Destination Monday #10

"Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I want to take you

to Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama,

Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go

down to Kokomo. We'll get there fast and then

we'll take it slow. That's where we wanna go..."

This week we're checking out  Montego Bay, Jamaica!
(yeah, I just quoted the Beach Boys) 

For our honeymoon, Stephen's parents sent us to Montego Bay, Jamaica. We stayed at the Riu - an all-inclusive resort!

Watching planes fly off the island from the resort.

The Lobby was open-aired. 

And completely beautiful. 

They gave us free drinks when we arrived - oh, wait...
all the drinks and food were free - it was fantastic. But when we first arrived,
while we were checking in, they gave us a fruit punch and rum drink -
I know it's weird to be obsessed with fruit punch - but it was the BEST.

The doorknobs reminded me of Hobbit Houses. 

There was a bar right in our room - restocked whenever
it went empty (not that we could even dream of drinking that much!)

But we did drink a lot of the soda - it was all made of real sugar - aka delicious!

They upgraded our room since we were on our Honeymoon -
this was our view from our own personal balcony!

There was a huge pool with a swim-up bar - seriously fun. 

During the day they held activities and games in the pool - a lot of it was country vs. country,
which was really fun to watch. 

At night, there was always entertainment - musicians and performers.
Stephen and I would stop and get a drink, and then walk the beach and listen. It was relaxing. 

This is the other side of the hotel - the view from the hallway (which was open air as well)

The best part was that it was sunny and so warm -
especially in December when Missouri was getting two feet of snow and ice. 

Mostly Stephen and I laid on the beach. 

You could get massages on the beach. 

And during the day they had kayaks and paddle boats you could use,
or you could ride jet skis, or go scuba diving, sailing, or parasailing. 

Jamaica was really fun - there was so much to do at the resort, we never left - but you could go for bus tours as a part of the package, or take a bus over to a huge shopping center across the street. But we just mostly ate, swam, and relaxed. There was one main dining area where they served so much food - and all sorts of native dishes that were so great to try - and then there were 3 restaurants that you could make reservations to eat in - we ate in the Chinese one the last night (called the Kali) - it was some of the best chinese ever! The service was great, the resort was clean and beautiful and full of things to do (including way more eating and drinking than you'd ever normally do!) and if Jamaica's someplace you're interested in going - Stephen and I definitely recommend the Riu!