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Hi all!
After such a fantastic AI stay last april, wifie and I are contemplating a NON-AI trip the end of march 2014.
The big question seems to be price. From my searches, I find that for "just a few hundred more" we can get AI.
Soooo.... is NON AI cheaper? What do people spend per day? We're very puzzled!
Probably depends on how much you drink and how may times you want to eat at places like Ivan's or Kuyaba. We can do quite well with $100/day for food and drink as long as we keep our own stash of drinks in the room and watch what we eat. Best in the West makes a fine dinner and the Patty Man and the fruit vendors have some really great lunches. If we eat out all three meals and buy a bunch of foo foo drinks, we could easily reach the AI level.
We budget for 100 dollars a day each.
We end up spending about 130 a day total.
That's with us getting hammered all day long.
It also depends on which AI location you stayed at or are looking at, and what other activities you might have done or want to do while at the AI.
For us, it was always just food & drink, and not worth the AI price. We budget $100 per day, and easily go for two weeks non-AI compared to 1 week AI. The numbers are going to drift depending on what property you choose for non-AI as well.
Sorry, I may have just scrambled your puzzle a little more... :)
My first transition from AI to Non-AI Jan 2013 the hotel prices was cheaper but of course it doesn't include your food etc and that did make me really nervous as how much money I needed being a AI queen and never worried about money at an AI...So my first couple days at the Non-AI was hard for me coming out the pockets for everyting food/drinks etc. so I think I spent ALOT of money only because it was my first time and I didnt really know the ropes...My second stay at a Non-AI was much better as I bought groceries for the room alcohol at duty free for the room and in doing that all I needed was monies for food and excursions (if any) which paned out very well...I usually budget $100 a day although I haven't spent that much in a day, so now that I purchase all my goodies my budget is now $50 a day (give or take) and it has worked so far...I also depends what your plans are while you are there.
And on top of all that one thing money cant buy that I experience at the Non-AI is the real Jamaica vibe the gorgeous beach the authentic food beach entertainment hanging with the locals as I didn't get this staying at the AI I felt like I was just on a resort somewhere...LOL
On our most recent trip in August we stayed at Treehouse in a suite. Using a groupon deal our hotel cost was around $1800US for 2 weeks including all taxes, transfers and the awesome breakfast buffet. I usually budget about $100 a day for food and drinks and another $50 for taxis, tips and miscellaneous. So all of that added together and rounded up came to a total of $4000 for the 2 weeks. We are not big drinkers but we do like to eat. We came home with over $500 unspent. So that was $3500 for 2 people for 2 weeks or around $250 a day total for 2 people including hotel or $125 each. This did not include airfare. Show me an A/I for that price.
P.S. I understand that places like Fun Holiday and Legends/Sam Sara and some of the other locally owned hotels offer A/I. What I am referring to is the large foreign corporation owned compound resorts.
We stayed at Fun Holiday all inclusive for a 100.00 a night for the 2 of us and that was a great price.3 buffet meals a day and limited beer and booze from 10am to 10pm.That was cheap enough that we could go out eating and drinking and dancing etc... many other places but if it is much more than that we would have to stay non-AI and keep our room stocked with drinks like we normally do!
I would guess we spent less than $100 per day when we did non-AI. We bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum at the duty-free in Charlotte on our layover. We would go to a store and buy beer and pop. I took an insulated cooler and Tervis cups so we would take our drinks to the beach. My husband would buy juice from the juice guy to mix his drinks with. We stayed at Coco so we had the free breakfast or upgraded breakfast for $5. We would eat patties ($2) or jerk pork ($5-$10) from the beach vendors for lunch. We got a pizza from Chance's, split a half jerk chicken from Best in the West and had a nice meal at Canoe one night. We would also do some bar hopping for drinks but did most of our drinking with what we had in the room. I also took a bag of snacks (Cheez-it's, Pringles, Twizzlers).
you have to drink and eat a ton to make an AI worth it........
plus you aren't getting the best meals unless you are really into buffets......
and the beers are that cheap draft chit......and the drinks aren't going to be top shelf
so I would say if you aren't big eaters and drinkers....or you a likkle fussy...AI's aren't worth it
you can get a room for around $50-$60 a night that is decent.....
and then just go ala carte with some great food and drinks.......
and considering the high food cost der.......eating out is relatively cheap
you can get a quarter jerk chicken with bread for $500J's.......
Patties are only like around $100J's.....
at SeaView by da Roundabout you can get Chicken and Rice and Peas for $320J's
Box meals run around $300J's.....
you can have a sit down dinner for under $10US with no problem......breakfast under $5
a lot of options not going the AI route.........and the food is a lot better....trust mi
Cool Runnigns, Marko
I think that love2travelchic said it best...
"one thing money cant buy that I experience at the Non-AI is the real Jamaica vibe the gorgeous beach the authentic food beach entertainment hanging with the locals as I didn't get this staying at the AI"
One of the great joys for us is walking barefoot down the beach to someplace new for lunch or dinner every day, chatting with the beach vendors, buying fruit or patties or whatever else we need or walking to a reggae show on the beach at night. That's why we keep coming back to Negril.
It's difficult to understand staying within the walls, eating at the same places every day. The real Negril is outside the gates.