EXCURSION TO BAMBOO BEACH, JAMAICA

We were very excited to finally visit Jamaica on our recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas. Despite this being our 13th cruise, we had never visited this island. Unfortunately our previously-booked excursion to the Blue Hole was canceled (literally the day we boarded the ship), so we had to choose another excursion for our port stop in Falmouth, Jamaica.

We chose the excursion to Bamboo Beach because it gave us the opportunity to visit a beach and samples of Jamaican food would be served as part of the excursion. It also wasn't an all-day excursion so we would have some time (not enough!) to walk around the cruise port terminal and do some shopping.

It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Falmouth to Bamboo Beach. This allowed us to see some of the beautiful countryside scenery of Jamaica...

Bamboo Beach is a really nice beach with lots of sugary sand and turquoise water.

Comfortable beach loungers were available for us under swaying coconut palm and almond trees just steps from the water.

We laid out our beach towels on our loungers and immediately headed into the water. I'm not much of a swimmer, and I am very cautious about burning in the Caribbean sun so I wear a t-shirt over my swimsuit along with a hat and sunglasses. But I absolutely love just wading out in the cool Caribbean water as far as I can. My husband loves laying in the sand and having the waves pummel him. We had so much fun.

I wanted to taste some real Jamaican food and part of this excursion included tapas-size portions of different types of the local dishes. The young women who worked at the beach club served us the food and drinks right at our beach chairs. We were able to sample several different dishes including jerk chicken, cole slaw, spicy sausage, flavorful fried dough, rice and vegetables in a spicy sauce. All were delicious.

We were entertained with some Jamaican dancing by young men and women in traditional costumes.

We really enjoyed our time at the Bamboo Beach Club. It has a really nice beach...

Jamaican reggae music playing under the shade trees...

Souvenirs for sale...

A walk-up bar...

Plenty of beach chairs with great views...

And friendly people...

We would highly recommend it for anyone sailing to Jamaica. 

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Jamaica in November, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

OUR VISIT TO ANGUILLA

We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas back in June. One of the port stops was St. Maarten, my favorite Caribbean island, and the one we have cruised to the most. Since we had visited the island five previous times, we decided to be adventurous, visit a new country and take the ferry over to the island of Anguilla.

From the cruise port terminal it took several legs of transportation to arrive in Anguilla: 

Water Taxi from cruise pier to Philipsburg ($7 roundtrip);

Taxi from Philipsburg to Marigot ($25);

Ferry from Marigot to Anguilla ($53 each roundtrip);

Taxi from Anguilla cruise pier to Rendezvous Bay Beach ($34 roundtrip).

Taxi from Marigot back to Philipsburg ($25).

But it was so worth it!

Anguilla has so many beautiful beaches to choose from. I had researched a couple of them, but as we went through customs, I asked the official which beach she recommended since we only wanted to stay for a couple of hours. She recommended Rendezvous Bay Beach: it was close by and tended to be less crowded. So we took her advice (thank you Ms. Customs Official for the perfect choice!) and hired a taxi driver for the round trip to and from the beach.

Rendezvous Bay Beach is located in front of the Anguilla Great House Beach Resort. Note: if you are interested in actually visiting Anguilla instead of a day-trip, their accommodations are these cute West Indian style cottages.

After the taxi dropped us off we just had to walk directly through the main office building and straight down the sidewalk to the beach. No fees or charges to visit the beach.

WOW!  Here is our first view...can it be any more perfect?

Since it was low season (mid-June) the beach was nearly empty!  A look to our left...

 







































To the right there were just a handful of tourists. The catamaran sailed into that spot about a half-hour after we arrived but the passengers stayed near the boat to snorkel.

This was definitely the highlight of our cruise. When have you ever been nearly the only people on a spectacular white-sand beach?

 

If you want to research ferry schedules from St. Martin to Anguilla, you can click here and here.

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Anguilla in June, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

ARUBA'S NATURAL BRIDGES

Our first trip was back in 2002, so we were really excited that one of the port stops on our recent cruise was Aruba. It was the main reason we booked this cruise: we wanted to revisit Aruba.

On September 2, 2005, one of Aruba's most famous tourist attractions, the Natural Bridge, collapsed. Located on the much windier, northeastern side of the island, the natural bridge was formed out of the coral limestone. Years of trade winds pounding waves against the shore erodes the rocks and forms a cave. At the same time rainwater runs down the cracks into the rock gradually dissolving the limestone. Over the years the result will form a natural bridge. Below are photographs we took during our visit in 2002:

 

Before its collapse this natural bridge was the longest and highest in the Caribbean with an arch span of over 100 feet and a standing height of 23 feet above the sea.

We knew we wanted to see the remains of the collapsed natural bridge, so we rented a jeep once we departed the cruise ship. Even though it had been many years since we had been to Aruba, we remembered how to get to the other side of the island. NOTE: If you want to drive along the northeast coast, you have to rent a jeep. A car will not be able to maneuver the incredibly rocky terrain.

It was sad to see the fallen remains...

We even tried to duplicate the photo of my husband that we had taken all those years ago of him standing on the large boulder in front of the remains...

Fortunately there are other natural bridges along the beautiful northeast coast.

There is the Baby Natural Bridge...it's fun to climb up on the bridges for better views of the sea.

Ironically right next to the collapsed natural bridge is another pretty large natural bridge.

By climbing up on this bridge you can get a great view of the collapsed remains of the other natural bridge and the force of the waves that created all these natural bridges.

If you visit Aruba, don't just stay on the calmer "hotel" side. Explore the windy, eastern side. The turquoise water is crystal-clear...

and there are actually small beaches to enjoy.

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

All photos were taken by me in December, 2015. Unauthorized use is prohibited.