Onestop Vacations Travel Service's Trip Report for October 2009

Trip Report

"Irie"... that sums up our Oct. 22- Nov. 6 trip to Jamaica! This trip we spent most of our time in Negril with a 3 day/2 night visit to Treasure Beach and had a chance to stay at 5 of our resorts (all beach resorts this time) .

We started out by renting a car from Island Car rental at the airport in Mo Bay, as we're on the go from morning to late afternoon visiting as many resorts as we can fit in (o.k....we made time for a "likkle" swimming and cold Red Stripe). No problem driving on the left but remembering that the turn signals and windsheild wipers are reversed can prove interesting! As usual, we got lucky and had sunny weather (with a few afternoon showers that cleared by evening).

Sunset At The Palms with their unique, romantic tree top accommodations, great food and service was our first 3 night stop.Next we moved down the beach to Beachcomber Club. Pretty beachfront and "the most spacious 1 bedroom suite in Negril". I love the large veranda and the washer and dryer came in handy.

Then we headed off to Treasure Beach to revisit our resorts and stayed just outside at the Button Bay Beach Getaway. This private, unassuming getaway will soon be offered on our TB web site. A great steak dinner at Sunset Resort and a fun night with the local band in town ( the singer was a no show so Bob did the whole show for him) was a highlight.

Back to Negril and our stay at Sea Wind. This popular resort offers great value and good food (they even have a pastry chef!). The costumed hallowen dinner/spooky evening was a blast. If you are in Negril next year don't miss it. Photos up soon.

And our last stop (but not least) was 3 glorious nights at Charela Inn. The lower sea view rooms (now with walk out to your deck) are wonderful and their deep beach front with lots of palm trees can't be beat. Their 5 course dinner was a fine dining experience. We visit at least twice each year, yet every visit we are again in awe of how magnificent Negril's beach is.

A Special Experience

Jackie's On The Reef is a holistic spa & retreat and one of the original properties on the cliff side of Negril. We enjoyed an exceptional afternoon here in early Nov. The deep tissue massage we received with the waves as a backdrop to their soothing music melted away tense muscles and frenetic minds. We then enjoyed a fresh and delicious lunch.

Stay for a week or come for the day. Various treatments are offered by experienced and knowlegeable therapists. Jackies is a highly recommended Preferred Onestop Vendor.

Driving Services

Airport Transfers &Tours The "Malcolm brothers" are happy to offer private, safe and smooth transfer to your hotel. Check out the new tours on our site. The guys will customize any outing to suit you. They now have a new 14 seater bus!

*You can now book your airport transfers and tours with them directly from our site.*

Other Resort News

Catcha Falling Star has finished their long awaited pool and it was worth the wait! Another delightful addition to this property. Catcha has also taken over the land side cliff resort formerly known as LTU. New bathrooms, all rooms with TV and micro wave, new landscaping etc.Right now we have a special of 15% off rooms.

Bar-B-Barn in Negril is offering awinter special and Onestop clients receive an extra special rate of $110. per couple per night which includes full breakfast and dinner with a complimentary drink.

Charela Inn is a charming 49 room Inn centrally located on a palm lined stretch of Negril's 7 mile beach.Spacious accommodations are offered as room only, optional meals included or all inclusive. Evening dining options include a 5 course prix fixe dinner that changes nightly and features fresh ingredients from their farm. Gracious (but never stuffy) service and ambiance ensure a relaxing holiday.

Noteworthy meals, places and things to do in Negril.

We really enjoyed our meal at "Pushcart", the new restaurant at the Rockhouse Hotel in Negril's cliffs on the West End. Great Jamaican food at very reasonable prices overlooking the sea.

If you want to finish off a great meal with a great desert...try Sheretas Restaurant at Sea Wind Resort. We had shrimp pasta with tons of huge shrimp then couldn't resist delicious bread pudding and keylime pie for desert!

Angela's Restaurant at Bar-B-Barn has ( among other things) great thin crust pizza....our dining companion said it was the best he's had.

Dancing on the sand at Alfred's Ocean Palace >or any of the Negril beach clubs is always fun. Negril is "the place for the best live reggae"...combine that with a lively mix of tourists and locals to make some fine holiday memories.

Ready to be more adventurous?...try a snorkeling trip, or book a tour to a waterfall, Jamaican bobsled ride, swim with the dolphins or see how rum is made.

Read the first article on this blog about Onestop Vacations.

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Toll Free 877-651-7867

Onestop Vacations showcases smaller independent properties in Negril, Jamaica.

Don't hesitate to call us for more information. After all, as a travel service we will be more than happy to help! We take our own photos and we try and stay at every resort we offer allowing us to give you, the traveller, first hand, unbiased feedback.

We are a family run business, serving over 15,000 clients since 1998.

Susan, Bob, Bart & Derek

A Couple of Petty Criminals can Ruin a Vacation in Negril

Today I was reading some other blogs about Negril and I found an article wherein some driver in Negril named Niyah who claims to be a travel guide was accused of stealing a lady's jewelry from her purse while she briefly left his car. Underneath that post was another where another lady said that she had also used a man named Niyah as a travel guide and her husband's camera was missing from their bag when they came back with him from Dunn's River Falls!

These are unfortunate incidents that can occur with one bad apple in Jamaica. They put a dark cloud over all of the great people and wonderful things that are there to enjoy. This is especially lousy if the Jamaican police (she didn't say if they were Negril Police or not) are uninterested in doing anything about it as one of the ladies claimed was the case with her.

These incidents reminded me of 2 friends of mine who now refuse to set foot in Jamaica again (after many trips there in the past) because their room was vandalized and things were stolen while they were away from it and partying on their last trip. These kinds of crimes are petty in the overall scheme of things and they are very rare. But they are really, really bad for tourism because they violate the tourist's sense of the innate safety and security of the accommodations there and the trustworthiness of the drivers upon whom they must depend to get back and forth to the airport.

I hate to even mention these incidents here for fear of scaring away some of you who are looking for information about taking a vacation in Negril. However, I do it to be completely honest with you about your safety in Negril. But at the same time I want to mention that after having taken many trips to Negril and other places in Jamaica myself, I know that a little extra cautiousness on any tourist's part can prevent these kinds of things from ever happening to them.

We have had great times in Negril and elsewhere on the island and we've never had any incidents of vandalism in all of our trips there because we are cautious. But we are cautious at home in Chicago too and my wife and I both feel that Negril is a whole lot safer than many areas here. We live in a very decent, well lit neighborhood on Chicago's far north-side and yet our 20 year old grandson was robbed by 2 punks early one evening when he was entering our condominium's secure entrance gate! So to us this incident proves that no place anywhere is totally safe and so we are very careful whenever we travel.

Tourists need to understand that Jamaica is in many areas a third world country and although the people there are so very wonderful and so extremely friendly, they are mostly poor and there are very few opportunities for them to advance themselves. So a few of them will turn to scamming and petty crime to try to make what they think is some easy money for themselves.

What they don't always consider when they do this is that if or when they get caught violating a law, the Jamaican legal system can put them away for an awful long period of time in a miserable third world jail! Therefore, very few of those who realize these consequences actually turn bad this way. Still, in both of these cases some did and bad things from them happened to each of these tourists.

Now because of these 3 petty crimes alone, 6 tourists who have each spent many, many thousands of tourist dollars vacationing over the years in Jamaica are never going to do it again! And they're also going to tell all of their friends and relatives about what happened to them when they were there so they might not go to Jamaica either! What a pity! In these tough times when every tourist dollar counts, at least 6 (and probably a few more) of those who can afford it will no longer vacation there because of a couple of bad apples and their petty criminal activities!

I just want to finish this post by reassuring everyone that Negril is really a very, very safe place. It has an adequate police force and an on foot tourist protection force and nearly every resort has some level of security to protect its own patrons. Because of these measures, unfortunate incidents such as these are really a rarity and should only be viewed as a caution, not in any way as a deal breaker for a vacation there.

The following are some links to further information about these and related issues which are present already within our Negril Jamaica Tourist Vidia and within this blog.

http://negril-jamaica-videos.com/logistics.html

http://negril-jamaica-videos.com/town-of-negril/Safety-in-negril

http://negril-jamaica-videos.com/town-of-negril/Safety-in-negril/crime-in-negril.html

http://negril-visual-info.blogspot.com/2009/08/following-is-plug-for-my-friends-at.html

http://negril-visual-info.blogspot.com/2009/06/rockys.html

Land Activities Available to Tourists within the Negril Area

There is a large variety of land activities in which tourists may engage while on vacation in Negril. Of course for the rugged and energetic there is hiking and camping as well as bicycling and horseback riding.

These activities can be especially delightful for Negril's tourists because of the nice friendly Jamaican people you'll meet, its beautiful tropical setting and its awesome views of the ocean and the Great Morass. For the adventurous tourists who do not want to exert much human power to get around, Motor scooters, motor cycles and 4 wheel land cruisers are the call.

For the sports minded there are basketball and tennis courts in a few places and volley ball courts abound all up and down the 7 mile beach. There is one nice golf course on the outskirts of town and a couple more within an hour or so drive. Cricket, Soccer and Rugby fields are also available in a few places in town.

For shoppers, shopping excursions in themselves can become all day, exhausting land activities! This is because there are 200 + shops of great variety scattered all around town and within Negril's 7 Shopping Plazas and 3 Craft Markets.

A couple of the large all-inclusive resorts provide their own sports centers for their guests and there is also a yoga center / spa , a gym and a library in Negril.

During the high season of December until June when the weather is warm and balmy and there is only sporadic rain, it's a great time for tourists to engage in any or all all of these land activities. But in the off season, Negril can be boiling hot and / or there can be torrential rains or even an occasional hurricane so only the most hardy will engage in them then.

Water Activities Available within the Negril Jamaica Resort Areas

Because of Negril's 14 miles of clear, warm, aquamarine ocean waters all along its 7 mile beach (shown above) and its additional 7 miles of cliffs (not shown but to the right of this beach scene), it is an ideal place for tourists to engage in all kinds of water activities.

On our Negril Jamaica Tourist Vidia - our visual encyclopedia - directory of all of Negril's enterprises, attractions and activities we have created research sections of vendors for all of Negril's water activities such as....

1. Jet skiing on Negril's 2 bays
2. Sail boating on Negril's 2 bays
3. Wind surfing on Negril's 2 bays
4. Water skiing on Negril's 2 bays
5. Para-sailing on Negril's 2 bays
6. Personal water-crafting on Negril's 2 bays
7. Kayaking on Negril's 2 bays and in the Negril River
8. Scuba diving in Negril's close by ocean
9. Snorkeling in Negril's close by ocean
10. Swimming in Negril's 2 bays and its resort pools
11. Cliff diving off of Negril's 40' cliffs
12. Power boating on Negril's close by ocean
13. Glass bottom boating on Negril's 2 bays
14. River fishing in the Negril River
15. Charter ocean fishing in Negril's close by ocean
16. Charter boating on Negril's nearby ocean
17. Ocean horseback riding
18. Nude or Topless Bathing in restricted areas
19. Nude cruises on Negril's 2 bays
20. Booze cruises on Negril's 2 bays
21. Romantic sunset cruises on Negril's 2 bays
22. Snorkeling / Scuba diving cruises
23. Small island fishing excursions with shore lunches
24. Kool Runnings Water Park for children

None of the above linked sections in our Vidia are yet as thorough and complete as we want them to be but the information we have so far compiled in them will help Negril's tourists to get started in their research on where to obtain water activity services. We will be improving all of these sections within the next year (by the end of 2010).

Services and places for tourists to go to in Negril to elicit these activities start with the major all-inclusive resorts that provide their own water services to their guests (mostly at no extra charge). But for those tourists who plan to stay in smaller beach or cliff boutique resorts, vendors for these kinds of water activity services at very reasonable rates may be found right there on some of their premises or nearby to them.

Check with your resort on the availability of these services before booking up your stay with them because this could affect your decision as to whether or not you do stay with them. But if you fail to do this in advance, just ask your airport transfer driver or ask at the desk of your resort when you get there for their on-site or nearby water activity service providers.