Are you experienced? ~ Jamaica ~
 

Hey GFY!
I am thinking about going to some place warm for a few months
this winter. I've been checking into a few places, and so far,
Jamaica looks best as a place to spend the cold winter months.
At this point, I am leaning towards Negril Jamaica.

Has anyone been there? Or living there now?
I am eager to hear people's experiences with Jamaica.
How long did you go for? Did you stay in a resort or
with the locals? Would you like to go again?
etc.

Thanks for your input.

why not just head towards vegas?

everyone I have ever talked to including myself would not go back... The view, the places its all great but the people. I will never go back because I have never been pushed around so much and pressured to buy their crafts.

Go to Cozumel Mexico or Puerto Vallarta

:2 cents:

Too much madness there for me. I want to spend a few months
living on a nice quiet beach somewhere laid back & relaxed. :rasta

Plus, I like to gamble a little too much to spend a few months in
Vegas. That could end up being a short, expensive trip!

That's the place to go if you like diving.... You could also try Fernando de Noronha here in Brazil...


COME TO BRAZIL, you'll have a blast, great weather and girls.... You won't regret it....

Make sure to take a laptop and internet acces:D

Thanks for our input.
I wonder though, if one goes with a few bucks, they could easily
befriend and recruit the help of many there, could they not?
34% live under the poverty line. Many there would be eager to
be helpful and earn some $$$. My thoughts anyhow.
Your thoughts on this?

That is a consideration too. :)

For sure will be taking a couple laptops. :)
I hear they have high speed access there... 56k! heh

I would have been happy to help them out. But not for how rude and pushy they were. This is just how they are, but out of all the friends and people I have talked to that have been there, they will never go back because of the people.

Anyone else on the board been to Jamaica before? what are your comments?

That is interesting. I appreciate your words of warning.
Part of what has drawing me there, was that it sounded
like a very laid back and relaxed place to hang. I figured
the people there would be the very laid back type too.

Did you hang mostly around the touristy areas or did you
find that to be true thoughout the island?

shawn, get ahold of dokk, he's half rasta :rasta

I got married in Negril almost 3 years ago. I wouldn't go back, the people are indeed pushy. It was hotter and humider than shit in January. The native in the gift chop tried to rip me off for $20 US, until myhusband came in to see what was taking me so long. The food sucked, although we were at a resort and I was too chicken to eat away from the resort except once, and I swear to god the "chicken" I ordered was a pigeon. My clue? I was asking the "waiter" (this was picnic tables set up on the beach) wtf kind of chicken parts they were, and he pointed at a HUGE cage of pigeons about 50 feet away. Fuck that.

We were south of Cancun in an area called the Maya Riviera earlier this year, and we will definitely go back there. It was May and the weather was beautiful. The resort staff was good, although most didn't speak English. While that was a pain in the ass a few times, it also meant they didn't try to start unwanted conversations.

Fuck the laptops. We took ours both times and never once turned them on.

We stopped for half a day while on a cruise.
A friggen Voodoo looking animal gave someone a handcrafted cane to hold and then was forcing them to buy it.
He wanted me to take the cane and offer it to me to buy.


He cursed me and told me that my ship was going to sink......
Friggen asshole and very pushy. The rest was amazing.

Great! Maybe he will have some good insight then about the
island and the locals.

I worked some Jamaicans for a few summers years ago when
I used to work in the tobacco fields. They were some really warm
and friendly people. We got along great. So I have always
pictured Jamaicans as being cool laid back people. Which is
partially why I am drawn to hang there for a few months.

Anyone else out here have some experience with Jamaica?

Pigeons??? Damn, that's not too appetizing :)

Cancun is another place that I have been looking at.
It is near the top of my list of places to investigate further.

Laptops... we need to take them. This is not totally a holiday.
This is just a warm place to hang and do our business for a few
months during the winter. I hate being cold!!!

Sounds a bit trippy! heh

I wonder though, most experiences I am hearing so far, have to
do with the touristy areas, and of course, those are the spots
that will draw the pushiest and most aggressive of their people.

Does anyone have experience with being more in with the locals?
I imagine we cannot judge their people as a whole by the people
we would meet around the touristy areas. It is a 3rd world
country with about 34% of people living in poverty. But, they
may be good people in general once you get to know them.
But then again, maybe not. I don't know.

Keep the input coming GFY. Thanks!
I appreciate hearing all opinions and experiences, good or bad.

Go to the Riviera Maya area in Playa Del Carmen. Mexico which is just south of cancun. That way you get the amazing soft white sands and beautiful water of cancun without all the drunk high school kids on winter break. Close to lots of mayan ruins and inland adventures, great diving, sailing, and topless chicks everywhere. The place we stayed was all inclusive and the rum punch was flowing constantly. There were 3 giant liquor bottles in our room hooked up like water coolers!

When we wanted to mingle with the locals we just hiked down to the downtown village and got the authentic culture, hired guides, drivers, boats, etc. Very nice people and the merchants weren't very push at all.

Highly recommended.
Here is a random link for ya: http://cancunandrivieramaya.com/

Though , if you are actually looking to interact with REAL natives and not the ones that have grown accustomed to rich tourists, I would recommend going to someplace like southern Belize, or maybe on of the lesser antilles islands like Dominica. In both places we stayed deep in the jungle and got very real natives to guide us around and take us out on boat and hiking expeditions. Both are beautiful places with a relatively poor but very friendly population.

I remember walking down the street in Dominica and a rasta looking young native guy walking the opposite direction called out "VIZ-I-TOORRRRRS" and came over and shook my hand, and then kept walking. Awesome country.

Go somewhere diffrent
http://www.reflections-rarotonga.com/home.cfm

Go to Belize... but keep it a secret... we don't want everyone to know about it... just ask boneprone. It's lovely.

:2 cents:

http://www.belizedistrict.com/

Sounds interesting, thanks for the link.
I'll check that out more.

That is way expensive.
Thanks though

I hadn't thought of Belize as a place to check out.
I looked into it a little so far and it looks great.
thanks

I loved Jamaica... I stayed at the Sandals resort that doesn't allow people under 18, so it was all adult-oriented fun. All inclusive scuba diving, gourmet food, drinks, tours, rock climbing, virtual reality arcade and for an affordable price we stayed in a private villa with a kitchen, living room, bedroom, huge balcony and private (modest sized) pool. If I had the time and money--I would easily go back to the same resort for a month if not longer.

i miss my homeland :(

Where are you now?
Do you ever take trips back to visit?
Why did you move from there?

Curious

2 or 3 miles from the Great Barrier Reef...

Perfect scuba country... great Mayan hiking trails as well as awesome nature preserves.

:thumbsup


Photo tour:
http://www.belizedistrict.com/photo.html

belize would be my choice :)

TDF, have you been there lately?

What is the sexual mentality of the people in general?
Are they open minded or repressed as a whole?
As in, will I find people wanting to lynch us when they find out
we are doing porn, or will they want to be involved?
Or will they simply not care either way?

Belize is on the Mayan trail... so they get a HUGE number of tourist who are backpacking along the Mayan trail... I'm sure they've seen it all... and there are only 200,000 people in the whole country... lots of Rasta's too.

They have a couple of internet cafe's too.

P.S. The Belize dollar is backed by the US... so it's all good.

im here in Southern cali now,the home to the largest population of belizeans outside of belize in the world. I take trips back home pretty often, looks like I will be taking the misses there on a crise sometime next mnth or in december...why did I move here? parents did when I was 9 so..a lot of my family have gone abck and I plan on retiring there and living in a nice beachfront home

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

I've been to Jamaica twice, one of the times I went I stayed in Negril and it was very nice.

I definitely recommend going there, the hotel I stayed at was the Riu. They had very good food, 3 or 4 bars, and it's all inclusive of course.

Oh, and the drugs are all real cheap ;)

The reason I went back there again is because of the people, they're all very friendly and fun. They go out of their way (at least for me) to make sure I have a good time. They're all nice as hell and willing to help.

One day we went on this shopping trip in Jamaica where they bus you around to like 7 different shops in different places. This is the only time I ever got pressured into buying anything, but if you ignore them and walk away they don't bother you anymore.

I've also been to Cozumel and I'm planning to go to Puerto Vallarta in December with my girlfriend. Mexico is fun, but I do like Jamaica better.

cozumel mexico was fun, but 1 wrong turn we were down a fucked up alley where it looked like any of the women would stab you in the eye for your watch, let alone the men

I have been looking around and learning more about Belize....
seems pretty sweet so far

Sounds like a good plan! :)

Cool :)
Did you hang primarily in the resort areas?
Or did you get out and about with the locals?