Grand Lido, Bloody Bay, Negril, Jamaica

Water wheel in Lobby

Lobby

View from our room

View from room

Service road

Bed

Coffee Maker

Shower

Sink

Guest for lunch

Main buffet

Feeding the fish

Stingray in cove

Fish in cove

Stingray in cove

Overview:

The resort is an older resort that was once the top hot spot in Jamaica to visit. It was recently sold and the new owners have said they will be spending 65 million dollars to upgrade the resort.  By today standards the resort is smaller than most with 210 rooms and lots of pillars in the way in the lobby.   This does make it less crowded and you can always get a beach chair or pool chair or get into  the À la Carte restaurants with no reservations.  This is a refreshing change of pace.

The resort has three areas, breach front, ocean view and cove view with is a cloths optional area. The beach front where rooms are located right on the beach with a grassy area between you and the beach but you are closer than any other resort I have been too.  Other rooms are located with an ocean view on the small cliff.  We stayed here and our patio deck was only about 30 feet from the ocean with a great view.  The other area is cloths optional.  It has three building and goes from the cliff area to the beach with their own private beach with no public access, pool and bar and both are cloths optional.

The main buffet restaurant is only open for dinner on Monday and Friday.  This seems unusual but forced one to use the À la Carte restaurants which turned out to be a great idea and the À la Carte restaurants were great.

During our stay we had no hot water and asked to be moved to another room.  Others were not so lucky and this seemed to be the main complaint of most people.  At least five or six couples had the same issue.  Even with this issue the resort is so relaxing and had such a variety of friendly guests that it was easily one of our favourite vacations.  We plan to go back as soon as possible.

Drive to the Resort:

It is a long drive from the airport to the resort.  Count on two full hours or more if their is road construction.

Check In:

Very bad check in service.  It’s slow and complicated.  It would be better if they just let you go to the bar or buffet to eat and have you check back with them.

Beach:

The best beach in Jamaica if not the Caribbean.  Pure white power sand with gentle slope into the shallow water.  You can walk out into the water for 100’s of feet and still not be over your head.

The resort is located at the end of Bloody Bay on cliffs that over look the ocean and a long section of beach.

The resort is next to the couples resort that has a nude beach section.  You need to walk through the couples nude beach section to continue along the beach.  There is virtually a line in the sand, nude not nude.

At the far end of the beach near the RIU resort you can feed lots of colourful fish in knee deep water.  The water does not look as clean at that end of the beach due to less water movement and leaves falling and decaying.  At our end of the beach the water is crystal clear.

Rooms:

The rooms are a little dated but clean.  You don’t spend much time in your room anyway and I really don’t care if it’s new as long as it’s clean.

The balcony is very tiny on the second floor.  Just enough room for two chairs but we did sit out most evenings since there were no bugs at all to bother you.  Our room over looked the ocean and was only 30 feet from the waves.

Food:

There is one main buffet restaurant and three  À la Carte restaurants.  The food was excellent in every one.

• Japanese Restaurant
• Italian Restaurant
• Mediterranean Restaurant
• Ice cream and coffee bar
• Jamaican Restaurant ( more like fast food ) 

Bottom line:

This resort while has some short coming including the terrible check in process and the overall age of the resort, it grows on you.  It has a small resort feel where everyone is friendly and you keep running into the same people at different restaurants.

Even with the bad checking experience, hot water issues and dated resort it was one of our favourite vacations.  It’s a relaxing resort with friendly staff and fun guests with a great beach.