May TR - Villas Sur Mer & Idle While

It’s been a busy month since we returned. I’ll start with a little about us. Hubbie and I, making our 5th trip to Jamaica, 4th to Negril. We honeymooned at Sandals Royal Caribbean 20 years ago and then about 10 years after that we went to Negril. Never looked back and always return to Negril.

It had been about 5 years. While we don’t have children, we do have a lot of nieces and nephews and other family and they live all over the US. Between friend and family visits and aging parents we need to spend time with, we had not been able to get away for a full week in many years. However a recent unexpected death in the family made us take a step back and rethink some of our priorities. I’m sure some of you have known people who have been waiting for something, retirement, a kid to get out of college, something they wait for before they can do the things they want to do. Then something happens and you realize that you may not always get the time you thought you were going to have. On that happy cheery note, I’ll move on to the trip report.

We arrived on Saturday, 5/4 and literally walked through customs. Using points we had upgraded to business class on Delta. Love getting the bigger seats and space. While we were in the front of the pack, all stations were manned at the airport and it was a breeze to get out to where the lovely Winston from the Malcolm brothers was called for us (thank you Rocky!).

Flying in:

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It was an uneventful drive to Negril. We made a stop at Hi-Lo for some provisions and the Cambio for some J$. And then we arrived at the lovely Villas Sur Mer. We had picked Villas partially due to the TR from Clarity and Hubbyman. And while this trip report is not going to be anywhere as interesting or romantic, I will say that the surroundings were stunning. We also stayed in #6 down, which was romantic, spacious and very comfortable.

The grounds (Shakespeare/Shakes really does tie the plants):

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View from the porch of another sitting area on the property:

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Our little porch:
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The very comfy bed:
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Can't wait to here the rest!

We always want to go to Seastar for the party and never make it there. After getting to the airport by 5 am for an early flight we’re wiped after some dinner and a few drinks. So we went to LTU Pub for first sunset and some dinner. Had the coconut shrimp and split the special that day, callaloo and cheese stuffed flounder. It was excellent and service for most of this trip did not seem to operate on island time very often. A few rum punches and we went back to our little porch where we had another drink, chilled and could at least hear the music from Seastar. We hope maybe we’ll make it on our December trip later this year.

First sunset and LTU Pub (first orange crab sighting!):

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DH Having his first rum punch (he's really much more thrilled than he looks):
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First Sunset:
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I can already tell this report is going to be good. The villas are very nice looking!

The next day we were celebrating 20 years of wedded bliss. I had coordinated with Kimmi at VSM for a special afternoon. But, before we go there, we started our day at LTU pub with a nice breakfast. The sweet cook who works there sells dolls and I told her I’d include a picture since I do not have any little girls to buy for:

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The water was choppy at the cliffs so we headed down to the beach for the morning. VSM took us down to Seawind where we spent a relaxing morning, followed by lunch at Seawind (tasty, but not memorable), then walked up to Idle Awhile to see where we would be staying later in the week.

First coconut water of the trip:
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View from my chair:
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He gets a coconut too:
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Beach (a little wave action on the beach)
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First Red Stripe at Idle Awhile
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Lunch Drink (Seawind)
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Walking up the beach
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Later that day, we had massages in the sea cave at VSM. Lance and Claudette. We get a lot of massages and these were some of the best we’ve ever had. I teased my husband that if I could cut his picture out of his passport and replace it with Lances’, Lance would be coming home with me (not that Lance has any say, haha). Total magic and if anyone has a way to contact them outside of VSM, I’d really appreciate the contact info because we’d love to see if we can get them to come down to the beach later this year.

View from above (sea cave)
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Set up for massage
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View from the massage table
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We meandered back from the amazing massages to the villa and got ready for dinner. We had reservations at Ivans and Kimmi had arranged for a special table that was around the corner from the main area. While beautiful, we didn’t get much of a breeze. It cooled off quickly as the sun went down and then the heat was from my blazing hot Jerk Chicken Pasta…

New rooms at Catcha
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View of Ricks from Catcha
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The view from our table
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The lighthouse & Ricks
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We’re from Texas and I got a little cocky about being able to eat hot things at Ivans. If you ask for the Jerk Chicken pasta hot, they will make it hot!

Seafood Curry
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Blazing hot Jerk Chicken Pasta (could have used a few veggies)
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Conch appetizer
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The happy couple
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Sunset
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Gorgeous photos. Is VSM very pricey?

Your pics are beautiful! I brought one of those dolls and put it on my mantel. It makes a great conversation piece! :)

The next morning (Monday) we started with breakfast at LTU Pub and then planned to do a little snorkeling off the cliffs since the water had calmed down. We went down to the sea cave and once the DH got in, I asked how deep is the water? When he reached down to touch the rock he brushed against some small sea urchins and there went snorkeling for the day. We spent a little time trying to get the spines out and looking up what to do on the Internet. With the worst of them out of his fingers, we decided to hike up to Seastar for some lunch.

The beautiful snorkel cove
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Seastar!
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Seastar pool - from the new building's roof deck
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We ate our yummy hamburgers for lunch before we even thought of taking a picture. Love the vibe at Seastar!

Thank you. And the lady at LTU was very nice, not at all pushy about the little dolls.

We actually booked VSM through negrilonestop.com - http://www.negrilonestop.com/villassurmer_rates.shtml

They are a little pricey, but we were on our 20th anniversary trip and wanted to splurge while not going AI.

After lunch and a swim and a beer, we walked back to VSM and asked if we could use the big house. They had a big birthday party there over the weekend and I knew they didn’t have guest coming in until the following day. They were still finishing some cleaning up, but we relaxed and swam at the house for the afternoon. Enjoyed reading while the hubbie did some surfing. The big house is absolutely beautiful, we enjoyed the afternoon. All the following were taken at the Villas Sur Mer house on the cliff, a stunning 6 bedroom house with its own pool, Jacuzzi and pretty much anything you would want.

Entry
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Some of the outside of the house
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Some of the deck/view
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More from the big house

View
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Their entry to the snorkel cove
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The cliffs & water around VSM

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Hanging around the house
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From upstairs
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View from a room

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We headed back to relax and cleanup for dinner. Took a couple of rum punches back to the big house to watch the sunset

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Had a nice dinner at Pushcart. They had a couple playing some music, so we chilled and had a few drinks until they packed it up and we called it a night. We only got one picture that was not blurry.

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For our last day at VSM, we kind of picked up some stuff in the morning, then decided to walk out to Just Natural for breakfast. We’ve made the hike out to Out of Town pastry before so we knew it would be a little hot and not too far of a walk. We need to start adopting the roads in Negril, it was pretty trashy along some places on the walk, I regretted not taking a bag and if I hike out that way again I will. I love being able to take a walk without any hassle and since we started heading out of town at LTU before 8 there was very little traffic. After a short hike, we followed the signs and easily found Just Natural. They have beautiful gardens and cool little paths around the property along with the ubiquitous Negril goats chompping away in some underbrush on one side. We enjoyed Just Natural, the ladies were very nice and the food was pretty good and we got to try a couple of things we never had before – soursop and passion fruit. I always liked soursop juice, but now I like the fruit too. Not a big passion fruit fan. It feels kinda cool to even have an opinion about soursop. :)

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We stopped at Out of Town pastry for some lunch patties for later and hiked back to VSM, it was moving day. VSM had another couple coming in that day for Villa #6 so they helped us move to Villa #2, which is a beautiful 2 bedroom by the office. Since they were nice enough to let us hang out and use another villa, we vacated our room around 10 so they could get started. I must say I sighed when we passed it going between villa #2 and the pool. We enjoyed an afternoon at the lagoon pool with rocking lounge chairs, snacked on patties and ting when we got hungry and lazed around until it was time to transfer to Idle Awhile around 3.

Cliff, the bartender at VSM, made each of the rocking lounge chairs, they are pretty comfy once you get the hang of them.

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Enjoying your report and look forward to hearing about your time at Idle Awhile. We stayed there last year and had a wonderful week. Stayed at Charela Inn this past May and enjoyed our week there very much!

VSM is on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing and great report so far......

Thanks for all the pics and the report.

We arrive at Idle Awhile, we stayed in the Junior Suite, just behind the office. Nice room, a little dark, pretty quiet except for a little noise when people arrive early in the morning. It had a wonderful screened in porch and was just a short walk to the beach.

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Flowers in the room

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Really enjoying your report and pics!! You guys are helping my need for a Negril fix. Anxious to hear more...........:)

First hello fellow AUSTINITE!!! why have we never met? and Tizzy too? I loved the Keep Austin Weird Tshirt - second you are an amazing photographer (one of my passions also). thank you for sharing your special trip with us. I look forward to the rest. We must link up and share JA stories .....ONE LOVE

Really loving your trip report and pictures so far! It's bringing back so many memories of our magical two nights at Villa Sur Mer for our 10 year wedding anniversary! We've been longing to go back...So glad you guys enjoyed the honeymoon suite too! what did you think of that huge shower?! That really blew us away! Is "Shakes" still working their with his homemade broom? He was awesome! Idle A while looks beautiful too. Thank you for sharing this :)

Thanks for sharing the report and the wonderful photos. This came just in time. Husband an me want to go to Jamaica in 2015 for our 10th anniversary and want to stay a couple of days in VSM. The place is amazing !!!

I will get back to posting pics and the beach side of the story tonight, have to work at my day job. *sigh* Thank you for all your kind words.

Clarity - big thank you! Your TR and pics were what convinced us to stay at VSM and yes, the big shower was great. Shakes is still there. One day as we walked by he goes, "i have a headache, think i'll nap" and then sat down and was out cold for a couple of hours. When he woke up, he was good to go. Nice, nice man.

Sweetness - anytime you want to do an Austin meetup, we're there. Your trip reports have also always been so special and inspiring and you seem like an amazing person.

And Tizzy cracks me up whenever she posts. I can see her crashing on the porch at Catcha. :)

Have a great Monday!

I've been very intrigued by VSM, but not sure I'd be happy sacrificing a water view. Does the tunnel make the ocean view patio easily accessible and is it open at night?

Jon, there is a walk through the cave to the patio, if you search on Clarity's posts, I think she has a video of the walk through the sea cave in her 10 days report, we may have one somewhere... My knees aren't the greatest and the steps down were uneven and a little steep, I did Ok and was careful. It is open 24 hours.

After checking in and chilling out on the beach for a little while, I have to say, the floats on the chairs at IA are nice and we also enjoyed the reusable bottles they give you for water. Well, heck, everything there was nice and the service was awesome. And we enjoyed many of the other people that were there along with the vendors and others who hung out right there between IA and Charela.

I digress, its Tuesday, so we head back up to the cliffs for sunset and webcast at 3 Dives. I did say hi to Groove, who looked like he was feeling groovy and chatted for a couple minutes with Jambarney and Rob & Lisa. Mostly we relaxed, enjoyed the music and sunset and had some good jerk chicken and a few beers. We love 3 dives and really wished it was lobster season. Headed back for an early evening and called it a night.

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Wednesday morning! Yeah – we’re at the beach and the weather is perfect! We started our day with breakfast from room service on our screened in porch. Then we did what was soon to be our daily routine. We meander down to the beach, get a cappuccino (well, I did, they were great!), lay in a lounger until we get an idea about doing something and then if we still remember what it was when we get up, well then that’s what we do. Most of our brilliant ideas involved floating in water and eating, then beverages when we felt parched.

Our Spot :)
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Ahhhh!
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Looking left
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Looking Right
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Straight ahead...
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Blue Mountain cappuccino
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More from the beach

I really liked my view
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Looking back at IA from the water
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enjoying the morning
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Love the clear water!
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I love to snorkel. My DH knows that if I get a couple of good snorkel trips in, then I will be a happy camper. And we all know that if your wife is happy, you have a better shot at it too. So we had chatted some with Captain Kirk and later that morning we loaded up our gear and headed out to the reef. This trip we went to where some of the AI resorts and divers tie up. We have an older model Fuji waterproof camera so we have quite a few snorkel shots, I thought the reef looked pretty good and there were quite a few fish, like swimming in an aquarium.

Ok, I’m going to throw in a story (I’ll keep it short). When we got married and were in Jamaica for the first time, we went out on a catamaran to go snorkeling. The boat was full of honeymooners from Sandals and when the boat anchored everyone was holding hands and jumping in with their spouse, lovingly swimming together. I get my gear and by the time I get to the edge of the boat – my husband is gone! He is so excited to be off and snorkeling he totally forgets his new bride. This is one of those things I’ve razzed him about over the years. So, we get out to the reef and he decides that he will stay with me! He even held my hand a few times while we snorkeled around together, it was quite a breakthrough for my dear husband and now I have another ending to the story.

Captain Kirk and his first mate (I think of him as Number One, too many years as a trekkie, I forget his real name)
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by JaJodi

After checking in and chilling out on the beach for a little while, I have to say, the floats on the chairs at IA are nice and we also enjoyed the reusable bottles they give you for water. Well, heck, everything there was nice and the service was awesome. And we enjoyed many of the other people that were there along with the vendors and others who hung out right there between IA and Charela.

I digress, its Tuesday, so we head back up to the cliffs for sunset and webcast at 3 Dives. I did say hi to Groove, who looked like he was feeling groovy and chatted for a couple minutes with Jambarney and Rob & Lisa. Mostly we relaxed, enjoyed the music and sunset and had some good jerk chicken and a few beers. We love 3 dives and really wished it was lobster season. Headed back for an early evening and called it a night.

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beautiful sunset picture at 3 dives...always a fun time there....great meeting you there...it is funny how people u never met knows u from this board...some great folks hang out on this board...

We got back starving and headed over to Wild Parrot for a late lunch, followed by a rough afternoon of lounging.

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