mike

We will be headed to Lido Sans Souci on August 2 (10th anniversary) and trying to see if it is worth taking the flight from MB to OR. Tim Air is showing a price of $496 round trip for two (a bit much compared to Air Jamaica Express which is $266 round trip). AJM has the best deal, but they only have 2 scheduled flights one at 12:20 and one at 2:45. Our flight from Houston gets in around 11:30 so we are concern that if we choose AJE we may miss the 12:20 and have to wait until 2:45. Since it is our 10th anniversary we don't mind paying if its worth. From what I have read the drive can be from 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Are there any sights to see on the way if we take the drive.<BR><BR>Thanks for any input you may have!<BR><BR>

tivertonhouse

Rather than the coast road, your driver should turn left at Reading and take you over the mountains via Ferris Cross and Sav/Savannah La Mar. En route: At Rocklandsisa Salmon's/Rocklands Bird Sancutuary where one can feed doctorbirds/hummingbirds by hand;Rafter's Village, for short bamboo raft trips down the Great Gorge;near Anchovy,a sign that says Antiques leads to a woodwork shop that does colonial repros and occasionally has smaller pieces worth buying;all the roadside stands selling coconut/water/jelly/fruit and veg;at Whithorn,a right turn down through the vast sugarcane fields leads to Blue Hole Gardens;still on the main,youll first spy the ocean at Ferris Cross,turn right to Sav;note Paradise Park for horseback riding and 'downtown'Sav,a bustling market town for further exploration;tilapia farms between Sav and Negril. You'll transverse farming,citrus,sugarcane and coastal this way rather than going the north coast route.

tivertonhouse

LOL/Sorry,I just directed you to Negril.<BR>The coast road from MoBay to Ochee is pretty boring/take the flight instead.

Melissa

I do NOT ever get motion sickness, and by the time I got to Breezes Runaway Bay which is about a 1/2 hour before Ocho, I thought I was going to be ill...my man and I were both green. The road is so bumpy and turny, and just plain awful!!!! I live in NB Canada, and we have the worst roads in Canada due to long winters and poorley built highways, but they are awsome compaired to that road.<BR><BR>TAKE THE FLIGHT!!!!

Mike

OK, thank you both for the feedback. This is good input. I think we will go for the flight. We will try for AJE (much cheaper) if the time will work. Otherwise we will probably go with Tim Air.<BR><BR>Thanks again!

Marie

I was also dreading the trip by bus and just did it 5-26 and 6-1. It was not bad at all. I get car sick easily and did not. The drivers we had in each direction, drove safely. You see the Jamaican country side it is interesting to see the little towns and the people. They stop at a little bar outdoor restaurant some people ate and said it was good but we just had our first red stripe beer, not quite clean enough looking for me to eat there. On the return trip early Sat morn. it was about 1.5 hours because we did not stop. I slept the whole way.If you are going for 7 days I would give up the 2 hours but if you are going to be there a shorter duration I may take the flight.It looked like more flights get delayed leaving Jamaica then coming in for some reason. We stayed at Sandal's Dunn's river so add about 15 minutes if your property is downtown Ocho Rios to my times.

Mike

I'm opening this subject one more time before I make my final booking next week. <BR>Has anyone flown Air Jamaica Express or Tim Air and any others between MB and Ocho recently. Besides Tim Air being much more expensive are there any other pro's and/or con's? We are considering AJE mainly becuse of the price, but if there are any negatives that will force us to, we are willing to pay the $230 difference.

traveler

One difference between AJE and TimAir is that AJE has scheduled flights, whereas TimAir does not. TimAir basically flies when you want them to, thus the higher price. We flew TimAir to OR 2 years ago, and we chose TimAir over AJE because I did not want to sit around in the airport waiting for the scheduled flight, which was approximately 2 1/2 hours after our arrival time at MBJ. In that amount of time we could have just taken the free bus and arrived at the resort at close to the same time the flight would arrive! So, you will have to consider whether the AJE schedule works for you.

Mike

Thanks for the update. Our flight arrives in MB at 10:45. The next scheduled AJE flight to OR is 12:20 (1 hr and 35 minutes). I haven't been to Jamaica before, but when we went to Mexico and the Caymen's we burned about an hour getting luggage, customs, etc. Is this about the same in Jamaica for luggage, customs, et.?

traveler

I really can't answer your question. We have been to Jamaica 7 times since 1997 and there has been no consistency in terms of how long it has taken us to go through immigration, luggage and customs. It will depend how many other flights have either landed just before you or are landing at the same time, how many staff they have on, how long it takes them to get around unloading your luggage from the plane and getting it onto the luggage carousel, whether they have to fiddle with the carousel to get it to work, etc. It has taken us anywhere from 10-15 minutes (seriously!) to 2 hours. The latter was an exception - our flight arrived early due to strong tailwinds, we wound up converging on the airport at approximately the same time as several other packed flights and the lines and wait for luggage were horrendous. I would say that generally we have found it to be relatively short, 1/2 hour or so, so you may be more likely to be hanging around waiting for your flight, when you could be on your way to the resort already, than scrambling to catch it - but you do take your chances if you have a specific schedule you have to meet at the other end. Perhaps you should contact AJE to discuss what their opinion is of the connection time - too little or too much - and whether you have any options if you miss the 12:20 - eg. can you get a full refund and just take the bus instead rather than waiting for another 2 + hours for the next flight.

tivertonhouse

MIKE;Arrival/Customs/luggage is one hour max/sometimes only 20 min. You should have plenty of time to make your connecting flight. If you want to see countryside, hire a driver for the day and go to Port Antonio. Enjoy your holiday on island.

Mike

OK, thank you both for the feedback. I will give AJE a call and see what my options are.

Patty

We spent part of our honeymoon at the Jamaica Inn and they sent a driver to pick us up at MoBay airport. I did not time the ride, but it didn't seem like it was over 2 hours long. And we didn't find the roads to be that bumpy. We actually never even considered flying.

Mike

I spoke to an AJ rep (native Jamaican)today and she told me that you get a beautiful view from the plan, but the drive is not that bad. She also told me that the Ocho Rios airport is about a 30 minute drive from GLSS. Is this true. If so, then I was thinking we might as well take the ground transportation since we are going to experience some of the maniac driving and probably will get there close to the same time (25 minute air and 30 minute drive.<BR><BR>

traveler

Hmmm, I could be wrong, but I don't recall it being 30 minutes from the Boscobel aerodrome to GLSS ... my recollection is that it was more like 10 minutes or so. A lot of people really don't mind the bus ride. The first time we did it, we didn't mind the drive itself (aside from the fact that the girl sitting behind us was car sick and had a barf bag at the ready the whole way), because we found it interesting to see the countryside. However, having been there, done that several times, and having had several "interesting" experiences on various bus rides (one trip on a bus that broke down, one trip on a bus whose air conditioning didn't work, one trip on a bus on which a number of passengers lit up and proceeded to chain smoke the entire way - we are nonsmokers and did not appreciate also having to "smoke" for the duration of the trip, in addition to the fact that hubby is allergic), we now prefer to take the plane to OR. You may not mind the bus ride, or due to whatever circumstances you may not wind up saving all that much time if you take the plane rather than the bus, and therefore you may find that the plane ride may be a colossal waste of money. Only you can decide that.