Samsara Cliff Resort

Our group thoroughly enjoyed our weekend at Samsara Cliff Resort. Because it was our first time staying here, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect, but it completely surpassed our expectations! From the kitchen and bar to housekeeping and the front desk, the entire staff was incredibly friendly, warm, welcoming, and efficient. They took excellent care of us throughout our entire stay. The rooms were perfectly clean and well-maintained, providing a very comfortable environment. A special shout-out to our driver, Junior, who handled our transport wonderfully and took great care of us on the road. We truly appreciated the outstanding hospitality shown to us over the weekend. To the management and the entire team: job well done!

We loved our time at Samsara! We have been to Jamaica many times and have always stayed in the beach resorts. We wanted to try something different this time. The location is amazing!! The grounds and rooms are simple and adequate. Pools are lovely. It’s great to be able to just jump in the ocean and swim or snorkel from the cliffs!! The food is AMAZING. One restaurant, and the food is tasty. Not mass produced. Marcia and Tina were our friendly bartenders. Drinks were all good (a few too many things, like “top shelf” or bottled water was an extra charge, so we just stayed within what was included). Marcia gave us a great tip in using Junior and his cab to do an excursion at Mayfield Falls. (Another review—but extraordinary experience!) In summary—if you are looking for a laid back, authentic Jamaican experience this may be it. If you want big hotel, entertainment staff, many restaurant choices and a beach—it is not. But we loved it, would go back, and recommend!

Another incredible stay at Samsara! There is nothing more breathtaking than the views on property. The sunsets are probably one of the most magical moments I’ve ever experienced. The staff are amazing and feel like family at this point. Highly recommend for anyone looking for an authentic experience.

I arrived at Samsara cliff hotel on the 14th of May, with my disabled mother. Upon arriving we were met by the receptionist who was not very welcoming. My mum had asked the receptionist if we were going to be given a ground floor room as she is disabled and can’t do the stairs. The receptionist said no there were no available rooms on the ground floor. She told us to fill out a request form so that we would get a room change. My mum and I were very annoyed at this point as we booked this holiday last year, but were unable to come because of the devastating Hurricane Melissa. So we opted to come at a later date. Back when we originally booked, my mum informed the Tui rep that she needed a ground floor room, because of her mobility issues. The rep told us that we had a ground floor room booked with a sea view. The day before flying to Jamaica my mum called Tui to double check that we were booked in for a ground floor room. The Tui rep she spoke to checked the system and said that the ground floor room had been booked and there was nothing to worry about. So that put my mums mind at ease. But upon arriving at the hotel, that wasn’t the case. The lady on reception put us on the third floor of the hotel. This hotel has no lifts and the stairs are very steep. It was extremely difficult for my mum to climb the stairs. My mum walks with a walker as she is riddled with arthritis along with other health issues. By the time we got to our room we were so out of breath. The guy carrying our suitcases was sweating and the house keeping lady who assisted him was also breathless. Whilst in the room me and my mum felt very disappointed as we had requested a ground floor room. After we put our cases down. We went to get dinner as it was after 8pm from arriving. So we had to go back down those steep stairs. To then go up more steep stairs to get to the dining area. You really couldn’t make this up. My mum was in serious agony by this point. She could barely eat anything. After dinner we struggled to get back to the room. I could see my mum wanted to cry. She was in pain and she was tired. The following morning I woke up in the early hours to my mum crying. She had hurt herself in the bathroom trying to use the toilet. The toilet was so low and she fell on the sharp corner of the sink and hurt her shoulder. I tried to find a contact number for the Tui rep, but couldn’t find one. I had to talk with an agent on the Tui app, who was extremely unhelpful. Some hours later a daytime staff member on reception called the room , because she had received the form for requesting a room change. My mum spoke to the lady and explained why she shouldn’t have been put up here. She also told her about the accident in the bathroom. The lady said she would be forwarding this information to the hotel manager, who later came to the room to speak with us. Davianna is the hotel manager. She was very polite and offered to move us to a ground floor room, she also came with me to the dining area and asked me what my mum and I would like to eat for breakfast and got the staff to bring it up to us, as my mum couldn’t do the stairs again. Davianna also contacted the Tui rep for us. He came to see us in our room. The Tui rep said that we could change hotels but there would be an additional cost. Which was quite unfair considering the price we paid for our tickets weren’t cheap. He told us to look at the local hotels and see if we wanted to move there. Once we moved to the ground floor, my mum felt a little better. The only thing is we now had to share a bed. But that wasn’t a problem. After a few days my mum and I started to get used to the hotel and we decided to stay. As my mum didn’t have it in her to pack and unpack again. The hotel isn’t the type of hotel that I’m used to staying in. It’s a boutique hotel, so there’s no entertainment team, though they did have a group of singers come on a Sunday evening. It’s quite small. Some of the staff are really nice and quite welcoming like Tina, Kim and Chantelle. A lot of the staff could do with re-training on customer service, for example the two women who serve the food in the morning and evening, they are very rude and quite dismissive when you talk to them, especially the woman in the morning. In the dining area, you are served food, it’s not the buffet food you expect at an all inclusive hotel. The food was the same almost every day. And the staff were too busy putting food in containers rather than serving the guests at the hotel. There were a few times when My mum and I arrived for dinner and they told us that the food had finished, so we decided to eat out after that. I found a short lady who worked the bar when Tina was on her day off very rude. It felt like every time you asked for a drink, she was doing you a favour. The looks she gave me, were very rude. The hotel has a nice infinity pool and another one near the bar. There’s also the cliffs if you want to Dive. But if you want to go to the proper beach there is a free shuttle that takes you to the sister beach at the Legends hotel. That beach is very beautiful. My holiday didn’t start off great, but my mum and I made the best of a bad situation. I don’t think I will come back to this hotel as there were no Snack bars, just breakfast lunch and dinner. Some of the staff were extremely rude and their rudeness wasn’t warranted. The rooms have fridges but no drinks in them, not even water. If you wanted water at the bar, you had to pay for bottles or take water from the tank free of charge. The house keeping ladies, were too laid back. They took towels and didn’t replace them on occasions. They even forgot to give us toilet paper quite a few times. There were no shower gels or shampoos in the bathrooms, just two little soaps. And upon arriving my mum and I had to pay a $100 holding charge in case we damaged any of the hotel property. But when we checked out yesterday we noticed that a lady after us didn’t have to pay that $100 and the older lady on the reception was very polite and Helpful with her. If you wanted a quiet hotel, this is a place for you. But it definitely wasn’t one for me.

What an amazing experience. Great time of the year to be there. Weather was fantastic, and we felt like were guests at our own private beach club. Great snorkeling right out back and fun cliff jumping. Restaurant was great. Will definitely be returning for another visit or twelve. You'll probably want to rent a car to get around Negril!