It’s been 10 years since we’ve been back to Jamaica and as much as we love a good all inclusive resort, we desperately wanted to be out in the country. Most people visit Jamaica for the tropical beaches but you really haven’t seen Jamaica until you take a life threatening drive to the country. The last time we visited we were kidless, but here is how our trip went as a family of five.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Besides the extra customs step, traveling to the Caribbean from Florida is a piece of cake. Travel time is always under 4 hours no matter what island you go to and it’s always so chill. I don’t understand why it cost double to fly 2 hours to Jamaica than our entire family to fly across the country to three states… but  don’t make the rules. For Jamaica we just needed to fill out a C5 form electronically for every person in our family (including our kids which was confusing trying to figure that out) and we printed them out. They didn’t even look at them, they just counted the number of papers I was holding which was hilarious.

TRANSPORTATION

Car seats. Despite how dangerous this felt to me, the cars in Jamaica just don’t really support car seats, let alone a seat belt. So this trip we didn’t bring any with us. We used buses and shuttles to get around but only left the resort twice. It’s probably in your best interest to never rent a car in Jamaica… you will be scared. Best to leave it to the people who drive like everyone else. We used a private car service the entire time, since our resort doesn’t accommodate transportation to and from the airport (which is terrible)

RESORT

We stayed at the Bahia Principe Resort. Besides being right on the beach and have close access, we would not recommend this resort. There sadly was poor service and little to no entertainment. We found out that we needed to request AND pay additional for an updated room. I’m not talking about a nicer room, I’m talking about a functional room. The original room we were given had mold, crusty floors and walls, a swinging old 80’s fan. It was significantly outdated which is so surprising to find at an all inclusive resort. I will say that we were surprised to find decent ackee and salt fish as well as oxtail at the resort as we know that food in resorts is typically not good since they have to make large quantities. If you have a stroller or wheel chair, you will have a hard time getting around and there weren’t enough elevators to accommodate. HOWEVER, this was a budget resort that our family could all meet up together and enjoy so I’ll stop there.

EXTRAS

Since this was a family trip, we all headed to the parish of Saint Anne and enjoyed some country life a couple times during the trip. We highly recommend going out and see the beautiful country. It’s both eye opening and beautiful. The kids got to see what life is like without AC and hopefully they are bit more grateful for what we have in the states. For them to see what their grandparents grew up in and where they walked to school was such a great experience and we’re forever grateful for our family and this trip. If we could come back, we’d love to stay in the country the entire time, but lets see if the kids are up for that.

To see more, watch the full video of our trip on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/CGOlnnztu38