people had stayed with others in the same group on the island with as good feedback . trips to the falls and others were included as well as the water-sports and organised well What made it for us was the fantastic team working in the resort they you feel welcome settled and at home brilliant service Read less

We picked Couples Tower Isle as the description in the TUI brochure sounded very appealing. We liked the idea of a smaller hotel with a more personal and attentive service. It was more (50%) than we would have normally paid but decided to treat ourselves this year. The hotels description boasts that it was the destination for movie stars in the 1950’s. This was obviously the hotels prime time and by looking at the hotel now very little has changed. The rooms and hotel facilities are looking very tired. Regular maintenance does not appear to be high on the priority list. The hotel boasted a 5 star status but would find it difficult to rate it as a three star. The service from the waiting staff in the restaurant was a very hit and miss affair. If you managed to be directed to an area with good staff everything was fine. Water glasses filled promptly and drink orders taken. More often than not we ended up waiting for water and then try to catch the attention of a member of staff who were more concerned with catching up on gossip with their fellow staff members. Frequently we had finished our main course before our drinks arrived. Once the drinks arrived, if we did manage to finish them before we had done eating, getting a refill was almost impossible. If you left an empty glass on the table it was cleared away rather than refilled. It was almost as if the drink was being rationed. There was no drink service offered around the pool area so had to walk to and from the single bar and queue for drinks. There was a flag system in operation on the beach but this did not extend to the pool area. The main bar was adjacent to the pool and the Buffett restaurant. It had very little in the way of seating. A dozen bar stools and a bench type seat along the rear wall. If you wanted a drink before dinner there was no where to sit in comfort and enjoy your drink. There was a piano bar that opened in the evening which had limited comfortable seating but this was in an internal room in the building with the only windows opening out on to a corridor. It was a shame to go all that way to be stuck inside where you couldn’t see anything. Again there was no table service and all drinks had to be ordered at the bar. The food in the A la cart restaurants was to a high standard and came out hot. Unfortunately the same can not be said for the buffet restaurant. There was a reasonable variety of food but the ability to keep it hot appears to allude them most of the time. Warm food on a cold plate often resulted to a tepid meal by the time it got back to the table. This was even more evident at the Saturday night grand buffet where tables were moved out around the pool area creating a longer walk back through areas of closely packed tables places around the edge of the pool. The beach barbecue is also another disappointment as once again the food is cold by the time you get back to the table. On this occasion it was made more entertaining by trying to eat from a table at a 30 degree angle on the sloping beach while trying to stop the chair from sinking in the sand. During both these events all other restaurants are closed so there is no choice other than to attend. The hotel grounds are very close to the road. When sat by the pool lorry’s, cars and motorcycles can be heard racing past. I kept thinking we were being buzzed by low flying aircraft but it turned out to be trucks passing by. Looking at the other reviews on this site I am curious how it gets so many favourable reviews. I can’t believe these people went to the same hotel. In our group of travellers everyone I spoke to had the same complaints so I’m sure it isn’t just me. Read less