First trip report

After my 6th reach to Negril, I figured it would be a good time to write my first trip report.

It all started back in 2011, wanting to break away from the all-inclusive resorts which seemed to be the same thing on matter what location we would choose. We had never been to Jamaica and somehow, I found Negril.com, after reading several great trip reports and where everyone like to stay, we made are selections. The 1st reach, 4 Night at Negril Palms and then to Idle Awhile for 3 nights then up to the cliffs to Citronella.
Negril Palms, or The Palms as it was called back then, the 1st impression and it was kind of shocking! The carpentry, which I still find interesting at every hotel I stay in, electrical boxes without covers inside and outside, the naked dude walking down the beach, the guy outside the little store across the street selling me some ganga, hiding out the back of the hotel smoking it not wanting to get caught and then heading to hang out on the beach, a lady sitting down next to us, opening a newspaper and lighting up a spiff like this nothing. We were newbie for sure.

Idle Awhile was nice with the little porch but the bathroom wall not going all the up to the ceiling was a little weird and then there was a water pump running all night which keep me up, so I went out to the side of the hotel to investigate. I?m handy and can fix almost anything, at the very least shut the freaking thing off. Well, it looked like someone had been recently working on it and maybe it was time to go home, so they just left it with water spraying out of the pump and a big pool of water around it, not wanting to risk electrocuting myself, I did not try to shut it off. One night we walked down the beach towards the little store across the road for Negril Palms to buy a bottle of Rum, stopped at what I believe it was called ?Thrilla Corner? to have a beer with some locals where a nice young man was kind enough to run to the store to fetch the Rum for me while I enjoyed a beer with the other fellas. I don?t remember everyone?s name except one guy because I couldn?t understand what he was saying, I thought he was Monte club or Money Club, no Money Cologne, I said was kind of name is that? Everyone laugh and we had a great time, the young man returned with the Rum, I asked how much do I owe you? $25 he said, what I know it's $14, he said delivery charge. Okay, $25 it is. Walking back to Idle Awhile we are approach by someone calling himself ?the Diver? he asked for money for a beer, the wife give him her freshly open beer, he gives her a Conch shell as trade, he continues to follow us and then asked for money for food, I tell him I do not have anymore money after paying the guy for the Rum, he continues to follow closely behind, now mind you it about 1 am, the wife has the bottle of Rum and looks like she is about to crack the Diver across the head, I grab the shall give back to him and yell at him to leave us alone, he give the shell back said it?s a gift and leaves us alone. It was scary at the time, and we laughed about it the next day but thought it was rude to be hassling us walking down the beach that late at night, now we always carry a flashlight when walking the beach at night.

Citronella, WOW what a view! We stayed in the Caves house, which I hear burnt down. We absolutely loved the Cave house and wish that we could go back every trip even though the roof leaked when it rained and I got shocked by the lamp, no grounds wire here! There were kerosene lamps in the corners of the room, so we decided to not use the lights a fire up the lamps which was beautiful. We walked up to the lighthouse and there was this little bar perched on the edge of the cliffs, the guy working the bar chatted with us for a bit, told us he makes great burgers, so we decide to give them a try for dinner. Aubie was his name, a dude from Canada making burgers working at a bar living the dream. We enjoyed talking with him and man he was right the burgers were great! Dinner at LTU?s, pumpkin soup for the first time, awesome views, and the food was delicious. We found it! The perfect vacation destination.

Good read. Went through alot of those scenarios myself. Hiding out to smoke before I got wise, too funny.

I remember Aubie. He came from Canada, served his Aubie burgers and never left Negril until he got sick and went home for treatment. It turned out to be cancer and he died shortly thereafter. From time to time we would meet other people like Aubie. They came for vacation, fell in love with Negril and found a way to make money so they would never have to leave. Am I right, Rob?

We had a burger at Aubie's. It was delicious! He came over to our table and chatted with us for a while. Nice guy. Hate to hear that he got sick.

Reach #2, 2012. We decided 10 days just wasn?t long enough, so we booked for 14 days. This time we booked 7 nights at Coco La Palm, 1 nights at Seastar and 6 nights at Xtabi.
Coco La Palm, we got a Jr. Suite with a nice big balcony overlooking the pool. It was a long day of traveling and we may have partied a little bit too much on the way to the hotel because once we got settle in the room, we walked to the beach to catch the sunset. On the way to the beach Sandra started to feel lightheaded, grabbed hold of the wooden Bob Marley statue and slowly dropped to the ground, she was out. I grabbed her feet and raised them up while the kitchen staff come out to help by fanning her until she slowly regained consciousness. It was a bit scary for a minute, but we made it to the beach to see the sunset and she was fine afterwards. We enjoyed our stay the rest of the week at CoCo La Palm.
Seastar, we stayed the night for Saturday night music and buffet, we enjoyed the night, but Sandra was not feeling well, we went back to the room, she went to bed while I sat out on the balcony, staring off into the jungle enjoying the music. We liked Seastar but prefer to be on the cliff to enjoy the view.
On to Xtabi to finish off the trip. Sandra was still not feeling well and was laid up in bed, she was either throwing up or sitting on the toilet for a couple of days. I went to the pharmacy and got her some Imodium which helped for a bit but not for long. On the 3rd day I decided that we needed to go to the doctor down at Sunshine Village. She ended up having E. coli and taking Imodium was not a good move. Lesson learned, see the doctor if you are not feeling well, I think it was about $40 to see the doctor and the medication wasn?t very expensive. She didn?t start feeling better until a few days after we got home and on the return flight, we held up the plane because she had an emergency trip to the bathroom as we were about to take off.
The staff at Xtabi was very helpful during our stay trying to help her feel better. Not a great ending to our trip but at least we had the week on the beach that we were both able to enjoy.

Reach #3, 2019. It had been 7 long years before we would return. Not because we didn’t want to but because we wanted to bring some friends with us this time. In the meantime, we went to other beach locations, Rivera Maya, Dominican and California. None of them compared to Negril.
So, we got a 2 couples to go with us and the 6 of us decided to split 8 nights split between Charela Inn and Tensing Pen. We all had beach front rooms on the second floor with great views of the beach at Charela. The toilets were a bit weird, perched up on a platform but hey, Jamaican carpentry at its finest. The beach area is huge with plenty of shade. I’m a huge St. Louis Blues fan, have been all my life, if you see me in Negril I most likely am wearing a Blues hat. They were in the playoffs on their way to finally winning their first cup. It was a very emotional time for me, my dad and brother had recently passed away and it brought back memories going to games with them. Got to watch game 7 of the second round, double OT win over the Dallas Stars at the Yard Bar. We had a great time at Charela with way too many stories to tell. Memorable character, “Coral bracelets, not made in Ching, Chang, Chong China” Power strap with his 44 kids…… all girls!
I was talking to someone who had been going to Negril for a long time and he was telling me about White Sands, told me that I should check it out. Hmmm maybe next time.
Tensing Pen, we stayed in the Long House with 3 bedrooms and a big patio to hang out. Highly recommend Tensing Pen, a bit pricy but if we ever get 2 other couple together again, we’ll be back. Discovered Kool Vibes right across the road, great food and the pineapple slaw is delicious. Great trip! Everyone was all in on returning the next year and we were all book but had to cancel because of Covid.

Great reports, thank you so much for taking the time! It’s always fun to take first timers!

Reach #4. Christmas 2022 and New Year Eve for 10 nights. White Sands, Home Sweet Home, and Firefly. We decided to check out White Sands, we got a beachside superior room for 4 nights. The room was a nice size with a dresser and 2 nightstands and a little patio with table and 2 chairs. No coffee maker or TV, no problem. There is plenty of space in the room to bring in the table from the patio if needed. For the price this is going to be our go to beach location, just need to bring a coffee maker next time. We spent Christmas here and the little Christmas tree they had on the beach was a nice touch. Another great time on the beach. Ran into Power Strap, his story this time was that the kids burnt the house down. Not sure if any of his stories are real.
We like splitting our trips, first the beach for the parting and then up to the cliffs to relax. So, up to Home Sweet Home for 4 nights. We stayed in the executive suite right on the edge of the cliffs with a large balcony and a great view. Water pressure was a little bit of an issue at times but for what you get for the price it works out just fine.
Next, back to the beach to Firefly for 2 nights including New Year Eve. We stayed in the Penthouse Suite with ocean view all the way up on the 3rd floor, just don?t forget anything when you leave the room. Water pressure here was worse than HSH?s. I was really surprised by how good the fireworks were on New Years Eve and we had an awesome view of them right from our balcony. The beach area was very small, but the restaurant was very good. Another great trip, no drama, or stories to share.

Reach #5. May 2023, it had been a long 5 months’ before we would return. We booked a Deluxe room at White Sands for 8 nights and we were surprised to find out we scored a 2nd floor room closest to the beach. How great this! Well not so great after all, the toilet wouldn’t flush very well, no problem, I’ll just borrowed the plunger from the restaurant bathroom for the stay. It had a large patio with zero shade and in the afternoon and the sun would heat up the room. We asked to have the A/C checked out and it was doing all that it could do but it couldn’t beat the heat. They really need some type of shade on the patio to keep the sun from heating up the room. After spending 2 nights in this room, they were able to move us to the room on the back side of the room we moved from. First thing we checked was the A/C, it was working great, next we checked to see if the toilet flushed, yep, it flushed, it flushed so well that it flushed twice, every time.
We decided to do the One Love bar crawl this trip. First stop was Connie’s and it started off with Lenbert trying to retrieve a mango while standing on a white plastic chair and whacking at it with a stick. This did not go well for him as he fell off the chair. From where I was sitting all I could see was the stick trying free the mango from the tree and then I heard a clatter and Lenbert cry out, “Ahh I broke my arm”. His arm did not look good, and he was in a lot of pain, he was unable to continue the tour, so we had to wait for a replacement driver. I don’t remember the name of the roadside bar we stopped at but there was a local lady with a young child and twenty something gentleman hassling everyone for money or trying to sell whatever they had to sell to the point where everyone on the tour was very annoyed. I didn’t even purchase anything to drink. Then there was a commotion going on out by the bus, I looked around for the wife and she wasn’t in sight so I when out to see what was going on, I found her braking up a fight between a couple for boys. The smaller and younger of the 2 was riding along with us on the bus and the bigger older boy was trying to steal the younger boy’s money off the bus. At that point it was time to move on to the next stop. The rest of the tour was great and by the end we were great friends with everyone on the bus.
Once again, another great trip but 8 days isn’t long enough.

Reach #6, April 2024. We booked 14 nights this time, 7 nights at White Sands, Standard Beachside and 7 nights at Home Sweet Home new Penthouse suite. The standard beachside is smaller than the superior and Deluxe but worked out fine.
We are seasoned travelers now, we were able to pack everything including coffee maker and snorkel gear, minus the flippers, for the 2 weeks without checking any bags which made getting out of the airport much quicker.
The flight was delayed by 2 hours. We were going to share a ride with Michael “Michael’s on Time Taxi” We have always used Michael as a driver but with us being delayed, he couldn’t wait for us because of his other passenger. So, we just hired a driver once we got out of the airport. We were able to hire a driver for $90 and the driver was very nice so not a big deal.
One night there was a birthday party next door at Yrie Beach Villa, they were inviting everyone to join for drinks. They a band and singers were great; we had an awesome time.
We decided to take the One Love Bus tour again since we had some much fun the last time but unfortunately it will probably be our last time. Things started off fine with the first spot at Connie’s again, I told Lenbert to stay off the plastic chair this time. The kids hanging on to the outside of the bus were the problem, Lenbert tried to keep them off the bus, he would stop and tell them to get off but as soon as he got back in, they would just jump back on. One of the boys fell off when we were moving along fast, we got word that he was alright, but he could have gotten seriously hurt.
Took a trip out to Mayfield falls, this was our second time there. We have been to YS falls and Benta Falls but prefer Mayfield. Michaels on time taxi turned into Michaels on time photography, he took so many pictures of us, mainly our daughter, who came the first week for her first trip to Jamaica. We were there for about 3 hours and only seen one other group of people while we were there.
We enjoyed incredibly good patties at Miss Sonia’s for lunch and decide to go back for dinner. Harry, Miss Sonia’s grandson was the chef, it was a great night, we had a wonderful dinner and enjoyable conversation with Harry.
On to Home Sweet Home, the new penthouse suite was up some kind of scary stairs, but the view is amazing. The room is big, not super fancy but we liked it enough to book it again for next year. It could use some curtains and the hot water did not work the first day, but Tina got it fixed the next day.
We were out snorkeling and saw an octopus that we were so excited about until a few minutes later when a huge spotted eagle ray swam right up on us, so close that we could almost touch it. It was a little scary at first as it circled us before it swam off, it was most definitely the highlight of our snorkeling adventure for the week.
We did more walking on the cliffs this trip. We walked all the way to Chances from HSH and met Rasta Genius who walk with us from HSH to the roundabout, telling us about the history of Negril along the way. Luckily, it was overcast and even rained a bit when we got to the beach so that it was not too hot, otherwise we would not have walked so far. Stopped at Yellowbird and had a great burger for lunch.
Of course, like every trip we have dinner at LTU’s last night in Negril. It was another great trip; we are ready for the next one.



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Michael took a lot a nice photos for us when he took us to Benta Falls last year.
Regards,
Bob