Hi Folks! Its Me, Markospoon, Your Favorite Negril Storyteller in Stunning 3D! Cool Huh?

I Write Colorful Articles About a Dimension of Negril the Most Tourists Rarely See.

This has led me to create this blog in order to save and display my stories along with all of my 3D photos just for you my many tourist fans. I'm doing it in cooperation with the 2 author / webmasters of the NEGRIL JAMAICA TOURIST VIDIA, a free, 1500 page exhaustive visual encyclopedia - directory website of Negril.

My articles are about my actual experiences doing various goofy things at various interesting places all over Negril. So I sometimes utilize this reference website's photos, videos and maps here to visually portray some of the tourist enterprises, activities and attractions that I mention that are in this beautiful Jamaican tourist town.

Through my articles and the visuals that I've posted here you will quickly learn why I and so many other tourists love this little town so much.

The following is an endless loop slide show of the 3D photos which I shot when I was down in Negril in December 2010. Enjoy Mon!


This kind of a no glasses 3D slide show has now become possible because of start3d.com's exciting new 3D technology for blogs and websites. With it, all of my 3D photos may be viewed here or in thumbnails in my album on their website or in a larger size on my page on the Negril Jamaica Tourist Vidia.

And should you go there, you can also view a twin slide show of my 3D photos in the much deeper displaying anaglyph format (which does require the 3D glasses to be focused and viewed). In that format, my 3D photos can be displayed in full screen mode to show you an even more fascinating 3D view of each of these scenes.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Economizing While Visiting Negril

This is a subject that nearly everyone who wants to visit Negril is interested in now that the world is in such tough times. Economies can be obtained in each of the various aspects of a tourist's visit here so below I identify a few of them for each of them. It is often suggested to sleep cheap and dine fine when traveling and that can be applied to a stay in Negril also. But there are other ways of skinning this cat, so please bear with me.

Seasonality

The most expensive time for visiting Jamaica is during their winter season from December until May (when it is not the hurricane season or very rainy but warm and balmy). Because this is when the island has its best weather, this is when tourists from all over the northern hemisphere flock here in big numbers. This is also when all prices for everything everywhere are higher because this is when Negril's enterprises have to make their money to carry them over to the next season.

So to most economize on a trip to Negril come during the off season. But be prepared for some wicked heat, lots of rain and an occassional hurricane which if intense, can badly ravage the island and upset your vacation.

But if you want to come to Negril on season when its weather's to die for and Negril is full of action then to economize try to book everything well in advance and inland of the beach or the cliffs so that you get the lowest prices possible.

Airfares

Off season non-stop round-trip airfare with Air Jamaica (as of 2009) from Chicago or New York to Montego Bay by advance reservation can be on special for as low as $99 USD each way + taxes! But usually these round-trip airfares total out to be in the $400 to $500 USD range.

On season can be as low as $450 USD round trip from Chicago or New York to Montego Bay if booked in February or March for December thru May. Any later bookings and the airfares increase gradually up to abut $900 - $1,000 USD round trip non-stop airfares in November - December!

Air fares for flights with layovers or transfers in an airport on the way like Miami can be a little bit cheaper but they add at least a half day each way to a trip.

Airport Transfers

There are 2 unionized airport transfer bus services servicing Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and all of the resorts in Negril. They are JUTA and JCLA and they are the cheapest form of transportation for visitors and locals. Both of these companies offer similar low rates for their bus trips back and forth to and from these places. As of this writing their prices were in the $30 to $40 USD range per pasenger for each trip plus tip. You can book yourself onto one of their buses when you land at Sangster International Airport as long as you arrive not too late (in which case you'll have to take a more expensive charter taxi).

Hotels, Resorts, Villas and Rooms

As a rule of thumb, staying in places that are off of the beach itself or inland of the cliffs will give you the lowest room rates. An inexpensive resort on the beach in the off season will rent their lowest cost room for - $50 - $70 USD. On season that same room will cost $75 to $125.

Right across the street at a resort (and maybe a pool) within easy walking distance to the 7 mile beach will rent an inexpensive room for $40 - $55 USD off season and for $50 - $80 on season. The same pretty much holds true for places that are on and inland of the cliffs.

Food

There are quite a few grocery stores all over the greater Negril area and there is a large Hi - Lo supermarket right downtown. Here all kinds of food, rum, beer, pop and other goods may be purchased to save you money over resort prices. Just be sure that you have a working refrigerator in your room or access to plenty of ice there if you elect to go this route (which will cut your food bills nearly in half compared to buying cooked food at even the cheapest street grills or restaurants. Many people go to places like Ossie's or 3 Dives to purchase jerked chicken or pork and they take it back to their room to enjoy with cheap beers ($100 JD each from the supermarket) in their refridgerator.

You can bring all kinds of snacks from overseas into Jamaica, just not any meat products. The Jamaican government wants tourists to spend money on the island for everything possible so thay make it hard for tourists to economize by bringing in large stocks of food or beer / liquor.

Restaurants

The rule of thumb for dining out is to ask the locals where they go to eat because they know the lowest priced good places. Ossie's and Selina's on the land side of the 7 - mile beach and Fatty's and 3 Dives on the cliffs are 4 places known for serving good sized portions of great food at low prices. These are places where you get more than enough to eat so you can take leftovers back to your room for consumtion later. Be careful though because some of the resorts have a policy of not allowing their guests to bring in carry-outs from other restaurants off of their premises.

Bars

There are a couple of hundred bars and restaurants in Negril, each more colorful and more fun than the next because of thier wonderful, friendly Jamaican vibe. Usually everyone in them is colorful, nice and polite, even their tourist patrons. The price of beers in them starts at a low nowadays of $200 JD ($2.25 USD). Rum and fruit drinks are usually double that and up.

Transportation within Negril

Negril provides a free shuttle bus every 2 hours which traverses One Love Drive from the 7 - mile beach all the way to the lighthouse in the cliffs. This bus may be flagged down all along its 14 mile route by tourists and locals. It's purpose is to pull 7 mile beach resort patrons up into the cliffs to increase their tourist enterprises' trade there. This bus is the cheapest form of transportation other than walking but you have to time your hookups with it on the road to its schedule of going past wherever you are on it.

The next cheapest form of transportation in Negril is the route taxi. These run either up and down the beach portion of One Love Drive to and from downtown or up and down the cliffs portion of One Love Drive, also to and from downtown. Either trip is $80 - $100 JD (about $1 USD) one way no matter how far within these 7 mile routes you desire to go. Since this is only about $1 USD per ride most tourist passengers alos give a tip of anothe $100 JD to the driver.

Licensed route taxis have red license plates and should not be confused with unlicensed robot taxis that are not legal to use and that are sometimes unsafe for tourists to enter. The red plate route taxis are often speed demons because they have to run enough trips a day to pay for their vehicles before they make anything for themselves. So many of Negril's tourists will not use them and instead opt for their resort's safer driver at twice the price or more.

Anytime a tourist enters a taxi of any kind in Negril they should first negotiate the price per passenger for their trip! Some unscrupulous drivers (usually route taxi drivers) will charge exhorbitant rates at the end of a ride because this was not done. Don't just jump in a taxi and expect a fare box to be there to compute your trip as you would do in many overseas cities because they do not have them. They have designated

Entertainment

The least costly entertainment available in Negril is to just walk the beach or the cliffs road for free and observe the goings on of some of the more colorful locals. However, when tourists do this they are invariably hounded by scammers and hawkers but this in itself can be entertaining. Tourists should always be polite in their haggling over price and when they're ready to go on, they should be firm but polite in their refusal of any more goods or services.

Single women can be accosted by obvious gigolos and some enjoy the attention and the flattery but many don't so this may or may not be a form of entertainment to them. If a woman is polite and firm in her rejection of these suitors they will back down but some of them can be so aggressive that the lady may have to threaten to call for an officer. But that can be fun too, especially if there are a couple of girls who are out together reinforcing one another.

Negril has a number of clubs and entertainment centers on the beach, in the cliffs or inland of both which have something going on every night in one or another of them. Some are free but some may charge a small entry charge because the local bands and entertainers there are usually great and ell worth paying a little to see. The Red - Stripes at these occassions are $300 - $400 JD ( $3.50 - $5.00 USD) which is very reasonable considering the high level of entertainment found at some of these places (add another $100 for Heinekin's).

Some of you readers probably have many more suggestions on how to economize during a visit to Negril so I hope that we will see many comments on this post to give us all additional thoughts on thei matter.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Negril's West End - Beautiful, Colorful and Wonderful Yet Sometimes Tourist Difficult


The fantastic 30' - 40' West End cliffs of Negril stretch out for 5 miles starting about a mile and a half west of downtown and arcing around south along the ocean-front.

All of this 6 - 7 mile area of western-most Negril is referred to by the locals as the West End or the Real Negril!



Negril's ocean front cliffs and the beautiful resorts, bars and restaurants that run all along them are only accessible via One Love Drive which was formerly known as the West End Road or the Cliffs Road.

Running up this road within the first mile and a half from downtown (before the cliffs actually rise up), there is a line of 3 small public beaches.



These 3 beaches are interspersed with a few of the West End's colorful bars and restaurants such as Mary's Bay Boathouse, Canoe and the Love Boat.


The most well known enterprise in the cliffs is Rick's Cafe which among other things provides its patrons with a wonderful view of Negril's fabulous sunsets.


Rick's Cafe is housed in a beautiful set of hurricane proof stone buildings with a bar, restaurant and swimming pool. It is a world famous club that covers the property all the way up to its cliff where people can do cliff diving.

Photo courtesy of Rocky's Taxi and Tours

Here tourists and locals mix it up nicely as they eat, drink, party and dance together to the unique sounds of live reggae and dance-hall music performed by good local bands.


Some of Rick's bolder patrons will even jump or dive from its cliffs into the gorgeous aquamarine ocean below.


There are even professional local divers here who climb another 20' or so up into a firmly anchored tree to dive 60' down from it just for tips from the patrons. So all in all it's a very unique place and well worth visiting.


However, the West End has a lot more to offer than just Rick's even though so many tourists only go there when they stay at resorts on the 7 - mile beach. For instance, there are over a dozen amazingly designed boutique cliff resorts, each one more unique and beautiful then the next.


And there are many, many, independently owned and operated restaurants, bars and entertainment centers all along One Love Drive where great local food, drinks and music, especially Jamaica's reggae music, are provided.

photo courtesy of negrilonestop.com

Enough cannot be said about the colorfulness and vibrancy of everything that can be found in this part of Negril.

photo courtesy of FG Photos & Videos

When tourists come to Negril's large, all-inclusive, westernized resorts located on its 7 mile beach, they are ferried by their resort's shuttle bus (usually only one day during their stay) to Ricks Cafe and back, just to give them a taste of Negril's supposedly real Jamaican flavor. But in stopping at just Rick's, they miss out on all of the rest of the fun and color of the West End which has kept to its Jamaican heritage and actually is the Real Negril.


So to help the tourists who are staying in any of Negril's all-inclusives or any other beach resorts, to go up and sample some of the rest of the West End's real Jamaican places, a free shuttle bus has now been made available.


This bus called the One Love Drive Free Shuttle and it makes a circuit from the beach to the cliffs and back again every 2 hours. It can also be used by Negril's cliff dwelling tourists or residents to get to and from the 7 - mile beach area.

The Jamaican government inaugurated this free shuttle service primarily to help the smaller West End Cluster of tourist enterprises. This cluster group's desire is to gain more visits from those tourists who reside in the beach resorts on the other side of town that have been drawn to Negril by the big all-inclusive beach resorts' international advertising. With this free shuttle bus it is hoped by the government that the tourists residing in all of the beach resorts will come out of them and use it to come up to the cliffs to sightsee and trade.


One major detriment to the West End that adds to its dearth of tourists is that its portion of One Love Drive has a reputation as being a very hard road for tourists to drive, cycle or even walk upon. Speed-demon route taxis (especially the unlicensed taxis known as "robots") and reckless local motorists running up and down it does not help in any way to allay this negative impression of the West End with Negril's tourists.

Unlike the 7 - mile beach's flat, straight expanse of road with wide shoulders, the West End portion of this road has many serpentine twists and turns all along its 6 or 7 mile length. When it is being frequented by reckless, speeding and even rum-drunk drivers it is very dangerous to all. There have been many fatal accidents on it, a few of which involved Negril's tourists. Many of these have been attributed to excessive alcoholic consumption on the part of drivers and / or the pedestrians who have been hit. So be very careful whenever you're walking on it, especially when you've been drinking. Here's a video to show you just what these roads are like....


Another detriment to the reputation of Negril in general but the West End in particular is that some of its native residents can be scammers and can be a little difficult with lone tourists. Here they can seem to just appear out of nowhere and then disappear away from them more easily than can those who are operating on the other end of town with its straight wide road with nowhere to hide. So it's always best stay in groups of 2 or more when walking about on the West End Road (which is good policy for all travelers everywhere anyways).

This is not to say that the West End is a particularly dangerous area because it's really not. But its poorer elements are not always well mannered towards timid or unwary single tourists as they try to get money from them and they can be difficult to deal with.


The West End is safe enough that many, many long-time repeat visitors have decided to reside on the West End when they are in Negril. They make this decision because it is very economical to stay there and after they become familiar with the locals and are accepted by them as part of the community, they will watch out for them as they traverse this area alone. Here's 2 videos of a lady traversing a part of the cliffs section of One love Drive....


In these videos you will also notice that at various points in the road there are no sidewalks on either side which makes those road sections very dangerous for pedestrians, drunk or sober!



The local scammers who accost tourists as they are sightseeing on the West End of town (and on the 7 - mile beach for that matter), are usually peddling some kind of small goods or services. Please understand that most of these folks are poor and too proud to beg so they do this to eck out a meager living from the tourists.

Unfortunately, many of them use pushy, scam artist tactics which are such a turn off to most tourists. It can be very hard to look past this huge flaw in one of them to see his or her very real need to survive but it's most often lurking there. So if you can be generous to any of them please do so. Over-paying for something or big tipping can be a form of masked charity which allows needy Jamaicans to get some survival money and still maintain their pride.

But one outrageous, often perpetrated scam to watch out for and never allow is when locals very nicely ask you to include them in one of your photos. Then, right after you have taken it, he or she will demand $20 USD! So, in that case or when enough becomes enough with one of them and you want to go on about your business, just give them a firm but polite, "No thank you!". This will usually suffice to set you free from their demands. But when pressed beyond this, a polite but firm, "Do I have to call an officer?" will send them packing.

Remember, all Jamaicans have a very big thing about "respect" so do not be impolite to them when you haggle over price or tell them "No" in order to avoid a row with them over disrespect. Bear in mind that sometimes poor people feel that all they have is their pride, so they will wear it like a badge of honor and defend it at all costs.

This photo contributed by FG Photos & Videos

The West End is the favorite area of many, many of Negril's repeat visitors because of its colorfulness, its relative inexpensiveness and its authentic Jamaican reality.

photo courtesy of negrilonestop.com


Most of the many places on the West End to eat, drink and party are owned and operated by very friendly local Jamaicans that when the tourists get to know them they will befriend them. When the tourists leave they can then stay in touch with each other on negril.com's message board or by e-mail.

Without big budgets for international TV and Radio advertising or fancy banner ad websites these small enterprises, no matter how nice and colorful they are, must rely entirely upon their happy repeat customers and their word of mouth referrals to friends and others in order to stay in business.


The major reason that I am writing this blog and that my partner and I are continuing to develop the free Negril Jamaica Vidia is to try to help these small Negril businesses to get a little bigger piece of the tourist pie without having to spend any money with us on their advertising.

Next time you're in Negril why not consider staying in one of the West End's beautiful boutique cliff resorts or at least visiting some of its bars, restaurants, clubs and shops a couple of times?

photo courtesy of Onestop Vacations

If you have not yet done this, please do so on your next trip because you will discover a whole new flavor to Negril that you are certain to really like and you will be helping some good little people who need your help!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

What some of the Travel Blogs have to say about Negril Lately

The following are links to current blog articles about some of Negril's all-inclusive luxury spa resorts. Some people who winter vacation in the Caribbean love to be pampered and these places sure know how to do just that.

Travel Buddy

Wayfaring Travel Guide

Jet Set Life

Online Travel Agent Opportunites


Here's a few current general interest articles that have been written about Negril on the travel blogs....

Chris Vaughn Was Here

Outboand Holidays

Caribbean Travel Deals

Gather.com

There's a lot of articles on Negril which you will find when you do a blog search on it.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Country Country Beach Resort

THE COUNTRY COUNTRY BEACH RESORT is a mid-size Caribbean vacation paradise located on Negril's 7 mile beach, out about 3 miles from downtown.It is a very colorful boutique resort which has been locally architected to give its guests the real Jamaica feel.THE COUNTRY COUNTRY BEACH RESORT is set in lush tropical vegetation while offering its guests a great view of (and spot in the midst of) Negril's famous 7 mile beach.Guests (as well as beachcombers stopping by) can dine in style at its lovely outdoor beach restaurant.

This brings up one of the fabulous draws for tourists to stay in Negril. It's the mixing of people from all over the world as they stroll up & down the beach, sightseeing and stopping to shop, dine or drink anywhere they please on it. This beach interactivity is so pleasant, especially since many people become more uninhibited and friendly as the the balmy afternoons turn into evenings and the rum and red stripes emerge.
THE COUNTRY COUNTRY BEACH RESORT is one of Negril's better mid-size resorts that tourists rave about when their stay ends.

It is one of the nearly 50 fine places served by ONESTOP VACATIONS, Negril's most knowledgable travel service. Contact them for further information (with no obligation) about THE COUNTRY COUNTRY BEACH RESORT.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

The Seaview Retreat - A Small, Economy, Inland Resort

The little Jamaican tourist town of Negril has over 200 resorts (!!!) strung out along its 14 miles of oceanfront! That's a lot of places crammed into a small area therefore only a few of them are large resorts. Some of them are mid-price beach or cliff boutiques but many are smaller inland places that are very economically priced.THE SEAVIEW RETREAT is a great example of an economical, very small resort in Negril. It is a brand-new inland villa located in Negril's outskirting hills about 10 minutes from downtown Negril.This is very clean, modern place with 2 apartments that each have a wonderful panoramic view of nearly all of Negril's 7 - mile beach.Only one guest party at a time may rent its downstairs 2 bedroom apartment (because the owners occupy the upstairs apartment) so it is very private. The guest apartment has its own tranquil veranda from which may be seen its great view of the ocean (that is, when the laundry is not hanging on the line in front of it!). THE SEAVIEW RETREAT is a great bargain for tourists because they can rent this entire 2 bedroom apartment for USD $80/night or $500/week! There is also a cook available for a small fee, and if the owner's doing the cooking you don’t want to miss out! His food is to die for! They also have transportation available.

Places like this are wonderful for families who feel that they just can't afford to stay at the beach or cliff places in Negril and therefore might not even come to Negril. Its pricing is under 1/2 of the price for a family to stay in even a small beach or cliff boutique resort. THE SEAVIEW RETREAT, being brand new and providing such a great view is a real steal at these prices!

Just contact Ted or Alice (its owners) at - 876-407-6618 or 876-898-8769 - jamaicamiss@aol.com to find out more about it and to make a reservation. You won't be sorry.

There is another article on THE SEAVIEW RETREAT which has been written on the Jamaica My Way blog written by their friend Kristi who made me aware of their business and kindly allowed me to use her photos and some of her information here in this article.

What are Followers?

Followers are interested folks who join up with this blog in order to receive e-mail notices of all of its new posts. Please feel free to join them. There is no obligation for doing so.

Followers

The latest entry is always shown above. However, all of the preceding articles are archived (by the month that they were entered) and linked in this blog's right margin.

Entries on any particular enterprise or subject may most easily be found by searching for them in the Google search bar near the top of the right margin. Then, some of its information and a link to it will pop up at the very top of this column so that you may go right to it.