In honor of Valentine’s day this month, we decided to write a throw-back post to our honeymoon in Negril, Jamaica. We choose Negril for the famous seven mile beach. The beach was indeed fabulous. It still remains to this day the best beach we’ve ever been to! Most of our time was spent on the beach, swimming and soaking up the sun. Yet in the Caribbean summer, it is pretty typical to have small rainstorms at least once a day. Thankfully they pass quickly, and being on our honeymoon, we easily found ways to pass the time ;-).
Our resort Couples Swept Away was all-inclusive food and drinks. They had several different styles of restaurants and evening shows – our favorite was Prince JoJo, the Jamaican limbo champion. The honeymoon special included a free couples massage, and for a surcharge, we loved our romantic private dinner on the beach! The resort had many great free amenities as well. We tried a salsa dance class, sailing mini catamarans, and snorkeling. Kyle even wakeboarded in ocean and tried wind surfing!
There was parasailing available on the beach nearby, and we arranged a ride one afternoon. I highly recommend this if you aren’t afraid of heights. Make sure you do some bargaining to get a good deal. The time goes by fast, but it’s really neat to see the entire stretch of beach from the air!
We also went scuba diving from our resort since we enjoy acting like fish. We saw an array of fish and coral, but it’s hard to compare to other places in the Caribbean, such as Cozumel, MX. It was still worthwhile, and we enjoyed the underwater adventure.
One of the days we booked an off-resort excursion with South Coast Safari. Our first tour stop was the Black River where we rode a pontoon and saw birds, crocodiles, and cool mangrove trees. Next we visited the beautiful Y.S. Falls. It was a blast walking across the waterfall and jumping off into the deep pools. Kyle had been to the Dunn River Falls a few years back and was happy to find the Y.S. Falls much less touristy. Our final stop of the day was the Appleton Estate rum factory. After taking a guided tour around the estate and through the distillery, we got to sample 13 different kinds of rum. All were delicious!
We absolutely loved the laid back culture on the island and accompanying reggae music. Since our honeymoon, we have been on a cruise which stopped in Jamaica. We had another wonderful time, but definitely missed the Negril white sand beach and this superb resort. We hope to make it back for an anniversary in the future.
