Home » Jamaica » Peace, Love, Palm Trees, and Paradise March 26, 2005

Sometimes, you just want to relax on a trip. For us, most travel is about seeing new places, exploring different cultures, and packing as much into a short time as possible. But even we need a break. The classic tropical vacation fits the bill.

Peace, Love, Palm Trees, and Paradise March 26, 2005

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-26 14:01:10

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which gets sandy quite easily. I wore flip-flops around the room to keep my feet clean. Sandals gives you an amenity pack with shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, and aloe vera gel, most of which had a pleasant tropical scent. Every room has both air conditioning and a ceiling fan, which we alternated between. At night, the air conditioner could get too cool, but the fan was perfectly pleasant.

The Food and Drink

The food at Sandals is definitely more gourmand than gourmet. It's always edible and sometimes truly delicious, but sometimes it was fairly generic and bland. I expected a lot more Jamaican spices, but they cater to mild middle-American tastes. Stand-out dishes were the banana-bread French toast at the Sundowner (sweet and delicately flavored), the stir-fried/grilled everything at Kimono's (a vaguely Japanese restaurant that requires advance reservations; the chef grilled veggies and meats right in front of you, and they were fresh and delicious), the seafood dishes at the dinner buffet, and the mass of divine pastries at the lunch and dinner buffets.

The very best food of all was undeniably the plate o' jerk chicken at the Beach Grill. That's the spiciest damn thing you'll ever eat! And the rumors were right -- the national beer, Red Stripe, was the only liquid that can quench the jerk chicken fire. It was the ideal combo, especially with a beach view.

Big eaters, be forewarned: the portions at most of the restaurants with plated meals (i.e., non-buffet) were rather small. Filling, but only if you have many courses. On the other hand, the buffets at breakfast, lunch, and some dinners were lavish and plentiful.

Throughout the restaurants, the service was rather slow -- I guess it was just that island-style relaxed attitude, but sometimes it could be a tad frustrating. Worst of all was ordering drinks with dinner. Often we were ...