Transportation
Our Jamacia trip, 23-29 Nov 03
Direct flight from Orlando to Mobay on Sunday was no problem. Arrived around 10:30, breezed though customs and were on our way to Firefly by 11:15 (didn't even take time to go to the duty free store). We had hired Jerry, Firefly's driver, and the trip went really fast. We were probably in our room by 1:00 or 1:30, as we had made two stops en route for red stripe and other supplies for our stay. Of course we got approached for ganga outside of the airport, but it was a polite, no thanks, mon and everything was o.k. Cost for Jerry to drive us was $60 plus tip.
Room
Dumped our bags in the room, which was nice enough.
We stayed in one of the 2 penthouse suites, and it did have a wonderful view
(just be prepared to haul your luggage of the two flights of stairs yourself!).
Suite also had a kitchen with full refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave,
toaster and oven. We did make use of the frig for cold red stripes and it
was nice to be able to fix our blue mountain coffee in the room in the mornings.
Suite also had A/C (that wasn't on when we arrived and it was really
suffocating!), which worked fine but took a while (we didn't need it at night),
and a TV that got numerous satellite channels.
The bar at Firefly is small and friendly. They provide 2 free cups of coffee in the morning (sometime after 8:00) and it seems most guests take advantage of this. It was nice talking to the other guests in the morning and hearing about their previous day/plans for the day. Shawn and Megan (the bartenders) were both extremely friendly and helpful!
The prices there are also very reasonable (both drinks and breakfast/lunch).
Beach
O.K., after we catch our breath, it's down to the
beach! It really is a beautiful beach! However, on our first stroll
down the beach, we must have been followed by at least 10 Jamaicans offering
their various goods, mainly ganga, but also jewelry. We tried the no
thanks, mon, but some were VERY persistent. We ended up buying two
bracelets for $5. By the way, if you don't have $$ on you, they will take
an IOU. This constant offering of ganga really got to us, so I think it
was on Tuesday, we ended up buying 3 rolled joints for $10. After that, it
seemed most of the beach guys pretty much left us alone.
Firefly is located in an excellent area on the beach, as it is close to Margaretiville and lots of other nice bars/restaurants. The trampolines in the ocean at Margaretiville were a blast (not to jump on too much, but we went out and took a nice break on them).
It should be noted that although Firefly advertises and fully supports nudity, we never really felt comfortable without our suits. This was due to the fact that most people staying there were always in at least bathing suits. Also, since the resort is right on the public beach, there were also a lot of other people always walking up and down the beach right in front of the resort. We did however see a few couples and one Italian gentleman taking advantage of the nudity towards the end of our 4-night stay. We tried to do the hot tub nude (had it to ourselves) late one night, but it was way too hot! The hot tub (above ground type) is in the garden behind the hotel and totally private. The resort has a bathroom and showers adjacent to the hot tub area towards the office.
Food/Restaurants
Sunday night we had dinner at the small restaurant
right next to Firefly (beach something?) and we lucked out because Sunday was
the night they had entertainment there as well (live reggae until 10:00 p.m.).
We had a candlelit table that was not more than 5 ft from the ocean (very
romantic!). I had the red snapper and my husband had the jerk chicken.
Both were very good and reasonably priced (around $10/$12 per dinner).
Monday morning we had breakfast (red stripe for me (don't have to wait until 10:00 here!) and an omelet for hubby) at the Firefly bar. The omelet and toast were good and very reasonably priced. We then had Jerry take us to the Sunshine Village Mall. This is where the local grocery store and duty free souvenir shops are. We were able to find all the souvenirs we wanted here and also bought milk (for hubby's white russians) and Red Stripes for our room at the Hi Lo grocery store. Note: The milk is only sold in boxes on the shelf!
Monday night we had the office make us reservations at Rock House for dinner and took advantage of their free transportation to the resort. We had a table on the deck right next to the cliff/ocean. It was VERY beautiful! I had the red snapper again, and my husband had a lobster pasta dish. Both were o.k. and reasonably priced (around $12/$13 per dinner). We had leftovers, which we ate on our balcony the next morning. After dinner, our waiter gave us a quick tour of the resort. This looks like a very nice place to stay if you want more privacy/peace and quiet than the beach. I think we would love to stay in one of their villas sometime.
Note: You do have to pay the driver for your trip back to your hotel; I think it was like $10.
Tuesday night was Firefly's bonfire party. Free rum punch and popcorn! We invited a friend we had met at the cottages next door and I think everyone staying at Firefly attended. It was a lot of fun. After the bonfire, we headed down to a restaurant on the beach recommended by Shawn, The Boat Bar. I had the pepper steak and my husband had the spaghetti. It was o.k. We had a lot left over, so it did make a good breakfast in the morning on our balcony.
Wednesday (out last night) we had invited our friend to join us for dinner and we were going to go to 3 Dives on the cliffs for their lobster, but decided to just walk down the beach (versus getting a driver) to another recommended restaurant, Holiday Fun. We all ordered the grilled lobster and it was excellent!
Activities
While at Firefly, we pretty much just chilled on the
beach most days. We did have Jerry drive us to the tour at Mayfield Falls,
which was great! It was around an hour's drive up the mountain with very
bad roads, but beautiful scenery. Once there, the tour of the falls was
incredible. You start at the bottom and work your way to the top with your
guide, stopping at each of the natural Jacuzzi's along the way. Our guide
got some fantastic pictures of my husband and I in the Jacuzzi's.
Note: If you don't have sneakers for this trip, you will have to rent them for $3.
We also did the horseback riding one day at Rhodes. We miscommunicated with our driver on this tour, so instead of the beach and mountain ride, we only did the 2-hour mountain ride, which was great!
We rented a jet ski on the beach right next door to Firefly one afternoon and had a blast! We went all the way to the blue castle on the cliffs and almost down to Hedo.
Each night they had live reggae music at one of the clubs/restaurants. We walked to Albert's one night (fairly long walk) and did not end up staying because by the time we got there it was very crowded and standing room only. We just enjoyed the walk and music on the way to and from there.
After 4 nights we hired Jerry to take us for our 2-night stay at Hedo II, a short drive away. See below for a short report on that, as I don't know if I'll get around to doing a full trip report. We were there such a short time (too short!). Next time, longer, mon!
We enjoyed Firefly very much and would consider staying there again, although there are so many resorts along that section of beach, it might also be nice to try one of the others since we weren't really comfortable with being nude at Firefly (one of the main reasons for staying there). There is a new resort right next to Firefly that looked really nice, but we didn't take the time to check it out!
We had a BLAST at Hedo! The spanksgiving
day parade was really one of the highlights of the trip!
What a great group of people were there for
thanksgiving to particpate in that annual event!!! I can't get the song we
sang out of my head! "We're from hedo, we don't care, we don't wear no
underwear....etc.....etc......"
We have now been to Hedo III (feb 03), Negril (firefly), and Hedo II.....We would definitely stay at any of these places again.
As far as the age old Hedo II vs Hedo III, we're like many others, in that we love both places, but somehow I think the bottom line would go to Hedo II just because it's in Negril, has a far superior beach (and pools, we think), and the people we met there just seemed friendlier to us.
We have one complaint about Negril. We looked everywhere for the nude wood carvings and couldn't find them ANYWHERE. We had bought a very nice one at Hedo III from one of the vendors on-site and wanted another one on this trip.
We actually ended up taking Tim-Air back to Mobay on 29 Nov (sat), as we got to leave an hour later! LOL That allowed us to participate in the 3:00 nude waterslide contest and the start of the beer drinking contest before we left!
It was just too bad we had our tropical clothes on when we got back to Orlando, and it was in the 30's! But it was o.k., it was only a short shuttle bus ride to our car.
Can't wait to get back to Jamacia sometime in 04!