Ok, sounds like your family is taking one of the larger tour buses into Negril that stops at multiple hotels. You won't have to walk into town if you're looking for room supplies. If you cross the road, turn right(heading towards town), and walk half a mile, you'll find the Sweetspot mini mart which has plenty of alcohol and snacks on hand. If you walk down further towards town, another half mile and cross the road back to the beach side, you'll find another mini mart (Uno's I think, before Merrills III resort). Finally, if you think that won't be good enough, just grab a red license cab (negotiate price before you hop in) and have them take you to Hi-Lo in town (the driver will hangout til you're done shopping if you ask him).
Last edited by ukran1ans; 11-18-2019 at 09:13 AM.
Go Bills!
Don't be fooled by the SOE; Jamaica is not a war zone and you can and should explore the country. There's no danger to visitors like you and your family coming to enjoy. In fact I would encourage you to get out of Negril and explore, e.g. do some shopping in Lucea (the town on the coast in the direction of MoBay) or Sav (the town about equally far as Lucea, if you go along the coast in the other direction i.e. along the south coast). If you go to those towns you'll find supermarkets, shops, restaurants, ATM's etc. It's less developed than the US; you won't find Whole Foods or Starbucks, but you can certainly go and shop and explore. Also I'd encourage you to enjoy nearby attractions e.g. Roaring River offers fabulous river beaches in a tropical rainforest setting. The locals are really nice almost everywhere; they'll want to sell you stuff, and a few may beg money, but nobody's going to attack you or rob you. You can rent a car or hire a taxi to get around. Local rate for (shared) taxi from Negril to Sav is 200J (less than $2 US).
I bought a house not far from Sav to retire to, and moved there in July. At first I was worried about the high crime rate and the SOE, but at this point, having befriended a lot of really nice locals, I feel completely safe there. Just be nice and fair and honest with people and they'll be nice back. I have friends and family coming to visit for Xmas.
Drop me a note if you & your family want to come visit while you're there. Peace and love,
RIchard
Just a bit further towards town from Rondel than Sweet Spot is the Shamrock mini mart, which has for several years been my own "go to" place for supplies of all kinds. It's about a 10 minute walk from Rondel, just past Grand Pineapple. Shamrock also carries their own brand of fresh squeezed orange juice. Pretty much as soon as we arrive I pick up a bottle of OJ for the fridge and a broom to help keep down the sand in the room.
Since the sidewalk has been completed, walking along the road to all these places has been much more pleasant.