Trip Report - Nov 10 - 15, Country Country

I am famous for my long reviews… here is another one!

My husband and I left for Negril on November 10th, for 5 nights. The flight was from Buffalo with an hour-long connection in Baltimore. The flight was great and everything was on time, arriving ahead of our 2:00 p.m. schedule.

Customs in Montego Bay took a while. I think approx. 1 hour. However that was partly to do with the fact that we were seated so far back on the plane, so over a hundred people were ahead of us. But no worries, we were in paradise! We ended up buying 2 six-packs of Red Stripe at duty free for $6.00, with no tax. It ended up being a good deal and so much more convenient than having to stop at a grocery store on the way.

We booked Kingsley James to drive us to Negril. He was there waiting for us as planned. He drove a few kms to a store and bought us a couple nice, cold Red Stripes. They went down nicely as we enjoyed the scenery. Kingsley got us to our accommodations (Country Country) in just under 1.5 hours.

When we entered the Country Country office, Monique was there to greet us and gave me a big hug. We had corresponded a number of times and she was always fantastic! We were shown to our room (#511) and we immediately got ready for a walk on the beach. We bought a couple rum punches ($7 each at Country Country… yikes! That was the last time we bought drinks from their bar.) We walked towards the AI resorts and were so thankful that we did not go AI. It is so nice to have the freedom to eat where we want and to really get to know the wonderful people “working” the beach. My husband had a black “cast” on his arm so we got lots of attention and had some great conversations with people.

We watched a great sunset and took a few photos. Now back to our room to get ready for dinner. Our package included breakfast and dinner and I wasn’t sure if I would want to eat dinner there every night and we were prepared to skip a couple dinners. In the end we didn’t want to… more to come about food later.

The next morning we walked the other way, toward town. In fact we just kept on walking, stopping every 15 minutes or so for a dip in the ocean as it was incredibly hot and sunny. We walked into town and loved it there! I had read not to bother going there, but we loved it! There were lots of people to talk to and a great pharmacy and grocery store. My husband wanted ear buds so he got a set at the pharmacy. We continued walking all the way to Canoe and shared a Lionfish and Chips for lunch and a great Pina Colada or two. We then walked back to town and picked up some wine. They had a pretty good selection and pretty good prices. We love our wine and after the horrible glass of wine at dinner the night before, we knew we would need to buy some wine for the room. My husband also got some scotch for his after dinner drink. We stopped at a “duty free” store in town and also bought 3 small bottles of rum cream, rum and coco mania. We then grabbed a taxi back to Country Country for $2.40. That night we also walked past the AIs to the park. All together we did approx. 15km of walking, drinking Red Stripe and taking dips in the ocean.

After the first day, I can’t remember what we exactly did each day, so here is a summary of the trip.

Country Country Food: The breakfasts at Country Country are amazing!!!! I can’t say enough about them. The dinners were also amazing, with our favourite meal of the entire trip being the Curry Crusted Snapper in rum-infused coconut cream sauce. We both ordered this and it was unreal! Beat our dinner at Ivan’s hands-down! We had one lunch at Country Country and I ordered the jerk chicken club sandwich with side salad. It was so delicious! The dressing on the salad was great and I heard others talking about it. Give it a try!

Ivan’s Dinner: I booked us a table at Ivan’s almost 2 months before our trip as I wanted to make sure we got a great table. And we did!!!! We were all alone looking over the cliff with flowers on the table and 4 candles. Very romantic! The wine selection wasn’t bad so we had a bottle of bubbly while we enjoyed some crab cakes, then switched to red as we had our meal. I ordered the seafood pasta and it was very good although I know I could have made the same dish at home, so not special, but still delicious. My husband ordered Chicken Curry but it was a bit bland. He added some hot sauce and it helped a bit. Nothing special. We ordered the banana flambé for dessert and it was very large and delicious! Ivan’s was very busy the night we were there and most people had not reserved. In fact there was a group of 20 people who just showed up. Therefore, Ivan’s was not staffed appropriately and service was VERY slow. It took over an hour from when dinner ended until we got our bill (had dessert in between). Our waitress was fantastic and it was not her fault, but it was insane to have over 50 guests but staffed for 20. Again, it must be difficult for them to decide how many wait staff to schedule when people aren’t making reservations but unfortunately it really put a damper on our dinner.

One Love Bus Bar Crawl: I am not sure where to begin… haha! We started the crawl at the house of a Justice of the Peace and past President of the Kiwanis. She was lovely but it was a slow start to the afternoon. The other bars we stopped at were: No Limits, Sunset After Dark, Negril Escape, Seastar, Xtabi and 1 other bar I think. The people on our bus were mainly from Couples Swept Away, a few from Hedonism and a couple from Coco La Palm. By the end of the ride, there were some very drunk people, although nobody was obnoxious. It was a fun afternoon, which ended with people dancing to loud music as the bus dropped everyone off. Got to meet GregandKelly from the board, which was nice! I recommend it!

Niah’s Patties: Yum! We had to hunt Niah down and ask a number of people on the beach where to find him. It is slow season so his window was closed, but he told us he would make us something special if we came back in 30 minutes. So we went to Tony’s and had a beer (great place with a very friendly bartender) and the dip in the ocean that we seemed to need every 15 minutes or so. Niah made us vegetarian patties. We love meat so I wasn’t expecting much. YUM! It was basically cabbage and carrots but it was so great! And I don't even like cabbage. We then ordered a couple chicken for the next day. Not spicy enough for us, but still great. Not cheap either, but they are huge and so delicious.

Cheap Beer: Myrna’s store! Just a little further down the beach you will see Myrna’s. $140 JA for a very cold Red Stripe. Had drinks there a few times… and more dips in the ocean. On our last full day we hung there for a while and met some great people. Michael ran across the street for us and got us some jerk chicken. Very good!

The Jerk Pork Man: YUM! While we were at Myrna’s one day, a guy came by with a big pot of jerk pork. We decided to give it a try and it was awesome! We first tried the regular but it wasn’t spicy enough, so went hot and it was great! Lots of flavour. We are finding it to be a pattern that the food is not spicy enough for us. Not sure if they see us Canadians and think we can’t handle it so they tone it down? The Jamaica food in Toronto is much spicier than anything we had down in Jamaica (except the spicy jerk pork which was so great! Did I mention that?!?!)

Other: We decided to head down the beach after dinner on our final night, to listen to some jazz/blues/reggae at Charela’s. It was a very nice setting and the singer was very good. My husband felt it was a bit slow and boring but I enjoyed it. People were letting Chinese lanterns go on the beach and it was nice to sit and have a drink, staring at the ocean and the almost full moon while listening to live music.

Last Day: One last walk down the beach to Cosmo’s. We bought some jerk chicken to eat in our room as we packed up. Finished off the last 2 Red Stripes and got ready for our 12:00 pick-up. I had to have one last float in the ocean and say bye to a few people that we met.

Flight home was good and now back to reality. Thanks to everyone who helped us with advise before we left. Thanks Melody, I hope you enjoy your trip!

Country Country food is surprisingly really good. We went one night but it was full. I didn't know they had AI. They should expand a bit.

It was not AI. I bought a Living Social voucher which included dinner (breakfast is always included). The deal was fantastic!
They are building new rooms, a pool and another restaurant. Was supposed to be open by now... should be in the next few months.
Yes, we were surprised that people don't talk about the food there on any of the forums. It was fantastic!

You can also pre-buy a two meal option at CC. I agree their food is fantastic, best breakfasts and dinners of the beach hotels. Yes, dinners there are every bit as good as Ivan's, some better! Don't go for dessert though, definitely not something they put effort into, but all other courses are amazing. Limited dinner menu, about 6 choices daily. My dinner at Kuyaba didn't compare to any that I had at CC.

Did you go to Kuyaba at all Nedleycan?

Yes, I'm the lonely forum poster that raves about CC's food. Now I've got you so I'm not so lonely anymore! :)

We actually really liked the food at Country Peppa, everything we had was wonderful. It was the service that we found to be less than impressive :(

Melody, I will be right there with you raving about the food, don't worry! haha!

2nutz, I had also read about the service. I would say out of the 5 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners we had, only 1 or 2 were not "great" service. There is a tall female server there that did not seem into her job. Otherwise, the other ladies were great and also the male server was fantastic! The chef was often alone working and that would sometimes delay the meals. But when the male server or one or two of the other ladies were working, they would run back into the kitchen and help out. They worked very hard... other than the one person...

So, why are they not on Trip Advisor as a restaurant destination?

my service was atrocious!!! the same waitress who is the ringleader of the rest . . . when she's on, the others have to mind her and not do their job. . . . just for that alone i would not return. our of 5 nights, we only had one good one and that was her day off!

Not sure, they should be :) I guess you'll need to do a review so they get added??

Good to hear you had few issues with the service, sounds like an improvement from last December.

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Originally Posted by JitterBug

my service was atrocious!!! the same waitress who is the ringleader of the rest . . . when she's on, the others have to mind her and not do their job. . . . just for that alone i would not return. our of 5 nights, we only had one good one and that was her day off!

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lol, do you remember if her name is Stacey? (I think that's the name) Even Jason (beach security) doesn't get along with her. I guess more people should complain about her so that the issue is addressed.

Is that the tall bigger woman? I plan to send an email to Monique about a couple things and was going to mention her.

Thanks for the great report Nedley. Country Country is on my short list of places to try. You certainly make is sound appealing! That snapper sounds divine.

How did you find the noise level at night?

The only night noise was an issue for us was the night M'ville had their "party". Friday I think?? Really not that bad, but we were in the middle of the property, not beach front.

Yes, we were not there Friday either and apparently it is loud at Margaritaville. There was one night where there was another party somewhere and it was loud until 2:00... lots of boom boom. We were very close to the beach and that might have made a difference, not sure.

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Originally Posted by nedleycan

Is that the tall bigger woman? I plan to send an email to Monique about a couple things and was going to mention her.

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i did a very detailed report and submitted to monique . . . no response at all . . . very disappointing . . . not even an acknowledgement!!

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Originally Posted by nedleycan

Is that the tall bigger woman? I plan to send an email to Monique about a couple things and was going to mention her.

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I remember names of servers but can't put them to faces. I've talked to Jason a lot and he told me about issues with Stacy. I'm sure I'll stop by to visit next week. If I remember to ask, and she's there, I'll get back with her description/name. I'm not sure if she was there my last trip. I didn't encounter attitude/poor service - the girls seemed quite timid/shy...even wondered if they were unhappy there. If they quelch any negative influence and replace it with more of a fun/friendly vibe and throw in a nightly drink special or happy hour, it would be a win/win. Don't know why Monique and the asst (can't remember his name) haven't picked up on that.

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Originally Posted by nedleycan

Yes, we were not there Friday either and apparently it is loud at Margaritaville. There was one night where there was another party somewhere and it was loud until 2:00... lots of boom boom. We were very close to the beach and that might have made a difference, not sure.

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That's what it's like Friday nights from Margaritaville. Ends promptly at 2:00 as I think they have an agreement. I was able to sleep, but missed the other nights where it's the sounds of the sea waves and tree frogs lulling you to sleep. :) I assume what you heard nedleycan was a special Margaritaville party event. Friday nights were the only nights my two stays. IMO, the other positives of the property outweighed this minor issue.

I have stayed at Country Country 4 times. It isn't cheap but I love it there. I have found the service there to be better than most other places we have stayed in Negril. Is Lee still there? He is a top notch employee and true nice person. Great security too. The restaurant prices are steep, we only ate there for the free included (and delicious) breakfast. Having your own private cottage on the beach, along with a nice porch/deck to relax on at night, can't be beat.

And I forgot to add, noise has never once been an issue. Maybe it's because I have the a/c running.

Where in SK are you from Sandman?

Dinner entree prices were about $16-$22 from what I recall. Definitely cheaper prices around (and higher) but comparing to places like Ivan's, Kuyuba, Charela etc, much the same, or better, and well worth the cost for the quality, when choosing a mid to higher end dinner. Only thing lacking is wine quality (according to nedleycan) and dessert. The entree cost is very similar to the majority of average Saskatoon restaurants, but quality and freshness superior.

It was great meeting you guys on the pub crawl! It is always a good time! We would love to have a copy of the picture of us on the bus if you get a chance to send it. Gregandkelly63@hotmail.com.

Hey Greg! Yes, I already told Brian to save that photo and I was going to contact you to send it to you. I will send today.

Dinners were $16 - $18 which we thought was fair. Drinks are the crazy thing... $7 for a rum punch. Didn't see it for more than $5 anywhere else.

Not sure if perhaps there are new staff, but other than the one lady, the staff in the restaurant were fantastic! Very happy, having a great time.

We had the AC on and my husband had ear plugs and still he could hear it. But, it did end at exactly 2:00 and perhaps most people wouldn't have noticed, but we are very light sleepers. But I agree that the positives of this resort out weight one late night.