Trip Report

[frog212]

Hello all,

I've never posted on the board before but my girlfriend and I just returned Saturday from our first visit to Jamaica and a week in Negril and I wanted to offer a quick thanks as I did use this forum as a resource while doing research. So thank you, as it was def invaluable info! And to give an idea of what we got into;

Friday 8/14- Flew into Sangster Int and had Prince from Kingsley Tours ready to swoop us up and off to Negril. Landed at our home for the next week at The Negril Yoga Centre. Awesome little oasis and staff.
Took a walk to the roundabout area to exchange some money at the Cambio, got a quick taste of how aggressive the hustlers can be, par for the course as we read and found out first hand . We then turned around a made the hike back up to have dinner at Best in the West. So good and a perfect first night meal.

Saturday 08/15- Slept for about 10 hours and after breakfast at the Yoga Centre made the walk over to Tedd's for some mushroom tea. It was the only window in our otherwise pretty busy schedule and well, it was quite the interesting afternoon to say the least. Tedd was a gracious host and offered us a ride back to the Yoga Centre so as to avoid any harsh vibes before the mushrooms kicked in. As we were departing his car he exclaimed, "Have a nice trip!" while laughing as he pulled away. Took me a second to grasp the double meaning. Later that night, we were picked up for the Reggae Dinner Buffet at Seastar Inn. Awesome food and entertainment. The owner's little girl was dancing and clapping along the whole time, fun atmosphere and night.

Sunday 08/16- Breakfast at Cafe Goa, yummy coffee and banana pancakes. Also, thanks to the lizard that dropped from the ceiling, giving my girlfriend quite the surprise, had a good laugh. Packed up and caught a route taxi to Half Moon Beach. Truly a post card come to life that place. So beautiful and just a relaxing place to spend the afternoon. Definitely near the top on places we visited. Had some patties for dinner from a place I can't recall the name of and apparently didn't write down, but they were very good. Late night munchies and ordered a pizza from Chances, surprisingly good!

Monday 08/17- Breakfast at Alfred's Ocean Palace, definitely appreciate the board recommendation on this one, yummy food, prices were good and the view is unbeatable. Later that afternoon we were picked up for a horseback riding tour at Rhode's Hall. We lucked out as I think we did for most of the trip and were the only two on the tour. I'm not sure if it was worth what we paid for it but it was a nice trek. It was my first time as an adult on a horse so my nerves might be playing into my overall impression of the time there as well.

Tuesday 08/18- Early wake up for a trip to YS Falls and Pelican Bar. Both the falls and Pelican Bar were a treat but in retrospect getting a chance to see the landscape and some real Jamaican country life outside of Negril for a few hours was just as interesting and eye opening. Stopped at a random roadside stand after YS Falls and had some of the best food of the entire trip (curry goat and fried chicken). That night we hit up Yellowbird for happy hour and tried out the Italian Cafe for dinner, all excellent.

Wednesday 08/19- Cafe Goa again for coffee and met Tom of T-Bird on the Cliffs. Nice morning conversation while enjoying a cup. Afterwards, we walked to Sweet Spice for what we hoped would be lunch but they were still serving breakfast, all the same, had a couple of delicious omelettes. Later around 2:30, picked up by Lenbert for the One Love Bus Bar Crawl. Wild ride. Neat stops, the caves at Xtabi and the primitive bar near the end of the cliffs were tops on the list for us. Lenbert is a very cool cat and it was interesting to talk w/him and hear about his work to help preserve the Parrotfish (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Parrotfish-ban). Another late night pizza from Chances for dinner

Thursday 08/20- Second breakfast of the week at Alfred's, hung around afterwords to swim and soak up the sun. After getting cleaned up, we had dinner reservations for Ivan's Bar at 6:00pm, but hadn't seen much of the West End yet other than on the bar crawl so we left around 2:00 with the intention to get a route taxi at the roundabout. Well, we ended up walking to Rick's Cafe after stops at the Canoe Bar, 3 Dives, and the Mango Tree Bar to say hi to Tom (wasn't there). The walk is a little hairy but not undoable, now that it's over, glad that we decided to foot it.

Friday 08/21- Went snorkeling for the first time via Captain Roger of Sunbaby Tours. They had to push our time back do to a double booking but in addition to snorkeling and lunch on Booby Cay, they generously gave us a tour of the cliffs and lighthouse from the water. This was definitely my favorite adventure of the trip. Seeing first hand, what delicate beauty is in the water sharing a planet with us should be mandatory for everyone. Mind blowing afternoon. For dinner we were running low on cash so we hit up Kuyaba, curry goat again mmmm.

Saturday 08/22 - Departure day and safe travel back to reality courtesy of Kingsley himself. Such a great week and introduction to Jamaica and specifically Negril. We both know that if we can ever make it back it will be a true pleasure to visit again. There are so many other little details and memories from the week but to summarize in the words of our waiter from Friday night, our time in paradise was "splendid and unforgettable".

Thanks for reading and again thank you for being my fountain of knowledge for this trip. Soon come.

[smith744]

Wow..!!!..

YOU-all had a Gooooooooooooood Negril-vacation..!!..

[VVHT]

Perhaps it was Howie's near the Bamboo Avenue:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaur...eating-6566093

Stopped at a random roadside stand after YS Falls and had some of the best food of the entire trip (curry goat and fried chicken)

Sounds like you had a wonderful adventure in Negril, so when are you two going back?

Enjoy,

VVHT

[JitterBug]

you did good for a first trip!!

[Vince]

Glad you checked out Rhodes on the horse back riding. I agree with ya on there prices there. But Bigga and his crew are GREAT people!- Glad you enjoyed Negril.

[Big_frank]

Lot's of great memories, for sure.

[murph]

9l@d u h@d a nI(e Tr!P

[kim in socal]

Thanks for the report...Now we need the pics!!!

[Vince]

^yep!

[justchuck]

Thanks for a great trip report!