Rent a car?
 

I'm flying into Montego Bay...Should I rent a car for our 7 day stay in Negril...or should I use public transportation to get around?

Renting a car in Jamaica is not advisable nor is traveling around on your own. Do some people still do it? Yes, but they tend to has a good concept of the Island. Using a taxi or tour service is more advisable.

Where are you staying in Negril? Most hotels/packages offer included transportation to/from the airport. If yours does not, there are several services you can use. Do some more research on this forum as there are many recommendations listed.

Thanks for your reply KVR. I'm staying at Sandy Haven Resort - I have a car reserved (cancelable) from AVIS at Montego Bay airport for 7 days @ $240...and since the roundtrip taxi/bus ride would cost approx. $200 I thought it would make sense to get the car even if we don't venture out beyond the hotel very much. But I will do more research as I believe that many restaurants are just a walk down 7 mile beach.

If you haven't been to Jamaica before, it might be an idea to arrange transportation rather than rent a car. When we went to Negril, we used Clives Transportation which was recommended on this forum and we were very happy with it.

Having said that, once we got to Negril we wished we had rented a car at least for a couple of days and trying to rent from local car rental companies was very expensive. So in future if we visit Negril again, we would rent a car from the airport. There are alot of restaurants up and down 7MB but there are also alot by the cliffs area for which you do need transportation, however taxis are easily available and some restaurants even do pick ups from hotels on a one way basis (i.e. you have to pay for a taxi on the way back.)

I've been to Negril a few times, with different groups of friends. Only one person was comfortable renting a car, but they had lived in Jamaica for 2 years doing Peace Corps work.

Round trip airport transportation MoBay to Negril is not $200, for a shared shuttle with Clives (for example) I think it was $30usd each way.

If you do rent the car remember you're driving on the "wrong" side of the road and will encounter some pretty interesting road conditions, not to mention the other drivers.

(oops that is a per person price)

Thank you all very much...I think I'll take your advice by not renting a car and using Clive's shuttle to get to Negril. (The $200 quote came from Sandy Haven and was for just the two of us roundtrip).

Anyway it sounds a lot more relaxing not dealing with the car!

Also, Clive's charges $100/2 ppl/group rndtrp or $140/2 ppl/Private Rndtrp...I'm going with the Private transport! Thanks again!