Traveling Adventures

One of the images that is often seen in Jamaican tourist brochures is that of windsurfing on a beautiful ocean just off a golden beach.  It’s almost a cliché.  But the reality is that if the picture caught your attention, not to mention imagination, you can be trying your hand windsurfing almost as soon as you check into your hotel!  If you arrive on a day when there’s not even much of a breeze, you’d be better to do something else that day and save the windsurfing for a day when the wind has a little strength behind it.  You also need to have a day when the wind is blowing in the right direction – it’s not exactly a science, but you will learn which are the ideal windsurfing conditions for the location you’re staying in.  Booking your vacation between November and April is the best time of year if you hope to spend a lot of time windsurfing as the winds are more favorable to the sport at that time of year.

Many of the major hotels in Jamaica offer windsurfing as one of their activities and not only have the equipment, but also the experts who can help get you started and keep you safe whilst you find your sea legs.  If your hotel doesn’t have facilities, they are bound to know where you can find them – make sure you ask about hiring equipment if you don’t have your own as this isn’t always easy to find in Jamaica.  If you haven’t windsurfed before, you need to get a little expert coaching before you get started.  If you are an experienced windsurfer, you’ll know how to find the best wave/wind combination on the Island.  Of course one of the best places for established windsurfers is at the Silver Sands area, but if you’re just starting out, or aren’t very confident in the water, this is not the place for you.

Windsurfing is an exhilarating experience but it’s not something that’s for everyone so if it’s something that you think you want to try, make your accommodation reservation with a hotel that offers it on-site amongst other activities.  That way, you’ll have other options to pick from if you decide this one isn’t for you.

Getting married in Jamaica isn’t that complicated, so why should you consider paying for the hotel wedding co-coordinator to do what you can just as easily yourself?  Well there are a few reasons for this, and the first one is to do with stress.  Getting married at home is stressful enough, even once the arrangements are made, and you know the system.  Getting married in a country where you don’t know the rules, and only have a few guidebooks to help, can put undue pressure on what could otherwise be a relaxing wonderful day.

Your hotel wedding co-coordinator should be familiar with all of the protocol surrounding getting married in Jamaica.  You should have contact with them prior to your arrival in Jamaica, and all of the necessary paperwork should have been discussed and assembled.  If you don’t have prior contact, there could be problems later that could have been avoided if you had spoken to them on the telephone or via email before you left the US.

Talk through what arrangements you’d like to have.  When you’d like to have the wedding, what venue options there are, whether you’d like to have a bridal bouquet of local flowers, do you need to hire a dress, how many guests will you have and will you require a meal to be provided for them?   A wedding co-coordinator should be able to handle all of this so that all you need to do is turn up on the day, and upon production of the relevant paperwork be able to show you where to obtain your license to get married.  If anything goes wrong with the arrangements, even on the wedding day itself, your wedding co-coordinator should be the person that deals with the stress of sorting it out so that your day is stress-free.

Even if all you want to do is get married barefoot on the beach, it’s still worth hiring the wedding co-coordinator simply because they know their local system, and they know how to get around it if they need to!   When you’re hiring the wedding co-coordinator however, make sure first that they are experienced in their job, and that they have handled many other weddings in that location – everyone has to learn somewhere, but you don’t want them learning with your wedding plans!

Most travelers arrive in Jamaica through Montego Bay which is the home of the North Shore airport, and the islands busiest cruise pier.  As Jamaica’s second largest city, Montego Bay is located on the North West corner of the island and is Jamaica’s original tourist hot spot.
There are many tourist attractions in Montego Bay including a number of plantation tours.  For the more adventurour traveler, rafting tours are a fun experience and can be guided or self-navigated.  These tours encompass rafting down a peaceful river on a bamboo raft, or through some local white water.  Fishing charters are available for angling enthusiasts or those looking to try out some spear fishing.   Athletic travelers can also activities such as cycling, golf, horseback riding, and scuba diving. The Bob Marley experience is a new attraction featuring a documentary film on the legendary reggae great and a huge memorabilia shop
Montego Bay also has popular local shopping areas.  Favored shopping centers include the City Centre, Holiday Village Shopping Centre, and The Half Moon Shopping Village.  In addition, the shops around the airport provide a wide selection of tourist goods – although you’d be better to buy souvenirs in the city as this is where you’re likely to find some artifacts by local craftsman rather than mass produced commercial items.
A visit to Lester Art Gallery in the hills above Reading can be a tour in itself or can be combined with visits to other local places of interest.  The Gallery is devoted to works of Polish sea captain and painter the late Michael Leszczynski, who anglicized his name to Lester and is famous for the work of his Jamaica period. The gallery is at his former home and studio which he built in the 1950s on a cliff side at the village of Belmont. The house has stunning views and located nearby are the Rocklands Bird Sanctuary and Mountain Valley River Rafting.

If you’re a cricket fan, and have always fancied having a vacation on a tropical paradise such as Jamaica, then 2007 is the year your absolute fantasy could come true!  The World Cup is being held in the Caribbean, and there are a number of matches that are being held in Jamaica!  Can you, a cricket fan, imagine anything more ideal than that?

The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup will have several matches held in venues in Jamaica, including the 1st semi-final scheduled to be played on 24th April.  Although tickets won’t be easy to find, they are possible to be booked online – and if you can’t get one, you could contact one of more high profile hotels in Kingston prior to making an accommodation reservation and ask if they have any tickets available for their guests to purchase.  The Jamaica ticket office for this event is at shop 51 and 52 in the Kingston Mall, in Downtown Kingston.  You can also check out the ICC’s website for further information about possible ways of obtaining tickets if you’re looking for one last minute – or perhaps it’s enough for you just to be in Kingston on the day that the matches take place!

Ticket prices vary for the matches and should be included in your Jamaican vacation budget as depending on the match you want to attend, and the kind of ticket available, you could expect to pay about $560 for a top ticket – if you are purchasing a ticket previously sold to someone else however, and it’s possible there could be a number of tickets available that way (check with local authorities however so you know you are getting a genuine ticket, not a counterfeit one), you could pay far in excess of the true ticket price.   The value you place on that ticket, in this particular location, however could also be far above its original selling price!

Have you ever thought about trying river rafting?  If so, your vacation in Jamaica could be the perfect opportunity to stop thinking and start doing!  Whether you want a memorable romantic activity to add to your honeymoon, or a more exhilarating white water experience, you’ll find it in Jamaica.

If you are looking for a gentle river rafting experience where you can relax while someone else does the work, allowing you to lazily watch the wildlife and scenery slow pass by, then you could try rafting tours on the White River, Black River, Martha Brae River or even the Rio Grande.  The rafts are approximately 30-feet long, and made from bamboo.  The raft captain will ensure that you have a safe journey and will enjoy your experience.  If you want a moonlit rafting tour as something a little special, ask your hotel reception if any local rafting companies offer this – some of them do.

If you want to try your hand at white water rafting, or white water rafting is something that you pursue as a hobby, you can also do this in Jamaica.  There are fast paced water locations in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Port Antonio.  If you want to hire a local guide to help you navigate the rapids, this is also possible.  White water rafting tours are generally 3-5 hours long.

Before booking your reservation, check out the details about what the tour will include and how long it will last.  Does it include drinks or a picnic for example?  If it’s only 45 minutes and allows time for swimming, is that 45 minutes of rafting time, or 45 minutes in total.  If drinks aren’t included, then you should at least take some bottled water as it can get hot out on the river – and don’t forget the sunscreen and mosquito repellent!  Thirst, heat and bugs can turn your river rafting trip into something memorable for the wrong reasons, so ensure that you know exactly what the trip includes, and are equipped to deal with nature, and you’ll have an unforgettable experience for all the right reasons.

Whether or not to pay for holiday insurance is a big question when it comes to setting the vacation budget, and often it’s something that you can safely go without.  But should you go without it when visiting somewhere off the beaten track like Jamaica?

One of the things you’d need to consider is “how far off the beaten track” are you likely to be going in Jamaica?  The more extreme your vacation plans, the more likely you are to be at risk of accident.  If you have an accident, what would the options of getting back home be?  What kind of expenses would you be facing?

If you are taking expensive equipment with you, such a digital camera, or laptop, then you should certainly have insurance in case these are stolen while you’re away.  With expensive individual items such as these however, you need to make sure that these are specifically covered by your insurance policy for everything from accidental damage (such as that which could happen in transit), to theft of the item.  You should also be aware of what paperwork you will need to produce in order to claim for the items so that you have any receipts at hand before you leave and you bring back any copies of official documentation from the Jamaican authorities such as a police theft report.

When traveling to parts of the world which are noted tourist destinations, but which are not as commercial as some more popular destinations such as Paris, London or Sidney, it’s wise to have some form of holiday insurance.  Just make sure you read all the small print before you sign up for the policy so that you are covered for everything you think you’re covered for, and you won’t be faced with any hidden policy financial excesses/penalties should you need to make a claim against the insurance policy upon your return from holiday.

Whether women travel alone, or with a partner, the first thing that they need to be aware of – and if they aren’t before they arrive, it won’t take long for them to learn – is that women are not generally respected by Jamaican men.  They may find that they have “admirers” but a quick dip into the local community will show how much real respect is attached to the admiration!

Women tourists who travel alone need to be extra vigilant about personal security and make sure that they know what areas of the place they are staying are relatively safe for tourists – especially women – and which aren’t.  They should always make sure that someone knows where they are going if they are leaving the hotel grounds, and they should make sure that they don’t stand out from the crowd too much.

It may not be very appealing for an independent woman from the US to have to join a group tour simply because going alone isn’t recommended, but if you are in Jamaica, you must listen to the recommendations on personal safety issues.  They aren’t given just to stop the hotel being sued in the unlikely event of you being mugged.  They are issued for your own safety by people who know that as beautiful as the country is, there is another side to it, that must be respected.  If you enjoy solitude, then join a tour but keep yourself to yourself on the bus, and go your own way when you arrive at the destination – just don’t wander too far away from the rest of the tourists!

Just as you would follow some basic safety rules if you were visiting a city such as New York, follow the safety information given to you at your Jamaican destination and you should be as safe as you would be walking through Manhatten.

When you think about taking a vacation in Jamaica, images of golden or white sand and clichéd crystal blue-green oceans and lagoons come to mind.  You imagine yourself sun-bathing, meeting Bob Marley’s relatives on the 9-Mile excursion, dancing the night away with other tourists at some kind of Americanized reggae club – but have you considered that you could just as easily be spending some of your time really immersing yourself in the Jamaican landscape, really getting back to nature?  You could do this by reserving yourself a place on one of the island’s horse riding tours.

Of course you could simply take a horse riding lesson, and perhaps a slow canter down to the beach – but wouldn’t you rather experience something a little deeper than that?  There are specialized horse tour companies on Jamaica that offer a variety of different packages (including the simple riding lesson option!) to suit all kinds of abilities, skills and interests.  You can join a group tour that lasts for only a few hours, or if you’re wanting something a little more private – perhaps as part of your honeymoon, you can hire a guide and have a tour that’s just for you and your partner.

If the idea appeals but you don’t think your riding skills are up to a horse trek through some rainforest terrain, don’t worry – the staff at the horse tour companies won’t let you go if they don’t think you’re up to it.  It’s not worth their credibility to allow riders who aren’t experienced enough for any particular tour take part in it.  Instead, they’ll advise you on what they think you can manage, making it a win-win situation all round!

So don’t think that Jamaica is all about water and sand, there’s a few hooves in there as well if you’re ready to get up in the saddle and find them!

Jamaica is an amazingly diverse island paradise which makes it a perfect tourist destination for people on all budgets, and there are many luxury hotels and resorts in Jamaica to cater to those on the high end of the tourist spectrum.

The Half Moon Rose Hall in Montego Bay is one such high end hotel. This paradise-like resort is designed to help you feel as if you are a half moon away from the outside world.  This is a premier resort which has attracted tourists for more than 50 years. It  has approximately 400 acres of lovely beaches in it’s grounds and you can visit the dolphin lagoon which is exclusively for the Half Moon’s guests.   The hotel also boasts a world class spa and fitness centre, 4 squash courts, 51 swimming pools and also a golf course.

Another higher priced hotel in Montego Bay is the Ritz Carlton Rose Hall sprawls over 5,000 acres in Jamaica’s exclusive Rose Hall.  This hotel offers the seclusion of a beachfront hideaway, complete with an 18-hole championship golf course and spa.  In addition to this, the hotel also offers a wide variety of water sports and leisure activities, five dining outlets and fitness centers.  The Ritz-Carlton Golf and Spa Resort take luxury to an altogether different level and is the ultimate fantasy Jamaican vacation hotel.

Luxury isn’t just confined to Montego Bay however.  For example, in another part of the island, Ocho Rios, you’ll find the Jamaica Inn.  This hotel has consistently been ranked one of the top resort hotels and tourist destinations in the Caribbean.  The Jamaica Inn is a small yet elegant timeless resort and each of its 47 rooms and suites suite has a private balustraded balcony overlooking the beautiful beaches.  The Jamaica Inn will pamper you to the core as they take service to an extreme with a clean, thick beach towel awaiting you, no matter how many trips you make to the beach and beds always freshly made even after a short afternoon nap.

Although the reason for going to Jamaica is to sample what the island has to offer outdoors, you’ll find these hotels an inviting and luxurious retreat from sightseeing and sports at the end of the day.