Big John - February, 2011

I visited Hedo February 12-19.  These are my perspectives as a solo traveler.  This was my first trip back to Hedo since the early 90s.

Jamaican immigration procedures are horribly inefficient and slow, and it's hot in there when there are so many people being processed.  I was amazed at the number of people standing in line, and had to wait over an hour to get through.  I have been to other Caribbean islands and never ran into anything quite this slow.  Be prepared.

The bus ride to Hedo was uneventful, except I could skip the stop at the local bar for a drink.  Going to an all-inclusive resort with free drinks, I would rather wait another half-hour and just have my drink at Hedo.

The hotel check-in was okay, although you shouldn't plan on getting a free upgrade to a nude room just for the asking.  Maybe this works for some, but not for me.  The hotel personnel weren't very helpful and just sent me on to my room with no orientation or anything.  The room itself was well-maintained, but the decor looks like it came right out of the 1970s.  The bathroom was very nice, but I noticed that to get the room cool, I had to keep the bathroom door closed (there is just a jalousie window there and it lets in a lot of warm, humid air even when closed).  I had hot water and good pressure 100% of the time all week long.

Food in the main dining hall was, IMHO, quite good all week.  Hedo's dining room is much better than a cruise ship buffet -- not up to the level of a cruise ship dining facility, but I was pretty happy with the food.  We had lobster and curried conch on the last day and other high-dollar foods throughout the week.  I was a little surprised that there wasn't more of an offering of fruit, but maybe that was just because it was February.  I also ate in Munasan's, and it was a very enjoyable experience although not up to the standards of the typical Japanese restaurant in the U.S.  Considering this was a no-extra-cost option, I thought it was great.

My room was a prude side oceanview, and as other forum discussions have mentioned, the de facto rule is that the prude side is clothing optional.  Upon arrival, there were naked people walking by outside my window.  I soon discovered that the majority of people on the "prude" side were actually nude, and that they were being served by the prude bar and grill.  On one occasion the manager greeted me and two other nudists in the prude bar and asked if we were having a good time.  I used the water slide naked every day with no questions asked (it is amazing that others weren't using this great benefit).  Also, the ECs organized nude volleyball on the prude side.  I really appreciated the nudity option since I found the official nude side to be really crowded and noisy.  Yes, some people enjoy a quiet beach vacation sans clothing.

Speaking of the ECs, on the first day they ran trivia, bocce ball, naked waterslide, and nude volleyball.  After that, they were rarely seen again except to play nude volleyball, which I participated in daily.  The lack of activities was highly disappointing because I like an active vacation.  OTOH, it was hard to blame them for being dispirited, since no more than a dozen people participated in their activities, out of all those hundreds on the beach and in the pool.  My last previous visit to Hedo was 20 years ago and at that time, the ECs had great participation.  I think the problem is with the crowd, not the ECs.

The beaches are beautiful, the sand is nice -- but the ocean water is just about worthless for swimming.  It barely came up to my waist in any place I felt safe to swim or wade.  I was able to enjoy using a kayak, however.

I visited the nude pool and jacuzzi, but didn't spend much time there.  I was traveling solo and didn't want people to think I was lurking or staring or anything.  I saw a couple of sex acts and personally think the sex acts in the nude jacuzzi ought to wait until after dark.  Frankly it is hard to avoid staring when people start having sex right in front of you.  This doesn't impress me with being sanitary, either.  I don't care what they do late at night but during daytime hours I think they ought to keep it clean, especially since there were few participants anyway.

One of the major reasons I decided to go back to Hedo was to do some diving.  I wasn't very happy with the setup or the diving.  For the first three days, the Watersports crew just kept claiming that it was too rough, yet when I finally did get to go, the conditions at Hedo didn't seem any different and on the ocean, the conditions were actually quite calm -- so I'm not sure I was being told the truth.  Also, experienced divers should be aware that they will make you go through the shallow dive before you can sign up for anything else, and you won't ever be allowed to go on two dives a day unless there are open spots.  As a result, I did very little diving -- not that it mattered much because there was very little to see.  The reefs look pretty good, but there simply are few fish around.  Also, the boat isn't very well set up for re-entry.

My impression is that Hedo is a great place to visit for a group of people who already know each other -- I see these groups -- they laugh and have a great time, but they are busy with each other and basically don't have time for others.  For solo travelers -- and surprisingly, for a heckuva lot of couples as well -- Hedo's a good place but maybe not a great place.  The problem is that there isn't that much communication and interaction, at least not what I was expecting.  The problem isn't that surprising for a solo traveler, because you are the odd man out -- everyone else is a couple and you don't want to be perceived as weird or injecting yourself into someone else's private conversation.  However, it seems like there are a heckuva lot of couples that socialize quietly with each other and nobody else.  Back when I visited 20 years ago, people were really active and participating in the EC activities which gets the socialization started -- now, not much.  Seems like the main activities for a lot of people are just eating and drinking.  On my last day, I met a group of crazy people playing nude volleyball in the prude pool, and I had more fun with them that day than I had the rest of the week.  I would encourage anyone going to Hedo to do so as one of a group -- I think it would be much more fun.

Would I go back?  I dunno.  I really liked the fact I spent most of my vacation nude and had some enjoyable activities.  Those are hard to duplicate even if they could have been better.  OTOH, there are better alternatives if you leave out the nudity.  Clearly if I go back, I will join some group in advance so I know somebody with similar interests when I get there.  That would have improved my trip 100%, I just didn't realize the importance of it in advance.