Negril Cliffs Vacation - January, 2002 (Drumville Cove & Coral Seas Cliffs)
Sat 1/26/02: Travel to Jamaica & arrival at Drumville Cove.
An early start (5:45am) from the Burlington Airport. Smooth flights to Philly & on to MoBay, despite some balky stomach issues for both of us (aftermath from the flu a few days before).
We jammed all our stuff into carry-ons this time, to save waiting for checked bags at customs. This worked well & saved about 30 minutes on arrival. We touched down in MoBay at about 1:30pm, were thru customs & at the TimAir desk by 2, and were checking into Drumville Cove on the cliffs in Negril at 2:45.
Now, I must digress a bit. This vacation was our first on the cliffs in Negril, and also our first non-AI Caribbean vacation. Previously, weve stayed at various AIs in Mexico, St. Lucia, and several towns in Jamaica. Weve enjoyed them all, and especially liked the laid-back atmosphere on the beach in Negril. We were looking forward to seeing some of the smaller hotels, checking out the famous cliff area, and investigating more of the local ambience, shops, pubs & eateries. The Beingees Negril web site was a great resource - both for listings of hotels and restaurants, and especially their bulletin board at: http://theone.negril.com/cgi‑bin/config.pl
We decided to book 4 nights at Drumville Cove, and 3 at Coral Seas Cliff Resort. More on both of these later. In short, we found Drumville to be rather rustic/grungy, but a very pleasant place, with wonderful home-cooked food. They have a small, casual courtyard and pool - which was very lightly used but sparkling clean, and a good dive shop on the premises. Coral Seas was much more like a moderate-to-upscale hotel with large rooms & excellent views. Both had nice staff & surprisingly good prices for drinks & some of the food.
Settling in at Drumville Cove, Sat 1/26/02:
So our visit began - just before 3pm on Saturday at Drumville Cove... We checked into the Mars 2" cabana. A solid, rustic little 1 bedroom with a sleeping loft, small kitchen & a rough, somewhat scummy bathroom. Nicely constructed of varnished wood, but it could have used some patching and a good scrubbing. Contrary to our expectation, it wasnt very private - being adjacent to the main walkway to the cliff bar. It did have a nice view of the water - though thru some palms and scrub sea grapes, & over the hotels trash pile. These were minor issues though, and we enjoyed some fine evenings sitting on our veranda, watching the sea while we ate, chatted, & played the great Negril rummy game - which seesawed back and forth to end at 7408 for Chris vs. Lizs 7081. The grounds were quite nice - with several small pleasant walkways (which gardeners Plug and mystery gardener worked on from 9am-9pm replanting and sprucing up). There was a fun little cliff bar, and the wonderful small pool & courtyard.
The cliffs were interesting, but we found (both here & at Coral Seas) that access to the water wasnt super-easy. Both places required climbing about 3 feet down ladders, with a bit of care getting in & out - due to the swells. This would indeed be a glorious & beautiful place to swim when the sea was dead calm... There were routinely 2-3 foot swells though, so tranquil water seemed to be the exception on the cliffs.
We settled in & enjoyed our 1st evening, wandering around getting to know the property & the folks. Orels cliff bar was a prime gathering spot, where we chatted with the 8-10 other guests. We found the atmosphere to be very relaxed here - with guests indulging without a 2nd thought. The view was excellent, including perhaps 2 miles of the rugged coral cliffs. Orel was fun - a relaxed & pleasant young man. Easygoing & always willing to chat, and a good bartender too.
We ordered pan fried snapper w/ brown stew sauce for dinner, which was excellent. Dainty the cook proved to be outstanding - both for dinners & (huge) breakfasts. We found that we had to plan ahead for these meals though, since they seemed to take at least an hour+ to prepare. It was a relaxed no problem feeling though... and we were happy to wait for those great meals to be brought down to our veranda. We relaxed after dinner on our veranda - watching the moonlit sea, playing cards & seeing a couple of local scroungy dogs raid the trash pile. Had a quick a/n dip in the pool & turned in.
Sunday at Drumville, 1/27/02:
We woke & were out to explore by about 10am. Walked east from Drumville, past a handy little market which wed stop into later, to Leroys world famous jerk chicken stand (Note: During our April Negril trip we were saddened to hear that Leroy and his family had had a violent altercation with another family in town. We hope they are recoveringtho we havent heard news since then). Munched on his chicken & chatted with him - learning that hed be glad to bottle some sauce for us to ship home, or hook us up with a good friend of his for a tour through the countryside... Ya gotta love Negril. :)
We pressed on eastward, past Ricks to the LTU Pub for a 2nd snack. John the bartender made the best Bloody Marys weve had in Jamaica. The crab balls were good, and the chicken quesadilla was great. True to rumor, the LTU is worth a visit - with a small thatched-roof bar with a dozen tables perched overlooking a very pretty green & turquoise cove. Prices were quite reasonable & the food & drinks were superb. We met Bill the owner, who spruced the place up over the past 2 years. He has some nice large hotel-like rooms across the street for $50-65/nite - a good option for solid, clean rooms. We had deja vu experience, when a local vendor offered some pineapple skunk (Ziggys favorite) to another couple at the bar while we ate a late breakfast looking out over the Caribbean.
We walked back in the beautiful warm noontime sun, past shops & vendors, who invariably gave us a friendly hello. No high pressure here.. just pleasant greetings from the local folks letting us know about their wares. We stop at the small market by Drumville for supplies. A nice little place with a great blend of tourist essentials as well as snacks & other goods for local residents. We found decent prices & a nice selection of essentials. We get 2 big bags of stuff (mostly rum, juices, beer & snacks), for about $20 US. (Coruba rum was about $6US for a liter, Red Stripe about $5 per 6-pack) Great ginger-pineapple juice & ginger beer, as sell as a round ginger spiced bread/cake.
Liz does a brief a/n sun while Chris snorkels along the cliffs. The water is clear & nicely cool and the swells are fun to play in. Were both chased inside by some threatening rain, and spend a relaxing afternoon reading on our porch, watching the rain pelt the cliffs. The rain eases - a good thing, since were ready for a run to Orels cliff bar.
About cliffs sunning.Drumville had no shade, so its HOT. The addition of an outside shower and some palapas would be fantasticperhaps these were taken down by the hurricane in November? The Coral Seas Cliffs did have outdoor shower & a little bit of shadebut lacked the privacy of Drumville. Most places along the cliffs are very laid-back and A/N is permitted there is the added bonus of not having people walking by all the time, as you do at places along the Negril beach. We did, however, miss the opportunity to just walk into the water for a quick cool down as well as the excellent shade you find along almost any stretch of the beach.
The gardeners were maniacal - working 9am-9pm. During our stay, they transformed the area immediately around our room. The somewhat junky, backyard look from yesterday is now freshly raked, with dozens of new flowers & plants. The trash pile is better too, now that most of the trash bags are covered with leaves & other rakings. This was great, though it also meant that we had folks working in close proximity to our room (like 6 feet) much of the time. :)
Its evening. We snack for dinner & turn in early (11ish?). Our sleeping loft has louvers overlooking the main walkway, so we have a birds-eye (& ear) view of our neighbors chatting outside their room. We overhear several good jokes, which Chris is looking forward to using on our next Jamaica trip in April!
Our next 2 days are similarly nice.... relaxing at the cliffs, eating great food, and taxiing to the beach (for about 5$US). The beach is gorgeous as always - much prettier up near the Negril River vs. the western end of the beach. The sand and water are crystal clear, and there are 2-3 rows of coral reefs, which show all shades of deep blues, blue-green & turquoise as the afternoon progresses.
We score major in meeting "Jerky" the jerk pork man. Jerky has the best pork we've ever had. It rivals any other food weve had in Jamaica. Look for him toting his metal cooler full of jerk pork at noontime - walking the beach. This is an example of capitalism at its best. Jerky cooks 20-30lbs of jerk pork in the morning, then loads it into a metal cooler that he carries down the beach - selling fist-sized lb helpings for $5US. Some of the best food weve had in Jamaica. The local folks buy from him.
Drumville Cove & the mango mouse: The bathroom in our cabana was made of stone and wood & rather funky. The water pressure in the shower made H2s showers seem world-class. We also had a mouse in the bathroom who was enamored of my Bath & Body Works Mango Soap.he took some little nibbles every day. Our last morning we woke to find that he had dragged the rather large (compared to a mouse!) soap all the way across the vanity top to his mouse hole alas, the soap was too large to fit thru. I imagine hes whittled it down to size by now.
White Sands & Vernon's Fun Holiday end up being 2 of our favorite beach haunts. Both have 2-for-1 specials every day. White Sands has excellent breakfasts as well. The Coral Seas Beach Resort is a winner too - with some of the prettiest water views on the beach - showing off 3 rows of coral reefs within swimming distance.
A brief epilogue.... after 4 nice days, we moved as planned to Coral Seas Cliffs. This was quite different - much more like a nice USA hotel. Our room was large, very clean & had a huge bathroom - with a full sized tub (much to Liz's delight). We had a vaulted ceiling w/ paddle fan, and a large balcony, fit for dinner & cards at nite.. The view from the 2nd floor was due west & gorgeous. We had a birds-eye view of the catamarans cruising to Rick's bar & insanery each nite (including Thursday, during a driving rainstorm.... god it looked like fun to be huddled on that boat!)
Our brief Hedo visit: of course we cannot resist the lure of Hedo.weve walked the beach for days and looked longingly down to the point wondering who was there. We finally decide to go see if the construction is truly done & to say hi to friends who work there. We take a taxi down to Cosmos & begin the fun walk thru the other A/Is to Hedo. We pass thru Sandals (OMG several topless ladies!) & on thru the security gate (No problem mon, we say, Just visiting friends. this is, of course, no problem for security either). We marvel at the beautiful new construction, get naked, stop & chat with the watersports men (Chris was SCUBA certified at H2 so he always greeted warmly). We then walk down to the point to see whats shaking.Hey Liz & Chris we hear! Good lord, its B&Fwhat an incredible surprise! We had thought we would never see B&F again.we laugh, we hug, we chat & then.B&B find us.!! Another great surprise!
We have a great visit with our friends.and note that the beach is packed like we have never seen we figure this is due to it being Lifestyles month. We bid sad goodbyes & walk through the new construction.it looks gorgeous! We make our way thru the dining room, greeting Chubby & Charlie and off we go to catch a taxi back to the cliffs. What a great little visit & such wonderful surprises!
Note on taxis: Theres a major mark up (at least 2X) for taxis when they pick you up at the big resorts. For example, from Hedo to the cliffs is $10-20. From the main road outside Hedos driveway to the cliffs is $5 per carload.
Overall, a great trip. Nice to see the cliffs & check out the jerk shacks & other small places. The LTU Pub was excellent as rumored - both for the bar/restaurant, as well as the rooms. The small markets & take-out restaurants were great - friendly, and quite a bargain too. The beach had eroded a fair bit from hurricane Michelle, but is still walk able & beautiful. (Note: were pleased to report that in April 2002 the beach was back in most spots). The atmosphere on the cliffs is quite relaxed, and the beach is laid-back-yet-lively. What a wonderful place Negril is.