LaraC

Just back from a super time in Jamaica. We stayed for a week in a 5 bedroom villa called Hilltop at the Tryall Club. The villa came with a staff of eight including; a chef, butler, 2 maids, laundress, 2 gardners and a guard. We went with 5 couples, all in our mid 30's - 40's. I can't say enough positive things about how beautiful the villa was and how excellent the service was.

Food at Hilltop
The chef, Desmond, is an outstanding cook. We are from New York City and are pretty spoiled with dining options so we were absolutely impressed with the meals he prepared for us. We went out to dinner one night in Montego Bay just b/c we were on vacation and thought it would be nice to go out and see Montego Bay and it was a waste of time. Dinner at our villa was so much better. The 1st couple of days we made recommendations on what we would like for our meals and after that we left it up to Desmond b/c everything was so delicious. One night he made us lobster and fish...another night it was jerked chicken and we loved it! It was the total dining experience every night from pre-dinner cocktails with shrimp cocktail or cheese and crackers etc. before we even sat down. For dinner we would have an appetizer, main course and then desert. Breakfasts and lunches were great too. Let's just say that every pound we gained on vacation was well worth it!

Service at Hilltop
The staff at Hilltop were friendly, hardworking and honest. Juliet did our laundry every day which was an absolute treat. Everything smelled so nice! At the end of our stay we were truly sad to say good bye to the staff at Hilltop.

Hilltop property
Beautiful paradise! The villa has a very open air feel. If you go to www.tryallclub.com you can see floor plans of the various villas. The central area at Hilltop is perfect for a few couples traveling together or families. Every bedroom had its own bathroom / dressing area and opened out to fantastic views. The living room / dining room areas are all open air feeling and look out onto the pool, palm trees and the Caribbean for as far as you can see.

Activities
No Problem Tours handles the transportation / excursions at Tryall. No one in our group rented cars so No Problem Tours took us everywhere. Hilltop has 3 golfcarts to get you around the property if you want to go the beach club, golf course or Great House. We used No Problem Tours for airport transfers, golf etc. They were very dependable and priced fairly. They took us to Negril twice and it was great because they would just park the bus and wait for us while we jet ski'd, spent time on the beach etc. It was nice to have somewhere to leave our stuff. We went to Rick's Cafe which was great for the sunset and watching those crazy guys cliff dive from the trees! Another day we went to Mayfield Falls which was so beautiful. Of course there was also golf. About 45 minutes from the hotel, we played the White Witch Course. This is the course to play in Jamaica. We liked it so much, we played twice and it was worth the travel time. If you go ask for Wayneton or Dalton.

Beach
We wen't to the Tryall Beach Club, had lunch at the Ritz Carlton Beach restaurant and visited Negril twice. The beaches at Tryall and the Ritz were ok. We liked the sand and water better in Negril.

Sorry for this long post. Just want to say in conclusion that the people we encountered in Jamaica were very friendly and kind. When we went to Mayfield Falls which is inland, school children would stop, smile and wave as we went by. Before we went I saw a few posts about safety and I can honestly say that we never felt unsafe. Between the security at the Tryall Club and No Problem Tours it was never a concern. If you are a big golfer and would also like to enjoy the beaches in Negril the Tryall Club is the perfect central point. The Tryall Club has a pretty course on the ocean, the White Witch and other Rose Hall golf courses are 45 minutes to the East and Negril is 45 minutes to the West.

2 Thumbs up for a Jamaica vacation at Hilltop!

liza

Thanks for the review! We've done the villa thing with large groups of family several times (not at Tryall but would love to try it sometime) and it is amazing.

mrwilson75

Thanks for the detailed report on Tryall. For an upcoming vacation just for two, I'm considering Tryall's Great House villas (the 1-bedrooms) or a more conventional hotel-like stay at Round Hill, which I understand is right next door to Tryall. Did you happen to notice the Great House villas at Tryall during your stay at Hilltop, and if so, do you have any comments about them? Did you eat at the Great House restaurant at all?

Any comments on Round Hill would also be welcome if you happened to drop by there at any time.

Finally, to the extent that you could compare the White Witch to Tryall's course, that would be great (I've played White Witch and found it to be spectacular, but have not played Tryall). Thanks!

golf_guy

LaraC,
Share with us what you had for lunch. We've stayed in Tryall villas a number of times, and we're always trying to find new ideas for lunch. Dinner (we froze NY strip steaks, filet mignon, and frenched rack of lamb and brought them down with us from home as the price locally for those items is very very high) and breakfast are never an issue. But when we come back up the hill from playing our morning round of golf (we think the Tryall course is equally as challenging as the White Witch, if not blessed with the same number of spectacular views -- and we play the Witch twice in every visit), we're looking for something to add to the menu. We have BLTs, chicken salad (leftover from the night before's jerk chicken -- yum!), curried shrimp salad, grilled cheese sandwiches and pumpkin soup, tuna salad and red bean soup, and some other things along those lines. But did Desmond come up with something new and differnent?
We looked at Hilltop this past summer and the couple we rented Pinnacle with wanted to rent Hilltop to bring their whole family down next year, but we found out that the owner is taking it off the rental market for the summer to do some major construction/refurbishing. I thought it was pretty much perfect as it stood, so I'll be interested to see the changes when we go back in 2005. We're renting Fairwinds for two weeks in 2004.
I have to agree with you on dining in versus dining out. The first time we stayed at Tryall (we stayed at Kerguy [now called Counts Cottage and converted to a 2 bedroom], the only 1 bedroom they had at that time --1990, well before the Great House villas were built), we went in to town for dinner one night and that was the only time. The sheer luxury of having the dinner you want, prepared the way you want, served to you on your dining veranda under the stars, with the warm breezes wafting around you, well, you just don't want to go anywhere there are other people. You just fall into the pleasure of the privacy and special attention you get at a Tryall villa.

Sorry, got carried away. So, back to the question at hand -- tell us about your lunches.

MrWilson75 -- we stayed in a 1 bedroom Great house villa last summer. They are very nice, in a way different from the villa homes at Tryall. The GH villas, the 1 BRs anyway, are two level. You enter on the bedroom level into a foyer with steps down to the kitchen, dining room and living room. On the bedroom level is the quite large bedroom and bath with jacuzzi. Very nice, quiet, and spacious. The walk to the pool is short, and to the restaurant even shorter.
For $25 and the cost of the food from the comissary, your housekeeper will also cook for you in your villa, should you not want to go to the restaurant. Lunch at the Beach Bar is a treat, sitting right at the edge of the beach.
There is a free shuttle to run you to the beach, golf clubhouse, and beach bar.
As I said above, we love the Tryall course, but are also smitten (I think that might be the right word) with the White Witch course. We play golf nearly every day we're in residence, and make sure to have at least 2 rounds at the Witch. There is a wonderful feeling in the pit of your stomach as you stand at the tee of the first hole at the Witch, looking down over the hole and out to the sea -- spectacular!!!
But so is the 4th hole, and the 9th and 10th, and the 13th and 14th just make you stop and stare. The 13th teebox is some 100 or 150 feet above the green, making it the longest short par 3 you'll play. And the 14th, with it's split fairway, draws you to drive the ball over the water to the green, even if you know you don't have the distance to do it. Just great golf holes.
And great treatment from the club house staff and all the concierge team.
But I'd put Tryall's 4th hole over the Flint River against almost any par 3. Play it first thing in the morning, before the onshore breeze starts, and it's a tame 6 or 7 iron. Come back 2 hours later once the wind is up and you'll be leaning into a 5 wood.
Tee it up on the 7th in the shadow of the water wheel, or stand on the tee of the 9th looking way down to the fairway far below -- you can't help but fall under its spell.
Clamber up to the elevated tee box on the side of the hill on the par 3 12th and drink in the view. The long 14th is still ahead with its left-to-right sloping fairway and green. Try to factor in the right-to-left blowing stiff crosswind. What a joy that course is.

mrwilson75

Thanks for the first-hand account of the Great House villas and Tryall, golfguy. I usually only squeeze in one round per vacation, and it sounds like it makes sense to play Tryall this time, not White Witch, since I've already played the Witch and Tryall will be much more convenient to where I'm staying this time.

Any comments on the Pineapple House at Round Hill (or Round Hill generally) versus Tryall?

jray

Check out their website.

http://www.tryallclub.com/

golf_guy

mrWilson75,

Put Round Hill in the text search box above and hit 'find.'
You'll get back more than 100 responses showing threads going back about a year where Round Hill has been mentioned.
When you use Pineapple House, you'll only get one.
Do the same thing for Tryall and you'll also see more than 50 threads.
I always find using the search box gives a faster response than posting and waiting on the chance that someone who can answer my query happens to be surfing the site in the time I need an answer.
Give it a try.

LaraC,
Are you going to come back and tell me about the lunches that Desmond made?

mrwilson75

I always read through all the posts (usually multiple times) on any place I'm considering using the search method you describe, golfguy. Just interested in soliciting yet more opinions to consider! With Round Hill in particular, I haven't come across much in the way of trip reports or other detailed descriptions of a number of items of interest to me: e.g., the Pineapple House rooms themselves, the new spa, the food in the main restaurant, activities, etc. Of course I presume all of these items to be top notch at such a place, but I'm "type A" enough that I prefer to have as much information about a place as is possible beforehand (it helps me relax once I get there!).

LaraC

MR WILSON 75
Round Hill is in between Tryall and Montego Bay. Can't comment as we only saw the entrance from the road. As for the Great House Villas, I did not see the inside so I can only comment on their location. The Great House is close to the main entrance to the Tryall compound so you would be close to the beach club, golf and Great House facilities, ie., commissary, massage / beauty, bar, restaurant etc. In terms of golf, we like the Witch better as they were doing work on the Tryall course. 1 of the holes was completely closed (I think #3) when we played and they were doing some works on a few others. The Witch is comparable to the kind of courses you find at Kiawah / Pebble Beach.

GOLF GUY
Sorry but I can't really add any great lunch suggestions. We had a lot of activities going on during most days from golf, Negril, Mayfield Falls etc. so lunch was very casual. We requested salads for lunch so we could splurge on the waistlines at dinner! We also ended up eating at the Beach Club and Ritz Carlton after golf.

In reference to the Hilltop construction coming up. We heard about it from the guard at our house and it sounds like it will be even more AMAZING when they are done. I think he said they were adding another bedroom and extending the living room / dining room area / pool area out towards the sea. If you look at the floor plan on the Tryall website you can imagine it better. Basically the pool will move down the hill a little and probably have even better views if thats possible.

AlexI

Dear LaraC,

We are just about to book a villa at Tryall (Mahogony Hill Villa.) From the looks of the various internet sites I've seen, the Tryall Club's beach looks OK...not superb. What was your take on it? From your e-mail, it sounds like you were travelling with adults. We are 3 couples travelling with 4 young children (all under 4). We are hopeful that the beach will be clean, quiet and gentle. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Also, is travelling around via golf carts on the property easy to do? How long did it take you to get from Hilltop down to the beach?

Thanks,
Alexandra Ince

golf_guy

Alexl,

The beach is very good for children. There's a breakwater on the right side, so there are no waves in the lee of the breakwater--actually for almost half the beach. There is a floating trampoline that's a brief swim from the shore. On the right side of the beach it's nice sand down into the water. On the left side -- away from the breakwater -- there is a little bit of broken shell material right as you enter the water and then it goes to sand.
Traveling around the property by golf cart is fun and easy. From Hilltop to the beach by golf cart is less than 5 minutes. From Mahogany Hill it's a bit longer if you go up by the Great House, and maybe a bit shorter if you go down the back way and run along Country Club Drive. The underpass is where the golf cart path runs from the 16th green to the 17th tee box.

LaraC

Message: Alexl

The beach is fine for kids as the water is calm. On a scale of 1-10, I would give the beach a 6. We spent most of our "sunning" time at our villa pool. I may not be the best judge of the beach though as we were there in off season and they were doing some improvement work to the beach area. Definately take a day trip to Negril....the beaches there are great! No Problem Tours can take you.

golf_guy

Alexandra Ince,

Did you book Mahogany Hill at Tryall? We leave for Fairwinds villa on Saturday. Our 6th Tryall visit (and 12th Jamaica visit). Excitement runs high!!!!!