diff --git a/python/ray/tune/experiment.py b/python/ray/tune/experiment.py
index 4471edd2b..31a1ce7a8 100644
--- a/python/ray/tune/experiment.py
+++ b/python/ray/tune/experiment.py
@@ -74,7 +74,8 @@ class Experiment(object):
             experiment regardless of the checkpoint_freq. Default is False.
         max_failures (int): Try to recover a trial from its last
             checkpoint at least this many times. Only applies if
-            checkpointing is enabled. Defaults to 3.
+            checkpointing is enabled. Setting to -1 will lead to infinite
+            recovery retries. Defaults to 3.
         restore (str): Path to checkpoint. Only makes sense to set if
             running 1 trial. Defaults to None.
         repeat: Deprecated and will be removed in future versions of
diff --git a/python/ray/tune/trial.py b/python/ray/tune/trial.py
index 0dd571942..12693a6e3 100644
--- a/python/ray/tune/trial.py
+++ b/python/ray/tune/trial.py
@@ -356,7 +356,8 @@ class Trial(object):
         be a checkpoint.
         """
         return (self.checkpoint_freq > 0
-                and self.num_failures < self.max_failures)
+                and (self.num_failures < self.max_failures
+                     or self.max_failures < 0))
 
     def update_last_result(self, result, terminate=False):
         if terminate: