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