Rose Hall Hilton Resort, Montego Bay Jamaica

I just got back from a week at an all-inclusive resort. We barely left the resort except for a couple of tours -- the goal was just unwind at the beach.
Of the food we had outside of the resort, one was a buffet stewed chicken lunch, nothing significant, and the other was a beef patty picked up at a gas station when we stopped because an overturned truck was turning a 2-hour return trip into a 5-hour one.

But what about the resort food?
The Hilton claims it has 9 bars and restaurants, but it's really an overstatement. There's only four menus: The buffet, the Italian place (Lune di Mare), the Golf Club (Three Palms) and the two poolside places, which share a menu, and on weekdays only one would be open at a time.

The worst of the bunch is the poolside places: except for the beef patty and "Jamaican slaw", nothing's a local dish (even the Ironshore is just fried fish in a tortilla wrap). The in-room book described specialties such as conch and callalou fritters and a Mobay (short for Montego Bay) burger with a fried egg and mango relish, but no, just a cheeseburger, hot dog and the like.

I was also unimpressed by Lune di Mare: listed as Northern Italian, there was a lot of polenta but no risotto on the menu. The dishes were pedestrian, and no attempt to take advantage of the bounty of the Carribean seas -- the only seafood was salmon, unless you want to add supplemental shrimp or lobster tail (a $10 or $20 surcharge in an otherwise all-inclusive plan). The braised beef dish I had was good, but not spectacular.

The Three Palms is a little more exciting: more fish and a couple shellfish items. At least there's some attempt at local flavors, this was the best meal we had on site, I had a snapper steak (which I'd never seen -- it was thicker than I thought snapper came, I'd have guessed it was sword) with a local fruit relish including ting.

The buffet was actually pretty good. Lots of variety, and a lot of local dishes such as Ital Stew (a veg stew with a lot of beans), soups whose names I forget, jerk of chicken or pork available just about daily (not outstanding jerk, but tasty), Seafood Rundown (also on the Three Palms menu but with teeny tiny shrimp and scallops). Breakfast always included jerk bacon (hey, that's great stuff!) and sausage, and just about everything you'd expect.

Except tropical fruit.

That to me was the only real negative: I didn't see a single mango or papaya. Bananas were only served twice that I saw (and I had them), one lunch they had naseberry (sapodilla) -- tastes like a brown-sugar plum, a couple times they had fresh grapefruit or orange. All juices were from cans or the from-concentrate dispenser. Pineapple was generally always available but otherwise fruits were apples, and rather sad looking watermelon and canteloupe.

Flavors, I'd have liked to see some more interesting and challenging foods, but they are catering to a family-friendly american palate. There were some nice local dishes, but I'd have really liked more local fruits and shellfish featured.

We stayed at Rose Hall almost 20 years ago when it was not part of the Hilton chain and it was not all inclusive. The food was pretty decent but we ate away about half of the time taking advantage of small side tours to Ocho Rios, a working plantation and into Mobay. Do they still have their one restaurant on top of the hill behind them? It was in the golf course and we had a lovely patio view of the water. You couldn't walk to it, they had to drive you up because it was quite a climb. I'm glad you enjoyed it, we thought it was a great place.

Joel, you mentioned that your vacation was more for relaxation than anything else, so I'm sure JA took care of that for you. But for what it's worth to you and anyone else that might travel to Jamaica and want's to stay all inclusive. Negril is still the cream of the crop.

JoelF wrote:Flavors, I'd have liked to see some more interesting and challenging foods, but they are catering to a family-friendly american palate. There were some nice local dishes, but I'd have really liked more local fruits and shellfish featured.

Negril caters to many (maybe too many) Europeans, including a whole lot from Italy and Germany. As well as all sorts of Canadians, and plenty of born and bred jamaicans along with plenty of Japanese and American tourists. I cant vouch for the all inclusives but I know they cater to all those mentioned. But hey for all I know, the foreigners love the American cafeteria cuisine.

Complete report HERE.

While Negril is two hours and 40 minutes from Ochos Rios, compared to an hour and 40 from Mo Bay, I think Negril and it's surroundings has everything Ochos Rios has and is much more chill and what not than Mo Bay. I've never done the all inclusive for the very reasons you posted about, but then again I've never gone on vaca to relax. But either way I would say that the hour ride and ($20-$50) cab ride is worth it from the airport in Montego Bay to Negril, which is much more chill (away from the all inclusives, which are all chill) and also has some great spots within a 10-15 cab ride from the all inclusive's but at the right time you could do a Negril place on the Cliffs (Moondance cliffs is really nice) and eat a couple times a day around town for the same price as an all inclusive. I guess liquor comes into the total of whether its worth it or not, either way ice cold $1 Red Stripes can be found throughout Negril and mixed "happy" drinks are anywhere from $4-6. I would say Negril is worth it for everything from food to fun to relaxation over Mo Bay. Not to say that there is no relaxing in Montego Bay, there's plenty of that throughout Jamaica. If you ever go back to Mo Bay or Jamaica and through Mo Bay airport, check out Scotchie's, really good jerked pork and chicken with some spicy hot in a tasty good way sauce.

Da Beef wrote:Jerked Pork is my favorite meal on earth and if I had a choice for my last meal on earth this would be it...hell wouldn't be so hot after eating some of this spicy pigness.


Scotchies has a reputation for some of the best jerked pork and chicken in Jamaica. They have a location in Ochos Rios and Montego Bay. This was my first meal on the island.


Scotchies had some damn good pork and the sauce was some of the best i had anywhere but there wasn't enough bones in it and it was a little more like pulled pork than chopped rib tips.

Either way, everything is a-ok in Jamaica.

Da Beef wrote:Negril caters to many (maybe too many) Europeans, including a whole lot from Italy and Germany. As well as all sorts of Canadians, and plenty of born and bred jamaicans along with plenty of Japanese and American tourists. I cant vouch for the all inclusives but I know they cater to all those mentioned. But hey for all I know, the foreigners love the American cafeteria cuisine.

I don't think that it's the location -- the next resort east is Iberostar, more of a Euro-style. The Hilton was very American. The deciding factor was the Hilton's waterpark -- MrsF is a big fan of lazy rivers and waterslides. I was very happy with the location: relatively isolated -- I walked about two miles passing only a few fishing shacks and the shuttered Sea Castle resort (got within sight of the Iberostar where there was a locked gate on the gravel road I was hiking). No panhandlers, no roaming vendors, new and clean decor. When we passed through Negril, it looked a little run down compared to the ritzy resorts (and the Ritz was a mile west of us).

JoelF wrote:When we passed through Negril, it looked a little run down compared to the ritzy resorts (and the Ritz was a mile west of us).

That's half the beauty of it, there is no Holiday Inn's, Hyatt's, Hard Rock Cafes, Senor Frogs, McDonalds etc...Negril was developed in the 70's so it's less than 50 years old and has restrictions as far as what you can build and where. However many new resorts are popping up like the Moondance Cliffs resort seen HERE which is anything but run down. Just out of curiosity what brought you thru Negril? did you just take a ride there for the hell of it? I only ask because pretty much all of Jamaica is run down (not in an awful way) since it's still a third world country and with the airport and all in Mo Bay, theres no doubt that the area around that way is not nearly as nice as Negril, then again I imagine the all inclusives are different. Either way seven mile beach is one of the best in the world for a reason, it's gorgeous.

There was no water park either 20 years ago, just a pool and the beach where if you ventured out far enough, enterprising locals would try to sell you something or offer to take you on a tour. They had a little shanty town market just off the property and at night could get very rowdy and noisy. Glad that part of Jamaica changed.

Da Beef wrote:

JoelF wrote:When we passed through Negril...

Just out of curiosity what brought you thru Negril? did you just take a ride there for the hell of it?

Cane Truck overturned on the Long Hill Road, coming back from a tour trip that took us on a Black River nature cruise (Crocs and termite mounds and mangroves), YS Falls, which is gorgeous and not as tourist-packed as Dunn's River, and Appleton Rum. The tour bus driver got a call about the traffic situation, and rather than spend 3 hours at the top of the hill waiting for the truck to clear, we went the long way through Negril back to MoBay. Still took three hours, but when we got to Montego Bay, there were trucks lined up still waiting for the hill road to clear. And the Negril-Montego road was in much better shape than Long Hill, I wasn't looking forward to that part of the drive in the dark -- too many narrow, guardrail-less dropoffs.

It was fun, but about 3.5 hrs of tourism with ten hours of driving isn't my idea of ideal. Even in the best situation it would have been about eight hours of driving.
Appleton's aged rums seemed a little harsh to me, we picked up a couple of liqueurs -- a Rum Cream, and a Honey-Rum one called Rumona.