Riu Negril - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

8966 reviews

• 

  First vacation in a decade and it was a disaster.

  Okay, where to begin? First, please note this resort is NOT on the 7 mile beach!!! And the layout is not good for anyone with mobility issues, since the restaurants are on one side of the resort and the rooms are on the entire OTHER side, which can be quite a trek for some. My biggest issue with this resort is the LACK of problem-solving skills. Things always come up, but it's how you "respond" to them that matters. This resort did NOTHING to fix problems that it created. Worth the money? Not even close. I chose RIU Negril for my first vacation in a decade with my best friend, following my mother's tragic death. I even booked directly through the website and wrote an email explaining we both worked for the media and hadn't been on vacation in quite a while, so we were REALLY looking forward to it. However, with days until departure, I didn't receive any information about the shuttle from the airport, so I sent several emails, asking for more information, but no one responded. I even made phone calls to the resort, but to no avail. Someone eventually sent me an email response at 11pm, merely HOURS before our flight was to take off with NO resolution and NO shuttle! Ridiculous! Thankfully, we managed to wander around the Negril airport and decided to pay someone to take us to the hotel for about $100 US (so about 150 CAN.) Not a great start. If we had been younger women, or even teens, this could have been a VERY dangerous situation in a foreign country. It was very busy, chaotic and a little scary considering we had never been to Jamaica before. When we finally got to the hotel, staff did not seem concerned at all about the lack of shuttle and we had to come back several times to find someone to talk to about getting one BACK to the airport at the end of our trip, but again... TO NO AVAIL. The service desk kept calling different people and NO ONE had an answer. I think we spent over an hour getting transferred around, with no solutions. A total joke. Instead, we had to pay another $100 US to get another ride. They had an entire week to rectify the situation, but did NOTHING. ROOMS: Fine. Nothing special. But clean. The fire alarm went off for more than an hour on the first night, with flashing lights above the beds. It went off again on the last night we were at the resort, until we called the front desk to make it stop. Not relaxing to say the least. FOOD: Incredible. The buffet was amazing and much better than the specialty restaurants in my opinion. Not worth fighting to get a reservation for a sub-par meal. Bring singles to tip the staff if you wish. EXCURSIONS: Considering everything is in U-S dollars, which is 1.5 times more than Canadian, I had no desire to pay hundreds to go snorkeling, when I can bring my own dollar store gear and go by myself. Total waste of $$$$ The biggest adventure we took involved paying someone to take us to Rick's Cafe to see the cliffs and the island, as well as the actual 7-mile beach! That still cost another couple hundred dollars. BEACH: Small but nice. Aggressive salespeople working for the resort, in addition to the local vendors. PRICES?-Astronomical! It was almost comical, so try not to forget anything or you'll be paying up for it! The hotel boutique? Beach attire for hundreds of dollars. Laughable. Walked in and right back out. STORE: Don't bother. 10 bucks for snack bag of chips is just an example. An obvious cash-grab. While on a walk, I wanted to buy a beach wrap, but they wanted 30 bucks for two, which is almost 50 dollars Canadian for a piece of material. No thanks! I paid for a week of stress, with no money left to do anything else! So in summary, sure the rooms, food and beach are nice, but better hope no problem arises because staff will do NOTHING to help you. If you want to do ANYTHING other than lay on the beach, you'll have to pay more and a lot more. I think we spent an additional $1000 US in 5 days-- for the one tourist trip we took, staff tips and airport shuttles. Gross. Inflated prices for cheap amenities. I expect a generic "sorry about your experience" response from the hotel as usual, but I will NEVER, ever return to this resort and will also be writing the owners. It was truly unacceptable. I will never get my time back, or my money. This should have been an incredible vacation but BECAUSE of Riu Negril, it was definitely NOT. We spent thousands of dollars to be stressed out on a beach, wondering how we were getting home...

  Jan 20, 2026
• 

  Jan 25 friends trip

  This resort was amazing! Only open for week due to hurricane related issues when we arrived. Building 2 or 3 is about how far down i would want to be unless you dont mind a walk to main building. Smoker friendly beach if you are so inclined. not a place for fun haters but actually pretty quiet most of the time. Food and drinks were very good! The staff was amazing, warm friendly people. Respect!

  Jan 17, 2026
• 

  FUN HOTEL

  Stayed at the RIU Negril in July 2025 with my family to celebrate my son’s birthday. It was our first time at this location and it did NOT disappoint. Usually stay at the one down the street Hotel RIU Palace Tropical Bay but decided to try something different since it was newly renovated. The property is beautiful. The balcony views are to die for. Water crystal clear. Staff friendly and the FOOD WAS DELICIOUS every meal. My son enjoyed himself. The nightlife is great for young adults.

  Jan 15, 2026
• 

  Over rated for the price

  The hotel was lovely overall. My room was nice and very spacious. I did not enjoy the beach at all due to the condition of the water and weeds and murky bottom. The 7 mile is 100 times better. The food was below average for me. It was like cafeteria food, and barely warm. I went to the sports bar for a burger and the bun was so stale it crumbled after the first bite. Drinks were plentiful at lobby bar. And we'll made. Beach bartender was extremely disrespectful and rude to me on the first day and made me feel very uncomfortable. Most staff were accommodating and friendly. Housekeeping was great. I wouldn't return to this location mainly due to the beach. But will definitely patronize other Riu hotels in the future.

  Jan 08, 2026
• 

  Relaxing vacation

  The Riu Negril hotel is perfect. The service is more than excellent, and the rooms are very clean and well maintained. Whether you leave a tip or not, the service remains outstanding, but I do recommend leaving tips because the staff truly deserve it. The staff are very warm, welcoming, always smiling, and extremely helpful. The food is good, and whenever we called for something that needed to be fixed, they came right away. They even followed up by email to make sure everything was taken care of, which was very impressive. The only thing I didn’t really like was the beach at Riu Negril. However, we were lucky because there was a power outage and we were transferred to Riu Palace Tropical bay. where the beach was beautiful, with stunning blue water and a much wider variety of food options. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and a memorable stay. I would definitely recommend it. And if you want all that with the perfect beach I recommend Riu palace tropical bay.

  Dec 26, 2025