Half Moon Montego Bay Review

The villas are definitely older and in fact are being torn down this year and redone to create a more modern feel. However, the older feel gives it a unique charm that a lot of nicer hotels no longer have. Each bedroom has its own double vanity bathroom with a sizable closet. The two oceanfront rooms also had a balcony that connected from one room to the other. It was a beautiful spot to drink your morning coffee and take in the views.

Another wonderful perk of booking a villa is that each comes with a private pool, golf carts, chef, butler and housekeeper. Though we didn’t use the pool a ton as it was not heated, it was still a nice place to hang out. Our chef was a sweet older woman who made our breakfast each morning and our dinners, which we requested ahead of time. The food is served family-style and was just okay, but was significantly more cost-effective than going out for every meal. Our butler was helpful for basic needs, and our housekeeper kept the whole villa — including our rooms, shared space and laundry — tidy throughout the entire stay.

The Half Moon property is massive, as there are four separate sections: the Rose Hall Villas, Eclipse, cottages and Founders Cove. If you are traveling with two people, I’d recommend Eclipse or Founders Cove as they are more aligned with a traditional hotel room. However, if you are traveling with a larger group, the cottages or villas are definitely the place to be.

On property, there are three different pools. My favorite pool was the infinity pool that overlooked the beach and ocean. They also have a garden view pool with a swim-up bar along with an Olympic-sized lap pool. Unfortunately, none of the pools are heated, so we didn’t spend much time in any of them as they all were extremely cold. Luckily and, honestly, shockingly, our group of 10 was able to find beach chairs every day that the Half Moon staff helped push together. We spent the majority of our days on the beach soaking up the sun.

Prior to lounging our day away at the beach, we enjoyed biking around the property, playing tennis and pickleball and utilizing the gym. There were multiple courts, so luckily space was never a problem. The gym was a standard hotel gym, with complimentary water bottles, but fairly large so you didn’t feel like you were ever working out on top of someone else.

Though I would stay at Half Moon again, there were some frustrations we faced during our stay.

• The check-in process was very strange. We were dropped off at a house where we were told to check in, but the woman working just told us to go to “villa 58.” She didn’t ask for my ID, give us keys to the room, or really any standard communication you’d have at check-in. It didn’t end up being a problem, but just caused more steps once we got to the villa.

• I had the concierge team write a welcome note for me to share with my group. They assured me via email it would be there at check-in, but it wasn’t. When I asked our butler for it, he said he would look into it right away but never did.

• On our second to last day, we asked our butler if he could help arrange the hotel shuttle for our drop-off at the airport. Instead of saying sure or really anything you’d expect, he started raising his voice at us, saying he had been trying to get ahold of us all day, but we went off property. Meanwhile, we had been at the beach (on property) and a few of us had popped back into the villa at various times throughout the day. We ended up getting our transportation sorted out, but instead of our butler helping, I was on the phone with the concierge team for an hour securing the transportation. The whole situation was very strange, stressful and frustrating.

With all of this said, I have given the Half Moon property four stars.

This trip report is part of our ongoing series on travel to Jamaica. In need of further inspiration? Check out Nicola Volpi’s trip report, A Caribbean Honeymoon: Half Moon, Montego Bay.