Trip Report Chris & Liz  January, 2002  Negril trip (Drumville Cove and Coral Seas Cliff)

We've recently returned from the cliffs & 4 nice days at Drumville. The staff was wonderful, and the room & grounds were solid, but a bit on the rustic side. We enjoyed our stay indeed, but would caution the traveller not to expect a 3-star place. Keith (manager), Oral (bartender), Plug (groundskeeper) & the rest of the staff were truly excellent. The on-site dive shop was also a plus, with decent equipment, nice staff & very reasonable prices. Indeed, this is not a place for supreme privacy or creature comforts. Rather, it’s a very relaxed & informal small resort that allows you to experience the cliffs on a moderate budget. In contrast, the Coral Seas Cliffs just down the road was much like a nice moderate hotel in the US. Following is a report of our week on the cliffs at both places.

Settling in at Drumville Cove, Sat 1/26/02:

We checked into the "Mars 2" cabana. A solid little rustic suite with a sleeping loft, small kitchen & a rough, somewhat grungy bathroom. Nicely constructed of varnished wood, but it could have used some patching & a good scrubbing. Contrary to our expectations, it wasn’t particularly private - being adjacent to a main walkway to the cliff bar. It did have a view of the water - though thru some scrub sea grapes & over the hotel's 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 our ‘great Negril rummy game’. The grounds were quite nice - with several small pleasant walkways (which their gardeners worked on from 9am-9pm replanting and sprucing up), a fun little cliff bar, and a wonderful small pool & courtyard. The cliffs were interesting, but we found (both here & at Coral Seas) that access to the water isn’t super-easy. Both places required climbing down small ladders, and a bit of care getting in & out due to the swells. This would indeed be a glorious & beautiful place to swim when the sea is dead calm... There were routinely 2-3 foot swells though, so tranquil water seems to be the exception, rather than the rule.

We settled in & enjoyed our 1st evening, wandering around getting to know the property & the folks. Oral’s 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. 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 did find 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 mon’ 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 & watching a couple of local scroungy dogs raid the trash pile. Had a quick a/n dip in the pool & turned in. God we love Negril. :)

Sunday at Drumville, 1/27/02:

We woke & were out to explore by about 10am. Walked east from Drumville, past a handy little market, to Leroy’s world famous jerk chicken stand. Munched on his chicken & chatted with him - learning that he’d 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. (Hmm.... how unusual.... chuckle) We pressed on eastward, past Rick’s to the LTU Pub for a 2nd snack. John the bartender made the best Bloody Marys we’ve had in Jamaica, and the crab balls & chicken quesadilla were great.

The LTU is worth a visit. It’s a small thatched-roof bar with a dozen tables perched overlooking a very pretty green & turquoise cove. Prices are quite reasonable & the food & drinks are good. Bill the new owner has spruced the place up & has nice large hotel-like rooms acros the street for about $50/nite. We had deja vu experience, when a local 'vendor' offered some pineapple skunk (Ziggy’s favorite) to another couple at the bar. We'd heard this line before, and cracked up. It was a hoot indeed.

Walked back in the beautiful warm noontime sun, past shops & vendors, who invariably gave us a friendly hello. No high pressure hear mon... Just pleasant greetings from the local folks letting us know their wares. We stopped at the small market by Drumville for supplies. 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!

Liz does a brief sun, while Chris snorkels. We’re chased inside by some threatening rain, and spend a relaxing afternoon reading on our porch. The gardeners are working magic on the area around our room. What was junky 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. :)

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. (This was the 'privacy' issue previously mentioned.) We overhear several good jokes, which Chris is looking forward to using on our next Hedo trip in April!

Our next 2 days are similarly nice.... relaxing at the cliffs, eating great food, and taxi'ing to the beach (for about 5$US). The beach is gorgeous as always & we score majorly in meeting "Jerky" the jerk pork man. He's got the best pork we've had. Look for him toting his metal cooler full on cooked pork at noontime on 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 totes down the beach - selling ½ lb helping for $5US. Some of the best meat we’ve had in Jamaica. The local folks buy lunch from him.

We found that there’s 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 $5 per person. From Norman Manley Blvd outside Hedo’s driveway to the cliffs is $5 per carload.

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 epilog.... 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 each nite (including Thursday, during a driving rainstorm.... god it looked like fun to be huddled on that cat boat!) :)

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 has eroded a fair bit from hurricane Michelle, but is still walkable & beautiful. The atmosphere on the cliffs is relaxed, and the beach is laid-back-yet-lively. What a wonderful place Negril is.