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Waterpark Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles.
A Balcony / Patio and a Waterpark view view.
Standard Courtyard Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles.
A Balcony / Patio and a Garden courtyard view view.
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Oyster Review Summary
Photos and review by William B., Oyster Expert Hotel Investigator.
Updated: May 6, 2010
Pros
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Cons
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Bottom Line
Perfect for a no-hassle family vacation, the Sunset offers a water park and kids' club so parents can indulge in frozen daiquiris at the nude beach, the swim-up bar, or as part of a staff-hosted drinking game. Though the rooms are dingy, the full-service restaurants best the buffets at competing resorts.
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Sunset Beach Resort & Spa - Montego Bay, Jamaica
Sunset Beach Resort & Spa - Montego Bay, Jamaica
Rooms at Sunset Beach Resort & Spa
Best Price Guarantee
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Waterpark Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and a Waterpark view view. |
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Standard Courtyard Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and a Garden courtyard view view. |
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Garden View Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and a Garden view view. |
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Beachfront Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and an Ocean view view. |
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One Bedroom Suite
650 sq. ft with a King bed. A Balcony / Patio and an Ocean view, bay view view. |
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Oceanview Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and an Ocean view view. |
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Oceanfront Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and an Ocean view view. |
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Bayview Room
325 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Balcony / Patio and a Bayview view. |
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Junior Suite
King bed. A Balcony / Patio and an Ocean view, garden courtyard view. |
Oyster Hotel Review
Contents
Scene
Adults and kids alike play hard in the sun, but the resort retires around 11 p.m.
Beer pong
"What time is it? Time for another drink." I heard this, and Bob Marley's "One Love," pump through the speakers about six times a day. The Sunset staff hosts beer pong competitions out by the pools or under the stadium-grade rafters that create a sprawling, open-air lobby. Most guests are emphatic Red Stripe or frozen piña colada drinkers, a great many with families in tow. But this is not a party-all-night kind of resort -- the whole resort retires to their rooms at around 11 p.m. (on a Saturday night), or earlier. The sunshine haze and abundance of food seems to keep everyone early to bed, early to rise.
Service
Friendly servers keep the food and drinks coming, but rigidly dole out towels.
Friendly servers keep the food and drinks coming
At check-in (at 11:30 a.m.), I was immediately greeted politely, assigned a room, and given an orange plastic all-inclusive bracelets. "Now, because you have the orange bracelet," said the receptionist, "you can't drink on the premises." This is an introduction to Jamaican humor, a kinder variation of Irish slagging, and it, to a large extent, sets the tone of the service at the Sunset Beach Resort & Spa -- a relaxed, anti-professional vibe best suited to getting, or keeping, everyone drunk. But the laid-back mode of service essentially meant that, while I loved the housekeeper's singing in the morning, it still took two calls to the front desk and more than an hour to get some bath towels.
- There's a swim-up bar, but no poolside service.
- All of the cheap, miniature beach towels are kept under lock and key. This means that, to lounge by the pool with the swim-up bar, you'll needed to walk 10 minutes to the towel hut on the opposite side of the resort, near the water park. Don't forget the single-issue "towel card" (I saw some guests, without the card, get denied a towel).
- Prompt bartenders: For every cocktail, the minute you finish your 8-once plastic cup another drink is waiting. Dangerous.
- Likewise, restaurant service is phenomenal. There is routinely a hustle, always someone to fill water or wine. *No in-room dining service
- No shuttle from the airport
Location
A 20-minute, $25 cab ride from Montego Bay International Airport and 15 minutes to the Hip Strip.
The resort is a 20-minute, $25 cab ride from the airport in Montego Bay; that's close enough to hear a handful of planes each day. It is a 15-minute drive from the Hip Strip in Montego Bay, where giant cocktails at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville draw a steady stream of tourists. But most guests never leave the resort unless they're on a guided tour, which the hotel will help to plan.
Beach
Short, narrow stretches of beach are around the resort, and a nude beach is farther away.
The beach
Short pockets of beach line the resort, interrupted by man-made rock-cluster dams. The sand was a narrow 15 feet at most places during low tide, with rocks and shells cluttering otherwise beautiful white sand. Signs warn of sea urchins and jellyfish (as is the case elsewhere in Jamaica), but it never seemed to stop any of the kids from splashing around. There is rarely a struggle for lounge chairs, though most are stacked shoulder-to-shoulder. Slightly secluded beach space can be found on the furthest reaches of the resort, likely because they're a long way from a bar.
Farther down the beach, about 50 yards in from stern "no cameras" and "adults only" postings, lies the au naturel beach, which skirts the question of "clothing optional" and enforces no bathing suits at all. I spoke with a self-proclaimed "absolutely bonkers" British couple from Yorkshire who were staying at the resort for a wedding. On the nude beach, they created an array of scandalous photos involving the bouquet. They were later booted from the beach for failing to comply with the no-camera policy.
Rooms
Outdated rooms with weak Internet and moldy tiles, but great water-pressure and beautiful balcony views.
The view from the Bay View Room
Outdated and unkempt, the rooms are clearly the hotel's worst feature. There is only a semi-functional satellite TV -- I mysteriously lost the signal several times, making it too annoying to bother using -- and the Internet service is shoddy at best. There is no mini-bar; most other Jamaican resorts in this price range offer free beers and water in the room. The floral print bed covers are coarse and fraying (somewhat common in Jamaica) but there are only two simple pillows to each bed (less common). In the bathroom, there is significant mold between the tiles and the bath products come dispensed from a public restroom pump beneath the showerhead.
The one redeeming factor in the guest room is the private balcony, furnished with a small table and two white plastic chairs. Regardless of its position in the hotel, every room has a beautiful view over the bay, with the lights of Montego Bay drifting up from the hills and into the clouds. No need to pay extra for the "better view." From what I saw, there were no bad ones, a result of being one of the tallest resorts (11 stories) in the neighborhood.
As for noise, the resort hosts a music concert most nights and the sound can blast through the thin walls in the evening (the music usually stops by midnight).
Features
A shallow pool invites volleyball fans to play, and the fitness center is large, but showing some wear.
The water park
- All three pools are shallow, about 4-feet deep, but that makes for rousing games of aquatic volleyball and, for many guests, in-pool smoking.
- The hot tub has two shifts. The day shift involves kids floating butt-first inside tire tubes, and the evening shift involves adults playing footsie under the aquamarine glow.
- Unpopular dance club
- The fitness center is large, but the machines take a humidity beating (lots of rust, and a steaming funk permeating from each of the rubber mats). There is plenty of space to stretch, and even a separate room for yoga and core work (which was empty during our stay, but apparently staffs a trainer during high season).
- The powerfully-sweet smelling spa is not especially popular, though it does offer massage services.
Family
Waterslides, relay races, video games, and hot dogs spell "paradise" for kids.
The kids' pool
Kids love the Sunset (at least the younger ones), and parents love that their kids love it.
- Built to look like a castle, the water park has elaborate waterslides and a shin-deep pool that tempts as many adults as kids.
- The kids club is about on par with the clubs at most other big all-inclusive resorts; afternoon relay races tend to take over the lobby.
- Club Mongoose serves as a drop-off center with video games and supervised rubber-mat flop space. An additional kids' pool with a separate, much smaller waterslide is ideal for the younger set.
- Basketball hoops, mini-golf, swing sets, face painting, and various other attractions are around the resort, though they often remain unused.
- For food, the hot dog, burger, and fry combos at the Beachside grill works great for picky kids (the same food is terrible by most adult standards).
Cleanliness
Lazy construction gives the resort a dingy feel. Bathrooms have mold and mildew.
The cleanliness of the bathroom was unimpressive
The furniture shows some splitting and fraying. Lounge chairs are blackened by a season of storms. Rust and mold are prevalent in the bathrooms -- with a thick line of black around the tub and red rings around every joint on the door. Otherwise, the room and property are kept reasonably clean.
Lazy construction, however, is what creates the overall dingy feel at the Sunset. In the hallways, numerous lights hang open without a cover, wires exposed, giving yellow tinged walls a startling florescent glow. Molding along the walls ends, abruptly, for no clear reason. Non-functioning wireless routers are screwed to the wall with no attempt to hide the dangling wires attached to them.
Food
After greasy but satisfactory breakfast and lunch buffets, the dinner options are top-notch.
Roasted lamb al forno by La Bella Vita
There's no room service or minibar, so all the dining happens outside the room. There are some great dinner options -- better than at the nearby Iberostar or the Holiday Inn -- but there is nothing astounding about the breakfast or lunch.
The breakfast buffet at Banana Walk is especially greasy (perhaps intentionally, per the demands of the hung-over guests) with some diner-grade pancakes, overcooked sausage, bacon, home-fries, fried dumplings, and made-to-order omelets with ham, pepper and onion. All of the coffee, however, is instant and tastes like swamp water.
Lunch also comes buffet-style, typically with one or two items that make filling your plate worthwhile, like the curried lamb or red velvet cake.
For hamburgers and hot dogs of the pre-cooked, elementary school lunchroom variety, there's the Beachside Grill. Kids who go wild for McDonalds might demand it.
For dinner, Le Bella Vita is considered the champion of the Sunset restaurants (at least according to most guests). The Roasted lamb al forno, shrimp, calamari, tiramisu, and crème brûlée are all top-notch (not New York restaurant top-notch; more like upscale cafeteria top-notch).
The Pimento restaurant features spicier, more adventurous Jamaican cuisine done remarkably well (think about the ox tail soup). The pork shoulder and pumpkin soup are some favorites.
Silk Road, a Caribbean take on Asian cuisine, remains empty most nights. Fashioned to be the most attractive of the restaurants on site, its food is apparently a bit too far-reaching.
Though the Sunset attempts to identify itself as a somewhat classy resort, this isn't really the case. They have a dress code of slacks and a collared shirt for the finer dining spots, like La Bella Vita, Silk Road, and Pimento, but at each of these places I spotted an equal cross of cocktail dresses and T-shirts blazing with Hardrock Cafe logos.
Destination Weddings
A fine choice among the all-inclusive resorts -- close to the airport, excellent dinner options, some top-shelf liquor available (for an extra fee)
The gazebo, one of two ceremony locations
- Wedding Size: Up to 200 people
- Extra Fees and Restrictions: Guests not staying at the hotel must purchase a day pass ($70 for adult and $40 for child).
- Wedding Packages: The Bliss in Paradise package costs $700 for up to six guests, is $25 per additional guest, and includes a marriage officer, certificate, wedding coordinator, decorated ceremony area, a bottle of champagne, a single-tiered cake, recorded music, a bridal bouquet, a boutonniere, two 5-by-7 or one 8-by-10 photograph, and a champagne toast. Alternative packages range from $1,100 to $2,000 with an additional fee per guest over the number included in the package.
- Photographers and Videographers: The hotel provides a photographer but, as is the case at most resorts, the resort-provided photographers are not as well trained or equipped as a professional photographer in the U.S. Some packages include the photographer, otherwise the cost ranges from $150 for 12 4-by-6 photographs to $550 for 100 digital images on a CD. Videographers cost between $320 (just the ceremony, cake cutting, and first dance) to $600 (full coverage). Outside photographers and videographers permitted, for an extra $250 fee (normal, for most all-inclusives).
- Music Options: Broad range of music choices -- from a steel band for $600 per hour to a DJ for $600 for three hours to a jazz band for $900. Outside bands are permitted, but there is an extra $250 fee.
- Reception Options: Most receptions are held on the terrace, in full view the other resort guests, or on the less-conspicuous lawn. Menu options, which include soups, salads, entrees, and deserts, range from $28 to $64 per person, depending on the food chosen. An open bar costs $17 per person (local) or $24 per person (premium). Cocktail hour with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres costs an additional $38 per person.
- Cakes: Basic wedding cake costs $100 while a three-tier wedding cake costs $300 (optional cake topper for an extra $60 and each additional tier costs $80). Couples have a choice between vanilla, chocolate, or Jamaican fruit cake and can send pictures of the cake they want to be designed by the in-house pastry chef.
- Flowers and Decorations: If you don't opt for a standard package, the extra fees for flowers and decorations can be a bit steep -- $60 to $90 for a bridal bouquet; $47 for flower petals and an extra $55 for a flower-girl basket; $60 for each chair decoration and $80 for each centerpiece.
- Special Features: Butterfly release, $220 to $590; dove release, $240 to $590
- Spa Treatments: Full-service (but not especially popular) spa on-site; hair styling and makeup starts at $70.
- Airport Transportation: No airport shuttle or free transportation service; taxis average about $25 (one-way).
- Honeymoon Suite: No special honeymoon suite, but the one-bedroom suite includes a whirlpool tub and a four-poster bedframe.
Bottom Line
Perfect for a no-hassle family vacation, the Sunset offers a water park and kids' club so parents can indulge in frozen daiquiris at the nude beach, the swim-up bar, or as part of a staff-hosted drinking game. Though the rooms are dingy, the full-service restaurants best the buffets at competing resorts.
Hotel Features
| Number of Rooms: | 430 |
| Pool: | Yes |
| Fitness Center: | Yes |
| Spa: | Yes |
| Internet Access: | Yes |
| Pets Allowed: | No |
| Cribs: | Yes |
| Kids Club: | Yes |
| Jacuzzi (in room): | Some |
| Casino: | Yes |
Hotel Information
| Location: | Montego Bay, Jamaica |
| Toll Free Bookings: | 1-888-776-9783 |
| Address: | Sunset Dr, Montego Bay, Jamaica (See Map) |
Travel Guide
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Oyster Awarded This Hotel
We've visited hundreds of hotels. We slept in the beds and swam in the pools, and when we got home, we debated the pros and cons of every hotel and picked our favorites in a number of categories. Here's how this one stands out:
This Hotel Also Featured In
- Best Hotels for Destination Weddings in Montego Bay
- Best Kid-Friendly Hotels in Montego Bay
- Best Nude Beaches in Jamaica
Things You Should Know About Sunset Beach Resort & Spa
Address
- Sunset Dr, Montego Bay, Jamaica
Hotel Is Also Known As...
- Sunset Beach Hotel
- Sunset Beach Resort Spa
- Sunset Beach Resort Jamaica
- Sunset Beach Resort
- Sunset Beach Jamaica
- Sunset Beach Montego Bay
- Sunset Beach Resort Montego Bay
- Sunset Beach Resort Spa Montego Bay
- Sunset Beach Resort And Spa Jamaica
Room Types
- Standard Tower Room
- Standard Courtyard Room
- Bayview Room
- Waterpark Room
- Oceanfront Room
- One Bedroom Suite
- Oceanview Room
- Junior Suite
- One Bedroom Suite
- Garden View Room
- Beachfront Room
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