Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston

[agregory]

a) -24 degrees??????????? holy crap, that is cold!!!!!!!!!

b) couldn't you convince your east coast friends to switch it up? my brother in law is obsessed with going to negril because he likes the easiness of vacationing there, but my sister (who first went to negril in 1990) is bored. she showed him my trip report and now he wants me to sit them down and give them a walk-through of my entire trip so he can decide if maybe he wants to switch it up and do something similar.

Yes! This weather is ridiculous! We could have added 3 days onto our trip by paying $0.63 each to change our flights and avoid this awful weather. But husband said "no, too much work to do at home" Obviously we would have had to pay to stay for those 3 days, but changing the flight for that little seemed like a no brainer to me. We were in Little Bay for our last few nights at a lovely villa with an awesome pool and no other guests on the property. I def could have stayed for 3 more days! Boo hoo. I joked with him that I could easily find a Jamaican to shack up with so he could go home alone to his work

Our east coast friends will not switch it up They have a great spot they go back to each year and aren't as interested in the exploring as I am. They're more into the "party" aspect of Negril, which I love too but I like to change it up. We have never stayed at the same hotel or rental more than once and we always change locations at least once. Husband likes the ease of Negril too, but he is always happy with other areas. I get bored going to the same place each year. We do travel to new places throughout the year too, but Jamaica is our winter getaway we just can't quit.

I hope you make it to Haiti and things settle down there. You should start a blog with your trip reports and send me the link! I'd love to read about your experiences in Haiti

[Ever72]

B I just finished reading your trip report. AMAZING JOB! I'm gonna read it again and watch all the videos sometime soon from home. Thank you for making my coffee a priority in your trip! I can't wait to taste it! I have been dissatisfied with the JBM we've brought home the past few trips. The one you got me looks legit! Well you certainly have inspired me to consider dragging V outta Negril next time we wanna go to Jamaica! And like you, I have already decided I want to travel only in LOW season from now on. It's just too crowded in High season and you know how we feel about that Love ya!

[mwenvlay]

Yes! This weather is ridiculous! We could have added 3 days onto our trip by paying $0.63 each to change our flights and avoid this awful weather. But husband said "no, too much work to do at home" Obviously we would have had to pay to stay for those 3 days, but changing the flight for that little seemed like a no brainer to me. We were in Little Bay for our last few nights at a lovely villa with an awesome pool and no other guests on the property. I def could have stayed for 3 more days! Boo hoo. I joked with him that I could easily find a Jamaican to shack up with so he could go home alone to his work

Our east coast friends will not switch it up They have a great spot they go back to each year and aren't as interested in the exploring as I am. They're more into the "party" aspect of Negril, which I love too but I like to change it up. We have never stayed at the same hotel or rental more than once and we always change locations at least once. Husband likes the ease of Negril too, but he is always happy with other areas. I get bored going to the same place each year. We do travel to new places throughout the year too, but Jamaica is our winter getaway we just can't quit.

I hope you make it to Haiti and things settle down there. You should start a blog with your trip reports and send me the link! I'd love to read about your experiences in Haiti

oooh, how was whistling bird?????????????

and how was little bay?????????????

please give me details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[agregory]

oooh, how was whistling bird?????????????

and how was little bay?????????????

please give me details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whistling Bird was great! The location, beach and all of the staff are awesome! We ate more breakfasts and dinners onsite than we ever have on past trips and were very happy with the food there. The room was perfect for us, except it did not have a private balcony or patio. We stayed in one of the smaller rooms on the property, which has no private outdoor space. It really wasn't too big of a problem, but I love to sit outside in the early mornings and late evenings. I'm pretty sure it was at 100% capacity and it didn't ever seem crowded or busy. We actually both said we'd be back and I hope we are... Maybe in a larger room with a veranda if we can get a deal The water pressure is horrible however, which can be a deal breaker for others.

Little Bay was great! I came to the conclusion on this trip that I am a country girl in Jamaica and I could stay there always. I love being in a place with more goats than people. Smiling and saying hello to others without someone trying to sell or hustle us is so nice too. I feel calm and peaceful both when I'm walking along the road or sitting on the deck looking out at the sea. I felt the same way on previous stays in Billy's Bay and Long Bay in Portland. I sleep really well listening to the goats, chickens, dogs and the waves crashing.

I don't want to bomb your wonderful report with my Little Bay details, so maybe I'll get to putting up a small report of my own soon with pics. We stayed in Coral Cottage and LOVED it! We had our breakfasts and dinners prepared for us onsite by their cooks. Yum yum yum! Sooo good

[mwenvlay]

here are some photos i forgot to post of our stay in boston bay.





the first day we went to boston beach, the water was CRYSTAL clear and there was no seaweed anywhere.
2 days later there was a ton of seaweed in the water and washed ashore.

[mwenvlay]

[mwenvlay]

here are some photos of the royal lounge at great huts. it's a public space that connects to the fig tree house (where we stayed). it's private to the fig tree house from 6:30pm on, even though the door to the lounge stays open 24/7.





the hand carved door to the right is the one that leads from the grounds. it's open 24/7.











and that hand carved door is the door that leads from fig tree house to the lounge.
it has a deadbolt lock.

[mwenvlay]

my thoughts on great huts:

being at great huts is like being at a sleepaway camp for hippie/bohemian grownups. like hogwarts summercamp or a caribbean camp half-blood. it's a really beautiful place and it's well maintained. our room, the fig tree house, was cleaned every day and i had no issues with the condition of anything in the room.

i'm going to preface this next part by saying i'm not a fan of people in general, so these comments are mainly because i'm a jerk who prefers to be alone. i was not a fan of the clientele at the hotel. it was extremely european- german, swiss, french and italian seemed to be the main demographic.

i just got a bad vibe every morning, having breakfast- that's the time i saw the most of my fellow guests. the incident with the woman giving the waitress a hard time about lattes and the jamaican guy with her who did not run interference is the kind of thing i'm talking about. i mean, who goes to a treehouse hotel outside of port antonio and expects to be able to get a latte at breakfast? i don't have time for that type of sh!t. again- i am SURE this is just me being a curmudgeonly d!ck. and it didn't ruin my stay there or anything. it just made me not want to eat on the property.

in general, i think i'd prefer staying at great huts during the off season.

another thing about guests- the fig tree house is RIGHT next to another tree house. i think it's called the almond tree house. they have a big porch that faces the entrance to fig tree hut. 3 days into our stay, a couple checked into the almond tree house. they, unfortunately, were chain smokers who loved to spend hours each morning and night on their porch, and of course all of their smoke wafted directly into our bamboo-walled hut. i probably could've gone and complained at the front desk, but i was on a "no complaining" bent this trip (my husband was impressed).

sidenote 1: i know there are allegedly strict (cigarette) smoking laws in jamaica, but i've NEVER seen them enforced.

back to my thoughts on great huts. loved-loved-loved the grounds and accommodations. LOVED all of that. the staff was very nice and VERY patient with all of the guests. clientele was way too euro for me. i'm also not used to staying at a place where there were pretty much no jamaican guests. aside from that fancy dread traveling with the german ladies, i did not see a one.

sidenote 2: the guests at strawberry hill were predominately a mix of south american, irish, and aussie. a lot of the day trippers were jamaican and asian. great huts doesn't have day trippers, i don't think.

great huts has a very tiny, very cute beach area, but it was extremely crowded with people laying out and people jumping from the diving platform (by extremely crowded, i mean there were about 7 people there- it's that small). we went down there during the morning of our first full day, spent about 20 minutes climbing around the rocks and never went back. even though we had to pay to get into boston beach (a whopping 200j per person), i much preferred to hang out there. that beach is gorgeous and it has a really good vibe.

the two pools (the cliff pool and the larger pool at the africana house) were both equally nice.

the snake walk was really cool.

there were a lot of concrete thrones, mesh hammocks and porch swing thingies to lamp out on scattered throughout the property.

my birthday lunch at the sankofa dining area was very special.

i would say that great huts (especially the fig tree house) was worth the cost, but if we went back to boston bay, i'd probably just say "f it" and book us into the boston beach guest house. it's rundown and probably has terrible water pressure, but it's cheap enough and it has a staircase that leads directly to boston beach.

i would also consider the winifred breeze guest house. it might be nice to spend a little time in that area, which is closer to port antonio.

but i would most definitely stay at great huts again.

[mwenvlay]

more photos of fig tree house.





















ugh, i LOVE that bathtub!!!!!!

[mwenvlay]

husband thought great huts was ok. he liked the room and enjoyed the fact that he could walk right out the gate and have street food and a few bars at his disposal.

ti boss's opinion surprised me! he said 5 days was way too long to spend at that place when we coulda spent some of that time at our next hotel in kingston. the specifics of his dissatisfaction were that the internet was garbage, the africana house pool water was cloudy and the cliff pool was too shallow. boston beach, he conceded, was "fire," the bathtub in our tree house was "lit," and he really enjoyed our day out to nanny falls and rock bottom's carving shop, but all in all he felt 3 days woulda been enough at great huts.