Randmness

Recently my fiance and I took a trip with her family to Jamaica. We were there for a week and stayed at the Holiday Inn Montego Bay resort and BOY did we have a lot of fun!

The Holiday Inn Montego Bay is an All Inclusive hotel. This means that all of the food, drinks, and liquor are included in the cost of the stay. Basically the hotel is a cruise on land with shows, activities, games, and just about everything else to keep a person occupied during their stay.

Here’s a map of the campus, along with a breakdown of the different things to do:

I’ll start with the important thing first, Food.

There are 7 different places to eat throughout the campus: the Jerk Hut, Ice Cream Hut, Barefoot Bar and Grill, Sailor’s restaurant, Cappuccino, Trattoria, and Sea Breeze.

The Jerk Hut offers jerk chicken, pork, or a combo of the two, along with a piece of bread. Jerk is a traditional sauce and rub that is used for marinating meats and is usually spicy. The bread is used to help soak up the jerk sauce and also helps cool your mouth down if the sauce to too hot. The food is really good and they’re open daily from 12 to 4 or whenever they run out of meat.

The Ice Cream Hut has ice cream cones, hot dogs, nachos, and popcorn. They’re open daily from 12 to 5.

The Barefoot Bar and Grill offers grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, fries, and fried fish. They’re open from 11 to 1am. This is the place where you can get food throughout the day and the only place open later than 8pm.

Sailor’s Restaurant is the main eating area and offers buffet style dining. They serve breakfast, lunch, and on most nights dinner. Each meal is different from the previous day’s so there is a lot to choose from and there are a couple of nights that dinner is served out on the tennis courts with a show or local bands that play while you eat.

Cappuccino, Trattoria, and Sea Breeze are all dinner restaurants that require reservations in advance and have a dress code. All three are free to eat at but they do have some selections like surf and turf or scampi that cost around $20 a plate.

Regardless of where you choose to eat you won’t walk away hungry and there are plenty of selections throughout the campus to choose from.

The next important thing is the bar locations.

There are 5 bars throughout the campus: the Big Smaddy Bar, Jerk Hut, Barefoot Bar and Grill, Catamaran Bar, and Sea Breeze.

Each of the bars has a selection of rum, vodka, tequilla, and whiskey, along with Red Stripe (Jamaican beer). The bartenders serve various rum mixed drinks as their specialty but they’re kind of limited in the different mixes for the drinks. I didn’t think that their limited mixes was too much of a problem because the bartenders always poured in the guest’s favor.

Lastly here is a map of all of the activities to do on the campus.

There are lot of things to do at the resort besides sitting on the beach. There’s the Adult Pool, watersports area, Kidspree Hangout, the Main Pool, tennis, miniature golf, and gym.

The Adult Pool is for people 18 years old and up. It has a bar in the pool complete with underwater bar stools.

The watersports area has paddle boats, snorkel gear, and catamaran rides. All you have to do is sign a book to check out the boats or snorkel gear and you’re set!

The Kidspree Hangout is where parents can drop off the kids to do activities like scavenger hunts, shirt decorating, and fashion shows. There is a list in the hallway behind the Hangout to see a list of activities for the week.

The Main Pool is where a lot of shows and games happen. There is a stage in the middle of the pool where employees hold dance contests, drinking contests, volleyball games, and a ton of other stuff. The fun usually begins around 9 and doesn’t stop until after 10pm.

On the other side of the pool there are tennis courts, shuffleboard, miniature golf, and a gym. Clubs, rackets, and the shuffleboard pieces are available at a hut next to the tennis courts.

One thing for certain is that the campus is constantly buzzing with activities and things to do!

Here are some tips for the trip if you decide to go:

1. Book your trip through a travel agent or vacation package site like FunJet. Funjet takes care of the airline tickets, the rides to and from the airport in Jamaica to the hotel, and will be the person to see if you want to take a tour of any of the Jamaican landmarks. They’re like a concierge service for your entire trip. You can book the hotel through the Holiday Inn site but you’ll be in charge of your airline tickets, rides to and from the hotel to the airport, and any activities outside the hotel.
2. Bring tip money. Tips at the hotel are not required but always appreciated.
3. If you get a travel card for the trip try and get one through Bank of America. There is an ATM in the lobby that charges $3 per transaction but it’s free for BofA card holders. If you do any shopping outside the hotel credit cards or travel cards are not usually accepted so make sure you have cash before going out and about. The hotel, along with everywhere else we went, accepts US Currency along with Jamaican currency.

Here are a list of sites that can help you out with trip planning:

1. Funjet Vacations: http://www.funjet.com/
2. Holiday Inn Sunspree: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ss/1/en/home

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner