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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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.

For our honeymoon and our fifth wedding anniversary, we let ourselves be taken care of at an all-inclusive resort, specifically, Sandals Negril in Jamaica. With pristine beaches, all food and drinks pre-paid, multiple swimming pools, and a week full of sunny days, this truly is paradise. It's a little bit of a splurge, but you can easily get your money's worth in complete and total relaxation.

Getting There

The best air deals from California are nonstop red-eyes to Miami. From there, it was a relatively short jump to Montego Bay, Jamaica, the main airport on the resort-heavy north side of the island. Sandals and other all-inclusives provide free buses to shuttle you to the resorts -- this takes about an hour each way. On both our trips, we bought plane tickets from Mo' Bay to Negril and then took the bus to catch our return flight home.

We flew on a tiny turboprop plane holding only a few people, all crammed into a tiny, noisy, hot little space. But the minor discomfort was worthwhile because of the stunning view of the coast all during the 15-minute flight. People say the drive to Negril is harrowingly bumpy and rough, but the flight wasn't all that smooth either. In such a tiny plane, you felt every air current, and every bit of turbulence was magnified. Not for the easily nauseous.

The Negril airport was nothing more than a crowded shack, where we found a taxi immediately. Negril was crawling with minivans and station wagons that wanted to take us everywhere. Don't be surprised if your driver is the first one to try to sell you ganja too. We soon lost count of how many people tried to ...