The Wandering Chicken

Favorite Places | Half Moon Resort

I am admittedly not a die hard Jamaica fan. I like it well enough, but the easy accessibility of marijuana and pervasive reggae music fail to elevate the island above other Caribbean destinations that in my opinion are superior.

That said, perhaps the greatest trip I ever took was to the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay in October of of 2002.

The trip itself was unique - the third in a then-annual reunion trip for me and my closest college friends, most of whom were dispersed around the country (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles). It didn’t much matter where we went; we would have an amazing time catching up and drinking too much. But Half Moon was simply spectacular, the most memorable of all our “feasts,” as we called them.

The timing proved unusual and, despite the heavy undertones, beneficial. The travel industry was still reeling from September 11th. Deals - even on incredibly upscale destinations like Half Moon - were abundant, and our decision to head to Jamaica in mid-October, at the tail end of hurricane season, only improved our ability to broker a phenomenal group rate. We managed to set up the “Platinum Plan” - an all-inclusive package that includes just about everything from food and drink to activities like horseback riding, golf and SCUBA diving - for about $200 per person.

Life is good on the Platinum Plan.

And Half Moon lost a lot of money on our group offering us such an astounding deal (even off-season the plan can run $500-600 per person). I think we drank the daily rate in Red Stripe alone. But as far as I could tell our group of 14 outnumbered the entirety of the other guests at the 400+ acre resort To say that we had the run of the place would be a monumental understatement, so perhaps it was worth it to them just to have some warm bodies staying at the hotel.

We lucked out on the weather. After arriving at the hotel in a torrential downpour (which had instilled in us all with a sense of dread), the sky parted and we saw nothing but blue sky for the entire week. The spectacular weather afforded us every opportunity to take advantage of the ample resort activities and

I won’t bore you with the details - only touch on a few of the highlights. First, the beauty and isolation of the location cannot be overstated. Despite being but a fifteen minute cab from Montego Bay, once within the vast resort environment you couldn’t feel more secluded amidst a lush tropical environment. The resort grounds are gorgeous - beautiful white colonial architecture, long white sand beaches, crystal blue waters and luscious vegetation all around.

The very first day we grabbed our complimentary bikes and toured the grounds discovering many of the resort’s features - innumerable pools and spas, a large croquet field (and accompanying clubhouse, a life-size chess board, and much more. We held onto the bikes throughout our stay and we all agreed this simple amenity contributed greatly to the enjoyment of our trip.

Another highlight was the food. Half Moon is not an all-inclusive resort as such, so it doesn’t suffer many of the problems with other all-inclusive hotels I’ve stayed at. Typically those have very poor food - inauthentic and low quality - served cafeteria style. But Half Moon caters to a high-end traveler generally and the main restaurant served exquisite breakfasts and dinners. The menu was replete with traditional Jamaican fare, so much so that despite eating there twice nearly every day we never tired of the selection. Our dining was typically enhanced by a steel drum band performing at sunset as we indulged our every culinary whim.

While we participated in a number of activities including golf and diving, the most memorable was certainly our horseback adventure. The gentle tour of the jungle grounds culminated in a free ride into the ocean, treading with our horses through the distant surf. I’m not sure what we signed at the beginning of the trip but I suspect it was a pretty substantial liability waiver. There’s no way you could do this in the United States. We rode our horses onto the beach, dismounted and removed the saddles, before hopping back on bareback to ride our horses straight out in the ocean. It was an experience hard to relate and one I expect not to have the good fortune to do again (despite the severe pain of riding bareback even for a minute or two and the panic I experienced having so little control of the beast in the water).

In all, Half Moon was and will always remain one my favorite places.