Beach Vendors -- social distance?

Hi!

We are heading to Negril for a few days next week. We've been many times before, and are so excited to return, but like many others are taking a few extra precautions as a result of the pandemic. While my wife and I are both vaccinated and boosted, we are traveling alone to JA while my five year old stays with my parents back home, and we want to do everything we can to ensure our PCR tests to return home don't come up positive and we have to quarantine for an extended time. So, for instance, once we are in Negril we are going to try to avoid transportation by car, we're going to stick with outside venues (which I know isn't that hard in Negril -- one of the reasons we felt confident about returning), and other similar things.

While we are staying on the cliffs, we plan to walk to the beach during a few of the days and visit some of our favorite spots. Obviously we are used to how things go on the beach, with locals approaching you to offer good/services with varying levels of persistence (some will make the offer and move on, some will continue to offer, and some will literally walk you down the beach). While we are used to this, but due to what I mentioned above, we were wondering if, with the current Covid environment, is there a little more space given.

Again, we're used to the hustle, but I figure we'll be a little more on edge because of the PCR tests, and want to make sure that we're not in a situation where we're getting uncomfortable and/or offending anyone.

Thanks, any feedback from those who have been recently is greatly appreciated! -- ChrisR

Our experience has been that most of the beach vendors that we all know are very respectful of distancing most have a mask on while close to you. There are also those who tend not to respect social distancing and I have had to ask them to back off. Those are normally the type vendors most of us want to avoid anyway. We have felt very safe on the beach and look forward to returning in a few weeks.

I was on the beach for a week between Christmas and New Years and was not approached by one unwanted vendor (a covid up side?). The other vendors all had masks on. If you set the hysteria aside and listen to the experts, it is extremely difficult to catch the virus outside. I found Red Stripes to be an effective way to push the worries aside when I was there.

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Originally Posted by Lax1724

I was on the beach for a week between Christmas and New Years and was not approached by one unwanted vendor (a covid up side?). The other vendors all had masks on. If you set the hysteria aside and listen to the experts, it is extremely difficult to catch the virus outside. I found Red Stripes to be an effective way to push the worries aside when I was there.

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Thanks for the feedback, this js very helpful! Again, our extra precautions are due to the fact that our kindergartner will be staying back with my parents in Virginia while we're in Negril (they're in their 70s), and positive PCR tests will mean an extra few days here in quarantine, so doing what we can to avoid that.

I definitely hear what you're saying, and can't wait to help the stress fade away with a few Dragons, ha - cheers!

Hi Drifter - I think you are from the US and should not need PCR to get home, just antigen - way cheaper, way faster.

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Originally Posted by Odinson

Hi Drifter - I think you are from the US and should not need PCR to get home, just antigen - way cheaper, way faster.

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Oh really? Thank you so much!

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Originally Posted by Rumlover

Our experience has been that most of the beach vendors that we all know are very respectful of distancing most have a mask on while close to you. There are also those who tend not to respect social distancing and I have had to ask them to back off. Those are normally the type vendors most of us want to avoid anyway. We have felt very safe on the beach and look forward to returning in a few weeks.

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Thanks so much for the quick response -- this is really helpful. -- ChrisR