Last year we spent a fabulous honeymoon week at Grand Lido Braco so his year we decided to celebrate our first anniversary with a trip between Negril and Braco. This trip took shape in many forms. We were not sure where we wanted to stay in Negril. Originally we were going to stay at Grand Lido Negril and then make the trip back to GLB. We got prices and they seemed a little steep so we ended up pricing and agreeing to stay at Hedo II. Our travel agent specializes in Hedo travel and it all seemed to make sense. Plus, I had always wanted to check out Hedo, and what better way than an abbreviated trip knowing that you are going to be more than satisfied ending your trip at GLB.
Things took a change for the worse with Hurricane Ivan. As we all know Negril suffered more of the wrath of that storm than other sections of the island. Hedo II wasn’t scheduled to reopen until the 21st of Sept. I believe, so to be on the cautious side we rebooked our trip to stay at Hedo III our first three nights. Our TA was great. Arrangements were made and docs were shipped overnight with no incremental cost.
Now the good stuff…. on to the trip!!!
Travel to Jamaica was uneventful. We had the 7:10 flight out of Boston arriving in Mobay at 10:30. Flight was great, right on time, and very quiet. I would say there were only 70 or so folks on the plane. Immigration was slow, customs was quick, and we were on the bus to Hedo within 30 minutes. It was kind of fun going to Hedo this time on a full bus wondering if anyone else was going to the "Oasis of Pleasure." Most couples were going to Breezes and I think 3 couples went to Hedo. One couple was going to Braco and the driver forgot to stop. Too funny, they ended changing buses on the "highway" in Runaway Bay after the Breezes stop. I will try and make things a little briefer as I go on.
Hedo III:
Check in was smooth, we booked our reservations for dinner at the same time and we were off to the room. I am going to try to summarize each aspect of each resort at once rather than a day-by-day account; making comparisons to Braco were pertinent.
Room: The room was quite nice. In my opinion, the rooms at Hedo win hands down compared to Braco. Decent size, much nicer bathroom, huge Jacuzzi tub, nice décor, nice view (we were upgraded to beach front), but they are missing the balconies you find at GLB.
Food: Went right to lunch hungry after a day traveling and noted immediately that the food is not up to Braco standards. The lunch was an assortment of salads and small pieces of meat (pork, streak, sausage), however lunch at the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet restaurant our second day was very good. They had an assortment of jerk dishes and Jamaican specialties. Dinner was also a buffet our first night (Hedo’s form of the street party – they call it a deck party I believe, or grand gala) and we got there late and the selections were limited. The following nights we ate at the Italian and the Japanese. Both were good, but not spectacular. In general the food at Hedo’s specialty restaurants is superior to the main dining room/buffet or beach/bar grills. Just a tip, I would eat at the restaurants. There are no limits on reservations and it was easy to secure a table at both restaurants.
Pools/Beach: After lunch we were off to the nude pool and this is where we would spend Sat. afternoon – Tues. morning. There are 3 pools: main prude pool (nothing going on there, never more than 3-4 people in the pool), quad pool (clothing optional – seemed like most people at that pool either kept to themselves in some sort of clothing optional state, or they were there by default of not wanting to be the only ones in the prude pool. We didn’t really spend any time there or socialize with anyone), and the nude pool. The nude pool was quite busy. It is situated in a nice spot where you don’t have to put on clothes to get there from most rooms. Security was always present, but they were not the clothing police. The clothing rules were loosely enforced. There were a few women wearing bottoms, which I didn’t quite understand with the option of the quad pool. There were also men hanging around quite sometime in suits before being asked to leave. We sat on the pier the second morning of our trip soaking up the sun until it just got too hot. There is not much of a beach on the nude side, so there really isn’t much to comment on. In terms of bodies, all shapes and sizes were seenJ . Don’t think you have to be a super model!!!
Activities: We only witnessed the activities at the nude pool, which consisted of finding your mate (very fun to watch, too scary for us to play), dirty joke telling, trivia, and naked twister, two nude invasions/water slide runs on the prude side, and some unorganized volleyball. Most of the activities were sexual in nature, which was normally the foreshadowing for late afternoon PDA’s. Nothing too major, similar to Cinemax late night. If you don’t want to see it, I would suggest heading somewhere else around 5:00.
We were asked relentlessly by one couple to swing, which indicated to me they were inexperienced. We are not swingers, but it’s my understanding that a simple no once is enough.
Overall: Hedo is fun. I don’t think we would have been so critical had we not been to Braco in the past. We have been to Mexico twice in the Playa Del Carmen area and stayed at 4 stars and I think Hedo has them beat in terms of service and food. The resort is pretty, but small. You can be anywhere on the property in 90 seconds. I missed the campus size of Braco. We were happy to exit Hedo after 3 days – not disappointed with Hedo, but ready to move on. I don’t think I could spend 7 days there. I would suggest to anyone curious that they do the same as us and book a 3-night/4-night split. If you aren’t happy the trip isn’t ruined. We now move on to Braco. The trip over to Braco is less than 30 minutes.
Braco:
Check In:
Check in was a breeze. We got there just afternoon, and fortunately our room was ready. Third Floor 3000 building. Ugh, I thought, third floor. Turned out to be very nice. We are young and in good enough shape, three flights of stairs are nothing. The cost/benefit of being on the 3rd floor is well worth. Great view, great to sit on the balcony each morning and read and have a morning water or coffee.
Room
Overall the room was quite nice. We did have 2 full size beds, which were a little disappointing, but we aren’t ones to complain too much. The bathroom was a tad nicer than the room we had the previous year on the Textile side but nothing special. The room served its purpose.
Food
As always the food was fabulous. Breakfast was great. Lunch we ate twice at Nanny’s and the remaining days at the nude buffet. Something they didn’t have on our last trip, but very well attended and enjoyed by all. We did not eat at the Japanese or the Italian restaurants. We ate at Victoria’s Market our first night (great!!), the next night was the beach party, and then we ate at the French (superb – thanks to our friends who shared their reservation when we were unable to secure a table), and our last night found us at the street party. We planned the trip to coincide with the dining schedule and it worked perfect. We covered the Japanese at Hedo, and we aren’t big Italian fans, so missing out on that was no big deal.
Pools/Beach
Spent the majority of each day at the nude pool. There were plenty of new floats and plenty of towels. They were doing something I haven’t seen in the past, they were putting towels on each chair early in the AM to help prevent the chair snatchers from hogging up space early in the AM and leaving the chairs empty. Wayne and Merl were great, can’t say enough about them. Made many more friends this year, overall there was a bigger crowd there because lots of folks had been moved over from Grand Lido Negril still closed from the hurricane. Everyone was super nice.
Activities
Played lots of nude volleyball, even played a game against the prudes, winner drops all if you know what I mean, but us nudies lost L . Played golf each morning. They are working on the course, it needs it, but it was still an enjoyable way to start the day.
Overall
Great trip. So glad we saw Hedo and so glad we stayed on A/N side at Grand Lido Braco. I almost missed the walk over to the A/N from the Textile side because you get to experience the whole resort and see all the folks. We mostly discuss the A/N on Martha’s great website, but there are tons of people who never even consider the area behind the bushes J However we feel we had a much better time staying on the A/N. Champagne in the hot tub every night before cleaning up for dinner, and then after dinner nude pool in the clubhouse, followed by a late night soak and swim. Doesn’t get any better!!!
Final Conclusion
In conclusion, we cannot make Jamaica this year, but we should be back on track in 2006 and I am hoping for the same exact trip. 3 nights of adult pleasure at Hedo, followed by 4 nights of adult leisure at Braco.
Hope this helps any of the folks considering either resort. We had a ton of questions coming our way at GLB once people noticed my Hedo floppy.
Be Safe and Enjoy,
Glen and Ronni (Beach 95)