Can't wait to go back...
What a great time. My wife and I spent our honeymoon at the Couples Swept Away resort in Negril from July 6th to 16th of this year. Having never been to Jamaica, we were not sure what to expect. The resort was *exactly* as it was described on the internet. We knew ahead of time about not having a TV in the room, and that was OK with us. If you want to veg in your room and watch the tube, go somewhere else! The rooms are beautiful, bright, airy, and with just the right amout of privacy. After reading many reviews on the internet, we chose an Atrium room and were very happy with our choice. The Atrium rooms are in between the Garden View Rooms and the Ocean Front rooms. The result is you get none of the road-traffic from the "outside world" and you are nestled within the most lush greenery you will ever see. If you have money to burn, upgrade to the Ocean Front, but the only things you get are a slightly larger room and a mini-bar. Trust me, the mini-bar is not necessary. We ate at all of the restaurants except the "fine dining" place, called Feathers, mostly because we just didn't want to waste 2-3 hours on a meal. We got the room service breakfast most mornings which offered you a choice of many different breads, muffins, fruits, cereals, etc. Delivered to your door at a time of your choosing each day. We usually ate on our very large veranda (where the hammock was!). The buffet for breakfast was also excellent The lunch buffet changed daily and was full of excellent hot foods as well as fresh fruits, etc. Our favorite place to get food was the "veggie bar" right next to the pool where you could get things ranging from a very good jerk chicken sandwich, to a hummus platter. By far the best of the bars was the beach bar. The staff here (as with everywhere on the property) was amazing. Thanks to Duel, Ulando, and Doilette (nicknamed Trouble) for making our vacation AWESOME! There were several other bars, including the sports bar (see more detail later), the martini bar, and the main restaurant bar. The sports facility (which is across the road) is also excellent. It has 10 tennis courts, 2 squash courts, 2 raquetball courts, a lap pool, small pool table, and full spa facilities. We had a massage at the spa, and played a little pool. If you are interested in Tennis, this is the place. They have a resident pro and a different visiting pro each week. Every guest can get a 30min private lesson each day for FREE and they also have group lessons for all levels. The Gym and Aerobics room are also here and have VERY good equipment, although the open-air atmosphere makes it a little unpleasant to work out since it is almost always in the 80's. We had no real complaints during our 10 day stay. We had a problem with our phone in the room and once we mentioned it to the front desk it was fixed immediately. The resort is currently expanding, they are adding more cottages and apparently another pool (with swim-up bar) and restaurant. I hope that they keep the atmosphere consistent with the rest of the resort b/c it would be a shame to lose the vibe they have going now. We used the resort services for snorkeling (excellent) and also went on the Catamaran cruise. The cruise was nice, good to do once, but not too exciting. If you want to do motorized water sports, Elvis is your man on the beach. Anything you want, Elvis can get. Literally, anything. Jet Skiing, Para Sailing, Water Skiing, Banana Boat rides, etc, as well as anything you might want to "have a good time". We went on the shopping trip which was OK. The duty free shops are a good place to get your souvenirs, much better prices than the resort obviously. For example, an 8oz bag of Blue Mountain coffee (beans) was $13 in the hotel and $8 in the duty free shops. The craft market is not too exciting, definately avoid it if you don't to be pressured to look at and buy things and especially if you don't like to haggle, it is a must here. I could go on and on, but I won't. Suffice it to say that if we go back to Jamaica (and we will) we won't even bother looking anywhere else. Couples Swept Away is our home-away-from-home in Jamaica.Feel free to email me for more details or with specific questions if you are so inclined.
