Jamaica Questions

We are planning a trip to Jamaica with a group of old college friends in
late April. I've been to a number of islands and resorts but have never
been to Jamaica.

First of all, I'm not even sure of the differences between the regions.

We prefer to do an all-inclusive, and our current choice of resorts is the
Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. We stayed at a Riu Palace in Mexico a
few years ago and the resort was exceptional. The only downside was a lack
of lively night life. We are all in our late 40's and don't necessarily
want to party until we puke every night, but we would like to kick it in for
a night or two of hard partying. that I didn't see at the Palace in Mexico.

To compare and contrast, I've looked into the Hedonism II, but that seems
too far in the other direction. We're all in our late 40's and chubby and
really have no desire to hang out with naked people at the breakfast
buffet... ;o)

Any suggestions for a fairly high-end all-inclusive resort with good food,
drinks and a lively night life for middle aged party hounds would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob D.

You will be just fine at any big resort in Negril.
Make sure you take the evening boat ride to Ricks for the sunset and the Cliff jumping


--
Dilly

http://home.comcast.net/~itsdilly/
news://news.annexcafe.com/annexcafe.sports.baseball
http://community.webshots.com/user/savalier
People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them feel.

"Bob D" wrote in message ...
We are planning a trip to Jamaica with a group of old college friends in
late April. I've been to a number of islands and resorts but have never
been to Jamaica.

First of all, I'm not even sure of the differences between the regions.

We prefer to do an all-inclusive, and our current choice of resorts is the
Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. We stayed at a Riu Palace in Mexico a
few years ago and the resort was exceptional. The only downside was a lack
of lively night life. We are all in our late 40's and don't necessarily
want to party until we puke every night, but we would like to kick it in for
a night or two of hard partying. that I didn't see at the Palace in Mexico.

To compare and contrast, I've looked into the Hedonism II, but that seems
too far in the other direction. We're all in our late 40's and chubby and
really have no desire to hang out with naked people at the breakfast
buffet... ;o)

Any suggestions for a fairly high-end all-inclusive resort with good food,
drinks and a lively night life for middle aged party hounds would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob D.

"Bob D" wrote in
:

We prefer to do an all-inclusive, and our current choice of resorts is
the Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. We stayed at a Riu Palace in
Mexico a few years ago and the resort was exceptional. The only
downside was a lack of lively night life. We are all in our late 40's
and don't necessarily want to party until we puke every night, but we
would like to kick it in for a night or two of hard partying. that I
didn't see at the Palace in Mexico.

I was in Negril in 2005. The ganja hustlers were ubiquitous and pushy.
The slightest eye-contact with almost anyone out on the strip was enough
to launch them. No vendor on the street or beach is really interested in
selling you anything except weed. If you take a tour to a "ganja field"
go & return squeaky-clean. On your return you'll encounter a roadblock &
local police with assault rifles who will search you. If they find even
a shred of grass, it's payoff time to the tune of every penny you're
carrying with you.

No matter how much you tip someone out on the strip (such as the "cliff
divers" at the West End) you'll get an instantaneous carefully practised
look of extreme disappointment and insult, calculated to make you think
you should increase the size of the tip.

IIRC "Rough Guide" called Negril "not for the faint of heart." That's
probably an understatement. The compound we stayed at had concertina
wire across the top of the walls surrounding the place. Beware of the
club-footed beggar. He'll chase you if he has to. Beware of the 300lb.
back-rub women. They could hurt you.

Hurricane Ivan pretty well trashed the place and as of 2005 there had
been no rebuilding of consequence. The West End looked like a war zone.
The beach was so eroded in some places such that at high tide there was
no beach.

Someone about your age here years ago asked when the best time to go to
Negril was. The answer was 20 years ago, when you were 20 years old.

YMMV.


Regards,

Cap'n John

http://www.rat-dog.com/jamaica/index.html

Bob D wrote:
We are planning a trip to Jamaica with a group of old college friends in
late April. I've been to a number of islands and resorts but have never
been to Jamaica.

First of all, I'm not even sure of the differences between the regions.

We prefer to do an all-inclusive, and our current choice of resorts is
the Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. We stayed at a Riu Palace in
Mexico a few years ago and the resort was exceptional. The only
downside was a lack of lively night life. We are all in our late 40's
and don't necessarily want to party until we puke every night, but we
would like to kick it in for a night or two of hard partying. that I
didn't see at the Palace in Mexico.

To compare and contrast, I've looked into the Hedonism II, but that
seems too far in the other direction. We're all in our late 40's and
chubby and really have no desire to hang out with naked people at the
breakfast buffet... ;o)

Any suggestions for a fairly high-end all-inclusive resort with good
food, drinks and a lively night life for middle aged party hounds would
be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob D.

Hi,

I'd recommend Sandals or Couples... or the RIU...

but if you want some REAL nightlife get a ride to one of the Jamaican
Dancehall clubs...

this is NOT like ballroom dancehall... think jamaican hip hop.

But I like Couples Negril myself... I don't do the nightlife...

I'm there for romance with my Permanent GirlFriend...

so we turn in early ;-}

btw... Hedo II isn't all young hardbodies...

it's not even MAINLY young hardbodies.

--

Hackamore
http://www.hackamore.com
http://hackamoretravel.blogspot.com

Originally Posted by Bob D[_2_]

We are planning a trip to Jamaica with a group of old college friends in
late April. I've been to a number of islands and resorts but have never
been to Jamaica.

First of all, I'm not even sure of the differences between the regions.

We prefer to do an all-inclusive, and our current choice of resorts is the
Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. We stayed at a Riu Palace in Mexico a
few years ago and the resort was exceptional. The only downside was a lack
of lively night life. We are all in our late 40's and don't necessarily
want to party until we puke every night, but we would like to kick it in for
a night or two of hard partying. that I didn't see at the Palace in Mexico.

To compare and contrast, I've looked into the Hedonism II, but that seems
too far in the other direction. We're all in our late 40's and chubby and
really have no desire to hang out with naked people at the breakfast
buffet... ;o)

Any suggestions for a fairly high-end all-inclusive resort with good food,
drinks and a lively night life for middle aged party hounds would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob D.

Bob D. -

Jamaica has a very unique ambiance which you will find nowhere else in the world but there. They speak the Queen's English so you can communicate easily with them. You will love it there (as I do) after only one visit. The best place in my opinion for air traveling tourists to go there for the first time is thru Montego Bay's International airport to Negril which is about 1.5 hours drive west of there. It is a very safe place where the tourist is king and your resort will arrange your transportation right there.

In Negril, all of the all-inclusives have plenty of parties. But the Jungle Nightclub and Margaritaville are easily reached by inexpensive taxi from any of them. They also have plenty of every night partying with a nicely mixed crowd of tourists and locals at that time of year. So even if the all-inclusive you choose is disappointing (because they all advertise great night life and you may pick a dud), you can merely pop over to one of them. Just ask your resort to make arrangements to take you there and pick you up or ask them to recommend to you a good, reliable, safe taxi man to take you around. Every resort has a couple of good drivers on tap.

Also, there are entertainment centers (these are not quite clubs) there on its wonderful 7 - mile beach within a mile or two of either downtown or of the all-inclusive resorts (places like Alfred's Ocean Palace and Bourbon Beach and Roots Tamboo). But they might have a younger crowd because they are fairly inexpensive. They do not have nightly entertainment, only a couple of times a week with some pretty good local bands and occasionally a big name reggae artist.

I've created a comprehensive video and photo encyclopedia website by which for tourists to visually research every resort, restaurant, bar, club, shop, etc. in Negril and it will give you all of the information that you and your friends might want to know about traveling to Negril Jamaica.

It's called the Negril Jamaica Vidia (vidia is latin for "to see") at http://negril-jamaica-videos.com and it let's you see (thru plenty of photos and videos) all of Negril's places of interest. It also links to all of the tourist oriented enterprises' websites in Negril. Check it out for much, much, much more great information about this wonderful Jamaican tourist town.

Jim Hanson
Owner
Negril Jamaica Vidia