Caribbean Dawn

When planning our trip, I had an excellent response from the host by email and also had one call with him regarding what was available and what we might need to bring - that was so helpful.  I am a vegan and travel with a non-vegan - and the food EVERYWHERE was amazing for us both. John had good advice about car hire and roads - roads are pretty bad but easily traversible by car and we found the property OK with a combination of the host's carefully written directions and Google. I was initially wary about hiring a car after reading various blogs and reviews on the internet - but it was fine - and an adventure in itself. The drive to the property is indeed very steep - but our little tiny automatic hire-car made it up without any problem - we just let it slowly tick its way up the hill.  We had a truly wonderful 10 days at Caribbean Dawn - or even Caribbean Dreams as I like to think of it.  There was an immense warmth about the place and a sense of comfort and contentment. The room was clean and had all the things we needed and it was lovely being able to breakfast on our private balcony at sunrise. We had the room with cooking facilities which was excellent - basic - but everything we needed - including a nice big fridge-freezer. The host had  kindly stocked the fridge for us - fruit and spice buns for breakfast and beer and coffee. This meant that after a long drive from the airport hotel we didn’t need to shop until the following day.  The shared facilities and garden were a real pleasure to enjoy - beautiful view and a delicious breeze keeping the temperature at a Pool pleasant balmy level. On a couple of days the wind was up and a bit too windy to eat outside, but that’s why it’s great windsurfing.  Boston Bay is a gentle rural village with excellent local food and vegetables and lovely welcoming people. We had no problem with the walk up and down the access road(two women with 58 and 60 years to our credit) and indeed would do it a couple of times a day sometimes. We felt confident walking down the road and back in the evening for supper - a torch is useful :-) It is quite steep but should be accessible for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness. Nearby Port Antonio has a great supermarket for drinks and staples, and a good petrol station with ATM's. We also had many days of adventures - all wonderful and accessible - Reach Falls, Frenchman's Cove, Rafting on the Rio Grande, boat-ride with snorkelling round the coast, and also a great day out with our Host John on a wild adventure visiting Moran Point Lighthouse. This was a wonderful, peaceful place to visit to relax, regroup and and reinvigorate - I did my yoga routine early morning by the pool and loved the sunrise. In the evening we watched the sun go down with our sun-downers! We loved the casual energy and basic local vibes of both the village and the guesthouse - and the energies of the place. There was comfort and cleanliness - and visitors should expect their basic necessities to be comfortably met. It is well suited to travellers with a basic level of fitness who are looking for adventure with some comfort. Yogis, wind-surfers and silver-haired active travellers will be all well-suited. We ended the visit with a 2 day visit into the Blue Mountains - visiting a coffee plantation, National Park and some truly spectacular restaurants. This worked well. For arrival and departure, we came into Kingston and stayed at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Port Royal Hotel overnight and hired the car from Kingston airport. This made things very easy logistically and we experienced wonderful food at Gloria's and visited the Fort. I would recommend the Port Royale Hotel - but set expectations for basic, convenient accommodation with an ocean front - it's definitely not 5 star - but we enjoyed it and the staff were very helpful. We also managed a day in Kingston, visiting the excellent National Art Gallery and Bob Marley House - both are thoroughly recommended. We wish to return and stay even longer...