Half Moon Montego Bay General Information

What to expect: Queen Elizabeth II stays here when visiting Jamaica. Fidel Castro slept here. The Jamaican prime minister brings visiting dignitaries to lunch. Since 1954 when it opened as a cluster of cottages, the resort has welcomed luminaries, celebrities, and not-so-famous couples and families from around the world seeking relaxation in a plantation-style resort redolent with Jamaica's English-colonial past.

The resort constitutes a vast botanical preserve, with a 25-acre protected wetland. All manner of mature palms, trees, shrubs, bushes, and blossoms grace the 400 acres. Semi-secret places are everywhere, some with benches facing lawns screened by dense foliage, others with bird baths and statues, and others consisting of dense tree groves. Surprises such as tree stumps carved in bird and sealife images and sculpted bushes pop up. Attention to ecology earned the resort admission to the Caribbean Green Hall of Fame.
 
Amenity highlights: Sunset Beach on Half Moon Bay offers calm-water swimming and nonmotorized water sports. Long, uncrowded Sunrise Beach features motorized sports and encounters with two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (surcharges) in a lagoon pen. The main pool complex consists of a freeform pool with swim-up bar, a lap pool, and, between them, a waterfall pool with barstools. A secluded children's center provides supervised activities for ages 3-6 and 7-12.  
 
Insider tip: The Bob Marley Experience, a 68-seat theater showing a free video biography and offering souvenirs, is located in the resort's Shopping Village, which also includes a 24-bed hospital, a dentist, a bank, a post office, a grocery, a beauty shop, an English pub, and a public school. 

Caribbean classic favored by dignitaries and families

• This long-established resort near Montego Bay provides a complete vacation, from watersports to horseback riding.

• Accommodations range from 418 rooms and suites to seven-bedroom villas with private pools, housekeeper, cook, and butler.

• A shuttle whisks guests to beaches, swimming pools, health spa, golf course, shopping village, and children’s center.

• Optional all-inclusive.

Guests may book either an All-Inclusive plan or a Room-Only (No Meals) plan. All-Inclusive plans include meals, drinks, gratuities, and the majority of resort-offered amenities and activities. Room-Only (No Meals) plans do NOT include meals, drinks, gratuities, and certain resort-offered amenities etc. (scroll up to the All-Inclusive Plan Details section for more information).
A health spa includes complimentary women's and men's saunas and steam rooms and, for surcharges, treatments such as Jamaican Bush Bath. A couples’ pavilion includes a two-person spa tub, twin tables, ceiling mirror, and cushioned lounge chairs for services such as Lovers' Fantasy (candlelight, music, champagne).

A business center offers high-speed Internet access (surcharges), with wireless access (surcharge) available in the lobby and the Hibiscus section. A games room contains video games (surcharges), with video, DVD player, and DVD rentals available.
 
Ground transportation:
Shuttle vans and private cars of varying prices are available. They can be reserved during the process of booking a reservation for this hotel, via this Web site, and added to the total trip cost. 

Seagrape Terrace - Air-conditioned dining room in main building and expansive sea-view terrace seating at wrought-iron tables under buttonwood trees. (Tiny white lights on trunks after dark). Afternoon island music, nightly dance music. Buffet and à la carte breakfasts. Lunch choices such as soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, fish, steak, jerk chicken. Traditional afternoon tea. Dinner choices include curried lobster salad, sweet-potato crab cakes, broiled snapper with bananas and almonds, broiled beef tenderloin. Reservations required for dinner. Dress code: no t-shirts, jeans, shorts, beach sandals.

Il Giardino - Located next to Seagrape Terrace. Air-conditioned dining room with gray marble floor, sponged rose walls. Sea-view terrace seating at wrought-iron tables. Italian cuisine featuring vegetables, herbs from resort garden. Dinner only; reservations required. Choices such as tagliolini with shellfish in crayfish sauce, goat cheese-celery ravioli with walnut pesto, osso buco, rack of lamb, grilled swordfish. Dress code: no t-shirts, jeans, shorts, beach sandals. Closed Monday and Friday.

Sugar Mill Restaurant - Located in garden near golf course. Adjacent to 200-year-old working water wheel. Dining-room, veranda, and terrace seating. Dinner only; reservations required. Jamaican specialties such as curried crayfish bisque; chicken-pineapple stew with tumeric-passionfruit sauce; dasheen-crusted mahi mahi with ackee and tomato-basil confit; jerked chicken, pork, fish combination. Also, grilled steaks, fish. Dress code: no t-shirts, jeans, shorts, beach sandals.

La Baguette - Restaurant/bar in open-air sea-view pavilion. Pool table. Brick floor, rattan seating, colorful seat cushions, yellow walls. Serves Continental breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Open late morning to early evening for burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, salads, grilled food, tropical drinks. Open in high-occupancy periods for dinner, with choices such as steaks, lobsters, fish, chicken. Closed Monday and Friday.
 
 
The Royal Stocks English Pub & Steakhouse - Located in Shopping Village. Traditional pub fare and Jamaican specialties for lunch and dinner. Meals and beverages at this restaurant are not included in the All-Inclusive plan.

Akbar - Indian and Thai cuisine. Lunch and dinner served. Reservations required for dinner. Meals and beverages at this restaurant are not included in the All-Inclusive plan.

Beach Barbecue - Complimentary cocktail reception on Monday and Friday evenings followed by Caribbean buffet at picnic tables under trees festooned with lights. Steel band. Crab races.

Lester's Bar - Lobby bar open early morning to late night.

Cedar Bar - Casual beachfront spot open mid-morning to late night.

Beach Bar - Open mid-afternoon to late evening.

Royal Pavilion - Open-air bar near dolphin-encounter lagoon. Open mid-morning to early evening.

19th Hole Bar - Golf-clubhouse bar serving cocktails, beer, Jamaican beef patties from early morning to early evening.

Hibiscus Bar - Pool bar with swimup side open late morning to early evening.

3 Bedroom Villa Garden View -

5 Bedroom Villa Garden View - These villas are situated along Sunrise Beach amid lush tropical gardens bordering the Wetland Nature Preserve. Each is Individually decorated, with private swimming pool and its own cook, butler, and housekeeper. Choice of two golf carts or rental car per villa. Ideal comfort and luxury for families.

Deluxe Room - One king bed (four-poster). Ocean view. Private balcony. Patio area. Living room. Dining room. Kitchen. Bathroom upstairs; bathroom downstairs. In-room safe.

Deluxe Suite - Located in the Oleander Area, these suites are more spacious than Superior and Junior suites. Four-poster king beds, separate living rooms and fully equipped kitchens. Housekeeper/cook upon request.

7 Bedroom Villa Superior Garden View - These villas are situated along Sunrise Beach amid lush tropical gardens bordering the Wetland Nature Preserve. Each is Individually decorated, with private swimming pool and its own cook, butler, and housekeeper. Choice of two golf carts or rental car per villa. Ideal comfort and luxury for families.

6 Bedroom Villa Garden View - These villas are situated along Sunrise Beach amid lush tropical gardens bordering the Wetland Nature Preserve. Each is Individually decorated, with private swimming pool and its own cook, butler, and housekeeper. Choice of two golf carts or rental car per villa. Ideal comfort and luxury for families.

Junior Suite - One king bed or two twin beds. View of Half-Moon bay or garden patio. Separate living area. In-room safe.

Imperial Suite - These suites are the resort's most luxurious. All have large living areas, Queen Anne reproduction furniture in Jamaican mahogany, and bright tropical print fabrics. Shared swimming pools.

6 Bedroom Villa Water View - These villas are situated along Sunrise Beach amid lush tropical gardens bordering the Wetland Nature Preserve. Each is Individually decorated, with private swimming pool and its own cook, butler, and housekeeper. Choice of two golf carts or rental car per villa. Ideal comfort and luxury for families.

5 Bedroom Villa Water View - These villas are situated along Sunrise Beach amid lush tropical gardens bordering the Wetland Nature Preserve. Each is Individually decorated, with private swimming pool and its own cook, butler, and housekeeper. Choice of two golf carts or rental car per villa. Ideal comfort and luxury for families.

Royal Suite - One king bed or two twin beds in spacious suites situated in either the Royal Court or the west cottages. Some have shared private pools. Large living rooms, bedrooms with Queen Anne reproductions in Jamaican mahogany, and deluxe black tile bathrooms.

Hibiscus Suite - Located in the main building, these second-floor suites offer oceanfront views and have separate living areas.

Superior Room - One king bed or two twin beds. Ocean view; balcony. Living area. Minibar. In-room safe.

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