Anyone been to Jamaica? Any recommendations?

[NKF]

Hotels, resorts? Is all inclusive the way to go? Or private villa? For a family of four.
Thanks in advance.

We've been to Ocho Rios and stayed at what was the Renaissance Grande all inclusive.

It was amazing!
Very close to Dunns River falls.

This was pre children though.

Was all inclusive okay. I thought the children might like being able to help themselves to juice and things.

All inclusive is brilliant.

This hotel had about 6 different restaurants in it, a private beach, a gazillion bars and pools. The staff were lovely too.

Also I was a bit weary venturing out of the resort but the locals are fab. Try to sell you their limbs if they can but utterly fab.

Would go back like a shot.

One thing I would say is that you'll fly to Montego Bay and its a longish transfer IIRC.

We've been three times. The first was a stop off on a cruise at Ocho Rios. The next two times we went to a an all-inclusive family resort.

We loved it. Our resort provided a nanny for each apartment. The nanny worked from 9 - 4.30, with an hour off for lunch and an hour off to clean the room. She also came back in the evening for babysitting (which cost $4 an hour). What we liked about this system is that you did what you liked with your children - you could have the nanny look after them when you wanted, or had her bring them to you if you wanted to do something with them. It was not the all-or-nothing that you can get with many children's clubs. You could go off-site without your kids, or even have the nanny take the kids outs (eg to Dunns River).

The resort we were at was fairly small, so it was fine for the older kids to do their own thing, and it wasn't a huge trek from one part of the resort to the other. The food was good and plentiful - good mix of Jamaican, American and European - with plenty of booze and other drinks. We only ate at fixed meal times, but our older kids made full use of the grill that was open all day.

We found that there weren't too many add-ons to the cost. You only really had to pay for excursions, beauty treatments, and scuba diving. Everything else was included in the basic price.