RESORT REPORT - GRAND LIDO BRACO - MAY 1998

The following is our report on the Grand Lido Braco resort, which we visited from May 3 through May 10, 1998.

Getting there

We took Delta to Atlanta and connected with Air Jamaica, arriving in Montego Bay about 10:30 a.m. Immigration and customs took awhile, since at least three flights arrived at MoBay about the same time. After clearing customs, Superclubs was on the ball and had us in a bus and on our way quickly. The bus trip to Braco isn’t bad - about an hour and 20 minutes, including a 25 minute beer stop along the way. On the return, we made it from Braco to the airport in under an hour. For those of you who are used to TimAir or Air Negril going from MoBay to Negril, there’s no corresponding service to the Braco area, unless you plan on using a parachute. With the bus ride time, you don’t need it anyway.

Air Jamaica was fine, arriving and departing on time in all material respects on both ends of the trip. The aircraft were relatively new Airbus A310s. Service and cleanliness of the aircraft were as good as most of the domestic U.S. airlines.

Check-in

Since we arrived well before the 3:00 check-in time, our room wasn’t ready. This wasn’t a problem; we just went down to the clothing optional pool and found the two other couples we were meeting, and hung out at the pool. Take along a duffel bag with any essentials and you’ll be able to deal with a late check-in without any inconvenience.

Resort overview

The main Braco complex is a replica of an island village, with a number of one and two story buildings fronting on a main street running perpendicular to the ocean, which is bisected by two shorter streets, all of which are of pressed concrete resembling brick pavers. The various buildings house shops, the main lobby, disco, piano bar and most of the restaurants. At the intersection of the streets is a fountain, and at the far end of main street is the main "textile side" pool. Facing the ocean from the textile side pool, to the right are first the building housing the piano bar and Nanny’s Jerk Pit and then a number of buildings housing the textile side rooms (some ocean front, some not). To the left are the Victoria Market and Stir Crazy restaurants, the workout facilities and the clothing optional section of the resort. The c/o section of the resort is separated from the rest of the property by a kind of "no man’s land;" once past this Maginot Line, clothing optional is the rule in all areas of the c/o side.

On the textile side, only about a third of the rooms (at a guess) front the ocean; the rest are what would probably be called garden view. On the c/o side, the buildings housing the rooms are between the ocean and the c/o pool, and all rooms are oceanfront. Unlike Grand Lido Negril, where "c/o" begins at the buildings facing the ocean, at Braco the whole west side of the resort is c/o, and one does not have to suit up when leaving the beach area.

The landscaping throughout the resort is really outstanding, though on the c/o side a good bit of the plantings are rather young, particularly the palms between the buildings and the beach. Like GL Negril, there’s a small army of landscaping folks working on things just about all the time. There are a number of hammocks strung up between trees in the shade throughout the resort for those late afternoon naps.

We’d guess the average age of guests at Braco is somewhat younger than at GL Negril. Not too many in their twenties, but lots and lots of thirty- and forty-somethings. And not an insignificant number of fifties and sixties.

Like GL Negril, we found that the c/o side tended to attract the more outgoing, gregarious crowd. There was just a lot more interaction among guests who didn’t know each other on the c/o side than on the textile side, where it seemed people kept more to themselves. We met the two other couples with whom we visited Braco at GL Negril in November 1997, and have kept in touch.

Brief words about the c/o side for those who’ve never been to a nude beach: try it, you’ll like it. No one will stare or gawk at you; more than likely, someone will offer to bring you a drink from the bar. Ladies, if you want to keep your bathing suit bottom on, that’s fine. No one cares. Expecting a crowd of hardbodies? You’ll maybe find a few, but most folks look just like the rest of us. Again, nobody cares.

Rooms

The rooms are similar in many respect to Grand Lido Negril, in that they feature twin double beds or king beds, tile floors, reasonably large baths, and sofas. CD players, satellite TV, ironing boards, irons, refrigerator (stocked with Red Stripe and soft drinks, but bring your own opener) and small wall safe (good for travel documents, wallets, jewelry, a small camera and such, but not much more) are standard. The rooms, at least on the c/o side, were in good repair and comfortable. On the c/o side, the downstairs rooms have French doors which open onto the beach, much like Grand Lido Negril. Unlike GL Negril, the upstairs rooms have balconies large enough that one can open the French doors without bumping into the balcony furniture.

On the c/o side, there are at least two configurations of rooms: one arrangement which has just a single large room with a sofa, chair and coffee table nearest the French doors opening onto the beach, much like GL Negril; and a second configuration that is like an Embassy Suites, with a room away from the beach housing a sofa, chair, TV, CD player and refrigerator, with the bedroom (with TV and CD player duplicated) on the beach side. The latter configuration also has a half bath in addition to the full bath. We preferred the former configuration because the sofa and chair were situated such that one can view the beach and ocean.

Restaurants

Cafe Piacere is the French restaurant, and the only one at which long pants and jacket are required. Very nicely done, and should be taken in while at Braco. Make reservations at the beginning of your stay. Dinner only.

Victoria Market is the main dining room, and is open air overlooking the main pool. The arrangement is much better than GL Negril, where the comparable area is sort of down in a hole and further from the beach. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, and dinner is a la carte from the menu, which we thought had more than adequate variety. Victoria Market is closed some evenings when there is an "event" dinner being held, notably the Friday night street party. Dress is casual, meaning a minimum of bathing suit with cover up or t-shirt at breakfast and lunch, and shorts and polo shirt at night.

Stir Crazy, the Japanese restaurant (with tables for six, each attended by a chef cooking on hot grill built into the table, just like Stateside), had recently opened (dinner only). The Japanese executive chef was imported from his most recent engagement in Toronto, and seemed to be getting things under control. Food was okay, but it has a way to go just to match typical U.S. chain fare.

Nanny’s Jerk Pit is open from about 10:00 to about 6:00, and offers jerk chicken, pork and beef. It’s very good.

La Pasta is open from midday to about 2:00 a.m. Offers mix and match pasta and sauce dishes (including chicken and escargot) as well as some really great pizza, made to order with your choice of toppings and cheese. Also features an antipasto bar, and a visit to the bakery next door will fix you up for dessert.

Room service is similar to GL Negril, and offered from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., according to the card in our room. In addition to these posted hours, a continental breakfast can be ordered the night before for delivery to your room in the morning. Some sources reported 24 hour room service, and it may well be available 24 hours but, other than ordering up the continental breakfast every morning, we never tried between 6:00 and 11:00 a.m. The room service menu is much more extensive than GL Negril; for GL Negril fans, Braco *does* have the lamb chops and potato skins on the room service menu.

Room service is also available served at the pool bars if you don’t care to head down to Victoria Market. Also available at the pool bar on the c/o side is jerk chicken cooked on a grill in the bar, which is a nice change from a buffet lunch and the same jerk chicken served at Nanny’s Jerk Pit.

Food quality was generally very good. Only one lunch buffet was unremarkable, and we solved that problem by hopping down to La Pasta for a pizza. On balance, we thought the food at Braco was better than at GL Negril, and that’s saying something in light of the generally legendary reputation of GL Negril.

Liquor is abundant as always, with most top shelf brands available. Remember to ask for what you want though: "gin and tonic" will get you some rotgut stuff, while "Tanqueray and tonic" will get you just that. To our surprise, Heineken was available in bottles in addition to the Red Stripe on tap or in bottles that is the mainstay most everywhere in Jamaica. We like Red Stripe, but it was nice to have an alternative now and then. Wine quality was truly abominable. Believe it or not, we longed for the Concha y Toro they often served at GL Negril! About all one can say for most of the Braco wines is that they were French.

At all restaurants, tables for six are available; it would be wise to call ahead if there are more than six in your party so they can set up a table.

In addition to the restaurants, there is room service available from two, what I think they call "club houses," on the property, much like the "houses" at GL Negril. Each of the houses has a seating area if you want to eat there instead of in your room or at the pool. Unlike GL Negril, there are no hot tubs adjoining the houses. In addition to food service, the club houses have 24 hour a day bar service.

Beaches and pools

The c/o side beach is, in our opinion, better than Negril. While the resort faces the Caribbean Sea (unlike Negril, whose beach is on Bloody Bay), management has constructed a man-made reef around a swimming area on both the c/o and textile side of the resort. Unlike GL Negril, the water off the c/o beach is clear Caribbean Sea, not filled with plants. While the beach and ocean bottom at Braco are a bit rockier than Negril, we didn’t find that a problem and never broke out our surf shoes.

The c/o side beach is much better than the textile beach. On the textile side there are many more large rocks on the ocean floor than on the c/o side, so if you stay on the textile side, those surf shoes might be a good idea.

The main textile pool is large and features a swim up bar. On the c/o side is the largest pool we’ve ever encountered, also equipped with swim up bar and, at one end, a sloping entrance to the pool much like a concrete beach. Both pools featured lots of tables and chairs with umbrellas, especially on the c/o side.

Both beaches and pools feature many new lounge chairs of aluminum frame and webbed fabric construction: much more comfortable than those heavy white plastic lounges at GL Negril, and no need to have one of those fancy pool/ocean floats in the chair to use as a cushion. One failure at Braco is the insufficient number of pool/ocean floats. Even the floats they have date from the pre-Superclubs days and are badly in need of replacement.

There have been a number of posts and reports on the ‘Net and various proprietary service providers like AOL that the windy conditions make Braco undesirable. Braco is on the north coast of the island, unlike Negril on the west end, and there is definitely more wind at Braco than Negril. A couple of day during our trip the wind might have made sailing a Sunfish problematic for the uninitiated, but the wind was never a problem on the beach, in our opinion. In fact, the breeze kept things comfortable when temperatures rose to the high 80s and low 90s, and it would have been very uncomfortable with the generally still air of Negril. The breeze also seemed to keep the humidity lower than Negril.

Service

On balance, we thought the food service staff was pretty good, but it ranged from indifferent to outstanding. In fairness, the good jobs far outnumbered the poor. One thing Braco really needs to work on is getting good cocktail service to the restaurant tables, particularly at dinner. Often, it took awhile to get in a cocktail order, and the cocktail waitresses had to be flagged down for another round. Management needs to work on training the staff to keep an eye on the tables, but this problem was more acute with the cocktail staff than the wait staff.

Service at the "club house" on the c/o side was good to excellent.

Bar service, except as noted regarding cocktail service at dinner above, was great everywhere, from the piano bar to the pool bars.

The resort offers 48 hour laundry and dry cleaning service at no extra charge. Learning from our experience at GL Negril, we packed light and still didn’t have reason to use it.

The pool guys did a great job keeping the hot tubs and pool in good shape throughout our visit. The large c/o side hot tub was unbearably hot one night, but that seemed to be an aberration.

Activities and Nightlife

Daytime activities (organized by the social directors or other "specialists," such as aerobics instructors) include things like nature walks, water aerobics, reggae dancing lessons, trivia games, volleyball (in the pool or on the beach), tennis lessons, beer drinking contests, etc. The resort has a nine hole (I think) par 3 type golf course and at least four tennis courts (one of which is on the c/o side, where tennis *was* played on an *optional* basis). The tennis courts are hard courts, in very good condition. Regulation golf is available off site at, I think, Breezes Runaway Bay, without additional charge. I think it’s about a 45 minute bus ride to the course.

Watersports are abundant, including water skiing, windsurfing, kayaks and Sunfish sailing. There’s also extensive scuba diving offered, included in the "all inclusive" rate except for night diving. A couple we traveled with reported that the scuba diving was at least as good as at GL Negril, and that they felt more comfortable with the dive masters at Braco than at GL Negril.

There’s also a new workout area adjacent to Victoria Market, facing the ocean. New Cybex equipment and four very nice treadmills were being installed during our visit.

Most of the "organized" daytime social activities centered on the textile side, in our around the main pool. There were also activities scheduled on the c/o side, but they were fewer in number since the c/o side has only about one-fourth of the rooms at Braco, and I guess the management feel (probably correctly) that it’s easier for the c/o guests to be comfortable going over to the textile side than vice versa (and this also avoids having the textiles on the c/o side).

Activities outside the resort (but which can be arranged through Braco) included horseback riding (reported as a lot of fun by a couple we met) as well as a trip to Dunns River Falls.

While not an official "activity," we quickly found out that, at least in May, the sun sets over the water when viewed from the c/o beach. This was truly spectacular, and was attended most afternoons by a considerable number of folks, c/o and textile alike.

Nightlife at Braco is rather thin. There’s a disco that opens most nights about 10:00 or 10:30, which attracted some folks, but not what I’d call a crowd. The Thursday night pajama party was very well attended, though, and the attire was considerably more revealing than at GL Negril. Lots of thongs, g-strings, etc., but with a mix of people in more traditional garb. Everybody got along fine, despite the disparity in dress. The Friday night street party, for which the resort sets up a pretty lavish buffet in the streets, together with tables, was the best attended event during our visit. There was reggae dancing for at least two hours for those who had the stamina; most people took a turn here and there, then made way for others.

On most nights things pick up in the Piano Bar about 10:30 or so for the non-disco crowd. At least a few nights there were some people (local to Jamaica) jamming in, so to speak, with the official pianist. All of them were more than slightly talented, we thought.

The hot tub on the c/o side, as expected, attracted a good crowd most every night, and sometimes late into the night. Late night activities weren’t the bother for people in their rooms trying to sleep since, unlike GL Negril, the hot tub is considerably farther (on the other side of the pool) from the buildings than at Negril. The c/o hot tub adjoining the pool is about four times as large as the one at GL Negril, and there’s a second, smaller hot tub set back among some trees not too far away.

Summary

On balance, our group liked Braco better than GL Negril. The one thing GL Negril still has going for it is that Hedo II is right across the street, and you can jump over there for an evening or two of more lively entertainment than you’ll find at Braco or GL Negril. The service at Braco is not yet to GL Negril standards but is getting there, and based on discussions with management at the cocktail hour for repeat GL guests, we think management is committed to making Braco the best resort in Jamaica.

We’ll be back to Braco, and would recommend it for people who want a relaxed, classy vacation in Jamaica. Feel free to email us at mrbenz@mindspring.com  with any questions you may have.

Doug and Sidney