The most wonderful time of the year in Negril! Like many of you, we canceled our 2020 trip. We booked our airfare in April 2021 with hopes of making to Negril for Christmas. With the Delta surge late summer, we didn’t think we would be going. November 20th was decision day to go or stay home. We decided to go! So happy that we went. It was worth the 2 year wait! We usually stay for New Years, but decided to switch dates to avoid the travel rush, curfew, & crowds. I can honestly say that I felt more comfortable/safe regarding Covid in Negril than in the US. Lots of temp checks, hand sanitizer, & masking when required and RESPECT for health!
We spent 10 wonderful days at Charela. The staff were so welcoming and genuinely happy to see us. It was so good to see them all! The beach wasn’t crowded until after Christmas. So happy to see all my favorite beach vendors - Layton “the bread guy”, Miss Cortis, Dean the pork guy, Anthony (pastries & patties), Norman, & Serge the fruit guy. We saw many familiar faces of the usual Christmas travelers.
10 days flew by so quickly! The weather was wonderful, only 2 days with wind & waves. The beach & water looked great! We saw stingrays every morning.
Our days started with breakfast at Charela, relaxing on the beach & floating in the sea, lunch on the beach provided by beach vendors, and drinks at sunset with Delroy at Rondel. We ate dinner at Charela several times, either outside dining or room service on our porch. We tried the fried chicken next door at Rainbow Arch…delicious! Other dinners at our favs… pizza at Chance’s, LTU, Rockhouse, & Christmas dinner at Kuyaba.
We saw old friends and made new friends. This was one of our BEST vacations! I was sad to leave, as we knew we would go back home to isolation.
We were scheduled to fly home 12/30, but our flight got canceled. Long story short…we went to the airport and were told our flight was going to be canceled as the flight crew were going to “time out” due to delays. AA could put us on a flight to Miami, put us up in a hotel for a few hours and fly us out at ass o’clock in the morning or stay in Mobay for the night at our expense and fly direct to Charlotte on Friday. We decided to stay in Mobay, as we didn’t want to go to Miami. Our driver was able to turn around & come back to the airport and save us. Much respect to Damion James of Damion Tours! He drove us to a drive thru test site to take another Covid test and helped us find a decent hotel. We stayed at Grand A View Hotel formerly Grandiosa. Remodeled hotel, clean, restaurant/bar with an amazing view of Montego Bay on the hill above the Hip Strip. Total out of pocket for flight delay $250. for room & 2 Covid tests. We were lucky…it could have been worse having to deal with Miami immigration & customs with too many people for my comfort and the likelihood that the next day flight would be delayed/canceled.
We flew into Charlotte on time, zoomed thru immigration & customs, quick pickup by Airport Park n Go….in our car headed home 20 minutes after landing. We made it home in Virginia in time to make a nice dinner with champagne to ring in 2022! See ya in Negril Christmas 2022 or sooner!
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