Quote:
Originally Posted by newracer
And if you live to be a thousand you will never see it all here at home. Gotta agree my friend we have eveerything.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newracer
And if you live to be a thousand you will never see it all here at home. Gotta agree my friend we have eveerything.
Just stay on the resort. Don't let them go see the locals and experience the culture outside of the resort area. Best case they are fine, usual case is they get ripped off, goes downhill from there.
Went to Negril in '02. Awesome time. I wouldn't worry to much. Locals were friendly and helpful. Always plenty of Americans around. And if it's around spring break, it's pretty much all Americans!
There are some ground rules. I don't know how old the kids are, but for the parents also:
Don't buy drugs on the beach. Cops set up stings.
Cops do random pull overs to check for drugs, ask how I know! American cash in your pocket is a good thing to have!
Don't go to the Ganja fields.
And those really cute local girls dancing with you, hookers.
Just use common sense and! Everything will be GTG!
I'm heading to Jamaica with the wife in September. We're going with another couple that has been 6 times or so. As others have said, I plan on staying in the resort. It's all inclusive and I dont really care about the "local market". Im going to drink, sit on the beach and have people bring me food. They've never had a problem there but it will be nice going with someone that is experienced.
My littlest sister did a college exchange year at the University of the West Indies in Kingston in 2006 - the foreign students were housed off-campus at a gated/guarded resort style housing area and bused to campus every day. They were told that wandering off campus or the housing area into the city proper was dangerous and at their own risk.
My wife won a trip to the Holiday Inn Resort in Montego Bay, so we went there on honeymoon in '96. Like they said, STAY ON THE RESORT! We went off-property and into town to check it out, and we were swarmed from every direction. The only thing I wanted to buy at that moment was a 1911! Tourists there can be spotted a mile away, and in their eyes you have targets painted all over you.
The people there are very poor, and will try to sell you any friggin' thing they can pick up off the ground and call "art", they're all "artists". And fruit pickers - I saw people coming out of the bushes on the roads, trying to sell bananas and other fruits, right off the trees.
Personally, I wouldn't let my kids go there without a young adult male (like Daddy!) to protect them. Middle-aged women as chaperones? NFW. Not a place to "experience other cultures". On the resort was fine, other than the pot peddlers.
But if you're on an all-inclusive resort and the bartenders are slow (it's Jamaica mon, e'erbody be slow, we laid back ya know), slip one a US Dollar for a tip. Next time you go to the bar they'll be pushing and shoving each other to serve you!
Myself, I'm in the "got everything I need here in the US" camp. I don't even want to go to Canada. Those fuckers will strip-search you and tear your car apart. BTDT.
While Jamaica suffers from a high per capita rate of violent crimes, these occurrences occasionally impact international visitors. Most criminal activity is “Jamaican on Jamaican” violence, often involving organized criminal elements and gangs. Crimes affecting U.S. citizens in 2012 were murder (4); reports of rape and/or sexual assault (15); reported aggravated assaults (4); reported kidnapping (parental kidnappings) (2); domestic violence (5) and reports of child abuse (4). These numbers are not all inclusive, and the numbers for rape and/or sexual assaults are believed to be under reported. Many crimes remain unreported for numerous reasons, including fear of retaliation. A special concern continues to be the number of sexual assaults perpetrated by hotel employees at resort hotels on the north coast and the need for forceful investigation and follow-up by the hotels and by police and other security officials.
https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentRe...aspx?cid=14289
Ditto, makes my SF 86 VERY simple without foreign contacts/travel. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by newracer
I have a house in Kingston and family out there still..... like others said stay on the resort and you will be fine it can get a little funky off the resort the police are all corrupt as hell out there and looking for a $$$$ hand out most of the time