I grew up in the 60's/70's. Travel was pretty much out of my budget, aside from a high school trip to Spain. Paying for college made our traveling more attuned to a road trip and camping. Dated husband since high school, so we are pretty much on the same wave length. We moved to Colorado after we were married for what was a year and a half honeymoon. Headed back to NJ, then there was work, house and kids (3), more school and life. Continued to do the road trips and a week at the shore.

Finally for our 15th anniversary we decided to travel to the Caribbean. That was a trip to St Martin. A few years later, DR. Then Antiqua. Then Puerto Rico. Limited info back in those days and planning was not easy. But we grew to depend on getting away from the winter, but the trips we were doing were not easy to muster the funds for. We always wanted to go to St Johns and chose Caneel Bay, the TA said we could do two trips to Jamaica for what we would spend there. So by this point the internet was viable for planning. We always wanted to go to Jamaica, but there were all those stories of it being unsafe and the long ride from the airport. Knew we did not want Mo Bay. I found CSA and considering the relatively good price compared to our other trips (well, the DR, that was cheap, and we did not care for it) we decided to take the puddle jumper to avoid the ride and we have really not looked back. We loved our first trip. We loved 7 Mile Beach. We loved the trees, the sand, the water, everything. We went a second time the next year. Decided to try Sans Souci the next year and went with friends who had tried CSA on our recommendation, but we missed Negril. The next year we rented a villa at Silver Sands with a group, but we missed Negril. Realizing how reasonable a stay non all inclusive in Negril could be we headed back the next year and stayed at Idle Awhile. The next year we stayed at Charela.

We were going to go this year and bring our family, but I lost my 21 year job as the director of a non-profit and are planning our daughters wedding so we had to postpone and will just go to the shore this year. We have done a New Jersey shore vacation every year since 1973. But we will get to do the trip one day soon. Because we want our kids to visit the place that we have found to be a perfect place for us. Our first impressions of Negril was the complete calm that comes over us. The lighting is fabulous. The opportunity to be on such a wide expanse of shore and to have the diversity of the cliffs so close just makes our time there a true pleasure. We have found so many great spots to dine and enjoy the simple beauty of the different locations. And we love the food. And the prices. Heck, that 15th anniversary in St Martin, 20 years ago, we paid $500 a night and dinners were an average of $250 then. Imagine our pleasure to be at Ivan's 16 years later and getting a check for $80! For our stay at Charela last year we stayed all inclusive for $300 a night. And were right on the beach. We love the music, the sky, the chance to do absolutely nothing but walk the day away. After our first trip, we were so thrilled to have finally made our way to Jamaica to find our idea of a perfect beach. No high riser buildings and lots of places to look at on our walks. We are not secluded cove people. We bore everyone with our ongoing babble about the island and Negril. We hope to get to other areas of Jamaica someday. And we would like to do Tulum. But all things considered we have found our go to get away. We have been married for 35 years now, together for 40. For whatever reason we have found the trips to Negril to be some of our best times. We love that there is the opportunity to be able to watch the party and make our own. While in Negril we have never done a day trip, never even been to the light house. We set up on the beach for the day and take it from there. My husband travels a lot for his job (mostly China, Thailand, Mexico and US, but he has been to India, Cambodia, all over Europe) and we do our fair share of other travel. But when he wants to go away, really away, we head to Negril. We know we love our time there because any given Sat or Sun when we are doing nothing we spend a good bit of our time talking about our trips to Negril. We enjoy our chats with servers, drivers, front desk folks. But mostly we enjoy being able to spend time together in a place that is at the sea, where the mornings are indescribable, afternoons where the colors of the sea are almost fake, and the sunsets, oh the sunsets, and the nights, with the lights of the places on the cliffs far off in the distance, well I just tend to agree with him. The place is fair to all, age is just a number there and even though we are well beyond our younger days, the minute we get off the plane we might as well be 18 again.