Azul Beach Resort Negril by Karisma - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5375 reviews

• 

  Not doing this again!

  Let's start with the positives: The property is clean with very well-kept vegetation. Some boards on the boardwalk could be replaced as I nearly sank into one, but ok. My group and I arrived in the rain and the first confusion was finding the gate. The resort is built like a compound with huge gates. I later learned that you must toot your horn to be acknowledged by security. The second challenge is that there is no parking on property. Instead there is a valet service, not saying anything is wrong with that but not everyone is comfortable with a complete stranger driving their car. We received a welcome drink on arrival and was extorted out of a mandatory security deposit which was not mentioned at reservation. My biggest challenge with the security deposit was their willingness to take anything in your purse whether it reached the deposit amount or not! Startling! We were then pointed in the direction of the restaurant... no tour, no accompaniment! We had to figure it out. Now , this property is huge. It took a 10 mile walk to find the restaurant. Once the restaurant was found a new series of challenges emerged: The selections were sparse and tasteless. I spent 3 days/2 nights and tasted nothing. The pastry was the most appealing thing on the buffet. The restaurant staff, in particular, the women are the most unpleasant people I have ever encountered in a resort setting. At points I wondered if there was a wage negotiation happening and they were displeased with the discussion. They acted more like military rulers than hospitality workers. The rooms are basic... nothing like the website/brochure. There is a Cafe in the lobby at arrival... only one woman there was pleasant. It forced me to wonder if it was because I was black why they remained unpleasant throughout each service. The long and short of this is that I would never go back to Azul and I've told all my friends who had it on their list to destroy the list and start again. A property can be unappealing to the eyes but the staff can enhance the experience. Azul, we give thanks for the few at the front Shamar, Carlos, Sania and Sashana... everyone else need training and sifting, and fast!

  Aug 05, 2025
• 

  Great hotel with fantastic people working there.

  We have been having our holidays at the Azia for many years & have not once been disappointed. My wife & I have been there for over three weeks this year, including taking our son, his wife & our grandson in May. They also had a great time & now realize why we keep returning. All the staff put so much effort into making guests welcome ensuring their holiday is enjoyable at the hotel, as nothing is too much trouble. Special mention for Nataly in reservations who efficiently arranges our stay there, Nino in dining room is absolutely amazing, always seems to be on duty with a big smile for everyone & organises her departing to run like clockwork. Thankyou also to Khristina in dining area too, plus everyone in that dept. We shall be going back again next month & looking forward to meeting everyone at the hotel then, as they have become our friends. . ' .

  Aug 04, 2025
• 

  So much potential but currently overpriced and I would book elsewhere

  This place has the potential To be a fantastic resort but right now it is a 2-3 star overall in my opinion. Keep in mind as you read this review that they were at less than 25% capacity. We met a lot of people during our trip that had all of the same concerns. We will not be returning and we are disappointed on what we paid to come here compared to other options we had. If you are bringing older kids make sure you communicate with the hotel before you arrive. We met several prople who were given a room for the adults and then the children were put in a separate room on the complete other side of the resort. One family had a 15 and 18 year old daughters and was forced to pay $500 to move them next to their parents. Imagine thinking that is acceptable? Cleanliness/Esthetics. So the resort is beautiful but there are definitely some outdated areas. They had crews working on 2 of the buildings, cleaning and fixing things. I assume this is the quiet season and this is when they prioritize cleaning and fixing. The chairs and huts at the beach need a power wash. Some of the exterior areas at the hotels are dirty and could use a cleaning but they are in the process of cleaning some of the buildings. Deck boards are all mangled and broken and it is apparent they fix a pieces at a time with whatever decking they can find. Housekeeping Staff definitely do not care. We had plates, cups and trash stacked outside the room next to us for the entire week (there was no one staying there). They clean and sweep all around the pool areas but again there is food and dishes left out all day with dozens of staff walking by. I would normally blame the lazy guests for not at least picking up after themselves but I wouldn’t find a trash barrel or a spot for dishes to save my life. Definitely lackluster in this category. Room safes didn’t work. Asked for help, they sent a maintenance worker who couldn’t get it fixed. Come to find out every person we talked to had a similar issue. We talked with guests who never had anything of value stolen, however a few people reported random clothes missing. Cannot confirm it was the staff but we also had a very expensive pair of shorts go missing and our friends had sneakers stolen from the room. Beach towels. Huts didn’t open until about 10:30 so grab your towels for the next day in the morning the day before. If you give a few bucks to the lifeguards cleaning the beach in the morning they will find you beach towels and chairs before 10:30. But there was really no issue getting chairs as the resort wasn’t even 1/4 full. Room towels. No rhyme or reason to getting them replaced. If you leave them on the floor they will take them but we had to call to get replacements. Had to steal extra beach towels at the end of the day just to shower early some days. 4 of us traveling and we would get maybe 2 towels replaced every other day. Foot wash stations. Tons of them around but none of them work so we just walked into the pools with our flip flops to clean off. Sorry but you gave us no choice. Beach. The beach is beautiful. Lovely sunsets and views. Not a lot to see snorkeling but we did see some cool fish, stingrays and tons of starfish. Bring goggles if you have kids because they don’t have them here. The lifeguards are out at 5am cleaning the beaches, raking and organizing chairs. They are wonderful to deal with. The peddlers are non stop, selling stuff. If you say no they leave you alone. But if you entertain them even for a second they all flock to you. Should you choose to buy from them, negotiate because they will come down at least 50% on their items. They think we are all rich and want to spend $10 on a coconut…. Concierge. You will be assigned a concierge and they will hassle you to meet with them for breakfast one day, promising it will be 90 minutes. It will be 3-4 hours at which time they offer you a package with a 10 year commitment for $38,000. Excursions. FYI, they have Tripadvisor blocked on the resort WiFi so you can’t book anything through the website or app. We have had great experience in the past with TA excursions but this kinda screwed us so if you want to book via TA make sure you get what’s app numbers for the hosts and book them before you get here. The resort has some excursions available and they are marked up $$. You can negotiate down a little with them. We ended up booking one and got them down $15 a person. Highly recommend the Catamaran to Ricks cafe. It’s about 3 and a half hours. They take you to a reef to snorkel for about 30/40 minutes, boat ride along the west end cliffs and then down to Ricks for cliff diving. It’s a major tourist trap and very expensive to eat but it’s a must see. If you want souvenirs walk to the end of the resort and towards sandals resort as there are a bunch of places that sell stuff cheap. You can negotiate with them as well. Tipping. Is obviously optional. We tipped for good service. Bring American dollars as they appreciate them more than Jamaican money. These workers make around $2usd an hour so they are grateful for tips Below is my take on the restaurants. Mahogany. This is the buffet options and it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It doesn’t open until 7am. Breakfast was great. Very normal breakfast foods. Dinner and lunch is All Jamaican food. No traditional American food. Mexican night was disappointing. Not one food option was good. Everything was dry and tasteless. There was no true Mexican food, it was a Jamaican take on Mexican and was a huge miss. Had to leave to eat elsewhere. While many may think “well you went to Jamaica you should have expected the food to be Jamaican”- we have been to several islands and this was by far the worst food we have experienced. If you have children who are picky eaters they will struggle here. Ackees. Jamaican cuisine. Tiny portions and a long wait if you aren’t there right at opening. Food itself was ok. But we dont love Jamaican food so if you do you may like it. Garfield. Never opened for regular guests, only for prestige members. Palms world cuisine. Just opened for the first time as we were leaving. It was the same buffet as Mahogany but without AC. Hua hin. Located directly next to Mahogany. The food itself was good, just very small portions. While our waiter was nice, he had zero idea what we could and couldn’t order. Food took forever to come out and the order was incorrect. Missing appetizers. Missing parts of the entree. Place was empty because it’s hidden and I think many people didn’t know it was there. Also for some reason it was really warm inside. Very average but it was better than the buffet options this evening. Di Romagna. Between the wait and the service time it took us over 3 hours to get through this meal. Food was good. But again very small portions. We went to the buffet after to eat. West end. Breakfast is small pastries not an actual breakfast. App says open at 11:00 for lunch. They didn’t open until 12:30 for lunch everyday. Food itself was ok but also a long wait for food. Expect to wait 30-45 minutes for your food once ordered. Beans. Great coffee and snacks. This is where you get water for your rooms. Tasty Jamaican Patties everyday at 11:30 but once they are gone they are gone. Room service. Waited an hour. No showed. Called and they said it was on the way. Never came.

  Aug 02, 2025
• 

  Azul Beach Negril - average at best, hoping it was just a fluke.

  It is genuinely tough to pick between an average and good rating for this hotel. First and foremost, the location is truly amazing, the beach at the property is pristine and probably one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever been on. The hotel took pride in ensuring that the beach looked amazing every day. No complaints there. As it relates to the experience at the hotel, this is where the average rating came to play. We stayed at another Azul property in Mexico and were blown away by the level of service, the accommodations and quality of food and for that reason we opted to stay at this Azul property. Disclaimer - we booked directly through the Karisma site. Let’s just say everything you read about and see on the website when you book certainly left a lot to be desired when you arrived. Cocktail upon arrival, non-existent, seamless check-in, not so much. We were met by a front desk attendant who let us know it would be a few minutes before they could check us in. When they were finally ready for us we were informed that we had received a complimentary upgrade from a premium ocean view room to a royal swim up suite at no cost to us. We just had to sign a disclosure form and we were all set. They asked for a $200 deposit for incidentals, but upon handing them my AMEX, they informed me we couldn’t use it for check-in but we would be able to use it around the property for other items like the gift shop and could use it to check-out, when I asked additional questions about why I couldn’t use it for check-in I was just told that’s just the policy. Our room wasn’t immediately ready, which we were ok with as we understood check-in was at 3pm and we had arrived at 2pm. When our room was ready we were shown to our room in building 11. To say the room was a bit disappointing is an understatement. Our room was in a dark hallway with an entry door to the hallway which made it hard to even see our door. I even reported that the light was out in the hallway but no action was taken. Our room was a bit on the older side, and had really no ocean view, as it was obstructed by a wall and tree. I later found that the premium rooms are in buildings 8 and 9 with unobstructed views. When you look on their site, you won’t find any Royal Suite options, which seems odd considering that’s what we were “upgraded” to. Additionally when I went back to the front desk inquiring about the swim up suite that we were told we’d get they told me I must have misunderstood what was communicated, and that it was an upgrade to a Royal Suite, not swim-up. I did ask for the document that I had signed to confirm and they refused to produce the document. Disappointing to say the least. Finally, the service. This is where the average rating holds strongly. It was shared with us that we were visiting during their low season so they are not fully staffed. That being said, the resort was not very crowded and yet it seemed like we were more of a nuisance when we asked staff questions about the hotel. In fact most pointed us to download the app if we wanted information about the hotel. Our reservation noted a “beach butler”, that never happened and the one time we did have someone helping us with drinks, we saw the individual once and it was actually faster for me to get out of the water go to a pool bar and get a drink and food. Surprisingly the only restaurant we received great service at was Mahogany, the buffet. The wait staff was amazing and always remembered our name and made sure we were taken care of. The other restaurants the service was average at best. Finally, would I come back, yes with the hopes that perhaps this was a fluke and the service is generally better. Again, basing it on the experience we had at the Azul in Mexico we would hope that the level of service would align with the brand.

  Jul 27, 2025
• 

  Solid 3 star resort (needs updating)

  We came to Jamaica to attend the wedding of a friend, so we didn’t choose the resort ourselves as Azul Beach Resort Negril was the wedding hotel. Since it’s a long flight to get to Jamaica for us, we decided to extend our stay and do a full 10 days at the hotel to turn the wedding trip into a nice vacation. Overall I would consider the Azul Beach Resort Negril solid 3 star hotel. The issue is that online it’s listed as a 4 star hotel, and if you come here with 4 star expectations I think you will likely be disappointed. As many others reviews noted, the hotel and rooms feel run down, even in the “newer” side of the hotel. Furniture that has fabric is worn and stained in both the room (couch) but also the restaurants. It doesn’t give you the luxury feeling. The staff are fully aware the hotel is outdated so I don’t think they are trying to hide it. They did explain that this resort was purchased from another seller and is the only resort in the Karisma family that was not built from the ground up. They did advise that renovations are planned to start in October 2025 after hurricane season has passed. Also to note there are NO elevators on the property so be mindful of what room they put you in if you don’t want to do stairs. They didn’t ask us at all about any mobility restrictions and put us on the third floor. The stairs were ok for us, but we did notice the older couple next to us struggling a bit. Aside from the disappointment in the state of the room/furnishings, we had issues with the room not being stocked with items it was supposed to be. When we arrived there were no towels, bathrobes/slippers or Kleenex in our room. When towels were delivered they brought two, when I asked for a third the housekeeper said no and that I had to call and ask again. When they delivered the bathrobe it was only one and I had to call again to ask for a second. When I asked they said they have any Kleenex/tissues they seemed confused, even though there is literally a Kleenex/tissue holder in the bathroom. But then three days later Kleenex showed up lol. It was a struggle just to get the things that were already supposed to be stocked, and I got the sense they were just trying to cut corners with room amenities. We later found out the washer/dryer on premises was broken and that all laundry/towels had to be sent out so maybe that’s why they were trying to skimp on things. Either way it was not a great impression getting started and it didn’t give us the feeling of good customer service. Looking past the room/amenities, most of the staff (aside from maybe the housekeeping/front desk due to the struggles mentioned above) were very nice. We had great experiences with the bell hop, all of the restaurant staff and the entertainment staff. I would consider the staff a definite positive of the resort. We had fun trying to do the daily activities with the entertainment staff but because it was slow they were often cancelled (not the staff’s fault though). In slower months there are only 3 restaurants open per day (4 if you include the coffee stand). One is always the buffet (for breakfast/lunch/dinner), there is a beach grill open for lunch only daily, and the 3rd rotates between their other restaurants on a nightly basis for dinner only. For example on Sunday/Monday/Thursday the Italian place was open for dinner, and on Tuesday/Saturday the Jamaican restaurant was open, and on Weds/Friday the Asian restaurant was open. As vegetarians, the options were a bit limited at the buffet. Not terrible but not great. I wouldn’t consider the food a selling point, and I don’t know if I would call it “gourmet” as advertised on the website but it was ok. I did try room service one day for breakfast and it arrived promptly, although I didn’t realize I needed to specifically ask for condiments like butter or jam when ordering toast. The beach is at the top of the Seven Mile Beach in Jamaica and the water and sand was truly beautiful. Because we came during a slow time there were a lot of chairs and cabanas (first come first serve) available. They had several large trees on the beach so if you could get a chair under the tree it provided wonderful shade. There were some vendors trying to sell things along the beach but it wasn’t too bad. We often saw the same people every day and they were not overly pushy. We have been to some places in Mexico where the vendors were so aggressive I avoided the beach entirely but it wasn’t a bother here. I’m glad the beach was nice because the pools I would consider a disappointment. They were quite small and also outdated, and often the water looked a bit cloudy (likely due to chemical) but it wasn’t very enticing to swim in. Do not expect to find picturesque romantic infinity pools or anything like that. The only other I would note is that the resort is going to try to get you to sit through a sales pitch for their vacation club. It’s not a time share, but it’s a similar idea where you pay a large 5 figure upfront fee to book at their resorts at a discounted rate for a 5 or 10 year period of time. They are a bit pushy about sitting through the sales presentation. Similarly their spa staff are a bit pushy about getting you to sign up for treatments. This also could have been because it’s the slow season and I’m sure they are not seeing as much business as usual. Aside from the above there were some other little things to note. * The Ocean View “premium” rooms have a side view of the ocean, so you have to go out to your patio and look to the side to see it. You cannot see it from inside the room so it might be misleading. * Phone in the room has a screen with a bright backlight so it’s annoying overnight. Had to cover with a washcloth. * Toilet paper is in an incredibly inconvenient spot in the bathroom and the roll constantly falls off the holder. * Rooms on the 3rd (top) floor in the “Premium” section don’t have a roof on patio so it can mostly not be used when it rains (if coming in July it rains every day) * Review your receipt thoroughly before check out as they may try to charge you for extras or free things. (For example we had a credit for a private dinner but they tried to charge us for it anyway). * While tips for the staff are not necessarily expected, you will find the staff goes above and beyond with service if you do discreetly tip them. (I think technically they are not “supposed” to accept tips) * Trip Advisor is blocked by the hotel for some reason. Overall if we were to come back to Jamaica I don’t think we would stay at this resort again. We did love the staff, and the upgrades will hopefully help the state of the hotel, but the feeling of corners being cut with room amenities didn’t feel worth the value to us.

  Jul 21, 2025