The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

Just got back from a 4 night stay at the Ritz Carlton at Amelia Island The Hotel and grounds are beautiful and well kept. We spent all of our time at the hotel and had a fabulous time. There was no reason to leave the premises as it has 5 restaurants and plenty to do. My girlfriend and I spent most of our time on the beach from 10 am to 6 pm. The beach staff who got us set up every day with chairs and umbrellas were the most amazing people. Always friendly and even gave us ice cold waters every day. We don’t really drink alcohol, but they had staff that would check with us often to see if we wanted a drink or food while at the beach. Even though we barely used this service, they were always polite and friendly with us. Always good to tip the staff at the beach nicely as they were out there in unbearable heat to accommodate us. During our visit (September 10th through September 14th) the beach wasn’t crowded and it was very easy to get chairs and umbrellas no matter what time you showed up. We knew it wasn’t going to be a busy week because lots of families have school getting back from summer break. The staff at the little ‘grocery’ store were awesome too! We got a few small meals ‘to go’ there and it was reasonably priced and delicious. They were always smiling and helpful every time we visited. The chocolate milk shake was one of the best I have ever had. I would highly recommend this hotel and would love to come back and visit again.

Excellent resort with all the amenities and restaurants you need. The pool is amazing, great ocean views, and close proximity to downtown.

This was one of the most memorable trips our family has ever taken. Every moment at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island felt special — from the view out our window to the laughter at trivia night. From the moment we arrived, Deandra at the front desk made us feel instantly welcome. Christine had our pre-arrival details perfectly arranged, and Lisa, the concierge, guided us to the best experiences on the island. Our gorgeous ocean-view room took our breath away, and the pool was an absolute dream. Our kids adored Eric and Emily at the Nature Center and Ritz Kids, while I enjoyed an unforgettable massage from Justin at the spa. Trivia night at Tidewater Grill was a surprise highlight of the trip. The property is stunning, but it’s the people — warm, attentive, and genuinely kind — who made our stay exceptional. We can’t wait to return next year.

Unbelievable experience, we could have stayed longer. The rooms are beautiful, staff fantastic, best gym in a hotel that we’ve stayed at it. Amazing experience for all of us

We stayed at the Ritz Grand Cayman last year and that experience made us want to stay at another Ritz property and we were excited to have another amazing stay/vacation with our family, so we excitedly picked the Rita at Amelia Island as we were celebrating our kids graduations and thought this would be the best way to mark those milestones, make more family memories and add another great Ritz trip to our list, unfortunately it was none of that. On Sunday evening at around 10 pm after already having killed a large moth earlier in the evening my daughter (we had connecting rooms) was loudly asking for help as there was something flying around the room. It was a LARGE moth a little smaller than my palm and as we killed that month another 4 appeared all in equal sizes along with other bugs smaller in size, some quite questionable. It was as if there was a month’s nest or something possibly hiding in the curtains as they came out in quick succession. Besides it being bizarre what was happening in our room at the Ritz it was more perplexing that there were other bugs also being found. I called the guest services to tell them what was going on and that we needed to change rooms asap and was told they needed to find new accommodations and they would call us back. At this point we started packing up the two rooms. After about 15 mins of no call back, my husband went to the lobby to find out what was taking so long and why no one had even been up to the room yet. He asked to speak to the manager and the woman at the front said the manager was working on our rooms, the manager never came out to speak to him, she handed new key cards to the front lobby person who then gave them to him and that was ALL that was done. The manager NEVER came out, never spoke to him nothing. ZERO customer service, ZERO acknowledgment, ZERO help. We got to our new rooms on the second floor (we moved ourselves) and not only have we now been downgraded room wise, but our room had urine and hair on the bathroom floor and the other room had no bed skirts/bottom of bed on them. At this point we just cleaned up the urine, got ourselves ready for bed and called it a night thinking in the AM someone would most definitely reach out about this fiasco. Well, we were WRONG! At 1pm on Monday I went to the front desk to ask to speak to the manager about the fiasco that happened the night before and was asked if I could wait for a few moments which turned into a 15 min wait. I have to say the lack of customer care or urgency is crystal clear, this resort has none. The Director of Housing came to speak to me, took some notes and seemed sympathetic to what had happened but that was it. After telling him all that had happened in the two rooms he said the one night would be taken care of and that he would look into our downgraded urine room and that was about all he offered. At this point I told him we would be checking out early due to our horrible experience, the complete lack of customer service/care and that the price of rooms vs the caliber of the resort just did not match up and more importantly had I not gone to the front desk no one was ever reaching out which was just incomprehensible. When I told him this all he offered was late check-out. Nothing to get us to continue our vacation, which was now ruined, nothing to make all that we had been through a bit better, nothing. It was clear that the Ritz simply did not care and that at this point we would be idiots spending any more money there as they simply did not care. He also asked to send him an email with pictures of the bugs which we did, and it took him over 24 hours to even respond. Also to add more insult when we got back to our room we could not even sit out on the balcony as there was a strong smell of marijuana. When we checked out, I asked about our rooms being discounted due to all that had transpired in the second room, and the lady said they had already comped our first night (as if to say what more do you want) and showed zero concern about all that we had experienced in the second room nor that due to bugs we were given a downgraded room. SI said so when we checked in, we were upgraded, then we find bugs and our reward is to be downgraded, and she said yes you were. Again, what is going on with customer service?! The hotel in general is NOT a Ritz caliber hotel. Management should go look at it and either bring it up to par or make it a regular Marriott and charge accordingly. Most staff were not pleasant or helpful either. And the smell of marijuana… I have no words. The Director of Housing did send an email thanking me for my feedback and that he would send it to senior management and hoped we’d come back – what! Come back to a hotel that cares soo little about their customers, heck no never will I be back. What was to be a great family vacation celebrating big milestones is now the nightmare vacation of bugs, urine and marijuana. It was a large price tag also for such a horrible experience. A significant makeover from hotel accommodations, to hospitality, to customer service is necessary for this property to be the caliber of a Ritz ever, like I said it is a Ritz in name only.