We had been wanting to go on a beach vacation for a while and decided that this summer was a perfect time to do so. We wanted a relaxing trip in which we didn't have to do or worry about anything except enjoying our time. Cody found a deal on Expedia for an all-inclusive resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It included our flights and the resort for a week and we were immediately pretty excited.
We stayed at the Jewel Dunn's River Beach Resort and Spa and would highly recommend it if you're looking for an all-inclusive Sandals like resort but for less. (At least it was less with the Expedia deal, I guess we're assuming it's less just in general.) The resort itself was really nice, the staff and overall service was wonderful, the food was good, and of course it was gorgeous. We would love to go back and stay there again except that Cody keeps reminding me that there are so many other places in the world we'd also like to see one day. Maybe after we see all of those we'll go back : )
Most of our vacation was simply relaxing at the beach. Cody and I both read two books while lounging around. Each day we would eat a massive breakfast and then go plant ourselves on some comfy chairs at the beach. After moving back and forth between the sun and shade a few times and reading a chunk in our books we would go get lunch. Usually after we were done with the beach each day we would head over to the pool to de-sand. (We did rinse our feet first; we didn't want to be those people dragging sand into the pristine pool.) After some pool time we would grab a snack (-this might have been a little too large to just call a "snack") and then go freshen up and rest for a bit in our room.
After some down time we would get ready for dinner. Some of the resort restaurants had a nicer dress code than others, so we had a few "fancy" nights and some nice but not-so-fancy. Each night after dinner was a little different. A few times we were just ready for bed and called it a night, and a couple times we stayed up and explored some of the night-life at the resort. (Cody decided this was the one area semi-lacking where we stayed.)
Besides all of our relaxation at the resort, we did enjoy a couple activities throughout the week. One day we went to a place called Blue Hole that was a natural spring area with some small waterfalls and swimming areas. It was gorgeous and amazing! We had to pay a driver to take a bus there and then pay for a few guys for a tour but it was definitely worth it. They took us up the spring a bit to some neat areas and then back down it to where the waterfall was. They walked each of us (we were with two other couples from our resort) to a mid-low point on the waterfall where we could jump off. Walking down to the jump-off point was more nerve-racking than the actual jump. It felt like you were going to slip the whole time and you couldn't really see where to step. The guides kept saying "Step there! Walk in the foot holes!" -but I tell you, I could not see any foot holes. After the waterfall activities they took us to a different part farther down the spring a bit where we jumped off a ledge into the swimming area below. It was a high jump to me but not to Cody lol. He wanted to do an even higher one that only the tour guides did for everyone to take pictures of. I'm very glad they wouldn't let him try it. Cody jumped from the ledge immediately when it was his turn whereas I think they had to count about three times for me to finally feel good about being ready to jump. This Blue Hole excursion was our favorite part of the whole vacation.
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Another day we did snorkeling which was fun. They had everyone get an empty water bottle and fill it up with tiny pieces of bread. Once you put it underwater and it filled up, you took it to swim around with and could squeeze out some of the bread for the fish to swarm at to eat. We saw a lot of the reef, of course tons of various fish, two stingrays, and apparently some squid. I must not know what squid really are though because everyone kept pointing at the squid and I didn't know what to look at.
Lastly something we did a handful of times throughout the week was sail on a small catamaran. The resort had them available and someone would take you out for a ride out to the reef and up and back down the beach. The second time we went out Cody mentioned to the guy that he used to know how to sail one from when he was a camp counselor, and the guy gave Cody a quick refresher and then directed him as he took over. After Cody proved he could handle it, we took the resort sailor back to the beach and we were able to go out just us with Cody sailing. Unfortunately we were pretty bummed the last days we were there because we wanted to sail a couple more times with Cody taking us out, but they were either yellow or red flag days and they only let a guest take it out on green days. We did get one more ride in those days but a resort sailor had to take us. That last ride was pretty fun though. It was a yellow flag when we went out and we could definitely tell a difference. Compared to the perfectly calm smooth rides before, this one was much rougher. The guy made several comments about the wind starting to get angry. As soon as we pulled back up to the beach, we weren't even off the catamaran yet and he started yelling "Red flag! It's a red flag now!" We thought it was kinda amusing and were very glad we got that last sail in.
We had a wonderful time together and are very grateful we were able to finally go on a beach vacation.
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