May TR - Villas Sur Mer & Idle While

[JaJodi]

It’s been a busy month since we returned. I’ll start with a little about us. Hubbie and I, making our 5th trip to Jamaica, 4th to Negril. We honeymooned at Sandals Royal Caribbean 20 years ago and then about 10 years after that we went to Negril. Never looked back and always return to Negril.

It had been about 5 years. While we don’t have children, we do have a lot of nieces and nephews and other family and they live all over the US. Between friend and family visits and aging parents we need to spend time with, we had not been able to get away for a full week in many years. However a recent unexpected death in the family made us take a step back and rethink some of our priorities. I’m sure some of you have known people who have been waiting for something, retirement, a kid to get out of college, something they wait for before they can do the things they want to do. Then something happens and you realize that you may not always get the time you thought you were going to have. On that happy cheery note, I’ll move on to the trip report.

We arrived on Saturday, 5/4 and literally walked through customs. Using points we had upgraded to business class on Delta. Love getting the bigger seats and space. While we were in the front of the pack, all stations were manned at the airport and it was a breeze to get out to where the lovely Winston from the Malcolm brothers was called for us (thank you Rocky!).

Flying in:

[JaJodi]

It was an uneventful drive to Negril. We made a stop at Hi-Lo for some provisions and the Cambio for some J$. And then we arrived at the lovely Villas Sur Mer. We had picked Villas partially due to the TR from Clarity and Hubbyman. And while this trip report is not going to be anywhere as interesting or romantic, I will say that the surroundings were stunning. We also stayed in #6 down, which was romantic, spacious and very comfortable.

The grounds (Shakespeare/Shakes really does tie the plants):

[JaJodi]

View from the porch of another sitting area on the property:



Our little porch:


The very comfy bed:

[DConkle]

Can't wait to here the rest!

[JaJodi]

We always want to go to Seastar for the party and never make it there. After getting to the airport by 5 am for an early flight we’re wiped after some dinner and a few drinks. So we went to LTU Pub for first sunset and some dinner. Had the coconut shrimp and split the special that day, callaloo and cheese stuffed flounder. It was excellent and service for most of this trip did not seem to operate on island time very often. A few rum punches and we went back to our little porch where we had another drink, chilled and could at least hear the music from Seastar. We hope maybe we’ll make it on our December trip later this year.

First sunset and LTU Pub (first orange crab sighting!):



DH Having his first rum punch (he's really much more thrilled than he looks):


First Sunset:

[kaycee]

I can already tell this report is going to be good. The villas are very nice looking!

[JaJodi]

The next day we were celebrating 20 years of wedded bliss. I had coordinated with Kimmi at VSM for a special afternoon. But, before we go there, we started our day at LTU pub with a nice breakfast. The sweet cook who works there sells dolls and I told her I’d include a picture since I do not have any little girls to buy for:

[JaJodi]

The water was choppy at the cliffs so we headed down to the beach for the morning. VSM took us down to Seawind where we spent a relaxing morning, followed by lunch at Seawind (tasty, but not memorable), then walked up to Idle Awhile to see where we would be staying later in the week.

First coconut water of the trip:


View from my chair:


He gets a coconut too:


Beach (a little wave action on the beach)

[JaJodi]

First Red Stripe at Idle Awhile


Lunch Drink (Seawind)


Walking up the beach

[JaJodi]

Later that day, we had massages in the sea cave at VSM. Lance and Claudette. We get a lot of massages and these were some of the best we’ve ever had. I teased my husband that if I could cut his picture out of his passport and replace it with Lances’, Lance would be coming home with me (not that Lance has any say, haha). Total magic and if anyone has a way to contact them outside of VSM, I’d really appreciate the contact info because we’d love to see if we can get them to come down to the beach later this year.

View from above (sea cave)


Set up for massage


View from the massage table