Included Activities at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Jamaica!
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
For our final post on our time at the all-inclusive Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Jamaica I want to cover some of the activities that are available at the resort. For some the only activities they are after in Jamaica are the obvious ones of eating, drinking, and enjoying the pool and/or beach. However, for those who want to be a tad more active than lifting one Red Stripe or Rum Punch after the next while working on their tan, the resort does actually offer an array of included activities to keep you as busy as you want to be - without you racking up additional charges!
At the Hyatt Zilara or Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall properties you can book your stay and eat and drink as much as you wish by using 25,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for double occupancy rooms! We did just that using Hyatt Gold Passport points and points transferred in 1:1 to Hyatt from the Chase Ultimate Rewards program and cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. This resort would also be a good use of the two award nights that come with the Hyatt Visa sign-up bonus!
Before I get into the available activities, here are some other posts from our trip to Jamaica.
All-Inclusive Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall Junior Suite Review
Pools and Beach at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall
Review of the Restaurants at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall
Getting to Negril in One Piece
The Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall (adults only) and Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall (all ages) are different properties, but they are essentially connected and share many of the same daily activities. When we stayed at the Zilara resort in February there was a piece of paper in the room that listed the daily activities, but based on conversations with other guests, that schedule was missed by many so don't be shy about asking for a daily activity schedule if you don't see one.
Most of the activities I saw were very sparsely attended either due to people not knowing about them, or the allure of drinks by the beach being a bit too strong to give up! I don't know if that might change as the resort gets more popular and/or the activities are advertized a bit more.
Some of the daily activities at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall included:
- Tennis games and morning lesson
- Morning yoga
- Ping Pong
- Bingo
- Fitness center
- Water spin class
- Beach volleyball
- Shuffleboard
- Beach activities such as kayaking, windsurfing and a guide catamaran ride
- Water basketball and aerobics
- Live performances and shows
- Live music
I also saw an offer on the website for one free round of golf at the nearby White Witch Golf Course or Cinnamon Hill Golf Course on stays of three or more nights. There is also a spa at the resort, though treatments come with an additional fee and are not a part of the all-inclusive model.
My Experience with Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall Activities:
Since I was about 5 months pregnant on our visit I was obviously looking for things to do beyond just drinking by the pool, so I decided to try a few included activities at the resort. The first activity we tried, the guided catamaran ride, was actually our favorite. The guide took us out on the water and pointed out lots of cool things around the resort during our 20+ minute ride. It is worth mentioning that this activity (and all ocean activities) is dependent on the water not being too rough.
We were lounging by the pool one day when the resort staff starting recruiting for pool spin class (this is how they seem to get the majority of participants for activities - by recruiting whoever happens to be around at the moment). Getting a little low impact exercise before visiting another all-inclusive restaurant sounded like a great idea, so I volunteered. As I was getting the bike adjusted for my height on the ground before it was going to be placed in the water, my good idea to participate quickly became a very bad idea.
As I followed instructions to stand up on the bike pedals to check the height, one of the pedals broke off from the bike. This caused my leg to quickly shoot down to the ground and get cut open on the now exposed metal where the pedal once was. Great.....
This landed me an escorted visit to the resort nurse (located on the very far side of the Ziva end of the resort) who cleaned up the wound and recommend I take a taxi to a local Jamaican hospital for a tetanus shot since I couldn't remember offhand when my last shot was. Of course I now was also banned from the pools thanks to having an open wound, so that meant I was now was five months pregnant, couldn't drink, couldn't walk without pain, and now couldn't get in the resort pools - can we go home yet?
I called my doctor back home and we decided against a visit to a local hospital in favor of seeing my own doctor since I was flying home the next day. I don't know how widespread the faulty equipment issue is or isn't at the resort, but I certainly wouldn't get back on any equipment that could collapse out from under me as that really put a cloud over the rest of our time at the resort.
Other than that we did also participate in the morning yoga which was sparsely attended, but held in a very nice setting by the ocean. It was a nice gentle stretch that was a welcome day to start the morning, which I recommend (no equipment can break on you either!).
We didn't see much of the nighttime entertainment, but did see them setting up the stages and warming up in the evenings about the time we were going to bed! The stages we saw were on the Ziva side of the resort.
Our daughter wasn't with us on this trip, but we did peek into the Kid's Club (on the Ziva side) to see what it looked like. The Kid's Club is included for no additional charge for those staying on the Ziva (family) portion of the property and it has day and evening hours for children ages 3-12. That's pretty cool since Kid's Club's are usually anywhere from $40 - $60 per half day of activities. I wasn't overly impressed with the room itself compared to some other Camp Hyatts we have visited, but I'm still glad they offer the Kid's Club so parents can have a little relaxation time, too!
Overall Impressions of the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall Activities:
I thought the resort had a decent variety of included activities and amenities, but I think they could do better with communicating what is available to guests perhaps via a daily activities board or similar. I still think most people will prefer to sit by the pool or beach to doing much of anything else, but it's good to have options, especially on a longer stay. There are plenty of off-property excursions they can also arrange for an additional fee, if you desire.
Getting my leg cut open thanks to the water spin class bike certainly tainted my view of some of the resort activities, so I would proceed with some caution in case there is more equipment that either isn't properly maintained or assembled.
The resort staff that were facilitating the activities seemed to all be energetic and interested in people having fun. We did tip the staff that facilitated the activities we participated in, though of course that is on your own discretion and isn't required.
If you have visited the Zilara or Ziva properties, which activities did you enjoy?
