Should I be concerned? ... and Christmas plans

Our family will be spending a week during Christmas (23-30) at Rondel Village. This probably wouldn't have been our first choice had we have booked earlier, but I'm sure we'll be very happy there. We've been to Jamaica in 2018 at an AI in Bloody Bay. We spent an afternoon at 7 Mile and decided this is where we wanted to return. Since booking, I'm starting to be a bit nervous. I've been reading about the state of emergency and that's concerning. Then I read that everything is costing more as a result of the Jamaican dollar devaluation.

Our plan once arriving (Dec 24th) is to walk along the beach into town to a store and buy a few things to have on hand, alcohol, mix, munchies, etc. (all our meals will be in restaurants) then taxi back to our hotel. Our kids are adults so I expect some later nights also, walk to restaurants for evening meals. I've read to stick to the roads, not beach.

Are my concerns unfounded? (fingers crossed)

Rondel is a nice place and very well run and with good security. I think you will like it there. I never really noticed an increase per say in pricing and if it was, I didn't notice it a couple weeks ago when I was there versus a year ago at several different places...the only difference as a tourist that I have noticed is more police checkpoints and more police presence on the beach which I think is a good thing.

I go (alone) twice a year and stay closer to town (not A/I) I have my driver stop in Montego Bay for a few groceries so that I have things on hand right away. Or you can stop in Lucy as well. I have always loved Negril so relax and have fun.

I've brought my daughters and grandson down a couple of times. They have a ball. If you're nervous about walking the beach at night, grab a cab. My girls have gone to the jungle a couple of times by themselves too.

We stay north of Rondel, at CSA. We walk the beach everyday past Rondel to visit our beach friend and vendor Ozzy. He’s just south of Rondel with a huge palapa. We never have an issue walking during the day. Few respectful no thanks and higglers will leave you be. Last year we walked a few times even further south to see and visit Octavius down at Negril Gardens, again issue free.

Plus we will grab a taxi or one of our local friends to go up to the cliffs to visit some local restaurants. Go and enjoy! We are there from December 18-26, maybe we will see ya on our travels to Ozzy

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Originally Posted by SLP

I go (alone) twice a year and stay closer to town (not A/I) I have my driver stop in Montego Bay for a few groceries so that I have things on hand right away. Or you can stop in Lucy as well. I have always loved Negril so relax and have fun.

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Stopping in Montego Bay won't be possible as we won't have a driver. What is Lucy?

Lucea is about 2/3 rds of the way to Negril from Mo Bay .

“Lucy” is the bustling little town of Lucea, about half way between Montego Bay and Negril

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Originally Posted by alix

Stopping in Montego Bay won't be possible as we won't have a driver. What is Lucy?

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Ok, sounds like your family is taking one of the larger tour buses into Negril that stops at multiple hotels. You won't have to walk into town if you're looking for room supplies. If you cross the road, turn right(heading towards town), and walk half a mile, you'll find the Sweetspot mini mart which has plenty of alcohol and snacks on hand. If you walk down further towards town, another half mile and cross the road back to the beach side, you'll find another mini mart (Uno's I think, before Merrills III resort). Finally, if you think that won't be good enough, just grab a red license cab (negotiate price before you hop in) and have them take you to Hi-Lo in town (the driver will hangout til you're done shopping if you ask him).

Don't be fooled by the SOE; Jamaica is not a war zone and you can and should explore the country. There's no danger to visitors like you and your family coming to enjoy. In fact I would encourage you to get out of Negril and explore, e.g. do some shopping in Lucea (the town on the coast in the direction of MoBay) or Sav (the town about equally far as Lucea, if you go along the coast in the other direction i.e. along the south coast). If you go to those towns you'll find supermarkets, shops, restaurants, ATM's etc. It's less developed than the US; you won't find Whole Foods or Starbucks, but you can certainly go and shop and explore. Also I'd encourage you to enjoy nearby attractions e.g. Roaring River offers fabulous river beaches in a tropical rainforest setting. The locals are really nice almost everywhere; they'll want to sell you stuff, and a few may beg money, but nobody's going to attack you or rob you. You can rent a car or hire a taxi to get around. Local rate for (shared) taxi from Negril to Sav is 200J (less than $2 US).

I bought a house not far from Sav to retire to, and moved there in July. At first I was worried about the high crime rate and the SOE, but at this point, having befriended a lot of really nice locals, I feel completely safe there. Just be nice and fair and honest with people and they'll be nice back. I have friends and family coming to visit for Xmas.

Drop me a note if you & your family want to come visit while you're there. Peace and love,

RIchard