Oh No! Hurricane Maria - Quick Change of Plans – San Juan to Negril

Negril Jamaica is now one of my wife and my favorite destinations...From our travel blog qwikvacay.com

So after you plan and plan and have everything that you need for your trip already mapped out, nature strikes. What do you do? You regroup as best as you can.

As many of you know (unless you’ve been living under a rock around Sept 2017), Hurricane Irma and Marie came and really did a great deal of damage throughout the Caribbean.

It’s hard to focus on your own needs especially when there were thousands and thousands of residents in those areas that lost everything and are still in desperate need. But you do what you can do to support those residents in their time of need. If you still want to support I have posted a few links from personal friends at the end of this post if you don’t want to use the standard FEMA links.

We had planned a 4 day trip to San Juan, PR. It was going to be quick and easy and nothing to fancy. When I saw that the Hurricane was scheduled to be a category 5 and going right over PR, I cancelled the trip. Since I had secured an AirBnB room I was able to cancel 5 days prior and get a full refund. The flights were a little tricky because I had two separate airlines. Delta going and JetBlue on the way back. As of this post I know I will get money back from JetBlue but it will take some time. Here is a tip, sometimes it’s better to get the same airline because you can track things a little better.

Anyway, the task to figure out where to divert and spend a little a way time was at hand. I didn’t have much time because my dates to get away were still firm. The criteria was:

Blue Water
Decent Flight Time
New Destination
Hurricane Free Zone

Some of the places I had in mind were Dominican Republic, Cancun, Aruba, Curucao. My husband did not want to do Cancun or the DR because everyone goes there. We did a stop at Aruba and Curucao on a cruise so that was a contender but it was not in my heart to go their.

So I got out the Google Maps again. We had been to Costa Rica and liked it but we wanted to go some place different. I was even thinking Ecuador. But I remembered, at least with Costa Rica that the sand was black because of the volcano ashes and while it was okay I wanted to see something different.

So looking at Jamaica I see Montego Bay on the map. We had stopped at Ocho Rios for a cruise stop before but it was about 8-10 years ago. Maybe more. I had a friend that had mentioned Montego Bay was breathtaking so I started taking a look at it. Before I knew it, I had booked the flights. Book your flights first, you can always find a place to stay later.

Well the day after I started my Airbnb search for lodging in Montego Bay. During a Google search I came across something about Montego Bay vs Negril. And what caught my attention was that Negril had a 7 mile beach. (It’s not actually 7 miles, but more like 7 km). Plus Negril was a little more laid back which is what we were looking for.

So I have the flights and the location, now I need to find a place on AirBnB. I searched for 2-3 hours and found some pretty decent places. Mind you, this was our first experience using AirBnB. One thing I recommend is booking a condo/villa that has staff on sight. It will be cheaper than a hotel a lot of times and you still get some of the amenities of a hotel such as security, staff, housekeeping and maybe even a restaurant.

I will say make sure you read carefully on the AirBnB. I had booked one place that said “private room” vs “entire place”. Luckily the host was out of town and didn’t except my booking. I didn’t realize we would be sharing a kitchen, living room, and bathroom with strangers. However I should have known since the cost was low, but the host had excellent reviews. So always been on the lookout for that.

The next place I found hit the money on the mark. It was a resort of condos. There are several different owners but it’s like a small hotel. I couldn’t beat the price. $85 a night and right on the beach. No it was not a waterfront view but I was just steps away from it. I’ll post more on that later.

Another reason we got a great deal was because September is the off season for Negril. So if you don’t like a lot of crowds, go around Aug/Sept. Mine you, there is a possibility of Hurricanes.

Negril is about 1.5 hours from the Montego Bay airport so I had arranged a shuttle with JaiTal Transportation. It was about $80 round trip for 2 people. There were several stops on the way to pick up and drop off people. I later learned you could get a private car but that would cost you more.

So I made all this happen less than a week before heading out to Negril, Jamaica.

Was it worth it? Of course. It was my husband’s birthday week and he enjoyed every minute of it.

So sometimes when life happens you have to make the best of it.

As promised below here are a few links to help donate to the cause. These are from personal friends that had shared these.

https://www.gofundme.com/riolajas

https://www.youcaring.com/thepeopleofpuertorico-971101