Jamaica

This Caribbean island has long been a favourite with tourists across all sections; from the budget traveller to the great and the good of the music industry and even royalty.

We flew in to Montego Bay, just a short transfer from our accommodation at Half Moon. There is also an airport close to the capital Kingston to the south of the island, which works better for reaching the resorts in the east and north east of the island.

Half Moon is a sprawling resort offering a mixture of traditional hotel rooms and villas, each with their own private pool and staffed with a cook, housekeeper and butler. Breakfast on the terrace was freshly prepared daily, while lunch and dinner was provided on request, offering a choice ranging from local specialities to a pool side barbecue, along with a bar stocked with drinks of your choosing. We all enjoyed whizzing around on the golf carts provided with each villa. We sampled the restaurants, the beach and communal pools, the conference centre and browsed the shops and some even ventured as far as the gym, tennis courts and golf course!

A range of activities were on offer and on our first full day I elected to visit some other hotels, including the Secrets St James and Wild Orchid and the brand new Breathless Resort on the other side of Montego. All three are all inclusive resorts catering for adults only with private beaches, a choice of restaurants and in the case of Breathless, a roof top terrace restaurant and pool with far reaching views. We returned to Secrets later in our stay for a White & Gold night with wonderful food and great entertainment.

Our gala dinner was at the ever popular Sandals Montego Bay. who make no apology for their proximity to the airport and make a point of stopping to wave at the planes when they take off (staff and guests). The team at the hotel pulled out all the stops, with a beach side reception followed by a sit down meal with entertainment from a steel band playing many well known tunes, a fire-eater and a great DJ who even had the hotel guests joining in on their balconies above us!

My next excursion was to the reputedly haunted Rose Hall Great House, It is a plantation house once owned by the infamous witch Annie Palmer, who is said to have murdered four husbands by varying methods and any number of slaves - a gruesome tale. The great lunch we had afterwards at Scotchies took the edge off with authentic jerk chicken and jerk pork washed down with a beer.

My final excursion was to the world famous Dunns River Falls. Climbing the falls was a great experience that I would highly recommend.

Our last night was spent at the stunning Round Hill Hotel and Villas. The hotel is a long standing favourite since it opened in 1953, seeing JFK and wife Jackie take their honeymoon here, Rogers and Hammerstein wrote the Sound of Music and Alfred Hitchcock got sunburnt. More recent guests include Prince Harry and Ralph Lauren, with the latter keeping a villa here, and even designed some of the rooms in their recent refurbishment. They are gorgeous and so was the amazing villa where we had our cocktail reception, before heading to the main restaurant for dinner. I seriously did not want to leave!

My one regret is that I did not get to the Bob Marley Museum, or any of the other great attractions this wonderful island has to offer, but this just gives me a fantastic excuse to go back!