I am a 20 year old female from England and I travelled to the RDCC with my boyfriend (aged 23) on 22nd April 2008. Can I say we had the most fantastic time ever. Please do not read any negative reviews as you will have a truly wonderful experience no matter what you are looking for, they cater for everyone!

Flight: so long... 10 hours from England!! luckily we flew with Thomsonfly and we had seat-back entertainment with tv channels, games, movies etc.

Check in: On the way through Montego Bay, you wont find much in the way of Duty Free and there's no time, as you're quickly taken to your transfers bus, ready to be taken to your resort (which of course is a good thing) I would advise if you're coming form a cold country (like England) take a light top/shorts etc to change into just before or after you get off the plane, as you're hit by a sudden rush of heat, i wore linen trousers and it took 1hour 20mins to get to our resort, i was baking!

Arrival: greeted by bell boys waiting at reception who took care of our luggage, cocktail in hand, collect all-inclusive wrist bands and towel cards and we were off to our garden cottage! Must say, I loved the efficiency.
Accommodation: If you want my honest opinion, stay in a garden cottage like we did. Unless your happy to throw your money away, don't bother paying the upgrade to beachfront, it's not worth the money, it's about £100 on top of the holiday price, and most of the beachfront cottages are either on the worst cove (rocky) or near the jetty bar. We paid no upgrade, had a gorgeous garden cottage and at the end of the path was the steps to the sea, lush! Plus, you get to listen to all the cute treefrogs at night, and it's cooler and quieter in the evenings.

Dinner: I must say the food here was the best all-inclusive I've tried, plenty to choose from (i'm an extremely fussy eater- only eat chicken) and I never went hungry. They serve everything from meats to salad. Breakfast changes slightly every day, they always have cereal, toast, rolls, croissants/sweet pastries, tea/coffee and a variety of juices. Then depending on what they've cooked up for you, they'll be scrambeld eggs, sausages, baked-beans, fresh fruit - melon, bananas, even cold meats, ham olives etc. Lunch depends on what you have planned throughout your stay. If you want to eat at the main buffet (like we did most days) you have salad, meats, fruit, omeletts, roast chicken, the list goes on, and this is open from 12.00-3.00pm. If you miss the buffet lunch because of an excursion etc, or even get hungry again a bit later, not to worry, as the Jasmine Delta Grill (Snacks Bar) is open from 12.00 - 5.00pm, and they serve salad, chips, pizza, hot-dogs, and burgers. yum! Evening meals again vary. We ate at the buffet restaurant every night apart from our lat when we booked at the Jasmine Delta (Japanese). The evening meals at the buffet are great, roast chicken, jerk pork/chicken, omelettes, sausages, vegetables, roast/boile potatoes, wedges, chips, jacket potatoes, again the list goes on. Salad is always available, every night during lunch and dinner.

Excursions: We did Horseriding with Hooves, Irie Adventure (Dunns River Falls and Martha Brae Rafting combined) Heavenscent (Mr Motivator Trip) Private Fishing trip with staff at hotel.

Hooves Horseriding: I must say that for a person with no experience in horseriding, they're very keen to get you right stuck in! Don't say that your scared (unless you really are) because otherwise they'll tie your horse with rope to the leader. This doesn't give you a lot of freedom! If you say that you've never ridden before and and leave it at that, they'll stick you on a horse, and away you go, you're on your own! its so much fun, you're very incontrol and some of the horses, particularly mine were quite dominant and tried to rear up and go off in their own direction. Dont let this put you off, its all part of learning and the guides are always there if you get really stuck. They like you to be in control and they said things to me like: come on girl, dont let the horse fall asleep on you, speed up, kick its bum, no harder than that! You pick it up very quickly. The guide gives you a tour of the local area you're riding through, giving detail on trees, buildings, food trade etc etc which makes it interesting, and we all sang bob marley songs. you have to answer Yea Mon to everything! Then at the end, you reach the sea, and play running backward and forwards for about half an hour.

Irie Adventure: this is great, we started the day rafting which took an hour and a half to get from one end to the other, very relaxing, you meet you raft guide who explains the local area etc and at the end he brings out gifts that he decorates for all his customers. Then you jump back on the bus and head for Dunns River Falls. You stop off for a buffet lunch and unlimited drink re0fills (including beer/wine) at the bottom of the falls, think the restaurant was called the Ruins. Then you get changed into swimwear, or shorts and top, whatever you feel like, make sure you take water shoes with grip, or you'll have to rent some there (only costs $5 though) then all in a line, holding hands and up you go, the falls takes roughly an hours and a half to climb, its so much fun, the guides play tricks, splash water and make a video which you can purchase at the end for $40. well worth it!

Heavenscent: This is am excursion (based near Mr Motivator's house) he owns the activity center here. We hadn't heard of this trip on this forum until we got out there but its well worth it, and was probably the most fun. 2 zip wires, which you get a couple of goes on, (we got more because when we turned up, were the only ones at the place, lucky)!! a huge swing, which scared the living daylights out of me, and finally finishing the day on quad bikes. this trip was great, really adventurous and fun and only cost us about £20pp. Have a look around, cos its a must do! they provide fruit juices and sandwiches.

We booked a private fishing boat for the day from our hotel with two guys that come along the coast in a boat called Sea Hunter. We paid £70pp for 5 hours and had the boat all to ourselves! You dont travel for an hour out to sea, stop for 3 hours, standstill bored and then return back again. This is different, they attach rods to the actual boat so all we did was spent hours tanning ourselves and riding around on the boat around in the sea, (which is motored (we're not talking old fishing boat) this thing is fast, and will give you quite a thrill. They guy brings along beer, water and fruit juices, all included in the price you pay. He picks you up at 7am and drops you off at 12.pm.

Hotel Facilities: They have a range of free watersports (kayaking, pedaloes, glass bottom boat, snorkelling, cycling etc) these have to be booked at the towel desk which is right next to the buffet restuarant and below the Jamaican (Nyamings restaurant). Again the people in Jamaica are quite lenient, the sea was rough one day and we begged to go on the kayaks and the life guard let us, saying only if we could handle it, dont be stupid and go in the sea if its rough and you're not a strong swimmer. You'll get caught out, those kayaks etc are very heavy and they do drift. The lifeguard will advise you where you can go, expening the tide etc.

Jet Ski's: A guy form just down the road comes each morning and afternoon along the coast and lets you have a go, for half an hour is roughly £20. yes expensive, but if your like me and enjoy the thrill, well woth the money. Again we got lucky, we played on the jetski for 10 minutes and the guy called us in, saying that we had to go get more fuel, so he jumped on the back (with me and my bf) and we travelled about 10 minutes down the coast to re-fill. The guy jumped off and said "ill be back in 10, feel free to use up the rest of the fuel" and off he went for 20 minutes! The sea around the corner form RDCC is absolutely stunning! completely clear turquoise water, really deep, clear sand bottom. Its used by the locals and nobody really used it so it was just us there! i jumped off the jet-ski and swam for half an hour and my bf continued to play on the jet-ski. The man came back, filled up, and said "sorry to do that, lets take you back to your hotel" and started our half an hour again, from when we got back, so essentially we paid £20 for 1 hour and 10 minutes on a jet ski, on a beautiful beach.

3 bars at the hotel... Jetty wasnt really my scene, was too loud and overcrowded. i liked the one by the buffet restaurant, always got drinks quickly and they had the three old men singing and playing guitars.

Didn't go in the pool once during our stay, the sea was perfect so why bother. plus you get to hot surrounded by concrete, and entertainment staff trying to get you up and dance, which i only enjoyed in the evenings.

My advice if you like spending time on the beach. When you get there... notice where the jetty bar is ans walk in the complete opposite direction toward the garden cottages, here is the last cove and it's completely isolated. gorgous water, no rocks like the other coves and only 3 beach tents here so no other holiday makers bugging you! well not many anyway.

Well enough of my advice, go see for yourself, amazing place, friendly people, ideallic surroundings, loads to do. So book this holiday as soon as you can, you wont be disappointed! Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, i only got back 3 weeks ago so its all fresh and i did so much so can give lots of advice, one lst thing, do leave the resort and go for a walk about, even if its only down to the local supermarket, its perfectly safe and people are friendly, we were asked if we had spare change a few times, but if you say, no im sorry, people wil shake you hand, wish you a great holiday and move on. they dont hound you like turkey and tunisia and other places ive been to.