Jamaica 2023 part 1

During the Covid period (dare I say that word?), I was lucky to win some free nights at hotels in Jamaica. I hadn’t been there since 2013 when I stayed at Sandals in Ochios Rios with my wife Becky. We decided that it would be nice to visit Jamaica again, but go to Negril. I had lots of good reports ,especially about the beaches and the restaurants so we booked return flights with Virgin in economy Class to Montego Bay. We was really surprised to find that both flights were fully booked as we weren’t travelling in a school holiday period. Also considering its low season in the Caribbean. June, the weather can be rainy season, although this wasn’t the case. I had many of hot sunny days to bathe on the beach! We split our holiday into two hotels accommodations staying at Azul Beach Resort hotel for 3 nights on all inclusive basis, then Sandy Haven Resort hotel for 4 nights on bed and breakfast basis. We flew from London Heathrow, the flying time to Montego Bay is 12 hours with a stop over in Nassau, Bahamas just over 90 minutes. You don’t get off the plane in Nassau and you don’t need to re check your luggage. Bags go to your final destination. We also booked with VIP attractions which included fast track immigration, Meet and greet and Mobay lounge arrivals and departure package. We have to say it was well worth the money, when we arrived off the plane, we were met and greeted by Mobay rep with my name on a board then we were fast track through immigration. We felt like rock stars beating the queues through passport control! Once we collected our luggage, we were then led to a lounge where we could have snacks and drinks including rum punch and red stripe beer. Our rep was very friendly and polite and it was a nice to have a lounge to relax before our transfer that I had arranged to our hotel. The package we booked for our trip with meet and greet plus lounge arrival and departure cost $83.00 per person, which is well worth it. The transfer was a shared one and the journey time was 2 hours. There was a lot of traffic in Montego Bay area, although our driver seemed to bypass a lot of traffic by driving like Lewis Hamilton! Once we arrived at our first hotel, Azul Beach Resort hotel, we were greeted with a welcome drink and the general manager (Jose) introduce himself to us which was nice. The lobby area was nice and welcoming with views of sea. Once we was checked in, we were taken to our room which was 10301 in building 10, the room was amazing. We was given a free room upgrade with great views of the beach plus lounge sitting area and bedroom. We were very impressed, it was spacious and had a great bathroom with separate shower and bath plus his and hers sink. As we arrived late at the hotel on the first night, we had dinner at the buffet restaurant which was Mexican theme night. It was okay, plenty of choices of food, but we are both not fan of buffet food especially for dinner. The next day we woke up and couldn’t believe the room we had been given was just amazing! We had a minibar which was stocked with beers and soft drinks daily. Our room was 2 minutes to the beach. There are different types of rooms at this hotel including swim up rooms, Adult only rooms, a total of 283 suites. The hotel had two restaurants for breakfast. We tried both which were buffet breakfast which offered hot dishes where you can have omelettes, pancakes etc as well as continental with cold meats etc. After breakfast we would spend time at the beach just chillin out. Beach towels and sunbeds are free. The beach is on a lovely stretch of white sand in Negril. We were amazed at how warm the water was, like bath water! The 3 nights we were at the hotel, we swam and spend time on the beach. During our stay I booked Ackee restaurant, which is Jamaican cuisine with lovely views of the sea. It was a lovely meal. We were disappointed we didn’t get a chance to try Hua Hin which was Thai cuisine. The speciality restaurants Thai, Italian and Jamaica need to be pre booked in advance. We did try Garfield Beach house for lunch, which was nice as it served Jerk chicken plus other Jamaican dishes. We found our 3 nights went very quickly. We loved the coffee shop, which was part of the all inclusive package where you can have teas, coffees, cakes, ice creams, milk shakes and snacks during the day until 11pm.The hotel has a great spa and kids club. There are also 9 bars plus 7 swimming pools. We saw many families with well behaved children. This hotel is suitable for couples, singles and families and we would definitely want to go back. After our 3 night stay at Azul Beach Resort, we arranged a local taxi to our next hotel Sandy Haven Resort in Negril. It was a 5 minute drive costing $15.00. When we checked in again, we were given a welcome drink and was greeted by Rohan, the Reservation manager and Edwardo both very friendly. We were again given a free room upgrade, which was lovely as it was overlooking the beach. The room was lovely and spacious with shower only. There was a fridge to put your cold drinks plus coffee machine. After we checked in we decided to venture out where we found plenty of restaurants plus super markets.