Jewel Runaway Bay Beach & Golf Resort^{(4 stars)}

Size of the bathroom

5.0

Cleanliness & linen change

6.0

Room amenities (TV, balcony, safe, etc.)

5.0

Size of the room

5.0

Atmosphere & furnishings

4.0

Quality of food and drinks

5.0

Overall cleanliness in the restaurant and in the dining areas

5.0

Variety of food and drinks

4.0

Competence (handling complaints)

2.0

Reception, check-in & check-out

3.0

Friendliness and helpfulness

6.0

Staff's knowledge of foreign language

1.0

Quality of the beach

6.0

Overall condition of the pool area

6.0

Leisure activities (e.g. sauna, tennis, entertainment, etc.)

6.0

Condition of the Hotel

4.0

General cleanliness of the different areas

6.0

Proximity to shopping areas

3.0

Distance to the beach

6.0

Transportation connection and available excursions

6.0

Other leisure activities available

5.0

Size of the bathroom

5.0

Cleanliness & linen change

4.0

Room amenities (TV, balcony, safe, etc.)

5.0

Size of the room

4.0

Variety of food and drinks

4.0

Competence (handling complaints)

4.0

Reception, check-in & check-out

3.0

Friendliness and helpfulness

4.0

Staff's knowledge of foreign language

2.0

Quality of the beach

4.0

Overall condition of the pool area

4.0

Leisure activities (e.g. sauna, tennis, entertainment, etc.)

3.0

Condition of the Hotel

4.0

General cleanliness of the different areas

4.0

Proximity to shopping areas

2.0

Distance to the beach

4.0

We had a deluxe room with sideways sea view in building 3. This building was the oldest room block of the hotel, the room was right next to the pool and the buffet restaurant. Therefore, a little louder. As mentioned above, we'd expected more because of the renovations carried out in 2007. The rooms were large, clean, had LCD TV and functional furniture. However, the room was just "old". You really shouldn't take a closer look at it. It certainly had been renovated too, but I'd rather describe it as maintenance or "covering" services. The air conditioning was new, but was constantly blowing towards the bed. We always felt it blowing, even at low level. No fridge/mini bar in the room. The premium rooms in this building weren't better either. According to the management, the rooms were only better in building 1 (new block) and in the new beach front building So, an upgrade to a premium room wouldn't help when booking, you had to try to get a room in a new building on the spot.

We weren't too happy about the food. There was enough food available, indeed, you always found something, but we'd expected more given the hotel's 4 stars and also had experienced better food in other comparable hotels. We missed 1. a larger choice of fish dishes 2. fresh preparation on the grill in the buffet restaurant instead of hotplates (the pasta station was the exception). Other hotels of the same category offered fresh show cooking of fish and meat in front of the guests in the buffet restaurant, and also a greater choice. In general, the food variety was rather bad compared to other hotels in Jamaica. I don't want to go into detail because tastes differ. But compared to other hotels (RIU, Wyndham Rose Hall, Beaches Sandy Bay, Sanals) which offered a much greater choice of fruit, bread, cheese, ham, steaks, fish, lobster, etc., we didn't like the Breezes too much. We had the impression that some things might have been cut down because of the low occupancy (about 30% booked). The food quality was very good, though, and we had no complaints here. The following restaurants were available apart from the buffet restaurant: 1. Italian restaurant on reservation 2. Japanese restaurant on reservation, sushi area was closed 3. Mongolian restaurant (closed due to the poor occupancy) 4. Rasta Grill (for lunch/in the afternoon and after closing of the buffet) Drinks: As usual for the Caribbean, rum was always present , but there were other drinks available too. Good wine for dinner, cocktails could be mixed individually. As expected, the food choice was rather adapted to the Americans. Typical Jamaican food wasn't availble in the hotel but at the locals! A Jerk chicken in the hotel wasn't equivalent to a Jerk chicken on the street. It was extremely cold in the Pastafari because the air conditioning couldn't be adjusted. In the Japanese restaurant, we always got to know nice people at the table/grill. There was good live music in the terrace buffet restaurant every evening.

The staff was always very attentive and friendly. I'd even say the service was very good. The hotel was officially tip free, except for the room cleaning staff and the hotel bellmen. They were allowed to be tipped. Sometimes, the restaurant and bar staff received hidden tips too, as well as the staff in the sports area (depending on how often one used this area). Basic facts about that: In Jamaica, tips were expected, and many people even needed them for living! The average earnings of staff members were about $ 200-400 a month. Our recommendation: Staff members providing very good service deserve being tipped. The rooms were cleaned properly every day, we had no complaints. The general language was English, of course, but there were also people speaking other languages such as German. There was a nurse in the hotel helping with illnesses or minor injuries. The hotel handled suggestions or complaints very quickly and tried to implement or fix them immediately. They were open to positive criticism which should indeed be expressed in order to improve things

The hotel was mainly suitable for people looking for sports facilities. Scuba diving, surfing, sailing (accompanied because of the offshore reef), tennis, water skiing, etc. ... everything available and free. That was a big plus of the hotel. The diving sites were beautiful. The staff was very reliable, the scuba diving area well-tended and clean! (we'd seen much worse in other hotels). So, here is a compliment to the hotel and the team. That's also the reason why we'll come back. The beach was cleaned every day. Unfortunately, most beach chairs were already quite saggy. Shade was rare. If the hotel had had more bookings, there wouldn't have been enough shady spots. We didn't use the pools (our pool was the ocean), but they were always clean too.

Neat AI area with 266 rooms in 4 buildings. You could see that it was already older (about 25 years), the renovations of 2007 could be seen with the construction of a new room complex, the relocation of the sports centre, the construction of the Japanese restaurant, various maintenance services as well as the installation of LCD TVs, some new furniture and new air conditioning in the rooms. However, the old buildings and rooms were already a bit older, here we'd had different expectations. Compared to other Caribbean hotels, I couldn't really understand the 4 stars the catalogues gave this hotel (we'd seen four other hotels in Jamaica and several more in the Caribbean). Of course, there were lot of American (looking for party) and English (rather looking for sports) guests. The hotel's atmosphere was relaxed and a little impersonal, rather loud and suitable for partying. However, there were spots and beach areas where you could find your peace and quiet too.

Right at the beach, Runaway Bay was approx 80 km away from MBJ Airport. The hotel's beach (about 750m) was limited towards the left, here you couldn't go any further because of a cliff, the public area was towards the right, and you could go about 1.5 kilometres further there to get to the Hedonism Hotel. Runaway Bay (town) was located next to the main road, as it was typical for Jamaica, about a 10 minutes' walk from the hotel, there you found a supermarket, a cashpoint, mini shops, a doctor, bars and street vendors. Shopping was possible in Ocho Rios, but we bought the necessary stuff on site and in the supermarket. Runaway Bay was a good starting point for trips to Kingston (about 2 hours), Blue Mountains, Port Antonio, Blue Lagoon, Dunn River Falls, etc.

Size of the bathroom

4.0

Cleanliness & linen change

4.0

Room amenities (TV, balcony, safe, etc.)

3.0

Size of the room

4.0

Atmosphere & furnishings

5.0

Quality of food and drinks

4.0

Overall cleanliness in the restaurant and in the dining areas

5.0

Variety of food and drinks

5.0

Competence (handling complaints)

5.0

Reception, check-in & check-out

6.0

Friendliness and helpfulness

5.0

Quality of the beach

6.0

Overall condition of the pool area

6.0

Leisure activities (e.g. sauna, tennis, entertainment, etc.)

6.0

Condition of the Hotel

5.0

General cleanliness of the different areas

5.0

Proximity to shopping areas

4.0

Distance to the beach

6.0

Transportation connection and available excursions

5.0

Restaurants & bars in the area

3.0

Other leisure activities available

6.0

The rooms were quite large and had a separate area with an open closed including safe, ironing board and large washing place. Separated by a door, there were a toilet and a rather large shower with head, hand and body sprays. The relatively large air-conditioner worked well but was quite loud, so it was better to turn it off during night. There was an LCD TV on the wall with about 50 English-language stations and other foreign stations. There was a coffee and tea machine on the sideboard, tea and Jamaican coffee were refilled upon request. There weren't too many sockets in the room, and you should bring an U.S. adapter for charging your mobile phones, cameras, etc.

The hotel had 5 restaurants, two of them had to be reserved one day before in the reception area or by phone. There was a buffet offered in the partly open-air main restaurant right at the beach with a wonderful view, and there was a gala dinner every Friday. We highly recommend the two restaurants which had to be reserved in advance, the first one was the Italian Pastafari where we were served and could choose from a menu (very tasty steak!). And it wasn't too cool, as mentioned in some other comments. The second one was the Munasan restaurant with Japanese cooking show: There were very tasty dishes prepared with a lot of show and fun on a large hot plate around which 8 spots were arranged in a U shape, definitely worth a try. Both restaurants required a special dress code, shorts and flip-flops weren't allowed. The remaining two restaurants didn't have to be reserved: In the Starlight barbecue restaurant, you could get the cold dishes at the romantic open-air buffet (if it wasn't raining), they were then picked up at the table, spectacularly grilled in a wok and then served. Plus, there was also a partly open-air restaurant at the beach, where you could eat little things almost around the clock, especially Jerk-food (rather hot). The quality of the drinks was OK, there was even a very good wine. Elke had kindly copied a cocktail menu with over 30 cocktails for the German guests. There were 3 bars and a swim-in bar in the hotel area. The food and drink choice was generally rich and varying, except for the bread and rolls in the morning. A small point of criticism: Although there were three coffee machines in the hotel, there was rarely one working, so Cappuccino wasn't available.

Although the hotel didn't allow tips, the friendliness of the staff was excellent; the bartenders and the waiters in the restaurants were always willing to joke around, and even the maids were always very friendly and good-humoured. The room cleaning was OK, if you wanted you could get fresh towels every day, and the bedsheets were changed almost every day too. Almost nobody in the hotel spoke German, we would have liked that they spoke at least a little bit of German at the reception. At this point, many thanks to Mrs. Elke McDonald, who looked after the German guests on 2 to 3 days a week, and since she had lived here for many years, she knew a lot about the country and its people, and could give us some tips.

The hotel was a great sports hotel, you could perform almost all kinds of sports for free and with qualified trainers. Catamaran sailing, water skiing, glass bottom boat trips, snorkelling trips by boat and even diving for qualified divers including equipment for free. The same was for tennis lessons on one of the four tennis courts. Gym with several machines available, hiking and cycling tours were also offered for free. The hotel was particularly interesting for golf lovers: The area was directly connected to the golf course by a tunnel, green fee for free, just a caddy was mandatory (for a few dollars). According to hotel guests, the holiday was almost free, if you were on the golf course often enough (possible without reservation). One point of criticism prevented us from rating this category with 6 suns: the diving organisation for qualified divers. Two-tank dives from a boat were planned (fast diving boat with about 16 seats). In the first week, this indeed worked well; the boat was shared with the sister hotel, Hedonism, and came with 2-3 divers and 10l tanks on board to the Breezes at 9 am, and we joined them only with fins, masks, jackets, leads and machines, and off we went . After a week of surge, when the boat couldn't go, there were so many divers waiting for it, that the guests of the Hedonism could go diving first. The divers from the Breezes then had to wait until almost 11 am, then had to scramble through the waves on board fully dressed with a tank on their back, and then could do two dives, and there were 25 or more divers on board, even though only 16 spots had been reserved in the centre. One can imagine the crowd on board and the pack diving under water! A better organisation with only one dive, and repeated with other divers would have prevented this mess. The dive sites themselves were almost next to the beach, thus short diving trips were possible. Beautiful spots were: "Canyon", a cliff with a beautiful flora, and a spot with 2 well-preserved war planes. We didn't see a lot of fish, though, some rays, turtles, giant crabs and shrimp, with a mostly good sight. The equipment was OK, we didn't get suits (the water temperature was 28 to 29 degrees), there was no pool for cleaning (but everything was for free).

The hotel was about 30 years old and had often been expanded and renovated. At the time, it consisted of three one-storey buildings of different ages and a newer house with two floors. The buildings were relatively far from each other in a beautiful garden with old trees, so the next building partly couldn't be seen at all. We lived in the building right next to the diving centre, with room number 1 2 0 6 (1 for building 1, 2 for the 1st floor, 06 for room number). This building was probably the quietest one in the area, since it was the furthest from the main pool where the shows were performed. You could see that the buildings were a little older, but they had been renovated several times, and the cleanliness left nothing to be desired. During our stay, most guests were Americans and Canadians of all ages (> 16), about 10% were German tourists. The American guests who usually only spent a week in the hotel were very sociable, but their holiday habits took some getting used to, they were always partying, and their "games" were sometimes a little borderline. If you lived on the ground floor, the hotel was suitable for disabled people, there were inclined ramps everywhere.

The hotel was located directly at a very well-tended, wide sandy beach, and you could stroll along the beach in the small bay about 10 to 15 minutes towards the right. Runaway Bay wasn't a self-contained village with a centre, but more of a street village with smaller buildings wide apart. Leaving the Breezes and walking about 10 minutes to the right, you could find a small supermarket, 2 banks, a few small shops and an internet café. Montego Bay airport was about an 80 minutes drive away, if you arrived in the dark, it might have taken half an hour longer. Excursions were organised by the hotel, for example, a shopping trip to Ocho Rios, about a 25 minutes' drive away, for 20 US $, or there were organised tours by the particular tour guides. These trips were relatively expensive and you should rather go to the minibus and taxi drivers waiting outside the hotel and negotiate prices for trips, it would pay off, assuming that you had a knowledge of English. You shouldn't underestimate the drive durations on the island, as the road conditions, especially in the rain forest, were partly a disaster.