Riu Ocho Rios Family Dining

With seven restaurants and six bars serving around the clock, you won't go hungry at the Riu. The large breakfast buffet features a vast assortment of fresh fruit, cereals, yogurt, smoothies, eggs, omelets, bacon, and sausage. For lunch, you may choose to get in line at the jerk hut and wait patiently. Your choices of meat are chicken, lamb, and sausage. A caveat: the darker sauce is much hotter than the sweet barbecue sauce.

For dinner, you have your choice of a casual cafe at the same breakfast spot or more gourmet restaurants that specialize in continental, Italian, and Asian cuisine. We enjoyed the lamb at Sir John, the miso-glazed salmon at the Japanese restaurant, Tushima, and the juicy tenderloin at the steak house, Mammee Bay. Befriend the chef here, and he'll bring out his Jamaican-style lobster tails, for a little surf and turf.

When the kids were thirsty, it was easy to find one of the bars nearby to get them a frozen strawberry or mango daiquiri, hopefully without the rum.