Jamaica Tours, Guides and Vacations

When we made the decision to move to Jamaica more than 2 years ago we searched Google for rooms to rent in Negril and one of the listings we found was for Heart Beat Seaside Resort on the West End Cliffs of Negril. We decided to make the initial move in summer when better long term rates are available and we ended staying there for the first 6 months we lived in Jamaica. I think that living at Heart Beat and meeting the people we did has made our long term stay in Negril possible in many ways.

We moved and tried other places to live in Negril but we have remained close with the staff which includes Hyacinth and Junie the housekeepers and Kevin the groundskeeper as well as Valerie Brewis the property owner who is a 30 year resident of this wonderful slice of the world. We have lived away from the sea since we left and we have been longing for it since that same day. Something about living seaside is just so peaceful and natural to me and Heart Beat is the perfect place for relaxing days watching nature and life pass by. I think it must have something to do with growing up in Key West and always near the ocean but I can waste away hours just watching the waters in anticipation of a school of fish jumping or a dolphin popping up for air.

We sat at Devine Destiny for a long time and when it was time for a change we new we wanted to be within sight of the Caribbean again. If we could we wanted to be seaside but living there long term can be a trick. Lucky for us we happen to know some and we are once again relaxing in the beauty and cool quiet atmosphere of Heart Beat where the sunsets from the cliffs bring to end yet another wonderful day, each and every day.

I don't think I have ever felt as laid back or chill as I do when we are here and the past two weeks have been so relaxed they seem to have slipped by in my sleep. We moved into an unused space that required some cleaning but in between the work and repairs we have enjoyed some of the best days this year and no matter what happens it's always very calm and quiet here and the chirping of birds or the rustling of palm trees in the crisp sea breeze is about all you ever notice.

With 2.5 acres and limited buildings there is plenty of open space and there are a number of walking paths that lead to the waters edge where you can actually dive into the ocean head first from less than 10 feet above sea level. Many of the other cliff resorts are much higher up and not so well suited to afternoon dips or snorkeling in the warm waters of the Caribbean but you can experience some of the best cliff side snorkel trips in Negril right from easy to use ladders that you find on both ends of the property.

There is a coral reef which runs just off the Negril cliffs that starts in the waters off of Heart Beat and on any morning you may find Jamaican divers swimming by with spear guns in hand in search of the catch of the day. If you don't see any divers you are guaranteed a show from the local fisherman who take off from the small fishing boat fleet on the beaches near Mi Yard and head out to the deeper reef far outshore in their motor boats or the lone fisherman who paddles by in his dugout boat and pulls fish traps just outside the mooring buoys along the coastline. It's a cool way to start your day by watching them run their fish nets or pull the traps in the early morning sun which you can watch rise up over Long Bay Beach and the Westmoreland mountains between Negril and Montego Bay.

We have been snorkeling about as often as we can and even our four year old Robbie has enjoyed the beautiful sealife that can be found just a few feet from shore. We have seen dozens of different tropical fish including some pretty cool porcupine fish and multi colored damsel fish plus sea urchins, sea cucumbers and even a pretty big stingray feeding in the muddy sand bar. It's almost never ending as each new day bring something new into the area and we have something new to discover just about every morning. I think mornings before 8am are the best time to jump in the water as the sun is about in the perfect position for taking well lighted photos and everything seems to be awake and feeding.

There are all types of wildlife in the natural environment around you and you can listen to birds sing almost all day long. Right now there is a pair of Jamaican Orioles weaning two chicks who hop around on palm tree branches begging food from mommy and picking through the beds of soft grass on ground below their home. An Orangequit has been flying onto the porch and grabbing tufts of thatch from the roof for the past week while building a nearby nest. There are a number of date palms in the yard which shed a sweet date that hermit crabs just love to eat. You can find them at all times of the day just about all over the yard but at night there are hundreds of them crawling around under the two largest trees. If you dare to pick one up carefully you'll find an assortment of colors and shells and they can reach in size up to the palm of your hand. Every morning the White Crown Pigeons that live high up in the almond tree drop down on the cliffs to sip rainwater alongside the rock doves and occasional egret. The Jamaican almond trees shed seeds year round and you can actually crack them open and eat the almonds inside although it requires a bit more work then they are worth unless you know the trick to cracking them on the seam. The yard also has a number of ackee trees as well a coconut palms, sea grapes and spanish limes.

Heart Beat remains simple and there is no spa or restaurant operating on site although you can have a massage in your room or seaside with a local massage therapist. For dining there is Jacko and Jennys Restaurant across the street which offers a great selection of Jamaican and international dishes. From french toast and scrambled eggs to ackee and saltfish, brown stew chicken and fried fish with bammy they offer a variety of menu items that should satisfy anyone. At night you can find some of the best jerk chicken on the West End at Tayons where you can buy a cold Red Stripe and shoot a game of pool with the local crew. Tayons is open until 2am and plays a great selection of reggae and dancehall favorites on the sound system that I truly enjoy. I have heard some complaints about the loud music by those looking for sleep early in the evening but Negril is a late night place and you'll hear music all over town until the early morning hours.

There a number of different room types available for rent from the small cottage with kitchenette and bath called Calypso where we lived to the seaside pillar rooms which feature beautiful hand finished wood work throughout and a porch facing those picture perfect sunsets up to the larger unit which sleeps up to 7 people in beds made from bamboo. All of the rooms have funky names to fit the theme such as Dancing Dolphin or Lovers Rock and come complete with mini fridge, screened windows and ornate ceiling fans. The rooms have comfortable beds and basic furnishings with a rustic homey feel to them and they are meticulously maintained by the kindest people you'll ever meet.

The pillar rooms are very popular for romantic getaways for newlywed couples on honeymoon in Negril on their Jamaica vacation but are equally as popular with Jamaicans from as far as Kingston looking for that perfect Negril weekend. The seaside apartments in the main building are one bedroom units with full kitchen and private bath plus ceiling fans and screened windows which face Long Bay and Negril Beach for a great view of the bay and beach area with the mountains in the backdrop. You can join the local fisherman who walk out to the point of the cliffs nearby and bait fish with handlines each late afternoon for a beer and conversation or you can just sit and watch them from your veranda.

Heart Beat is a $2 taxi ride from everything in Negril yet inside the walls it often feels like your miles away from everything which is exactly how you want it to be sometimes. If you are looking for a romantic seaside getaway in Negril then you must check them out on the Heart Beat website or facebook page to arrange your vacation.

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No matter how often I find myself on a Black River Safari it is a treat to me each and every time. I had the pleasure of taking Angus and Kelley on a tour of the South Coast of Jamaica with stops at Black River and YS Falls. Our trip to Black River from Negril was short and sweet and we were at the Black River tour location before lunch.

We got the full tour with tons of information about the local ecology and the Black River ecosystem. The big draw on the river are the Jamaican Crocodile which can only be found here in Black River in small numbers. These rare animals spend their days cruising the rivers in search of food which often comes in the form of chicken carcasses tossed out by the Black River safari guides and tour operators who keep the crocs well fed.

The crocodiles in Black River are so tame and predictable that tour guides will often jump in the water or at least hand feed them for your enjoyment. There are sections of the river that are crocodile free where visitors can take a swim in the cool clear waters of the Black River. The river is called black because of the peat settled on the bottom but the river water is actually pretty clear although they say you should filter it before drinking.

A Black River and YS Falls tour is a wonderful way to spend the day traveling the lesser developed section of the island and the South Coast of Jamaica on a full day tour with stops in Scotts Cove or Middle Quarters for fresh fried fish and bammy or delicious hot boiled "peppa shrimp" and a real taste of Jamaica.

Purple Cattleya Orchid at Black River Jamaica

Irie Pontoon Riverboat Tours on Black River Jamaica

White Egret birds and Jamaican Wildlife at Black River Safari

Santa Cruz Mountains from Black River Safari Tour

Red mangrove at Black River Safari Tour Guides

Black River Dread Locks in Red Mangrove Tree

Jamaican Water Lily on Black River Safari

Black River Basin

Jamaican Crocodile with mouth wide

Angus and Kelley with JamaicaMAX Tours

Two people stand in the YS Falls at the Tallest Zip Line Ride

Close up view of YS Falls Zip Lines Tour Guide

Zip Line Rider screaming over the YS River extreme adventure zip lines

Wide view of the YS Falls river gorge where you go for fast Zip Line Rides

Are ready for an extreme vacation in Jamaica? Would you like to take a zip line tour in Negril to YS Falls and enjoy the rush of flying over the roaring river from 100 feet above the gorge? It's a pure rush and a must do for any adrenaline junkies out there who look for something more out of an adventure vacation.

The day starts from Negril with a ride down the south coast of Jamaica for a relaxing and scenic drive through primarily undeveloped territory along the coastline facing the Caribbean Sea. This trip comes with many different options and can begin with a stop at the Black River Safari where you will take a boat ride down the historic river to experience the wonderful Jamaican wildlife including the Jamaican crocodile and many different endemic bird species. The boat safari takes between one to two hours and takes you through the scenic wetlands where you will feed the crocodiles and even take a dip in the water if you wish to. Don't worry it's very safe and you actually swim in a part of the river where you rarely find crocodiles. So we have been told.

After our tour of the Black River we will head over to the YS Falls passing through Middle Quarters and the fishing village of Scotts Cove where we can stop to sample the many wonderful delicacies served by the local Jamaicans in their roadside stands. Fried fish and bammy is a popular Jamaican meal or you can sample the conch soup, fresh vegetables and other local treats being offered in roadside marketplace with as much flavor as your spciy food. Middle Quarters is a low land area where you will find roadside vendors offering pepper shrimp caught in the local wetlands. The shrimp are actually more like a crayfish and a delicious treat when boiled in the flavorful Jamaican spices.

Once we were each YS Falls it is time to relax and enjoy the natural beauty of the surrounding tropical rainforest and the lush Jamaican jungle where you can enjoy the large lawns of rich green grass for a picnic or jump right into the activities and climbed the staircase to the top of the river where you can see some of the most magnificent waterfalls in all of Jamaica. YS Falls is a spectacular property with many wonderful views and waterfalls which are of course the highlight of this expansive piece of land. The waterfalls are actually located on the YS Farm and horse stable which is a renowned breeder of thoroughbred racing horses used at the racetrack in Kingston or also exported around the world.

At the top of the waterfall you will reach a platform where the zip line tours begin. After some instruction by the certified support professional you will suit up in your harness and drop into the first of three zip line adventure's. Your ride will have you zigzag across the river as you travel down their gorge flying high above the river and your friends below. It is an exhilarating ride and lasts quite a long time when you are screaming from the mad rush of adrenaline and fear that almost every rider faces.

For those less adventurous you can enjoy a swim in the river or simply walk back down the river trail on a safe and stable wooden walkway that runs the full length of the riverwalk. Zip Line rides at YS Falls are $35 each with group rates and multiple ride discounts available. You can also count on one of the tour guides asking for a tip and if you feel he was worth it than $5 goes a long way in Jamaica. If you are ready to book a zip line tour reservation with the coolest tour guides in Negril by checking out the contact us page listed above.

Since I started offering vacation planning and tour guides servcies here in Jamaica I have been asked a zillion times how hard it is to rent a car in Jamaica and tour the island by yourself. I have different answers for different people.

For most people traveling to Jamaica I tell them right away that driving in Jamaica is a different thing than driving anywhere else you have been. It's not the fact they drive on the other side of the road, its not even that so many drivers speed but the fact the road conditions in Jamaica are simply horrendous and individuals accustomed to driving in the developed world may find it harder to get around in a country with few street signs and roadside assistance available for inexperienced drivers or tourists.

I have witnessed a number of incidents that could have been avoided with the help of a qualified tour guide in Jamaica and the following story is the perfect example. A group of Canadian tourists came to Kingston Jamaica in a rented van and took a wrong turn and they ended up having shots fired at them for entering the wrong neighborhood.

Now you may say that this could have happened to anyone but I disagree. I personally have been to all parts of Jamaica including the worst ghettos in downtown Kingston and have never had an issue similar. There is a way to travel in Jamaica and there is away not to travel. If you are obviously not from Jamaica and having trouble finding your way in certain areas you become an instant mark and endanger yourself and your passengers in doing so.

if you plan on traveling around Jamaica and do not have any experience in dealing with Jamaicans outside of the resort towns then you should hire a tour guide or driver and listen to them. Jamaica is a beautiful place full of ugly things and taking the time and spending the money to hire a professional Jamaican tour guide will help ensure you have a great Jamaican vacation without the drama and excitement this group tour experienced.

Canadian tourists shot at on Jamaican vacation

The group, who were reportedly from Quebec, were on a self-planned excursion when they heard three shots, which also damaged the van’s windshield.

We had the 1st Annual Negril Seafood Festival here on Easter Sunday and it was a huge success with loads of great food and presentations from local resorts and top restaurants. The seafood festival was a great idea and well executed by the team at WoWNegril.com and it seems sure we'll see many more of these in the years to come.

The idea was to have a number of top resorts and restaurants to have a cook off and other competitions thoughout the day as they displayed their talents and services for all to see. The event had a number of great display booths featuring the wide range of seafood delicacies available in Negril Jamaica and there was enough food and drink to go around for everyone.

I had a wonderful time walking around and tasting the many wonderful treats being prepared on site by the master chefs of Negril and it was an awesome experience just to see and smell everything. By the days end I had my share of seafood and drink and I certainluy look forward to the next event. Too bad you can't have these like once a month because it was really nice to see so much on display.

Entry to Negril Seafood Festival

Negril Seafood Festival at Wayz Beach

Push Cart Display at Negril Seafood Festival

Peppa Shrimp by Push Cart Restaurant at Negril Seafood Festival

Ice Carvings at Negril Seafood Festival

More ice carving at the Negril Seafood Festival

Serving up the fish at Negril Seafood Festival

Jamaican Style Fish Fry

I've been thinking a lot lately about my next travel destination. It may yet be a while before I am able to make another trip but that will not stop me from thinking about it or from doing any research on where I want to go. Living here in Jamaica has given me a great appreciation for the natural beauty of the world we live in. I especially love the lush tropical vegetation and large green spaces that you find here in Jamaica and if I do travel somewhere new there will have to be lots more of that to get me away from here.

I have wanted to travel a great many places but no place more so than South America. I have wanted to travel to Costa Rica and Brazil for quite some time now but I do not think I will be making it their on this next trip. I think my travels in South America call for long-term commitment to the continent and I will need to spend at least a year there before I'm able to see all that I want to see. Our next vacation will be a short term trip under one month to some exotic destination just to see how different things are in other parts of the world. I have so many choices available to me that it's not that easy to determine what I wanna do. So that's why I'm thinking about it now even though it will be a while before I am able to actually go.

Ever since I saw the first Lord of the Rings movie I have wanted to visit New Zealand just to see some of those beautiful places that you seen the movie. All would necessarily go to those exact places but I imagine there are lots of all the beautiful places and in New Zealand for me to see. The huge wide open spaces of lush fertile land are what I would like to see. You can keep the city's, sidewalks made of concrete and concentrations of people that you find at so many travel destinations around the world. I would rather go see places where you can see no other people are no other manmade thing the last great spaces of the world left untouched.

They say Auckland is a nice place to visit and using the power of the web it is pretty easy to find a cheap accommodation in Auckland or a hotel in Hokitika without much more than a few clicks of the mouse. I don't know very much about these places but they sure seem like an excellent vacation to someplace completely different from what I've ever been before and I think that's what I want most out of my next vacation.

As an online travel writer or blogger, as we are now known, I spend about as much time typing as I do traveling. One of the main reasons that I have not been writing much for this blog has to do with the fact that I type so much my wrists hurt almost all the time.

I decided to take a look at the speech recognition software that has been built into Microsoft Windows Vista to see if it can help me with the amount of typing that I have to do. In less than 24 hours I have been able to setup and train my computer to understand voice commands which allow me to operate my computer hands free.

It was a rather simple actually. I actually tried speech recognition software once before some years ago. I used a product called dragon naturally speaking that was a speech to text converter which allowed me to communicate with my computer using the microphone which then translated my audio input to text. The software built into windows is far more intuitive and easier to setup them the last software I tried to use. I have found that it makes very few mistakes and has a very diverse vocabulary with no words such as webmaster or carpal tunnel syndrome. My last experience with speech recognition software was horrible and I had a very difficult time training the software to understand my voice. Thus far I have had no issues with the software available in Windows Vista and I'm very impressed with how fast and easy it has been to get up to speed.

Hopefully this new software will make working in Jamaica easier for me and allow me to create more blog posts and share more information with you my friends from around the world. With the built in translation services that this website offers I can now speak too people all over the world in their natural language. All I need now is a Jamaican patois version which understands wa gwan. Apparently the software can be trained to learn new words based on my voice input. As an example I had to teach the software the word Wordpress which was not in its vocabulary. In the training process the computer recorded my voice and saves that data for later use. In the past 2 hours I have written a few 1000 words on three different websites and created hyperlinks inside those articles without using the mouse or keyboard for any function.

This does not have much to do with Jamaica and but a lot to do with the way I will be managing this blog from this point forward. From now on the text you read here we'll be written by machine from speech to text conversion using the software built into my laptop and Microsoft Windows Vista. If you do a lot are writing online or you're looking for a way to save time on the computer am going to suggest to take a look at speech recognition software. Roddy

It was a beautiful start to the best time of year here in Jamaica. Spring Break 2009 was a success and Negril Beach was simply packed with college students and tourists from all over the world but especially the American schools.

Spring Break is always a big party in Negril but this year it seems everyone had a little extra fun. I don't know if it was the extra heat or the reality of the global economic crisis that had everyone in a party mood but Negril was hot like fire each and every day. Maybe we all just needed a good time and it was easy to do here in Negril Jamaica.

The Spring Break travel services such as StudentCity.com and STSTravel.com brought down plane loads of college kids from all over America on spring break vacations and they drank themselves silly at The Jungle or Margaritaville just about every night. It looks like Monday Madness at The Jungle was voted best Spring Break Party for 2009 and the action was hot and heavy for every week in March.

If you are looking for the Spring Break parties in Jamaica then head over to Negril Beach each and every March for some fun in the Jamaica sun!

Spring Break Negril Pictures

Margaritaville Negril Beach Spring Break 2009

Spring Break girls having fun

Spring Break girls having fun on stage

Appleton Rum Party Spring Break

Drinking Grey Goose on Spring Break in Negril

Spring Break Negril Videos

Long Bay Beach sits just on the outskirts of Negril Jamaica and is known to locals as the best beach in Jamaica. The infamous 7 mile Negril Beach is by far the most popular beach in Negril but Long Bay is the locals favorite play place. It's also one of the least used beaches during the work week and you can almost have the place to yourself on most weekdays. It's so nice to have such a huge chunk of beach all to yourself with no worries about being cramped next to a dozen loud people or under some sound system as you may find on the main Negril beach.

Long Bay Beach is known to all as one of the more quiet and least crowded beaches and the facilities on site make it a favorite with locals and the few tourists who find out about it from them. Long Bay Beach is a pay facility and swimming here will set you back $150JA per person or less than $2US but the price is nothing when you compare the amenities and extra things you will find at Long Bay.

Forget the hustlers and higglers of Negril Beach because you won't find any at Long Bay. What you will find are some of the best views and most relaxing places to worship the Sun God RA. More than half the times I have been I'm there all by myself but on the weekends you'll find at the most a couple dozen people laid out praying to their own sun god.

The scuba diving and snorkeling from Long Bay Beach are amazing and you can find some great coral heads and rock formations just offshore from this public access beach. The near shore snorkeling is great and you can find all sorts of wildlife just a few feet from shore with a mask and snorkel. Always use the buddy system if you go diving in Jamaica.

A trip to Long Bay Beach for some sun and snorkeling are a great way to spend the perfect day in Negril Jamaica.