This affordable, all-inclusive, adults-only, Couples resort Tower Isle in Ocho Rios, Jamaica is the place for ultimate relaxation!
Was there ever a place you’ve been to that instantly melted your worries away as you landed? That’s Jamaica for me. Full of beachy, carefree vibes and friendly people saying hello everywhere you go. It’s a place where you can really get into the Rasta-spirit (some more so than others, if you catch my drift). It’s also a great place to do adult-only all-inclusive options- Like Couples Resorts. There are 4 in Jamaica, each with their own vibe and personality that cater to different kinds of couples. We decided on Couples Tower Isle in Ocho Rios, about 2-2.5 hours from the airport. It was a long, windy drive but beautiful. The resort package includes this ride in an air conditioned van that also picks up other passengers going to other Couples resorts on the way.
The weather was perfect, sun everyday- we lucked out! I don’t usually go to all-inclusive vacations mainly because I like to immerse myself in the culture and travel in the area I’m vacationing in. However, we wanted an affordable beach vacation that gave us the biggest bang for our buck since we were saving for other trips that we already anticipated would be pricey. Our room was nice and spacious, but nothing extraordinary (unlike Petit Hotel, still my favorite place to this day!)
Pros & Cons at Couples Resort Tower Isle in Jamaica:
Pros:
- Everything included, no tricks- transportation, food, drinks, towels, beach service, non-motorized sports, a couple excursions, nightly entertainment
- Full in-room bar with full sized local bottles of Rum, mixers, etc.
- Multiple dining options- restaurants with and without reservations, and buffet-style dining option
- Food was extremely good (didn’t take too many photos because we ditched our phones for the most part)
- Large pool with waterfall and swim-up bar pool
- Bar service on the beach
Cons (but are not really cons):
- Little to no Wi-fi- hence why we ditched our phones (a pro if you really want to unplug)
- Ants in rum bottles (I’ll continue story below)
- Couples resort are for couples; however that won’t stop some employees from hitting on you (haha!)
- Sometimes the bar service would forget your drink- no problem mon, order another! Or walk all of 10 steps…
So to elaborate on some of the cons above, yes we did have an instance where we ordered a full bottle of local rum to the room and it came with a spout, which was nifty, however we found dead ants in the bottle. We called to have them replace it, which they did gladly and apologized, and brought us another one. This one also had the same problem. Finally, we just asked for the bottle without the spout and a closed top and they replaced that for us again and we kept it in the fridge.
There are some people in this world that would write a terrible review for the resort as a whole based off this one experience, but we aren’t like that and understand that we aren’t in the fanciest resort, but we definitely don’t want ants in our alcohol, so we calmly asked for replacements if we had issues, which they gave us with no questions asked.
Another con above was about being hit on, which still cracks me up. I can’t be sure if it happened to every lady at the resort, but it happened to me a few times conveniently when my main squeeze was fast asleep on the beach and I was sunning myself LOL. None of the comments were vulgar by any means, just comments that clearly were meant for single individuals. Perhaps some people are just “overly nice and flirtatious” But I digress, it didn’t negatively affect my vacation at all.
The natural juice bars and fresh coconut water are a must-have, any time of day. Especially after consuming numerous alcoholic beverages, I needed to stay hydrated.
We made time for the gym for about an hour a day since the facilities were pretty nice and mostly empty all the time! Plus working out with an amazing view makes it that much better. Right from the gym, we walked to the pool bar that was open all day and late at night for some late night cravings. We ate a few beef patties and jerk chicken as a post-workout meal and that was one of my favorite parts about this place.
The food was really something special. I didn’t expect it to be this good for what we paid for, so we were pleasantly surprised by the variety, presentation and flavor of each and everything we had. No one really goes to an all-inclusive for the food, but this place definitely upped my expectations. We were CONSTANTLY eating…so photos of food are lacking because that would have been a lot of storage space- but I did manage to make sure a couple breakfasts were captured!
Anything you wanted was possible- fruit, breads, eggs, breakfast pizza, specialty omelets, sausage, bacon, coffee, smoothies, tea, mimosas, the list goes on and on. Oh and best part is, you can have 2 breakfasts. Yes, two. We ordered room service breakfast as pre-breakfast before some early morning beach time before actually going to breakfast….once we heard this was an option to do, we couldn’t pass that up at least once or twice!
Catamaran cruise was included and it was just okay. It was good to get off the resort for a couple hours, but the cruise itself was nothing to write home about. The rum punch was good though! We just wished they would play more JAMAICAN BEATS instead of typical music that they thought tourists would enjoy because they knew the songs. We left our phones in the room for this as we didn’t want them to get wet…and good thing we did, because we did. LOL. There were other excursions, like Dunns River Falls, but we opted to spend those few hours on the beach instead.
Couples resort Tower isle in Jamaica is different from the others because there’s a separate little island you can visit, if you like au naturel sun bathing. You can visit the island (they take you by boat) before 8 am for any photos you might want to take, but after that time, if you are to stay, you will have to bare your birthday suit! They can take you there any time of day, they have a bar on the island with some food options as well.
The swim-up pool bar is a fun spot. I enjoyed the large size of both pools. Make sure you order the Bob Marley shot!
One of my favorite parts of this trip was the spa here- we had a quite luxurious couple’s massage and salt bath. And if you feel so inclined, you could stay and relax further by the spa pool. We didn’t stay too long because it was in full sun and your fair-skinned girl here doesn’t do too well in that for too long.
Once a week, the resort hosts a huge beach dinner full of awesome BBQ and Jamaican plates. The dessert buffet was a vision….really. They provided entertainment of all kinds- steel drums, acrobats, contortionists, etc. all set up on a stage right on the sand.
We wanted to eat and drink in excess, be beach bums for hours, change the scenery. Be pool-side bums for hours, workout a bit, and bask in each other’s company. And Tower Isle made it the perfect place to do so!
