Need a trip report to pull me through - anyone?

[ohliz]

I wrote this to post on this very board almost 15 years ago. Obviously prices, names, businesses have changed since then but this is as I wrote it then. Hope it helps

Negril, Jamaica, January 11-19 2000

We're back after nine glorious days (and P is out shoveling snow right now!) - where to start?

This was our first trip to Negril to stay - my 4th trip to JA - I went to Sandals MoBay on my first trip about 10 years ago, villas in Ironshore after that. My husband P has been going to villas in Ironshore with his family since he was a kid. So we weren't Jamaica newbies but we were Negril newbies - our Negril experience to this point had been day trips: a stop on the beach, a stop at Mrs. Brown's, a trip to Rick's then back to Ironshore. This was also our first trip to JA without our kids (5 and 2) since we had them. The negril.com board was the source of most of our good info on where to stay and what to do, the rest came from people who saw me post on the negril.com board and took the time to e-mail me privately. I had ongoing conversations with several people about Negril before we went - big thanks to the board, Jamaica Mike, Rasta John, Tanis, the Negril Sistas e-mail group, NegrilJeff and Dave from Jersey and I'm-sure-I-forgot-more for all their pre-trip help.

Flights all left on time, we arrived in MoBay right on time, about 1:45. (USAir)

Jamaica Mike and several others recommended Lee Weinstock of Back Roads Jamaica for our airport pickup. Had we been 4 people this would have been a dirt cheap shame, as we were only two it was just a really exceptional value . Lee's from Ohio originally, been living in JA for 7 years. What is really neat about this is that Lee knows Jamaica as a resident but has been a tourist there too - he can really appreciate what you'll want to know and do and you can ask all your questions on the way and most often he'll be able to answer with authority. He also introduced us to many of the people we hung out with the rest of the trip. We felt "hooked up" in every way. For us, it was especially neat to meet Lee as it turned out we knew several people in common, both in MoBay and in Ohio. We spend a lot of time here seeing a band called ekoostik hookah (www.ekoostik.com - if you were a Deadhead you'll love to check them out and you can listen to their Negril shows from last year online). Turns out Lee went to high school with the keyboard player and in fact arranged the huge trip down we'd just missed last year for about 150 people and the band for a week last June. If they go again this June we'll DEFINITELY be there - a bunch of cool Hookah freaks running around Negril sounds like just too much fun to miss again! This "small world" thing happened repeatedly through the trip - we kept meeting people who knew people we knew both from the US and JA.

Lee's pickup is *not* an airport transfer, it is a trip - your vacation starts when he picks you up. Lee picked us up right at the airport door. I'd asked Lee if we could take the back way (through Sav-la-Mar) since I'd never gone that way before and I'd heard the coast road was bad. Had we asked to travel directly to our hotel I think we would have made it in 1 1/2 hours. However, our trip was more like 6 Lee met us with cold red stripes in the cooler and we were off. The ride was beautiful. Since we opted not to do the coast road, we didn't do his usual tour out - I'll tell you about that later as we did do it for the return. First stop in Negril was Alfred's. Had a drink or two, got into the beach feeling, met some people. We also stopped at Kuyaba. Then we headed up to Three Dives, next door to Xtabi on the cliffs. This was to become our Negril home away from home. Paula and Lloyd (everyone calls him "Lloydie", pronounced "lidey") are fantastic hosts. Nothing like sitting down for good conversation and a great meal with the owners of the place you're in. We had some of Lloydie's excellent jerk chicken (he's a chicken farmer too so it's REALLY fresh) that night and got loose. There's a small bar and restaurant with tables by the road and a beach bar down by the cliff edge and there are, in fact, four dives, not three. P finally did the dive the last day we were there. If you can dive Rick's you can dive here easily but there's also a (long) ladder to the water if you just want to swim or snorkel.

We did sunset at 3 Dives most of the days we were there. Great view and VERY laid back atmosphere. Lloydie plans to add more hammocks soon but in the meantime there's the one and we often sat near the restaurant just so we could chat with Lloydie and Paula. In addition to the great chicken, food and drink is cheap (I think we paid $60J for red stripe) and we had the BEST lobster there. Lee'd told us to order a few hours ahead so Lloydie could go get them (he doesn't let lobsters lay around all day - these are FRESH). We did and for $14US each, we each had 1 1/2 grilled lobsters with garlic butter, callaloo, rice and peas (red beans)....it was the best meal we had and we had a lot of them. Paula said to say sometimes if the lobsters are really big they only give you one . If you've never had Carribean lobster, it's different from Maine lobster - all tail, really, and well suited to Jamaican spices.

We also met Tracy at 3 Dives that night, fretting over Rob trying to get a computer thing working in time for the sunset show at Mariner's. Lloydie and Paula post lots of photos in the restaurant - I promised to send some of ours down too. Ask Paula to tell you about cooking for all those hookah-heads.

After a few hours meeting (lots of) people and getting in the Negril frame of mind, Lee brought us to our hotel. We picked Blue Cave Castle for several reasons. First, it was recommended by both new-Negril people and old-timers alike and the price is right. RastaJohn also has done a very nice web site for them with dozens of pictures we pored over for hours before we left. Pictures sell this place - it IS gorgeous. We reserved the penthouse (the very tippy-top of the castle) for $20 more than a regular room for the first 4 nights. Rates vary but you can expect to pay what it says on the web site or perhaps a bit less) We planned to find a beach place for our last 4 nights since this was our first Negril trip we thought we should try both the cliffs and the beach. More on that later.