Sunset view from the roof of Shabeen Bar at Golden Eye
Yvonne on paddle board on the ocean, just off James Bond Beach.
We just got back from 4 great days at Golden Eye in Jamaica. We planned a trip here for October of 2016 as our honeymoon, but Hurricane Matthew was on track to hit Jamaica the same day we arrived. So we backed out last minute, and instead took a credit at Golden Eye and planned a last minute trip to Banff, Canada (seen earlier in this blog).
So this time around, we planned to go a bit earlier to avoid hurricanes and went for a few days in August. The resort was even better than we expected. We have a travel book that calls this place out as one of the best places in the world to visit, and Dan also saw while watching the Late Show that Jimmy Fallon regularly vacations here, among many other celebrities we later found out.
Taking a break from standing up.
The place is called Golden Eye because Ian Fleming wrote all of the James Bond books at his house located on this property. The property was later bought by Chris Blackwell who founded Island Records. Lots of good information is on the Golden Eye website. From talking to people at the resort, it seems Chis Blackwell still spends a lot of time at the resort but we missed him by a day or two as he split his time between the resort and a countryside home also in Jamaica (interestingly enough, it is where much of the food for the resort is farmed).
Snorkeling in Snorkelers Cove
We flew into Montego Bay airport, where we got an extra service to expedite us through immigration at the airport to avoid waiting in the lines. Our driver was on time and drove us 90 minutes across the island over to Golden Eye.
Dan on paddle board in the ocean just off James Bond Beach.
The whole trip started off a bit in a daze since we took a red eye flight, and were pretty tired when we got in. We also had to pick up a connection in Orlando which went smoothly. Our first meal at Golden Eye was not great for some reason, and we were a bit worried that the place wasn't going to have good food. Lucky for us it was a fluke, as from the next meal onwards everything we had was amazing. We tried as much local food as we could. Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork, Callaloo, mahi mahi, Shrimp, Toto Bread, Ackee, Chocho, Plantains, Snapper, Scotch Bonnet... probably more that I am forgetting now.
Map of Golden Eye
Dan swimming in the lagoon with our cottage in the background.
We decided to stay in one of the Lagoon Cottages which are small homes right on the water. Our porch has a small deck that lets you jump right into the lagoon, and each cottage comes with its own kayak that you can use to get around the resort. The lagoon lets out in two different areas into the ocean, so you can explore the area around the resort in a bunch of different ways and make it out into the ocean. We spent the bulk of our days there in the water with activities like snorkeling, standup paddle board, kayaking, and swimming... and doing nothing just laying around in the lagoon or out on the ocean. We also did a couple of trips to the spa... it was only a short kayak ride away.
By some miracle, we never left the resort which is very unlike us. In all of our vacations we have been on the move constantly, trying to explore as much as possible. This time around we made a promise to relax... and that is pretty much all we did. Relax, water sports, read, and eat.
Snorkeling in Snorkelers Cove