A month ago Chase and I took a 10 year Anniversary/Happy 35th Birthday trip to Negril, Jamaica. We spent 5 glorious nights at Couples Swept Away which was an all inclusive/adults only resort. We had the best time and absolutely loved every second. Jamaica was not only breathtakingly beautiful with the clearest water we've ever seen but the people were just as wonderful. Everyone who worked there was so happy and always smiling. The food was divine and so were their yummy cocktails. The beach was spectacular and I can honestly say we never set one foot in the pool because we couldn't pull ourselves away from the ocean view. But my favorite part was the abundance of sea life. There were starfish as big as my head and different kinds of stingrays spotted over the course of our stay. I can't wait to go back and maybe, just maybe we'll take the girls next time.
The resort itself was unlike any place we've ever been. There was no curvy, landscaped drive up paving the way to a sky high hotel with all the bells and whistles. It was literally on the side of the road, because that's the way all the resorts are in Negril, just off the 2 lane highway. The check in area was all open air and about the size of our living/dining/kitchen area. The sleeping accommodations were in pods of 20 rooms or so scattered around the property that were only 2 or 3 stories high and all were entered from the outside. Our room was simple with vaulted wood planked ceilings at least 20 feet high and we had a fabulous, gigantic balcony that totally made the room. I told Chase I felt like we were on a episode of "Island Hunters."
Jamaica is definitely more "jungle like" with lots of lush trees and plants. Our walk to the beach was short which I really liked. You never got lost going but sometimes it was a challenge finding your room because all the paths and "houses" looked the same.
Jamaica is know for their beautiful sunsets!
After a long day of travel starting at 3 AM we were literally in bed by 8:30 and slept like babies. That says a lot for me because I usually sleep horribly anywhere besides my own bed.
There were random, friendly cats around the resort
I usually don't take pictures of food but this french toast was divine. Pineapple infused syrup, yum! I was quite sad the first morning we were home and I didn't wake up to this....
...or this!
The water was clearer than pool water if that's possible. All the pics were taken with our iPhones and some were probably from 15 feet up. In the middle of this picture you will see one of the many starfish that hung out toward the shore.
I was thrilled finding these little starfish so you can only imagine my excitement when we went out a little further and noticed these giants waiting for us! Holy Moly, I loved it! I was so glad we brought our own snorkel gear so we could swim around and see what was right off shore.
On every lounge chair there was a pool float so it was great just to float in water for an hour at a time or sit in the lounger with a nice cushion!
We always felt 100% safe here and although there were guards on the beach we never saw any militia type people with big machine guns like we have in Mexico. 7 mile beach is not a private beach so there are locals that walk up and down selling their local goods but they stayed down at the waters edge and if we were to approach them a guard would always walk down too to make sure they weren't bothersome. I actually really liked seeing what they had to offer and bought some bracelets for the girls.
My favorite part were the local musicians who strolled the beach every day performing for tips. They were fantastic and really completed the Jamaican beach experience.
We took a sunset cruise on our first day that ended with us swimming through a bat filled cave.
Our resort included more than any other all-inclusive we've ever been to and covered all the sunset cruises and day time snorkeling you wanted. Along with kayaks, paddle boards, glass bottom boat tours, and hobie cats. We also could have gone scuba diving but didn't realize that was included until our last day. The only "extra" thing we did was night snorkeling and that was awesome! We saw different kinds of sea life that aren't out during the day like puffer fish, lobster, a sea snake, octopus, squid, and other cool stuff! It was pitch black out there though and we literally snorkeled with spot lights so it was a little eerie but totally worth it.
camo starfish!
This was our first experience on a paddle board and I really liked it. When I went out it was the first time I saw a giant stingray and I got so excited! The kind I saw was an eagle ray and they had a huge wing span. I yelled at Chase to go get his snorkel gear and followed the ray down the beach until Chase was able to spot it. It swam a ways toward shore and freaked a few people out! I'm glad I was on the paddle board. They were beautiful and so fun to watch from up above.
6 pronged starfish...
...and one as big as my head!
We never did a private beach dinner but they sure were cute all set up!
One of the nicer restaurants required pants so Chase took it upon himself to find some white "beach pants," ha!
Stingray!
One of our snorkeling trips. I bought an underwater camera but it went through the x-ray machine at the airport so all the pictures got exposed, boo! We decided a gopro will be worth it for our next beach vacay
We can now say that we have had coconut water straight from the coconut. And we liked it!
Every day the storm clouds rolled in around 2 or 3 and brought some mid day showers so we would either head back to our room or find an empty cabana to nap under until the sun came back out.
And then it was back to finding starfish and stingrays...
If you look in the middle you will notice a sandray hanging out on the bottom.
One day while at lunch at our favorite beach hut I noticed a spot in the water that I swore was moving... so of course I had to investigate. Sure enough it was a stingray hanging out in ankle deep water swimming back and forth along the shore line. I was fascinated.
Our new buddy Julien. After 2 day snorkel trips and 1 night snorkel we were fast friends. He was a great guide!
What a wonderful trip! We couldn't have asked for more and really want to go back sooner rather than later. This may be the best place we've been yet.
We had a rude awakening back in Dallas when we found our suitcase ripped open which required Chase to carry a 50 lb bag through the airport because it couldn't be rolled. I called to pick up a pizza on the way home and somehow they lost our order between the 10 minutes I called and our arrival so a quick pick up turned into a 20 minute ordeal when we just wanted to get home to see the girls. We then had to replace our entire air conditioning system with in a week of being home. Ug! Take me back.
Here are some more pictures from an evening photography session. This too was free and you just had to purchase what you wanted. They walked around during the day too and took pics on the beach. My kind of service!!! We had some resort credit from booking our trip so we used that for pictures and received a large bottle of Appleton rum for free with our picture order so it was a win win. Such great memories from Jamaica. I guess we'll have to start planning our 20 year trip! =)
