State Dept Warning

[negrilal]

Just wondering if it’s the same old same old risk levels or is something new going on

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-advisory.html

[original spanky]

I also read the news yesterday. Had a couple calls from friends who know I travel to Negril. My reply is most of the problem is Kingston. I do know that guns are also a problem in Negril though but it seems to be not related to tourists

[MarkY]

There's a lot of hot spots beyond Kingston. US State Dept has been calling out Whitehall in Negril for a year - maybe Red Ground is a new addition. I wonder how accurate it is since it calls out Bethel Town as a Negril neighborhood.

[JohnNYC]

It is unfortunate that Red Ground has problems, but it will not stop me from getting my pork fix at the Red Dragon.
I can skip my usual trip to Sav.

[original spanky]

did red ground get mentioned as a bad area ?

[Rob]

I checked the stats in case I was missing something, but it seems like nothing has changed, which is the feeling here on the ground.

Late last year the US stated the same warning level (3), if they dropped it to two at some point, I completely missed that.

Whitehall and Red Ground have been mentioned for some time now, but as I said, the feeling on the ground hasn't changed. Bethel Town is in Westmoreland, but far from Negril. Not sure how they lumped it with Negril.

[TuffGong]

My only warning for anyone traveling to Negril would be to stay away from the edge of the cliffs after too many Red Stripes!

Follow that advice and everything will be irie.

[Corey K]

What I've noticed is a higher prevalence of younger Jamaicans that some are describing as scammas staying at some of the moderately to lower priced hotels on the beach than the past. There has been a large group of young local males that stayed in a condo at NBCC awhile back. Some were driving flashy cars and were loud in public areas but for the most part they didn't interact with tourists too much. I try not to pass judgement on people but some locals told me that they are in fact scammas and to steer clear of them. None of them seemed too interested in tourists and I think their game probably was more along the lines of internet and phone phishing scams. That has become fairly common in Jamaica. What is a lot different now than say 10 years ago is that when there is a local dispute we are seeing some of the violent reactions occur in areas that tourists are at where that used to be very uncommon. There was a shooting at a local wedding not too long ago at Shields Hotel which is right next door to Travellers. Also I noticed that Jamaica Tamboo Hotel seemed to have a lot more unsavory characters hanging around its grounds too. It's still very rare for a tourist to get caught up in it unless they are involved in some type of illegal activity themselves. Just my two cents of viewing things change in Negril over the past few years. I'm heading down shortly and am not overly concerned.

[brownsd54]

I could agree with with you more Corey K. It seem any trouble that has happened in and around Negril has had some kind of local on local motive. Be it a land dispute, domestic problems, or just straight out scamming violence but crimes against tourist just ant happening. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it doesn't happen and you can let your guard down, I'm saying be careful and don't do high rise things. As for any state of emergency, police action or US Government warnings, I believe the warnings are about local trouble (un-like the problems in Mexico where tourist are in fact being targeted). Orange Bay and Logwood are mentioned in the US Government travel advisory but I'm not seeing it. I travel the road between Orange Bay- Log Wood- Silver Spring- Sheffield all the time and I have never seen anything other that happy friendly people and I drive an open air vehicle. Take your time, be careful, and don't do risky things is the key!!

[JohnNYC]

I know how to avoid trouble, and unfortunately know how to find it too. My concern is not being the target but an innocent bystander. The chances of this happening to me in Negril are lower than going to work, so I'll actually be improving my safety.