STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

shopchicago33 wrote:

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NCshopper wrote:

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Not sure if I'm too late on this post, but I wanted to weigh in.  DH and I went to Jamaica back in June and had an amazing time.  We stayed here:  http://www.rockhousehotel.com/

It was beautiful, inexpensive, and a lot of fun. 

I also wanted to weigh in on Costa Rica.  I spent 5 weeks there a few summers ago, and to be honest, I didn't really like it.  There were beautiful places to visit, of course, and a lot of fun activities, but I never felt safe there.  When we were on the beach, someone always needed to stay with the bags and keep an eye on our stuff.  I was always concerned about being pickpocketed and I never felt terribly safe when we would go out at night.  Don't get me wrong--there were elements of Costa Rica that I really enjoyed, but I just found that I never felt relaxed while I was there because I felt the need to always have my guard up.

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Thanks for the info NC!  Can you tell me more about the resort you stayed at in Jamaica?  Was it all-inclusive?  And if you don't mind me asking, about how much did it cost for 2 people?  Thanks!

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The resort we stayed at was in Negril and was about an hour and a half drive from Montego Bay airport.  The resort can arrange a van to pick you up at the airport (I think it was called Kenny Transport or something) and it was about $20 a person, which was fine with me because I really didn't want to be driving there.

Anyway, the resort was incredible.  There aren't any beaches at that resort (it's all cliffs) but there are beaches at nearby resorts that you can get to pretty easily.  The resort has a saltwater pool and there are a bunch of places to jump off the rocks into the water and some of the stand-alone cabins have their own private lounge areas with their own ladders into the water. 

The food at the resort was REALLY good.  It wasn't all inclusive, but it was very reasonably priced.  Everything we ate was really incredible.  (I think they have the menu online.)  One thing we did to save some $ was to buy a liter of vodka at the duty free before we left so we made our own drinks while we were there instead of spending a lot at the bar.  We successfully kept our food bill to under $100 a day pretty easily.  There were also a few other restaurants within walking distance.  We also stayed in the cheapest rooms they offered.  They had a view of the garden, but no ocean view, which was fine because we were outside looking at the ocean all day anyway and didn't spend too much time in the room.

All in all, we spent less than $1,000 for the 5 days we were there, including the room.  We were there in June though, so that was the off-season, which helped the price a bit, but I'm sure you could still stay there very reasonably during the tourist season.

Let me know if you want any other info.  I really can't recommend this place enough.  We had such a good time and it was really beautiful.