Kamalame Cay - Private Island & Residences

The setting at Kamalame Cay is gorgeous — no doubt about it. The rooms are private, spacious, and offer sweeping ocean views. Sunrise and sunset? Absolutely stunning. It looks like paradise. But the experience? Not even close. For $7,000 over four nights, I expected thoughtful amenities, excellent food, and a service culture that matched the luxury price tag. Instead: No in-room or bathroom amenities to speak of Food was meh at best — subpar, repetitive, and only two restaurant options Drinks lacked fresh ingredients and any real craft No green juice or coconut water as promised in the package The “premium all-inclusive” felt anything but Felt more like a high-end timeshare than a true luxury resort — transactional, not indulgent We came to be spoiled and completely pampered, and it just missed the mark Managers were kind and tried to help, but most of the service staff felt checked out By day two, I was ready to leave. By day three, I was wishing I had stayed home with Uber Eats and my own bed. The value just wasn’t there. As a friend perfectly said — Kamalame? More like Kama-Lame.

Helpful Tips for Staying at This Hotel If you’re considering booking this hotel, here are some things to keep in mind based on my experience: 1. Accommodations & Cleanliness •    Check your room for ants upon arrival, especially in cabinets and near entryways. •    Inspect towels and bedding, as some may be stained or ill-fitting for the bed. •    The mattresses are quite uncomfortable—consider bringing a mattress pad if you’re sensitive to firm or springy beds. 2. Food & Dining •    Be cautious with food quality—I experienced discomfort after meals. •    If you order room service, request immediate pickup, as dishes may not be collected promptly, attracting ants and flies. •    Be prepared for potential shortages of basic items like breakfast syrup, which may be substituted without notice. •    The alcoholic beverages are overpriced and of poor quality. 3. Guest Services & Amenities •    There is no printed or digital guide with key resort details (meal times, activities, etc.), so ask upfront about schedules. •    Many service requests (like extra towels or toiletries) may not be fulfilled, so bring essentials with you. •    If you need water at dinner, clarify what will be served—I unexpectedly received a ziplock bag of ice water. •    No in-room phones—requests must be made through WhatsApp, which can result in delays. 4. Infrastructure & Maintenance •    The resort has a noticeable sewage smell in certain areas. •    There is no room key system, raising security concerns. •    Be prepared for golf cart issues, as they frequently break down or malfunction. •    The spa is outdated, and I would recommend checking it out before booking any treatments. •    In bad weather, entertainment options are limited since there’s no WiFi and few indoor activities. Final Thought: While the location is beautiful, the resort lacks proper management, maintenance, and service quality. If you decide to stay here, set your expectations accordingly and prepare for possible inconveniences.

The best thing about this hotel is how absolutely stunning and unspoilt the private island is. It is idyllic - you will struggle to find better beaches and they are totally empty and well maintained. Some things not so great: we planned various things - beach picnics and boat trip that were confirmed before arrival and on arrival they didn’t have our reservations and a result all these plans never materialised as the boat slots are booked up back to back. This is a problem as there’s only one boat person on the island and nothing else to do. Seemed to be a miscommunication error that many of the other guests had also (booked boat trips which were cancelled on arrival). The food I thought was very tasty - especially the lunch restaurant - but a lot of the dinner menu is unavailable each evening. They ran out of food on thanksgiving(!) so we ate nothing (at all) and were given no alternative, just told there’s no food. I think this is inexcusable. A family staying told us it had happened to them but they’d bought food with them to the island as they’d visited before and knew it could happen. Our picnic was also cancelled by the hotel and instead happened on sun loungers outside the room instead of at a private beach. The picnic offered poor value and wasn’t well put together. A staff member mentioned to us that theft had been an issue at the hotel. You must accept this property for what it is - many guests said they’d been coming for years and loved it, others said they’d never come back. You have to have a somewhat hippy mentality, go with the flow and accept that plans, menus etc are subject to change. Staff made their best efforts to accommodate us. There’s no WiFi, and the villas are very spaced out (you can’t walk to reception). The beaches and villas are absolutely stunning and it’s very quiet and peaceful. Somehow despite all of the above, now knowing what to expect, I would possibly return. It is a special place, that despite its faults was still an overall good experience.

I don't often write reviews, but I felt compelled to after the absolutely disastrous experience we had at this so-called "luxury" resort. From the moment we arrived, it was clear this place was far from the standard they advertise. First of all, we were never given a tour or even a simple map upon arrival—just dropped off in the dark with no clue about where anything was. To make matters worse, the golf cart we were given to get to our rooms was already showing signs of a dead battery. When we flagged down the young staff, they assured us it was fine, and we proceeded to our rooms in the pouring rain. Of course, the cart died shortly after, and rather than offering assistance, the staff began ramming the cart to push it forward. This was not only unprofessional, but it was also dangerous. I had to sit in the back just to hold the luggage in place, and I was nearly hit by the cart multiple times. I can't believe how reckless they were. When we finally made it to our room, we noticed the fridge was broken and there was a "Happy Birthday" card on the dresser—even though neither of us were celebrating a birthday. We reported the fridge issue, and they promised to fix it, but after multiple requests over several days, it wasn't fixed until the day before our departure. By then, all the food had spoiled. What a waste of our time! But the golf cart problems didn’t stop there. It died again on the way to our event, and once again, the staff took forever to help us. We finally got a cart swap, but it was just another hassle in a long line of them. We also had a spa appointment that we booked two months in advance. When we arrived, we were told they were overbooked and to come back later. We returned that same day only to find they were still overbooked. The next day, we tried again—only to find the spa was closed entirely. We tried calling and texting the front desk, but no one responded. After showing up in person, we were told the spa staff had left for the day. Absolutely unprofessional. Housekeeping only cleaned our room once during our stay. And then, after they cleaned, they locked us out of the room. When we flagged them down for help, they refused to let us in, and we had to climb over the fence to access our outdoor shower. Are you serious? Water was scarce—no drinking water until our last day, and the restaurant was frequently closed. We also had no phone in the room, barely any cell service, and whenever we tried to contact anyone via WhatsApp, it was ignored. The staff in general were unhelpful and seemed to care less about the guests. We expressed our frustration to the assistant manager multiple times, but there was no resolution offered. When we finally followed up with them in December, they completely ignored our emails. I only heard back in January, and they claimed they comped our "incidentals"—but without any way of verifying what that even meant, it felt like a hollow attempt to placate us. On top of all this, there were false advertisements. The resort claims to have a pickleball court (it’s actually a construction site), and the tennis court looked like it was about to be sold. The Wi-Fi is nonexistent, and they advertised a hotspot for $70 a day—yet when we asked to use it, they said there were none available and none would be available for the rest of our stay. The safe in the room was broken, and the back door didn’t lock. There was a sign that read, "If you love it, lock it up," which is just sketchy and suggests there are issues with theft. Would I stay here again? Absolutely not. This place is NOT a 5-star resort, and it’s not even close to being worthy of a "luxury" label. Do yourself a favor—avoid this place at all costs.

Had an incredible honeymoon stay at Kamalame Cay! When a tropical storm made our beachfront bungalow uncomfortable, staff instantly upgraded us to a beautiful stone villa at no extra cost. Outstanding service, amazing food, and a truly paradise-like setting. The staff's responsiveness and hospitality were exceptional. Perfect for a luxury island getaway - definitely worth every penny!

BEWARE! My Wife and I recently stayed for our honeymoon in November. There were some definite positives... The staff is friendly, the views were beautiful and the food was above average. The positives stop there. While the staff was friendly, they had zero follow up and they needed to be called and reminded multiple times before they took any action. Our first night there they did not have a golf cart available to reach our room which was quite far from the check-in. The staff offered to drop us off in their cart and we had a nice conversation on our 5 minute drive to the cottage. Unfortunately the golf cart broke down en route and we had to wait for some other guests to pass by and ask to hitch a ride hanging off the back of their cart. This was omen for how the trip was going to go. We woke up the next morning to a beautiful view of the ocean, the cottage is situated directly on the beach. Unfortunately, the day was downhill from there. The staff never delivered us breakfast and we had no way to reach the office due to the lack of golf cart. I called the desk and they said someone would bring a basket and that the golf cart situation would be cleared up shortly. It was around noon and we still had no food or transportation. I called again to check on the status of both, unfortunately the phone they gave us was out of minutes and now we had no way to communicate. We were completely cut off unless we made a 30 minute walk back to check-in. We opted to go to the neighboring cottage and borrow their phone to call and explain the situation. They finally resolved the situation an hour or so later. The next few days were hit or miss. There were some highs, the massage at the over water spa was nice, albeit overpriced. The food served at the bar and the restaurant were genuinely quite tasty. The complete lack of urgency and communication was too much to overlook, though. We requested insect repellent multiple times to no avail. The bugs at this resort are absolutely terrible! Our legs were completely riddled with bites. We both looked as though we had chicken pox. The staff took 2 days to supply us with soap for the shower, they never supplied us with beach towels even after calling multiple times, so we had to drive down there and wait until they gave them to us. Our golf cart was taken one of the nights we went to the restaurant and we had to wait for a replacement. Our neighbor had the same issue. Up to this point, the trip hadn't been bad. We both agreed that we would not be coming back, but the issues we experienced weren't bad enough to completely ruin our honeymoon, we still had quality time together, even if the tennis courts which we were looking forward to using were in a complete state of disrepair. Then on our final night of our trip, we were robbed. Literally. We had an early checkout the next AM and we're heading to bed early. Before we went to bed, we decided to have one last walk on the beach. One of the serious issues this resort has is the lack of security. To access the beach from the cottage, you must leave the back door unlocked, unless you want to crawl underneath the house to reach the beach. We thought nothing of it as the only people on the entire island were staff and a handful of guests. Well, someone was waiting for us to leave our cottage and ransacked the place once we stepped out. We were gone for about 15 minutes and came back to find my wife's wedding rings stolen as well as her ear pods and all of our cash. While we were checking the room in a panic, the thief was nice enough to throw our passports and other items that they couldn't get cash value for back on the porch. We immediately called hotel security. We talked through the entire ordeal and he put us in touch with island police and we gave our statements and asked for an investigation. The thief was likely hotel staff who knew our itinerary and that we had a 6AM flight back to Nassau and then to FL. We would be gone and out of their hair within 12 hours. I cannot prove it was staff, but I certainly would not recommend staying here.

The location is beautiful but to be five-stars, it was honestly some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The resort staff does not try to inform or assist customers very much. It took over 24 hours just to get milk for coffee brought to our room. We had to call to put in the request several times. If you went to the dining areas, often, while standing in front of them to request assistance, they would stay on their phones, scrolling whatever, and then be annoyed when they realized that you were still there, waiting to get help or put in an order. When you would come to get a meal, and if they were looking to wrap up breakfast service or lunch service, I got eye rolls or eyes bulging out of their sockets, with them telling my husband and I that they close in 15 minutes. When we would try to order quickly, then they would not even come to the table to take the order and once they did, they would come back 20-30 minutes later to say that they won't be able to make something because we were "late". How are we late when we got there before you closed and you refused to come and take our order? One of the instances where we were late, it was because the housekeeping staff did not report they had broken something in the room to maintenance, we had to call a few times before it was finally reported, it took maintenance over an hour to fix the issue which made us late (maintenance admitted to us that housekeeping should not have just tried to act like they did not see the broken item and move around it, but instead was supposed to have reported it for handling). Even with us explaining ourselves, we were still mistreated. However, when another guest came TWO minutes before closing on another day, she was not told the kitchen was closing for breakfast nor was she denied ordering what she wanted. Needless to say, my husband and I were very upset. We were there for my birthday and before we came to the island, my husband tried to request excursion ideas and assistance from the reservation team. They sent him very few ideas but he proceeded to try to book one of them as it was my birthday. The write-up (that my husband showed me afterwards) said that we would have our own butler and would receive several items, private area, etc. Instead, they sent most of the staff to a private party which left us with no one and did nothing in the description. They then tried to charge us even though they admitted they would not be able to fulfill the requested private dining experience. I told them they must take it off our bill as they did not do anything to give us our dining experience. The next day, I spoke to an employee and she said "they did not send you our entertainment information" to which we replied, "no, what was that? We were not sent much and could not find it on your website!" Being spoken to like "well, why did not you do more?", when you do not work at the resort and could only go by what is offered to you by other resort employees or on the website, is not great way to treat guests at all. They could not even bill our all-inclusive package correctly! When we checked in, we gave them the credit card that we wanted to use for payment. We had explained that we forgot the other card we used had foreign exchange fees that we wanted to avoid. We were told that would not be an issue, the lady took the new credit card and "apparently" put it on file for use. When we checked out, my husband took out the card to pay the bill and the staffer said that they had it on file and they will charge his card and email us the bill. When I get the bill, which you get after you leave the resort, I see that they charged the wrong credit card. It took two weeks for them to fix it. Again, for a five-star resort for the money that you spend to stay, that claims to give top-of-the-line service to make all guests feel comfortable, I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Summary: Beware of theft issues!!! The views and the food are the only redeeming factors for this resort. The beaches were beautiful, and the food was delicious, albeit overpriced. The service was poor- very slow response times for simple requests for beach towels, transportation to the main office for meals (we should have been given a golf cart, however they were broken or had a shortage), and bath soap. Main negative— we were robbed late at night while there for our honeymoon. Our room (a beach bungalow) had a malfunctioning safe as well as a door into the bathroom from the outdoor shower that does not lock, permitting staff access at any time. In addition, accessing the beach requires you to leave your back door unlocked in order to re-enter. Even if you only step out onto the beach for a few minutes, do not leave anything you care about behind! We will definitely not be returning.