I'll begin by stating that I've been criticized in the past about my reviews. We travel four times a year to various Carribean locations so we are fairly seasoned travelers.
We decided to take a last minute short holiday to Ocho Rios. Reading the reviews the only negative I could find that would be warranted was the ala carte reservation system. I'll address my perceptions a bit later in this review.
We've been to Jamaica before and had shuttle service other than JTL. The benefit of some other resorts is that they have a reception area in the airport where you wait for the bus. With JTL we sat on the bus for 45 minutes before our departure. One thing we noticed was that if you didn't tip the porter they became quite rude and demanding of a tip. The porter that assisted us did a great job finding the bus and was tipped accordingly. Our JTL driver (Peter) was quite informative on the two hour drive and whereas no one else gave him a tip we did so. My opinion is, if you can't afford to tip you can't afford the trip.
I waited for our bags knowing they'd be the last off the bus as they were the first on, so my wife went to the reception area to check in. By the time I had our bags she had our room keys and the belllman showed us to our room. We saw sooooo many people trying to locate rooms on their own. Not recommended!
It was 4:30 by the time we got to our room and I tried to get evening reservations at an ala carte. The steak house was available at 9:00 but we were tired from the travel and opted for the St. Ann Buffet. The food was good, but we prefer a sit down/waiter/ala carte dinner. Making reservations the next morning I started calling at 8:55 and got through just after 9:00. I booked reservations for our remaining two nights and had my choice of time and place. Do be aware that the Sir Richard, Sir John and the Asian restaurants only seat around 50 people which is why reservations are difficult to secure. Although the food was good at the Sir John it was more like assembly line service where orders and serving moved table to table. Of the 16 tables we were next to the "kitchen" and received our courses first (pity the couple at table 16!). The steak house, even though ala carte, was a soup and salad bar, pick an entree, and a dessert bar. Again, the food was good (not great). Breakfast buffets were very good. The Jerk Shack had great jerk for lunch!!!
The resort was marvelous! You'd be hard pressed to find a pebble on the beach and the slope into the water is gradual and the surf minimal. The sand isn't pure white like some places in the Carribean but in my opinion was the best overal beach experience we've had (and I've been searching a long time). If you want to snorkel you can walk out maybe 15 yards on the west side of the beach to chest deep water with good snorkeling just outside the rope.
The bartenders are lively and friendly. The front desk called the first two days we were there to make sure we had everything we needed. The resort is pristine. From our room (standard) we had an outstanding view of the ocean, mountains, pool and garden.
All in all, if the ala cartes were to serve a more varied menu (outside of what's on the buffet table) with more flair in its presentation my review would be without reservation. I haven't found my perfect 5 star yet, but this is the first resort I told my wife I'd go back to in the future. The Riu Ocho Rios is worth the trip.

Hi we stayed at the Riu during my daughter Rachels spring break. I have to say that we were pleased with everything. I love the jamacian people thet are so nice and seem so happy. I booked a ocean veiw room and thats what i got. the beach was so beautiful and the people at the resort were great i think the Canadians were the best.....they all were so nice. I guess that people can get cinfused cause some otf the reveiws are horrible and all i can say is these people will find something wrong whereever they stay some people are just complainers. I am a picky eater but i still found good food to eat i am just not one to try things thats are new to me. the breakfast at St. Annes was the best with the freash juice i really liked the honey dew melon juice. I have to laugh when people say the drinks are weak...THEY ARE STRONG........the rooms are clean the jerk chicken was awesome we ate there everyday for lunch. the shows were good the people are great dunns river is great the best thing was the dolphin cove it was so great swimming with the dolphins and my boyfreind swam with the sharks also. we met a great family from Toronto the guy my daughter hung out with is named matt and if you tead this and you are his mom or dad please contact me we are from Kansas overall i would say this is a great place to stay we afre going back next year for 11 days.

We returned from jamacia on the 7th may having spent 2n weeks at riu ocho rios. We upgraded to preimuim class on the flight on thompson fly , really glad we did this as it made a difference. The hotel is very nice, very big however i think it is a bit to big so they have to cater for alot of people i dont think i would want to be there when they are nearly fall. We have stayed in ariu palace and the service is amazing with them, but riu ocho is big so they couldnt weight on ur hand and foot with all those people.The beach is lovley along with the food.
We did a few trips including the dunns river falls on the catermeran it is a must, bob marley very good but its a long way for a short time there. We also did the evening sunset cruise which is was beautiful. We went into ocho rios on the shuttle and let me say we only went once, not alot to see once you been in one shop you been in them all , selling the same old stuff. we went in to the craft maket and got really hassled.
The nighttime shows were ok , some were pretty crap but some were ok. There isnt really anyway to go at night time as you tend to stay in the resort but that was ok. You do get offered joints and weed quite abit but simply say no and there fun. we watched a few good regge bands at the hotel that were good.If you walk along to the end of the beach there is a bar its not part of the hotel and they had a regge band there which was good.
We eat in the chince, steak house and sir jon which were all very nice aswell as st ann buffet.
We had a really good time.
One word of warning - we borght a phone card to call home for 20 usd and we was leaving to come home i was giving a bill. totally shocked with this bill which for 20 usd was told it was charges for the calling card as they charge you to connect you
. What a cheek and i wasnt even told.
Any questions feel free to message me

Just returned from 2 weeks at this hotel. We are in our mid 20's and have previously stayed at 2 other riu hotels.

Good points:

Location - right on the beach
Weather - was superb!
Rooms - we had a standard room which was always cleaned daily by the maids and the mini bar was always stocked
Swimming pools - 2 pools (one quite, one not so quiet), so always plenty of sunbeds and shade
Entertainment staff - they worked sooo hard. Particular thanks to Delroy for making us feel welcome
Chinese restaurant - in our opinion the best of the speciality restaurants

Not so good points:

Food - was above average, but not as good as I've experienced at other riu hotels. The jamaican food was lovely.
Steakhouse - service was really poor. Food ok.