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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
michael drove us through trench town and showed us first street and second street, where many of the most famous jamaican musicians originated.
i spotted an older dread standing just outside his yard with a big pot of something for sale and i just knew it was gonna be good, whatever was in that pot.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7860/...b484f999_z.jpg
$150j per ear
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
we did a quick-ish pass through the kingston craft market, where husband bought 3 football jerseys, then we headed over to the culinary highlight of our trip, MOBY DICK RESTAURANT.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7908/...05607675_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7859/...4e597865_z.jpg
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
moby dick is located at the base of orange street, on the corner of port royal. the block is quiet.
the restaurant is halal. run by a really beautiful older muslim woman who may be pakistani, i couldn't really tell. she didn't ~look~ indian to me, but that doesn't mean anything.
the food was the best i ate in ja this trip. ti boss and i got curry goat with white rice, michael got curry chicken and husband got curry shrimp. each plate came with home made roti (omg, sooooooooooooo good), plaintains (dry fried) and shredded cabbage and carrots. i also ordered lemonade for all of us- it was homemade, with the little limes, you could tell. it tasted exactly like the jus citron we make in haiti.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7837/...340b6bcc_z.jpg
before
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7902/...03d4ba1a_z.jpg
after
picture #2 isn't really "after," because ti boss took my plate and dumped everything onto his own.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
final stop on our downtown swing:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7815/...ee01ceff_z.jpg
container hotspot!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
container hotspot is a combo car wash, restaurant bar and lounge (with little private VIP rooms). everything is made out of shipping containers, even the bars (like, where you place your drinks). it's pretty cool, the way it's all put together.
aside from the car wash, the only part that was open while we were there (at around 3pm) was the little bar on the first floor. the outdoor restaurant (which was closed) is adjacent to it. the upstairs lounge was closed and i didn't ask if i could snoop around.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7868/...12d9ac89_z.jpg
that's the front door to the bar. the glass door has tinting on it and the room has no windows, so it's permanently twilight time in there. every single one of the walls is wrapped, so you feel like you're inside a gigantic hood party flyer.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7812/...0b206487_z.jpg
ian miles is the container boss
here's the VIP lounge. it obviously is not ready for VIPs yet- the workers were using it as an office space.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/...0968a254_z.jpg
this is the outdoor restaurant area, directly accessible from the bar we were in.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7889/...ab176b84_z.jpg
i really wish we woulda been able to go there when it was full of people- the bartendress told me they just started running sunday brunch and that it's really popular. i told her i knew that, because i'd seen a video on youtube and it looked off the hook. i asked her if they often get rando tourists just walking in and she said yes, especially for the brunch. good for them!!! i love it.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
i was so excited to describe our visit to container hotspot that i forgot to post these photos first...
leaving from moby dick, we drove up orange street...
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7907/...2754e08f_z.jpg
and completely around the parade street roundabout
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7819/...cdb52341_z.jpg
we also passed by the national heroes circle and its crab vendors, but i didn't manage to snap any photos around there.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
we spent exactly 5 hours driving around kingston with michael.
got back to the hotel at 4:11pm.
went immediately to the pool, where we were, again, the only people. i put on some haitian music (via youtube), ti boss went to the front desk to ask them to give us some towels and send someone to skim leaves out of the pool and husband settled in for a nap.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7890/...085c4a2a_z.jpg
the guy who skimmed leaves did a very thorough job. once he was done, i got in and did a little swimming with ti boss, then let him jump around by himself while i watched.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7848/...6e57b027_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7868/...d5c161aa_z.jpg
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we stayed at the pool until around 6:45pm, then went to the room to get ready to go out to eat.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
we walked 1 minute down the road and had dinner at jojo's jerk pit, which was a big outdoor complex that looks like it caters to afterwork gatherings and large groups. to get to the restaurant, you have to walk through a rocky, unpaved parking lot filled with ancient construction equipment and old buses. there are a lot of restaurants like this in petionville (the upscale area of port au prince), so we felt at home immediately.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7867/...985954f9_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7860/...3cd2fa90_z.jpg
husband and i had the janga (crayfish soup) and one rum drink each and ti boss had buffalo chicken wings and a virgin colada. the bill, which included a 10% gratuity, came to the equivalent of $35us. i kicked in an extra $4.50us tip and we went back to the hotel.
basically, that was the end of our last full day in jamaica.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
the room rate at the terra nova hotel includes a free breakfast buffet.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7847/...34fd3e99_z.jpg
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
we're doing final packing now.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7906/...62d3d0a1_z.jpg
2 red stripes and 2 guinness to finish.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Maralunatic
I don't think I'll be able to go until next year. We went in December and it kind of messed up our normal routine. And I left everything to the last minute, so no room at the inn for us. Although with the never ending rounds of snow we've been getting I'm kicking myself and keep threatening to just go to the airport and jump the next available flight. Why do I live in this state? *sigh*
But I'm enjoying this through your trip report, so keep it up!
we're heading back to snow today:concern:
we tend to average 2 trips a year. one is usually to visit family in haiti.
when i was single and childless (a state that lasted through my early 40s) i would travel whenever i was able, but now that i have a kid i find it's easiest to travel in february (my birthday + spring break for kids) and then some time between july and september. sometimes it works out to be easter break and thanksgiving.
i want to get my guys to new orleans or california and do a trip to a few places in europe. those are on my short list.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
ti boss slept on this couch both nights that we were here.
https://youtu.be/WZ7mO8DfxfI
he just noticed this morning that it pulls out into a mini bed.
i'm annoyed that no one at reception reminded us when we checked in that the room has a pull-out couch.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
we stopped at tastee patty on the way to the airport.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7813/...9dd40c18_z.jpg
we got through security at the airport and had about an hour to kill. after i did a little bit of liquor shopping, husband and i sucked down a pretty yucchy rum and pepsi (with bottled lemon juice) at a very charmless bar near the gate.
the flight to miami was annoying, because i was trying to sleep, but husband took the window seat and kept climbing over us to get to the bathroom and kept raising the window shade to look out.
getting through immigration, grabbing our bags and re-checking them in miami was annoying, but we got through it.
the flight from miami to ny was pretty good, because i'd booked us into a main cabin extra seat, row 12, front/center aisle, so there was no one in front of us, we had a lot of leg room and both husband and i were on the aisle, so there was no climbing over anyone. on the negative side, they didn't bother with beverage service and we were supposed to get a free cocktail with our main cabin booking. husband kept asking me when they were going to come around with the drinks. i told him to ask a stewardess but we never saw one- they were all too busy serving the first class cabin. for an expensive airline, american is so erratic with their service.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7870/...0e8e4eab_z.jpg
jfk- other people's boring luggage
back at jfk there was the usual cab annoyingness- we were the first people on the cab line, but we had so many bags that we needed to take one of those suv cabs. the dispatch guy made us walk all the way to the back and the first suv can guy refused to go to brooklyn and then some d!ck with one small suitcase cut in front of us and grabbed the next suv cab. and then there were no more cabs and we had to wait 15 minutes until the next set up cabs rolled through.
we got home around 11:15pm. an almost 12 hour day of travel. the cats were happy to see us.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
I have been following your report & loving it. You stayed in some great places, I loved the pictures and videos too - I'm also in NY (Hudson River Valley area) - the weather seriously sucks big time. I was in JA for a couple of weeks in early February.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FarOutWestEnder
I have been following your report & loving it. You stayed in some great places, I loved the pictures and videos too - I'm also in NY (Hudson River Valley area) - the weather seriously sucks big time. I was in JA for a couple of weeks in early February.
i'm glad you enjoyed my trip report- it's the first one i've ever done!
i can't believe i came back to a snowstorm.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
here are some photos from strawberry hill that i forgot to post during my trip report.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7883/...6b27566c_z.jpg
morning view from the main bedroom
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7884/...1c9682b8_z.jpg
this is gong, a studio unit to the right of bamboo cottage.
thankfully it was empty for 2 out of the 3 days of our stay.
the first day it contained a screaming, whining baby and its loud parents.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7917/...b0916c5e_z.jpg
bamboo cottage has one bathroom, with a walk-in shower
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7871/...3555fb81_z.jpg
this is the second bedroom at bamboo cottage
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
my thoughts on strawberry hill:
i love it there. it's expensive and the lack of food options can be annoying, but it's incredibly beautiful up there, the accommodations are comfortable, the cocktails are top notch (the best i've ever had at any hotel, bar or restaurant in jamaica) and the staff is there to make sure you are happy and comfortable and doing what you want to be doing. also, during the week it seems very quiet and peaceful even when it's pretty full up.
on our first full day there, we went to the pool with a small cooler bag full of beers and sodas and a bottle of hennessey that we brought with us and they gave us glasses and told us to enjoy ourselves. we asked them if it was okay for us to rearrange the furniture so we could play dominoes comfortably and they said yes, of course and that they'd do it for us. "all you need to do is relax and enjoy yourselves." we told them not to bother and we moved it ourselves, but i'm sure they would've completely rearranged everything to our specifications had we let them.
our cottage was definitely on the much higher end of our normal hotel room budget, but it was totally worth it. we spent a lot of time hanging out there- it was designed for relaxation, and with so many open windows and porches and whatnot, we never really felt like we were locked up inside.
on the negative side, our cottage was located right next to one of the studio rooms, gong, and privacy could've been an issue.
studio rooms are the second tier of room, basically a slightly larger single unit (we stayed in the entry level room for our honeymoon and the studio rooms are really not much bigger).
the day we got there there was a couple with a baby- the baby whined and cried nonstop and the couple talked really loudly. i mentioned it to one of the security guards and he told me i should talk to the front desk, but i didn't feel like being a dick the second i got onto the property. they checked out the next afternoon, thankfully. the baby started screaming at 4am, so i think i would've had to say something if they hadn't left. also, the porch at gong is so close to the bedroom porch of bamboo cottage. it would've been weird if there was someone there and we all were just sitting on our porches watching each other. but if you're traveling with a larger group, it would be cool to rent bamboo and gong and have all that space for your people. the two units share a really nice, large poured concrete patio that could be used as a place to have a nice outdoor dinner.
another negative is that the hotel gets a LOT of daytrippers and all of them are obsessed with taking a million and one photos at the pool. it's kind of funny, but can be jarring. both times i've stayed there (that's a 7 year gap between visits), a crew of asian camera people with professional equipment descended on the pool area and did what looked to be an almost formal photo shoot. i say almost formal because they didn't bring any lighting or a make-up artist with them, but aside from that, they looked like they were doing something for a legit media outlet.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8484/...d6570291_z.jpg
taken during our 2012 honeymoon
and i also haven't been there for sunday brunch, but i can imagine that's another time it can get busy with non-guests.
an unavoidable big negative during our stay was that the internet was COMPLETELY out of commission all 3 days that we were there. we were told there was a fire that knocked out all service in the area. i had a lot of work to do and i had no choice but to burn through my data, using my cellphone's hotspot to connect my laptop to the internet. i wound up having to use an additional $30 of data on top of the $10 a day for my at&t caribbean package.
husband really likes strawberry hill too, for all the same reasons as me. it's just a great place to be for a few days- just go there to do nothing but relax, recharge, unwind, regroup and all those other "mindful" things you head up to the mountains to do.
ti boss, our 12 year old son, who has the fortune/misfortune of being an only child, told me he LOVED strawberry hill. 3 days there was "perfection!" i was surprised that he felt that way, since he spent 3 days without any interaction with people his age, there was no tv and no internet. still and all, he loved it.
here are the things i would do i were to do this trip again...
strawberry hill's rates decrease significantly during the low season, plus they run "pay for 2/stay for 3" or "pay for 3/stay for 4" specials all the time.
i would plan our next visit for some time after may, when the rates go down.
i'd want to stay in bamboo cottage again. they have a 2-bedroom villa (which is bigger and obvs. more expensive than bamboo cottage) called highgate- it's really pretty, but it's located at the back of the property and really only has views of the mountains. we don't need anything so grand, and it's really the view of kingston that does it for me.
i'd aim for the free night's stay special- if we could get the 3 for 2 i'd book for 3 days but if we could get the 4 for 3, i'd probably book for 4 days.
if we stayed 4 days, i'd call someone and arrange a full day trip to holywell park.
i'd also like to spend 2 days at the coffee farm that we bought coffee beans from. the guy's name is duggy. he said rooms start at around $25 a night. we could hang out there for 2 days and swim in the river. they have a restaurant, so we could get decent, inexpensive food.
so, if we ever take another trip to jamaica i'd like to start out with 2 to 4 days at strawberry hill, followed by 2 days in the blue mountains at duggy's coffee farm. a total of 4 to 6 days in the mountains.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
bathroom signs at woody's lowbridge restaurant in port antonio.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7913/...b0ebf6d6_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7927/...f3f84ba0_z.jpg
i'm trying to get ti boss to develop his eye, so i asked him to take a photo of the ladies' sign (my sister's name is eve and i wanted to send it to her). he was astute enough to grab a snap of the mens' one, as well.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
random observation: i see such sad parallels between the latest wave of gentrification of brooklyn and the state of tourism marketing in jamaica. to me, what's going on in bed stuy and negril is the exact same thing. i should probably elaborate on it, but no one wants to hear a bitter new yorker's railing against getting pushed out of her long-time neighborhood and i KNOW no one wants to hear why i'm finding it harder and harder to seek out the things i once found so easily in jamaica/how intolerable i find a lot of my fellow tourists to be (but if you're interested, i could tell you the story about the german lady who was pissed off that she was a- unable to get a steamed milk latte at great huts and b- unable to make the poor, overworked waitress understand wtf she was asking for, and how wack it was that the fancy jamaican dread who was traveling with her and her friends didn't bother to step in/step up and tell the german lady she was SOL and to stop giving the waitress a hard time).
a corollary (sort of): i barely heard any new/current music being played anywhere. it was ALL old school stuff. i heard that song "toast" by koffee 3x in 10 days (that song sounds like a tropical dancehall combo of "bam bam" and "workworkworkworkwork," so i'm not really a fan) and maybe a konshens song or two, but other than that it was stuff from my now-dinosauric era (mid 80s to late 90s).
it made me kinda sad- i mean, i love gregory issacs and an always happy to hear supercat but is that really what the kidz today want to hear? i want ja to step up its tourism plan and find a way to keep things current for the youth them. i don't want an entire country to be a nostalgia trip for old hippies or an all-inclusive paradise for the medicore.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
here's the mortar and pestle (pilon) i bought from rock bottom to replace the cracked, soft wood one my husband bought in port au prince several years ago.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7860/...5c3a135d_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7912/...73555e4b_z.jpg
i placed it next to the salt container to show scale- it looked so miniature in the first photo.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Yay!!! I was so happy to see your wonderful report, photos and videos after I returned home to -24F in Bumb@clot Wisconsin! This a great trip report! Thanks for writing :excitement:
I am so jealous you were in the Portland/Kingston/Blue Mountain area while I was in Negril. Not to complain about Negril, but I really want to get back to the eastern part of Jamaica again! We meet our east coast friends in Negril every year now, so it's tough to go to Jamaica and skip Negril.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
agregory
Yay!!! I was so happy to see your wonderful report, photos and videos after I returned home to -24F in Bumb@clot Wisconsin! This a great trip report! Thanks for writing :excitement:
I am so jealous you were in the Portland/Kingston/Blue Mountain area while I was in Negril. Not to complain about Negril, but I really want to get back to the eastern part of Jamaica again! We meet our east coast friends in Negril every year now, so it's tough to go to Jamaica and skip Negril.
a) -24 degrees??????????? holy crap, that is cold!!!!!!!!!
b) couldn't you convince your east coast friends to switch it up? my brother in law is obsessed with going to negril because he likes the easiness of vacationing there, but my sister (who first went to negril in 1990) is bored. she showed him my trip report and now he wants me to sit them down and give them a walk-through of my entire trip so he can decide if maybe he wants to switch it up and do something similar.
and i'm glad you liked my long-azz trip report. i've never done one before!
i think we're going back to haiti in july (trying to wait out the political unrest)- i really wish there was a similar website/messageboard that i could post a trip report to.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Great trip report, thanks! Did you happen to meet a nice French Canadian couple at Great Huts? Good friends, paranoid about their first trip to JA. Based on their personalities I suggested Port Antonio and Great Huts - they may have been checking in around when you were checking out...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mwenvlay
a) -24 degrees??????????? holy crap, that is cold!!!!!!!!!
b) couldn't you convince your east coast friends to switch it up? my brother in law is obsessed with going to negril because he likes the easiness of vacationing there, but my sister (who first went to negril in 1990) is bored. she showed him my trip report and now he wants me to sit them down and give them a walk-through of my entire trip so he can decide if maybe he wants to switch it up and do something similar.
and i'm glad you liked my long-azz trip report. i've never done one before!
i think we're going back to haiti in july (trying to wait out the political unrest)- i really wish there was a similar website/messageboard that i could post a trip report to.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mwenvlay
a) -24 degrees??????????? holy crap, that is cold!!!!!!!!!
b) couldn't you convince your east coast friends to switch it up? my brother in law is obsessed with going to negril because he likes the easiness of vacationing there, but my sister (who first went to negril in 1990) is bored. she showed him my trip report and now he wants me to sit them down and give them a walk-through of my entire trip so he can decide if maybe he wants to switch it up and do something similar.
Yes! This weather is ridiculous! We could have added 3 days onto our trip by paying $0.63 each to change our flights and avoid this awful weather. But husband said "no, too much work to do at home" :( Obviously we would have had to pay to stay for those 3 days, but changing the flight for that little seemed like a no brainer to me. We were in Little Bay for our last few nights at a lovely villa with an awesome pool and no other guests on the property. I def could have stayed for 3 more days! Boo hoo. I joked with him that I could easily find a Jamaican to shack up with so he could go home alone to his work :biggrin-new:
Our east coast friends will not switch it up :( They have a great spot they go back to each year and aren't as interested in the exploring as I am. They're more into the "party" aspect of Negril, which I love too but I like to change it up. We have never stayed at the same hotel or rental more than once and we always change locations at least once. Husband likes the ease of Negril too, but he is always happy with other areas. I get bored going to the same place each year. We do travel to new places throughout the year too, but Jamaica is our winter getaway we just can't quit.
I hope you make it to Haiti and things settle down there. You should start a blog with your trip reports and send me the link! I'd love to read about your experiences in Haiti :encouragement:
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
B I just finished reading your trip report. AMAZING JOB! I'm gonna read it again and watch all the videos sometime soon from home. Thank you for making my coffee a priority in your trip! I can't wait to taste it! I have been dissatisfied with the JBM we've brought home the past few trips. The one you got me looks legit! Well you certainly have inspired me to consider dragging V outta Negril next time we wanna go to Jamaica! And like you, I have already decided I want to travel only in LOW season from now on. It's just too crowded in High season and you know how we feel about that :) Love ya!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
agregory
Yes! This weather is ridiculous! We could have added 3 days onto our trip by paying $0.63 each to change our flights and avoid this awful weather. But husband said "no, too much work to do at home" :( Obviously we would have had to pay to stay for those 3 days, but changing the flight for that little seemed like a no brainer to me. We were in Little Bay for our last few nights at a lovely villa with an awesome pool and no other guests on the property. I def could have stayed for 3 more days! Boo hoo. I joked with him that I could easily find a Jamaican to shack up with so he could go home alone to his work :biggrin-new:
Our east coast friends will not switch it up :( They have a great spot they go back to each year and aren't as interested in the exploring as I am. They're more into the "party" aspect of Negril, which I love too but I like to change it up. We have never stayed at the same hotel or rental more than once and we always change locations at least once. Husband likes the ease of Negril too, but he is always happy with other areas. I get bored going to the same place each year. We do travel to new places throughout the year too, but Jamaica is our winter getaway we just can't quit.
I hope you make it to Haiti and things settle down there. You should start a blog with your trip reports and send me the link! I'd love to read about your experiences in Haiti :encouragement:
oooh, how was whistling bird?????????????
and how was little bay?????????????
please give me details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Odinson
Great trip report, thanks! Did you happen to meet a nice French Canadian couple at Great Huts? Good friends, paranoid about their first trip to JA. Based on their personalities I suggested Port Antonio and Great Huts - they may have been checking in around when you were checking out...
i didn't run into them, no. have you spoken to them? did they enjoy it? let me know what they say!!!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
I should be spending a few days next week with them in Baltimore. I told them to not wear green and go see the PNP rally - I'm a fan of Damion Crawford. I'll post their reactions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mwenvlay
i didn't run into them, no. have you spoken to them? did they enjoy it? let me know what they say!!!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Odinson
I should be spending a few days next week with them in Baltimore. I told them to not wear green and go see the PNP rally - I'm a fan of Damion Crawford. I'll post their reactions.
lolololol. i'm pretty sure he's going to win.
we passed by the funeral of lynvale bloomfield on our way into town.
please don't forget to come bck and let me know what they thought of ja/porty/great huts.
i'm going to start on my trip report thoughts on great huts in a bit.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mwenvlay
oooh, how was whistling bird?????????????
and how was little bay?????????????
please give me details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whistling Bird was great! The location, beach and all of the staff are awesome! We ate more breakfasts and dinners onsite than we ever have on past trips and were very happy with the food there. The room was perfect for us, except it did not have a private balcony or patio. We stayed in one of the smaller rooms on the property, which has no private outdoor space. It really wasn't too big of a problem, but I love to sit outside in the early mornings and late evenings. I'm pretty sure it was at 100% capacity and it didn't ever seem crowded or busy. We actually both said we'd be back and I hope we are... Maybe in a larger room with a veranda if we can get a deal :) The water pressure is horrible however, which can be a deal breaker for others.
Little Bay was great! I came to the conclusion on this trip that I am a country girl in Jamaica and I could stay there always. I love being in a place with more goats than people. Smiling and saying hello to others without someone trying to sell or hustle us is so nice too. I feel calm and peaceful both when I'm walking along the road or sitting on the deck looking out at the sea. I felt the same way on previous stays in Billy's Bay and Long Bay in Portland. I sleep really well listening to the goats, chickens, dogs and the waves crashing.
I don't want to bomb your wonderful report with my Little Bay details, so maybe I'll get to putting up a small report of my own soon with pics. We stayed in Coral Cottage and LOVED it! We had our breakfasts and dinners prepared for us onsite by their cooks. Yum yum yum! Sooo good :beguiled:
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
Quote:
Originally Posted by
agregory
Whistling Bird was great! The location, beach and all of the staff are awesome! We ate more breakfasts and dinners onsite than we ever have on past trips and were very happy with the food there. The room was perfect for us, except it did not have a private balcony or patio. We stayed in one of the smaller rooms on the property, which has no private outdoor space. It really wasn't too big of a problem, but I love to sit outside in the early mornings and late evenings. I'm pretty sure it was at 100% capacity and it didn't ever seem crowded or busy. We actually both said we'd be back and I hope we are... Maybe in a larger room with a veranda if we can get a deal :) The water pressure is horrible however, which can be a deal breaker for others.
Little Bay was great! I came to the conclusion on this trip that I am a country girl in Jamaica and I could stay there always. I love being in a place with more goats than people. Smiling and saying hello to others without someone trying to sell or hustle us is so nice too. I feel calm and peaceful both when I'm walking along the road or sitting on the deck looking out at the sea. I felt the same way on previous stays in Billy's Bay and Long Bay in Portland. I sleep really well listening to the goats, chickens, dogs and the waves crashing.
I don't want to bomb your wonderful report with my Little Bay details, so maybe I'll get to putting up a small report of my own soon with pics. We stayed in Coral Cottage and LOVED it! We had our breakfasts and dinners prepared for us onsite by their cooks. Yum yum yum! Sooo good :beguiled:
please, bomb away if you have the time.
i was actually going to ask you if you had any photos.
if you do a trip report i'm gonna be all up in it- i want all the details!!!!!!!!
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
here are some photos i forgot to post of our stay in boston bay.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7926/...effef389_z.jpg
the first day we went to boston beach, the water was CRYSTAL clear and there was no seaweed anywhere.
2 days later there was a ton of seaweed in the water and washed ashore.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7866/...f3cc91e2_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7847/...d77e39dd_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7833/...0fb6a3f7_z.jpg
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
here are some photos of the royal lounge at great huts. it's a public space that connects to the fig tree house (where we stayed). it's private to the fig tree house from 6:30pm on, even though the door to the lounge stays open 24/7.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7835/...e0c120f7_z.jpg
the hand carved door to the right is the one that leads from the grounds. it's open 24/7.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7914/...ffbd6704_z.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7910/...3f2ac10f_z.jpg
and that hand carved door is the door that leads from fig tree house to the lounge.
it has a deadbolt lock.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7831/...dcef4f1c_z.jpg
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston
my thoughts on great huts:
being at great huts is like being at a sleepaway camp for hippie/bohemian grownups. like hogwarts summercamp or a caribbean camp half-blood. it's a really beautiful place and it's well maintained. our room, the fig tree house, was cleaned every day and i had no issues with the condition of anything in the room.
i'm going to preface this next part by saying i'm not a fan of people in general, so these comments are mainly because i'm a jerk who prefers to be alone. i was not a fan of the clientele at the hotel. it was extremely european- german, swiss, french and italian seemed to be the main demographic.
i just got a bad vibe every morning, having breakfast- that's the time i saw the most of my fellow guests. the incident with the woman giving the waitress a hard time about lattes and the jamaican guy with her who did not run interference is the kind of thing i'm talking about. i mean, who goes to a treehouse hotel outside of port antonio and expects to be able to get a latte at breakfast? i don't have time for that type of sh!t. again- i am SURE this is just me being a curmudgeonly d!ck. and it didn't ruin my stay there or anything. it just made me not want to eat on the property.
in general, i think i'd prefer staying at great huts during the off season.
another thing about guests- the fig tree house is RIGHT next to another tree house. i think it's called the almond tree house. they have a big porch that faces the entrance to fig tree hut. 3 days into our stay, a couple checked into the almond tree house. they, unfortunately, were chain smokers who loved to spend hours each morning and night on their porch, and of course all of their smoke wafted directly into our bamboo-walled hut. i probably could've gone and complained at the front desk, but i was on a "no complaining" bent this trip (my husband was impressed).
sidenote 1: i know there are allegedly strict (cigarette) smoking laws in jamaica, but i've NEVER seen them enforced.
back to my thoughts on great huts. loved-loved-loved the grounds and accommodations. LOVED all of that. the staff was very nice and VERY patient with all of the guests. clientele was way too euro for me. i'm also not used to staying at a place where there were pretty much no jamaican guests. aside from that fancy dread traveling with the german ladies, i did not see a one.
sidenote 2: the guests at strawberry hill were predominately a mix of south american, irish, and aussie. a lot of the day trippers were jamaican and asian. great huts doesn't have day trippers, i don't think.
great huts has a very tiny, very cute beach area, but it was extremely crowded with people laying out and people jumping from the diving platform (by extremely crowded, i mean there were about 7 people there- it's that small). we went down there during the morning of our first full day, spent about 20 minutes climbing around the rocks and never went back. even though we had to pay to get into boston beach (a whopping 200j per person), i much preferred to hang out there. that beach is gorgeous and it has a really good vibe.
the two pools (the cliff pool and the larger pool at the africana house) were both equally nice.
the snake walk was really cool.
there were a lot of concrete thrones, mesh hammocks and porch swing thingies to lamp out on scattered throughout the property.
my birthday lunch at the sankofa dining area was very special.
i would say that great huts (especially the fig tree house) was worth the cost, but if we went back to boston bay, i'd probably just say "f it" and book us into the boston beach guest house. it's rundown and probably has terrible water pressure, but it's cheap enough and it has a staircase that leads directly to boston beach.
i would also consider the winifred breeze guest house. it might be nice to spend a little time in that area, which is closer to port antonio.
but i would most definitely stay at great huts again.
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Re: Trip Report: Blue Mountains, Boston Bay, Kingston