Well, my wife, my e-partner Alex and I have been back from Negril for a little over 2 months now but this is the first time that I've been free enough to write something up about our trip. As usual we had a great time while we were there and we compiled a lot more photo and video data on the town than we had before, which we will be posting here and on our Vidia in due time. Since then, we've been just too busy at work and on other projects to write about what we did there until now.
However during these 2 1/2 months since our last post we have managed to compile, annotate and put to music - 9 videos of the entire 3.5 miles of beach and both sides of Norman Manley Blvd. from downtown out to the all-inclusive resorts area. We chose this area to so document because it is the most tourist active area of Negril's 7 mile beach. Here the tourists roam in and out at will because the beach and the road entrances to the resorts and restaurants are all open to the public and welcoming of their foot traffic. We have now finished annotating 2 of the road videos on the beach side.
Next we will finish annotating the other 7 videos with the names of resorts, restaurants, shops and bars each of them comes into view. If you click on the above video it will take you to it on You Tube where you can view it full screen and where you can also find the other 8 videos. These videos are meant to be informative to newbies but we find that they also create some fine, nostalgic reminiscences for us oldbies.We had very good, balmy weather while we were in Negril with a mostly calm beach but it did churn up pretty well a couple of days.
We noticed that when the beach is calm the water temperature is at least 5 degrees warmer than when it churns up. This is probably because the sun is heating its shallow water when it's calm but when it's roiling, water from farther out in the ocean is driven in and cools off the warmer shallow shore water.
We noticed that when the beach is calm the water temperature is at least 5 degrees warmer than when it churns up. This is probably because the sun is heating its shallow water when it's calm but when it's roiling, water from farther out in the ocean is driven in and cools off the warmer shallow shore water.
We stayed at Mom's Place which is an economy resort with a bar and restaurant right on the beach about a mile from downtown. It only has a beach sign announcing its presence. It doesn't have a road sign at all and it's located way at the end of a long, (dark at night) public alley that the town maintains.
This alley access road runs from Norman Manley Blvd. to the beach, so at first finding Mom's Place was not only difficult but also a bit unnerving. This was especially true because a few of Negril's scammers and ganja peddlers frequent it on their way to and from their patrol of the beach (looking for marks and / or customers).
This alley access road runs from Norman Manley Blvd. to the beach, so at first finding Mom's Place was not only difficult but also a bit unnerving. This was especially true because a few of Negril's scammers and ganja peddlers frequent it on their way to and from their patrol of the beach (looking for marks and / or customers).
But, as you can see, I come well prepared to do battle with them in their own language! You can buy a cap like this from the VIDIA
Mom's Place has their own big security guy who you can also see is quite adequate to keep these rude boys from coming onto its grounds.
So it turned out to be a place that was quite safe and that I would recommend to anyone.
Everyone in Negril knows that the tourists are kings and queens there because of the town's total dependence upon them for their livelihood, so there is a well kept truce amongst all of the town's players, good and not so good.The beach resorts are therefore free of the kind of problems that occur in other less secure tourist and vacation areas.
Mom's Place's rooms were clean and nice and about as good as you can get for an economy resort of $80 a night double occupancy on the beach during the season. Their restaurant's food was also good and people wandered in from up and down the beach for breakfast, lunch and dinner which speaks well of it. it took 2 of us to kill this huge, bad-boy red snapper we got there and boy was it good!
All in all we enjoyed it immensely. Especially Al who loves to swim a couple of times a day because the water was within 100' of our room!
Mom's Place has their own big security guy who you can also see is quite adequate to keep these rude boys from coming onto its grounds.
So it turned out to be a place that was quite safe and that I would recommend to anyone.Everyone in Negril knows that the tourists are kings and queens there because of the town's total dependence upon them for their livelihood, so there is a well kept truce amongst all of the town's players, good and not so good.The beach resorts are therefore free of the kind of problems that occur in other less secure tourist and vacation areas.
Mom's Place's rooms were clean and nice and about as good as you can get for an economy resort of $80 a night double occupancy on the beach during the season. Their restaurant's food was also good and people wandered in from up and down the beach for breakfast, lunch and dinner which speaks well of it. it took 2 of us to kill this huge, bad-boy red snapper we got there and boy was it good!
All in all we enjoyed it immensely. Especially Al who loves to swim a couple of times a day because the water was within 100' of our room!Mom's Place is also well within walking distance of the various beach nightlife reggae entertainment centers like Bourbon Beach, Alfred's Ocean Palace, Roots Bamboo and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. On the road right outside, it's an easy walk to Selina's Coffee Shoppe & Eatery, the Best in the West Jerk Center or Fatty's Restaurant (yes it's true, Fatty is a lady who likes to be called Fatty! We know because she told us to do so.).
These are 3 good authentic local places to eat. We've been to Negril many times so we always wander around and try new places to eat and these 3 were all good and reasonably priced.
These are 3 good authentic local places to eat. We've been to Negril many times so we always wander around and try new places to eat and these 3 were all good and reasonably priced. One new place we found there within walking distance of Mom's Place that's very interesting is Internet and More / Doreen's Place. It used to be called Cafe Taino but now Doreen (a very nice Jamaican lady who cooks really good authentic Jamaican food) owns and runs it. Her cooking is great so be sure to try it! There's also a couple of small grocery stores nearby where you can purchase beer, wine, soda pop and snacks which is one way to save money when you're in Negril and at the same time help the locals earn a living.
Well, that's all for now. More to come soon.
