Jamaica Tours, Guides and Vacations

Finding vacation beach rentals or just simply a room in Negril is easy enough but finding a cool spot to chill by the beach at an affordable rate year round is a trick unless of course you know Joseph at Westport Cottages right on Norman Manley Blvd. If you know about his international hostel and affordable beach accommodations just across the street from Negril Beach then you know where to go for one of the best values in an inexpensive room in Negril.

Budget travelers from around the world call Westport home during their stay in Jamaica and many have returned annually for many years. Some are simple backpackers looking for a cheap room near the beach for the night but many others are long term guests visiting Jamaica and the Negril area for a month or more. Still others are simply budget conscious vacationers looking for quick easy access the the world famous 7 Mile Negril Beach with it’s pristine white sand , crystal blue seas and year round sunshine.

No matter where they are from I have met some of the most interesting people while staying at Westport Cottages and it seems something about the place attracts an eclectic if not fun crowd of guests to get to know. The place is quiet and clean with daily room preps from none other than “Sista” the head of housekeeping and grounds care. She’s a kind honest woman who makes sure you sleep on clean sheets and a well kept room.

The rooms are rather basic and just what you need if you plan on spending most of your time actually visiting Negril and the beach. If you looking for a plush air conditioned place with tv and lots of other stuff then look elsewhere. If you are looking for an inexpensive beach rental nearby Negril Beach with a laid back and super cool atmosphere then call Joseph at Westport Cottages or use the Contact Us page for more details on where to stay in Negril Beach.

Rooms for rent in Negril Beach at Westport Cottages

Shared kitchen area at Westport Cottages

I love driving my van around Jamaica. It’s been about 10 months now I’ve had it and we have covered many many 1000’s of kilometers and nearly the entire country thus far. We have actually circled the island and spent time in most major cities. I can drive around Mobay, Ocho Rios, Negril and Kingston with no problem mon.

We have driven the South Coast route from Negril to Kingston a few dozen times now and I feel super comfortable taking this route. We have stopped at all the major attractions as well as most of the smaller ones in the last year and visited much of the South Coast Jamaica. I especially love the Bluefields and Treasure Beach areas. Mandeville seems like a nice place to chill with some of the coolest weather on the island.

The van has been a great asset and well worth the investment. I have had to put a few bucks into it to keep it running but besides my van insurance its been pretty cheap. The van insurance policy we started with was weak and basically it covers the legal crap we need. I’m looking for some new van insurance quotes online using a new service that I found at QuoteZone.com but I will most likely be forced to stick with the crap policy I have. I say its crap because it does not cover anything more than the other person and it costs a fortune.

I’ve been lost in the van at least once on every trip we take and to be honest I’m glad it happens. Most often we end up in some rather unique and interesting situations that could only be found by getting lost in Jamaica. From 100 head of goats taking up the road or an impromptu street festival that erupts around a sound system in the town square I have been in some places and seen some things that only only me and Jah seem to truly appreciate.

I love Jamaica and my van has been a great part of the experience. If you plan on spending any more than 6 days in Jamaica bring enough money to buy a car and just sell it before you leave. You’ll appreciate having one while you’re here and it may just change your life.

I’m always looking for the cheapest way to travel in Jamaica for many reasons. Not only do I enjoy providing this information to our readers but the most obvious of course is to save money for myself and our family as we travel around Jamaica. We are certainly not wealthy people and living in Jamaica is not cheap. Traveling around Jamaica becomes considerably more expensive when you consider it’s not me alone but the wife and two young children I travel with. If it were me alone I would travel much cheaper and take full advantage of our van and tent. With kids its different and we need things like a shower, toilet and bed to really enjoy our travels. Not to say we can’t rough it in a tent or even the van for a couple days but its certainly not as enjoyable for the family as a whole. Dad always enjoys it!

Our trip to Treasure Beach was organized in a hurry and I did not put in much time for planning accommodations or a variety of activities. I was not even sure how long we would stay but we needed an affordable room for at least the first night we arrived in TB just because It had been some time since my last visit to the area and I wanted the family to enjoy things. Not knowing where to sleep would make it difficult for us to enjoy ourselves. I was hopeful I could find something like a campground when we arrived but I was never able to do so. Someone in Treasure Beach must allow tent camping but I did not find a specific place.

My favorite Jamaica travel guide suggests a visit to Sandy Hill Cottages for an inexpensive option for rooms in Treasure Beach so we decided to give it a try. We got to TB in the late afternoon and made straight for Sandy Hill which is located in Frenchmans Cove or at about the middle of what is known as Treasure Beach. It’s not on the beach but rather up the hills and above the beach on cliffs a few hundred feet above sea level. From the rear deck at Sandy Hill you can hear the sea crashing on the rocks below and watch the sun set over lush landscape and the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains before you.

Sandy Hill is owned and operated by a simple man named Prof who also runs Kirabu Cottage just next door. When we arrived at Sandy Hill with no reservations we were met by Prof who offered us a room next door at Kirabu for a discounted rate because he was full up at Sandy Hill and had no rooms available for the evening. A one night stay at Sandy Hill in the main house will set you back about $30US for the night with a shared kitchen and common area. I got a look into the rooms some people were living in and they seemed great but I took no pictures with all of their things in it. I asked about tent camping and Prof told me sure but the only space he had available was a rocky patch of dirt by the parking lot that was certainly not ready for tent sleeping.

Sandy Hill and Kirabu are just a short walk down the hill to Golden Sands Resort and free access to Frenchmans Cove and Beach. For inexpensive accommodations in Treasure Beach you can’t find much for a better deal than Sandy Hill.

View more photos in the Sandy Hill Treasure Beach Jamaica Photo gallery

Trip Advisor

So we moved into Devine Destiny last month. It is Devine Destiny and not Divine Destiny in Negril unlike so many web searchers seem to think. (The website is pretty sad looking still because I’m too busy to update it yet) It’s been a couple of weeks without my camera and I was hoping to get them back before I published this article about our new apartment in Negril on the West End. I had hoped to be able to provide some nice new photos of our moving in and the lovely grounds around us but it looks like it will be until after our return in the new year when I will have a camera to take those pictures with. I’m just not going to buy one here when I’ll be home so soon.

It’s actually been just about three weeks now and we’re totally in love with Devine Destiny. I can already see we will be keeping this place for a long term rental. I expect we’ll be here at least a year and I may still keep this for other use if we do move on. It really is a sweet spot for us and I would recommend it to just about anyone looking for a great deal on a long term rental in Negril. We have everything we could ever want right here or just nearby and I feel much better being just off West End Road rather than on it. We’re just a five minute walk and one minute drive from the main road for the Negril cliffs and minutes away from everything in town. The nice part is that things are much more quiet here for us than they were closer in to town and on the main road. Moving around outside our place was dangerous with the kids and we never really felt safe letting them roam the grounds. Here we have so much space it’s incredible really.

Over the past couple weeks we have taken to walks around the property with the kids and they have become great educational lessons. We have some goats with babies in the bush around the property boundaries that we feed fresh guava and ackee we pick from the bountiful trees here. Elise learned to make ackee and saltfish with a likkle advice from the housekeeping staff here and we had it for breakfast three days in a row because of how much we made. The two large trees here are pretty much untouched and we have more ackee then we can eat even with the kids helping out some. Robby, our youngest son, loves ackee and most Jamaican foods we have eaten as well. Of course he loves all food so far so thats not really saying much in his case. We have had lessons on the animals and how they live around us, lessons on the trees and plants and their role in life. Our walks in the rain or early morning dew are nice to explain the importance of water in the cycle and living here has been a great learning experience already. Both Robby and AJ are taking to the pool and AJ is actually swimming underwater short distances. He seems to feel more comfortable with his eyes open up underwater looking at each other but he stays under for quite some time now.

The grounds are covered in a wide variety of fruit and flower bearing trees and plants and there are always dozens of butterflies and birds around us. It may be a seasonal things but I’ve seen a dozen or more butterfly varieties in the past two days just under this tree in the courtyard where I am typing this blog post from. It has become my outdoors office with close proximity to my wireless router for great speed and the shade of a good size mangoe tree to protect me from the afternoon sun while a steady gentle breeze causes the butterflies to flutter just likkle more than usual. In the past couple days it has become my spot of choice to work in peace and quiet with nothing but the sounds of birds chirping and trees rusting in the breeze besides some dogs barking off in the distance. There is a stray dog problem in Jamaica and you see some scruffy mutts on the roads around us.

Our new apartment is what they call the Suite here and we have an upstairs and downstairs living space that is twice the size of our last place. We now have about 4 times the living space for less money then living on the water but the 11 acres and super sized pool here makes up for the sea side living and then some. I’m from Florida and living on the sea is cool but not a necessity for us any longer. Living at Heartbeat Negril would be great if we intended on living here shorter time frames but 5 months was enough sea life for me. I did enjoy watching the fishing boats and occasional dolphin but I still get by once in awhile and the sea is all around me.

Our apartment has a complete kitchen with full size refrigerator and two burner counter top gas stove. The stove is super cool with auto ignition and some super convection flames that seem to heat things up super fast. It is a trick to adjust them but we manage now. I burned a few pancakes getting used to things but we’re good now. We also have an electric oven which has baked a chicken spread out flat or a cake just fine for us. We would not be able to do a turkey and we actually opted out of the Thanksgiving celebrations this year until the owner invited us to spend the evening with her and her family and we did so gladly. They are the nicest people and dinner was Divine. Our upstairs living space is the family bedroom with two queen size mattresses for us and the kids. We’re still all in one room but it’s so huge we have plenty of space and privacy. We have a huge closet and plenty of drawer space in a large eight drawer chest with full size mirror. The cathedral ceilings must be over 15 feet and maybe those are 18 foot beams running up to the peak. Our unit is one of two in each building that not only has the wide view Dormer windows at the sleeping level but we also have two small windows in the peak that bring in some cool lighting.

Everything upstairs is wood including the handmade furniture, wooden stair case, wall paneling and roof structure. It really is nice and the craftsmanship is top notch. The handmade louvered doors and cabinetry plus the handrails and window frames all look great. The upstairs is covered in a thick brown carpet perfect for walking around on and for the kids to fall on. Upstairs is plush and quiet and perfect for sleeping. We have the Xbox and Monitor setup in front of our bed upstairs and its ten feet from the bed.Plenty of walking space in the room. The upstairs Dormer style windows have a large space even big enough for a twin bed or desk that I have chosen to make my office upstairs. I can reach the wireless from the buildings third floor and the open window is right up to tree level for some really nice views while I work. I do need to get my own phone and internet connection in order to continue my work seriously but working out here in the yard and sharing the office connection is fun for now. I can work from poolside if I chose to but its a bit too much sun down there. I sometimes sit there with the kids but usually I’m in the pool with them.

Downstairs has the kitchen as the entrance which leads to the dining/living space and on to the porch. Everything downstairs is tiled in a soft pink tone and easy to sweep off and keep clean. We have moved the full size fridge out into the living area to make more space in the kitchen for us. We also have a full size table that seats 6 plus a daybed which sits in front of the 19 inch television and satellite cable they supply. The cable has been aggravating as it blinks in and out on us but I’m hopeful we can correct this soon. I don’t really like watching too much television but having it blink out at the end of a show is a pain. The porch faces the pool and we have some folks living downstairs from us in a single room. Everyone is nice and we have some casual conversation with many of the other guests already.

The pool is simply awesome. I think its the largest and possibly most beautiful on West End. It’s pretty big and I can swim a nice long lap because it wraps around a bar with underwater seating in a huge arch. The bar has been opened for events but remains closed like the giant restaurant that seems to seat like 100 people. When this was a fully functional resort it must have been an awesome place, sadly I think they missed the peak and struggled to make a success of this place as an upscale resort. They now focus on a nicer place for locals and expats in search of long term rentals in Jamaica although they still offer some resort guest services. You can still stay here and have some great Jamaican cuisine prepared for you by the Devine Destiny staff but you won’t be served in the restaurant unless you want to sit down there. Guests now get breakfast lunch or dinner served in their rooms upon request. The restaurant freezers stay stocked with beverages and you can always get a Red Stripe with your jerk chicken dinner.

I guess its not too sad though cause I’m glad to have it available to me as an affordable apartment here in Negril. If this place was up to full speed it would probably cost me a lot more money and I’m totally happy to have it as it is. We live in a luxury apartment at an affordable monthly rate. If you’re looking for something like that for your stay in Jamaica then contact me with the links above.

/// Edit: I stole these pictures from around the web. Forgive me of my sins

It’s worth mentioning that we’re staying at the Heartbeat Resort here in Negril Jamaica for long term. We were able to negotiate a very fair monthly rate and we’ll most likely stay right here at least until December anyway and most likely well into next year also. I’m hopeful that we’ll find our own place sometime next year but for now it’s nice to have a stable place and Heartbeat seems like a great choice to us. It’s great having a place to call home and being able to actually unpack and live in a place is better for us as a family I’m certain. The kids are very comfortable here and they have a nice group of local children to play with. It’s been a lot of fun for the kids and parents as well as we have enjoyed having them over to share and play with.

We’re located at the beginning of the cliffs basically and have the advantage of not only the cliffs to enjoy but easy sea access from the small nearby beach. Finding long term apartment rentals in Jamaica is actually fairly easy. All I had to do was ask around and I found that places like TheLTU and Westport Cottages offer great monthly rates for not only summer but even during season as well. You’ll need to contact a few places to determine what you like or you can Contact Us and we’ll be glad to ask around or take a look at any place in the area for you. Need some pics of a place? Hey why not? I’ll be glad to drop in and shoot some shots of any resort or vacation accommodation in Negril. Either way finding an affordable long term rental unit in Negril or Jamaica in general is very easy if you have time to hunt them down and do the research.