The tourism slogan "Jamaica, No Problem" has come a long way. Not only is Jamaica "no problem," it seems the country that stands for good times is giving fun away practically free of charge. Or at least it feels that way. From all-inclusive resorts where you don't even have to sign tabs to ice-cold water in coconuts sold in the hills for less than a half dollar to budget hotels on the beach in Negril where nightly rates don't top $100, Jamaica is getting tourism right again. The weather is sunny and perfect nearly everyday. The warm Caribbean water and sand are both enveloping and inviting.
But Jamaica isn't just about the beach. The countryside is filled with sugarcane plantations, rolling hills with winding roads, and activities such as world-class golf, horseback riding through rivers, white-water rafting and touring rum plantations offering breaks from the usual activity of doing nothing at all. On a recent visit, Jamaica was much more than expected, far exceeding its reputation as a place where you have to watch your back. In fact, the only reason to worry about your back in Jamaica is so it doesn't get sunburned.
Air Jamaica (tel. 876/922-3460; www.airjamaica.com) just re-launched their website. It's sleek and easy to use with a specials page offering up-to-the-minute deals and last minute specials. Its specials page allows you to see all the airfare deals to and from the United States or the United Kingdom; with just three clicks from the home page you can see the best possible fares available to the island and the deadline dates. We found high-season fares to Jamaica from New York ($230 one way) and Atlanta ($268 one way) among other specials from Ft. Lauderdale ($138 one way).
On the ground in Montego Bay, the Jamaican government has set up computer kiosks for additional customs officers to push people through customs as quickly as possible. In all, there were twelve officers working a flight of 200-odd passengers. The larger resorts have added air-conditioned lounges at the airport where guests drink free Red Stripe or bottled water while waiting for transportation to their hotel. Many smaller boutique properties have drivers with signs waiting to whisk arriving passengers to their vacation lodging. If you're on your own, plenty of taxi drivers wait outside ready to take you anywhere you want to go; local buses are immediately outside the airport.
My trip started in Negril, a tourist destination on the island's western tip along the country's Seven Mile Beach. Long considered Jamaica's prettiest stretch of sand, the Seven Mile Beach is known for large all-inclusive resorts, small inexpensive independent hotels frequented by European backpackers and American tourists, and a strip of bars where Red Stripe and reggae flow freely.
The Negril Treehouse Resort (tel. 876/957-4287; www.negril-treehouse.com) is a long-standing favorite of American and European tourists wanting to experience Jamaica all on their own. Located right on Negril's main strip of bars and restaurants, the Treehouse has prime beachfront property. High season rates (December 19, 2006 to April 15, 2007) for a standard garden room start at $145 with low season rates going for $100 per night. The Treehouse has a pool and in-house restaurant.
Located on the same stretch of street front beach resorts as the Treehouse, Country Country (tel. 876/957-4243; www.countryjamaica.com) has summer rates (April 16 to December 15, 2007) starting at $125 for its superior room. Rates are for double occupancy per night with a maximum occupancy of three people with each room. Breakfast is included in the price of your room. If you add a third person, add $30 for the daily breakfast per day. Add $30 per person as well if you want a full meal plan that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Designed in a blend of Caribbean colors against a backdrop of Victorian architecture, the hotel has a pretty bar and winding paths leading to the different buildings which house guests in the hotel's 17 units.
While most tourists hang by the beach during the day and the bars at night, Negril and the surrounding area have much to offer regarding Jamaica's colonial past and present farming culture. Hiring a driver who knows his way around is like having access to a rolling concierge for the day and a handy phone number for the remainder of the trip. Hiring a driver is an incredibly easy way to understand your surroundings, meet the locals, learn area history, and see the countryside. Jamaican-born Denton Wright (tel. 876/357-6631) has been driving tourists around Jamaica for more than 15 years. Wright, 46, is affable, knowledgeable, and extremely connected with local business owners. He can also get you a round at the White Witch Golf Course, Jamaica's recently built world-class golf course famous for elevated drops of up to 500 feet from fairway to green. Located in Montego Bay on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel property, White Witch (tel. 876/953-2800; www.ritzcarlton.com) costs $139 per person for a morning round of 18 holes and just $85 for an afternoon round with tee-off times from 2:30pm to 4:30pm. Wright can get you to and from and on the course for a total cost of approximately $200. An avid golfer, Wright may play with you. For tours of Negril and the surrounding area, Wright charges $150 for the car per half-day tour accommodating up to three passengers comfortably in his large Mercedes 1996 sedan.
There are many highlights in and around Negril accessible with a driver. With a car or via local bus, you can see:
Red Ground: A suburb of Negril situated past the normal strip of tourist bars and hotels, Red Ground has pastel clapboard houses and cement cottages that line the dirt roads characterized by a deep red clay earth, hence the name Red Ground. Small roadside bars selling Red Stripe are as common as New York City bodegas. Goats meander about chewing on grass as older folk sit on porches waving to passing vehicles.
St. Paul's, the Anglican Church: This 170 year old country church ten minutes from Negril is a religious oasis set in the middle of a huge sugarcane plantation. With stalks up to eight feet tall, the sugarcane fields provide a unique and strange driving experience as you approach the still-operational church. The church's graveyard has graves dating back to the 1830s, some of which are crumbling. Other graves are still visited by families preserving the memory of their departed relatives with indigenous red exora and yellow jasmine flowers. It's heartwarming to see fresh flowers on a grave dating back to 1893. It speaks to the importance of family and history that's pervasive here.
Lucea: A town on the main coastal road between Negril and Montego Bay, Lucea was an old port village sending timber to the United Kingdom in the 1800s. The small town is best known, however, for its clock tower. In the early twentieth century, the Germans inadvertently sent a large clock to the town meant for the island of St. Lucia. Unsure how to proceed, Jamaican authorities decided to keep the clock under onecondition imposed by the confused Germans -- the clock had to be sheathed under a replica of a World War I German infantry helmet complete with the spike on the top. The Jamaicans agreed. Still working, the clock has been taken care of by generations of the same German family.
Jellyman, the banana and coconut cutting man: Located on the less-trafficked inland mountain road (all Jamaicans know it), Jellyman has been serving coconut water from just-chopped coconuts to locals for almost all his some 60-odd years. You can't miss his roadside stand as there are usually a host of locals or parked cars. The eponymous owner cuts the coconuts right in front of buyers, pops in a straw and serves it to buyers straight from the shell. It's fresh and delicious as any ice-cold Evian.
All of these listed sites around Negril and Montego Bay are free, except of course for Jellyman who charges about $2 for four bananas and two cut coconuts.
Next: Our live dispatch takes us inside a super all-inclusive Jamaican resort and talks with the travel innovator who founded Jamaica's first all-inclusive resort thirty years ago. Also, horseback riding and good eats.
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