The Vacation

Mango Daquiri

On our recent vacation, my favourite drink at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa was a virgin mango daquiri. I had one a day, mindful of the calories. We ate a lot but I didn't gain more than say half a pound!

We had a pleasant flight over to Jamaica on Westjet airlines. The plane held about 75 people, 40 of whom were young people attending a wedding at a resort. One of the couples sat next to me. Apparently the bride's plane earlier that day was delayed 4 hours due to bad weather. 

Upon arrival at our hotel, we were upgraded to ocean front rooms as they were full to capacity at this time of year! This vacation just kept getting better. The beds were so comfortable and the rooms were so spacious!

The Beach

The next morning we reserved our sit down dinners at the three specialty restaurants on the property, Three Palms Caribbean Cuisine, the Seafood Grille, and an Italian restaurant. These restaurants have a fine dining dress code. There is also a casual buffet restaurant called Fresh.

The resort has a decent beach, waterpark with slides (which I did eventually try) and a lazy river, tennis courts, gym, a spa, a fabulous golf course and is walking distance to the infamous Rose Hall Great House. You get free shuttle rides to a nearby shopping mall, and to the Great House.

We decided to book a peaceful tour down the Martha Brae river on bamboo rafts. The sales representative told us the bride I spoke of earlier ended up losing her luggage and passport, perhaps the effect of too much alcohol!

Raftman Wilkie on the Martha Brae River

On our raft ride down the river, we saw blue herons and local foliage. I learned that banana and plantain trees only live about 6 months and die soon after they bear fruit. They have to be replanted.Our raftman Wilkie happened to mention that Jamaica has a new TV show called 'Rising Stars' which is like American Idol where hopefuls vie for a recording contract. He said that the rafting business is getting a lot of competition from newer attractions such as the zipline rides and the bobsled ride. Most of their business comes from the cruise ships. However there are 90 raftsmen competing for shifts. They make and sell crafts on the side to supplement their income. In fact we bought a couple of carved calabash (bottle gourd) containers from him for about $20, not because we wanted them, but to support him. They are actually his art and he signed them for us. Then we spent another $15 buying a calabash from L and K's raftsman! I was a bit surprised when Wilkie's cell phone went off on the raft. It seemed out of place with the environment! I asked if they had many seniors on the raft. He said they do lift quite a few from their wheelchairs into the raft and then back onto shore. It's a very quiet, peaceful ride and the water's very blue and clear. We were lucky to have an hour and a half ride. Apparently when the water is 30 or 40 feet deep in the spring, the ride is only 45 minutes.  We were  given life jackets to wear.

One day we went up to the Rose Hall Great House to have a tour of the restored 300 year old mansion. It is said to be haunted by a White Witch known as Annie Palmer who killed 3 husbands and a number of slave lovers. The grounds used to be a sugar plantation that had 2000 African slaves.

Rose Hall Great House

Annie Palmer's Bedroom

One morning M and I walked through the scenic 18 hole Cinnamon Hill Golf Course on the resort. It took 2 hours. We went uphill, downhill, past waterfalls, ruins of Roman aqueducts, past fruit trees bearing tropical fruit such as ackees, breadfruit, naseberries, oranges, coconuts and bananas.

Banana Tree

Naseberry Tree

Breadfruit Tree

Ackee Tree (National Fruit)

We loved our dinner at the Three Palms restaurant. The service was great too. So we booked another night there. This time we ate outside under the night stars next to the flower bushes on the raised terrace. It was wonderful and about 28C with a light breeze.  Oh it's called Three Palms because the lore is that Annie Palmer's three husbands are buried under three of the palm trees outside the restaurant.

Another night we dined at the Seaside Grille. It's an outdoor restaurant by the beach. Talk about ambience: 28C, a light breeze, the sound of the ocean, a cruiseship glowing in the distance and dinner music playing in the background.

The Italian restaurant is all indoors. I did like/love my shrimp scampi but L didn't like her lasagna and M's pork loin was overcooked. However, his previous course of a chicken pasta dish was very good.

Based on our experience, I would recommend this family resort, super clean, beautiful property.  The employees looked happy. We all had a great time.  Keep in mind that it's a family resort, so it was noisy outside our second floor room but that didn't bother us.  There might be more quiet rooms facing the golf course.   I saw a few grandparents there with their kids and grandkids.  There seemed to be a lot of repeat customers.