Negril, Jamaica Couples Swept away

I wont go into a bunch of detail, as this isnt a Jamaica travel forum, but I welcome any comments or questions.

My GF bought us a package to Couples resorts Swept Away property which is located in Negril, Jamaica. She booked us for 8 nights. We travelled with another couple,primarily friends of hers.

The trip started out bright and early leaving Columbus Ohio on Saturday morning of Labor Day Weekend. We arrived in Jamaica early afternoon. Out of the four travellers I was the only one that received my bags. The others spend about an hour waiting in line/filling out lost baggage reports. We had a 1 hour layover in Atlanta and apparently that caused the baggage issue. Delta staff assured that the bags were only about 30 mins from landing and promised to deliver them to the resort later in the day.

We then entered the Couples lounge where we were offered what else but Red Stripe beer. We then boarded a shuttle along with about 8 or so other couples and headed to the resort, a 1.5 hr trip. The trip was great, we had an excellent bus driver that showed us a lot of sights along the way and offered a bit of an education on Jamaica and its culture.

We arrived at the resort and checked into the room. We had a nice room with a great patio. The walk was long, lots of folks complained about the length of walk around the property, they were obviously not seasoned Vegas travellers. The walk didnt bother us.



The water was beautiful, sand was white and perfect. This is by far the best beach I have ever seen. It was like a very large heated swimming pool. I cant explain how beautiful it was with words. We visited other beaches and this particular stretch along 7 mile beach is the pinnacle of what we saw. The others were nice, but this stretch was perfect.

While at the resort we booked a pub crawl on the "One Love Bus Tour" it hit Negril and its local spots. These were not touristy spots, they were local joints. It was a blast and one of the highlights of the trip. No charge for the tour, just tip the driver at the end. We hit 6 or 7 pubs and they all charged $3 for an ice cold Red Stripe. We even lucked upon a happy hour where it was 2 for 1! Mad props to the drive Lenbert, a great guy that offered a great evening. We watched the sunset from the final stop.



We awoke at 630am all 9 mornings of the trip. We took liberal use of the workout facility, it was unreal. A great walking track, gym, fitness center, lap pool, tennis, etc, etc. My favorite thing was a 2 mile run up the shore and then a swim in the ocean.

The resort delivered a light breakfast at 640am each morning consisting of banana bread and coffee to our patio. I would slug down a couple quick cups and then we would get going.

We ate and ate and ate while there. The food was incredible. We did quite a bit more drinking than we usually do, but with the weather and frozen drinks it didnt seem like we over did it. No hangovers at all.

We really enjoyed the all inclusive style vac. It was nice to not reach into your wallet, nice to order drinks without getting gouged each time. I realize we paid for the drinks and the food, but the trip was very comparable to what we spend in LV for the same time and we feel we ate and drank much better in Jamaica.

We lucked out on weather, it only rained like three days, each time a brief burst in the early afternoon and then cleared up to be beautiful

The beach was our favorite part of the trip, we cant wait to go back and plan to do so in May. Jamaica is now part of our annual vacation rotation just like LV. We highly recommend visiting Jamaica, Negril in particular and staying at Couples Swept Away.

Cheers!

 

Cool Trip of a different kind! I think if you do Jamaica, staying at one of those upscale all inclusive resorts is the way to go. My wife and I love the Caribbean too. But we tend to go to Aruba, which has similar beauty and just enough casino action (and a food scene) to give the best of both worlds!

Its also nice to come back from a vacation rested, keeping your workout program going. That doesn't happen for us in Vegas!

 

Ron,

I really appreciate you posting your TR, we've looked at staying at a Couples Resort numerous times but to date have not. I always thought CSA was one of the better Couples Resorts although if you guys shopped them, you know they all have their +'s and -'s.

Jamaica always sounds like the perfect place to really decompress I don't need that so much these days since I retired and just consult when I want to work but my bride is 8 yrs younger than me and still working and in a pretty stressful mgmt job. I think she'd like it a lot.

Funny coincidence, I just read a story on yahoo the other day about ganja tours they're starting to do in Jamaica. The story said at the start of the tour you have to take a hit to show you're not LE and that by the end of the tour, you'll be seeing Bob Marley...:evillaugh

 

Irie.

 

Glad you had such a fun trip - I LOVE Couples!

They're one that doesn't have a nude beach, so I won't visit that one We've been to Couples Negril twice and Sans Souci is the one I really want to visit - their au naturel facilities look AMAZING- beach, pool, swim up bar - all for au naturel guests! I've sent lots of family to CSS and they love it - can't believe I haven't made it yet Will wait to see the reviews on the new Barbados resort once their renovations are all done

 

There is a lot of hype with the new Barbados property. We were invited to the managers reception dinner and they made sure to let everyone know all about it. It sounds and looks really nice, we are heading back to swept away in May 2014.

 

We did a pub crawl on the "One Love Bus", it may as well have been a Ganja tour. Every pub had the locals offering, the final pub even had a local passing around a very fat sample!! I believe stars were seen by all!

 

Since you are a Dean Martin fan, I should mention I grew up in Dino's hometown. My closest connection is I used to get my haircut by a barber that cut Dinos hair in both their younger years!

 

Ron...I obviously am a huge Dino fan. That is a cool story, I bet that barber had a ton of stories to tell. If we're ever in Vegas at the same time, I'll buy you a drink

Pretty sad the way his last years were....when he lost his son he just gave up on life. We grew up watching him and the gold diggers on his variety show...always had a cocktail and a smoke, although most everything you read says he really wasn't that big of a drinker and was actually a pretty good ametuer boxer in his younger days.

 

I like the nude beach ammenity too and always thought between the 3 that do offer it that CSS was the coolest looking...at least from all the internet photos. The folks on their message board say it is very laid back and lot of regular type people and bodies and nobody judges Could you imagine having a facility like that in Vegas...the land of the pretty people?:evillaugh

I did really like the look of the rooms at CSA though.

 

My Fiancee' and I stayed in Negril last May at Fun Holiday Beach Resort. Not as nice as Couples but we got a really great price and treated it like Vegas (didn't spend much time in the room anyways).
Needless to say Negril is awesome. We found lots of great advice for our trip on the Negril Forum, where to eat, drink and sights to see. If you haven't visited it yet I highly recommend it.
www.negril.com

 

I would def take you up on the drink! The barber didnt say a whole lot, he was one of those old school quiet guys. I had seen pics in the shop of Dino, but hell its Steubenville, they are everywhere. The local paper did a big story on him about how he had been cutting hair like 60yrs or something and gave Dino his last haircut before he left the city. I asked him about it once and he muttered something about Dino being born just around the corner and that he was just another guy getting a haircut back then.

He was known as a good athlete around town, lots of pics had him in boxing garb, shorts, etc.

An old friend of mine is on the committe for the Dino festival they have each year.

 

Yeah, no nude beach as CSA. I did accidentally stumble onto the one at CN when we visited for the day.

We narrowed it down to CN and CSA for our return trip in May, we have decided on CSA largely in part because of the rooms. The difference between resorts is substantial, CSA rooms are old school Carribean chic, the resort style and rooms at CN is more hotel like. We could sit on our back patio at CSA and be completely private feeling, not happening at CN.

 

We had 3rd floor rooms at CN - bldgs 1 & 2 I think (had 1 the first time and loved it but it was full on next visit so we had 2) Sitting on the balcony, felt like we were among the trees - very peaceful - loved it.

Age of internet makes meeting our vacation priorities SO MUCH easier than it used to be - being able to see maps (or google earth) and read reviews etc. I can't imagine the way it used to be - writing (or faxing) hotel reservations because time zones were so wonky, etc.....

 

Funny - I searched Jamaica to see if anything would pop up and I'm super happy to read about this from you!!

So we are deciding between the Riviera Maya in Mexico or Jamaica. We live in WA state. Both look great, I just need to do more research. We do plan to stay in an all inclusive, and so far from what I'm finding (on cheapcaribbean.com), the prices are almost identical. We're going July 2014, probably for 10 nights.

Weird question, but were there any waves in Negril? I am not looking for huge waves by any means, but we will be taking the kids (no Couples resort for us- that's in a few yrs), and my son and I love to body surf. I realize we aren't going to get California waves like we enjoy, however I'm wondering if it's basically little to no waves, or if it will do. I know Mexico we'd be good, they aren't big, but there is so that we can enjoy body boarding on.

Lastly, have you ever been to the Caribbean in Mexico?

 

We would suggest Jamaica, but that is more from a couples standpoint. There are some amazing family resorts, we just have not personally visited though. The waves question is not weird at all, there are virtually zero waves in Negril. The ocean is just like a large swimming pool. We saw no one surfing the entire trip, its dead calm. I have not visited Mexico, and my Caribbean experience is limited to Jamaica, we are going back in May! I cant say enough about not only the resort, but the beauty of the Island and the culture is very interesting!

Any questions ask away, we were told while there that Grand Palladum is the place for families, its new and huge and boasts the largest pool in Jamaica!

 

You might want to look into Iberostar Cozumel. It is an all-inclusive that is different than the high rise resorts. All the rooms are small cabanas and it is very kid friendly. It is popular with the scuba crowd because the reefs are so close.

Mark

 

Captain,

Thanks for the trip report. We stayed at Runaway bay a few years ago and loved Jamaica. Definitely going back. I love to snorkel and we had a great reef right off of our resort.

Most of all I love the Jamaicans they have such a great attitude on life.

TomTWI

 

I went to Jamaica about 25 years ago and I am in total agreement, never had a problem, never felt unsafe, and we went to many locals' bars for a Red Stripe or some overproof. My only complaint was renting a Soviet-made Lada which was made from Fiat's cast off Model 131 tooling.