? for Paleochick or other Marva Tour Vet?

[smilingrl]

I read Paleochick's review of her trip in Ocho Rios with Marva Shaw, and it sounds similar to what she plans for us. We're traveling with our 3yo. For Paleochick or other parents who toured with Marva, I'm wondering how much of your time was spent in the van driving around? My husband does not want to do the tour if we're going to be spending a lot of time in the car, and I hope I can convince him that is not the case.

 

(I posted a question on the Jamaica forum about this and got a couple of good answers but was hoping for a more specific response.)

 

Thanks!!

[QTMichele]

Hi, Margaret! Saw your post and had to answer - we LOVE Marva and highly recommend her!!! I'm not sure which tour you are interested in taking, but our tour had relatively little driving. We felt like we had adequate time at each of our destinations (Dunn's River Falls, White River tubing and Reggae Beach). Marva has excellent communication - you may want to e-mail her and ask her for a general time line for the tour you are interested in taking.

 

Please feel free to ask more specific questions. Also, click on the link in my signature for more detailed information about our Mariner cruise (includes excursions/ports). :)

[smilingrl]

Thanks, Michele! Just got back and loved the tour with Marva's crew. We didn't have a lot of driving at all, and she put us with a great guide named "Cool Maroon". I think she specifically put us with him because I asked a lot of questions about seat belts and car seats... he was a VERY careful driver, I felt very safe with him. We did DRF, the gardens and Mahogany Beach. It was a fun day and I would recommend Marva's tours 100%.

[QTMichele]

Yeah!!! I'm so glad you enjoyed your tour!!! We truly enjoyed Marva and never hesitate to recommend her - it's wonderful that others feel the same as we do. :) By the way, how was Mahogany Beach? We never went there - any info would be great!

[smilingrl]

Mahogany Beach was nice. The beach itself is pretty small, about 20 yards across with rock outcroppings on either side. The water is roped off at about 5ft deep. A bunch of catamarans were taking groups snorkeling a few hundred yards off the beach. There were little thatched umbrellas along the beach and beach chairs for rent. Cool Maroon set us up with an escort there and he got us jerk chicken and beer at the bar, though we could have eaten on the beach. There was some hilarious reggae playing at the bar, though I was really glad our daughter couldn't understand it, pretty raunchy. She loved swimming in the calm ocean there, it was very sheltered. I would not call it luxurious, and Cool Maroon made it pretty clear that we shouldn't venture outside the beach there, but it was good for an afternoon of relaxing. I wonder if we might have enjoyed Reggae Beach more.

[QTMichele]

Hmmm... Reggae Beach is definitly NOT luxurious - it is definitly a basic beach (no chairs or umbrellas for rent, for example). The "shower" consists of an outdoor area with a hose attached to a pole so you can spray yourself off. There is a bar area (thatched roof) and table tennis available (I'm going to find the picture of the ping pong table - it's great!), but, again, nothing near luxurious. There were stray dogs as well (they didn't bother anyone and stayed near the treed area versus the beach). We'll just have to go back and try all the different beaches to find the best one! ;)

[smilingrl]

There were stray dogs at Mahogany Beach, too, and they were definitely looking for shade. We all were, so those umbrellas were nice to have. I would not recommend against Mahogany Beach, it was not bad, maybe it's pretty great for Jamaica. I guess I should qualify by telling you we had been to Rum Point on Grand Cayman just the day before, so our expectations were probably higher than they should have been.