Grand Lido Braco Trip Report July 11 – 18, 2006
We just returned from a repeat visit to Grand Lido Braco July 11 – 18 and we leave again as satisfied guests. Here are the brief details for those interested:
Rooms:
We booked ROH as we always do, since we are never in the room very much. We were told at check-in that we could upgrade to an A/N Junior Suite for an additional $150 per night. Over the 7 nights we were there we instead saved over $1000 toward our next trip by walking an extra 60 seconds to reach the nude side and we were very happy with our room. All the rooms from SuperSelect to Suites have a stocked (and restocked) refrigerator. The Junior Suite I looked at was larger than our room. It had a sitting area with a small sofa that our regular room did not have. Other than that and the location I could see no differences between our room and the junior suite. If you spend a lot of time in your room, or entertain guests in your room then the upgrade would be far more worthwhile I think. To each their own. We were given a beachfront room in building #1 and were very happy with it. It was clean, had a nice view of the beach and ocean, and the A/C was excellent.
Service:
Braco excels in all areas here… bars, housekeeping, room service, spa, front desk, ,, you name it,,, it was excellent. Merle and Wayne at the A/N pool bar are still the best bartenders we have ever run across in Jamaica, and that includes some elite company from Hedo II!
Food:
Very good for every meal we had. I like having the main dining room serve from a menu at night rather than buffet. Munasan was very good and a great way to meet some nice people. Piacere was very good and we were in and out quicker than on previous trips (90 min rather than over 2 hours in the past). Breakfast was very good every day. Lunch buffet was the least desirable to us though still pretty good. We opted for lunch at the nude pool twice and the rest of our lunches were perfect at Nanny’s Jerk Pit (Now called The Reggae Café).
Pools and hot tubs:
Clean and relaxing. Well cared for. The A.N hot tub needed to be a bit warmer at night I thought.
Beach:
I would not go to this resort for the beach. It is beautiful if you just want to look at it, but it is rocky and is not very good for floating or swimming. It is hard on the feet due to the rocks while in the water. Bloody Bay is my beach choice.
Guest Fitness and Tennis instructors were knowledgeable and fun.
Water sports: Great staff, but the north coast is not nearly as conducive to water sports as Negril. The wind and waves causes (or at least provides and excuse at times) to cancel dives, snorkeling, etc… If being able to participate in water sports will make or break your trip I would advise Negril over any resort on the north coast.
Theme Parties: Pale in comparison to Hedo, but were fairly well attended and fun.
Far more conservative than what we are used to at Hedo but still fun and active.
Entertainment: Good overall each night with talented, professional entertainers most nights. Maybe a bit too much of trying to coerce couples up to the stage as part of the entertainment. The evening entertainment is a lot more fun, if more risqué, at the Hedo resorts. On the EC staff Rohan, Karla, Nikesha, (and others) along with Lester from watersports were excellent and fun to be around.
People: The resort was not nearly full during our stay, in fact seemed rather sparse.
The folks there were fun, classy, outgoing people for the most part. Overall they were friendly and courteous to other guests. The Full Moons group was coming and going during our stay and they were a nice group to have there during our stay. It was a pleasure to meet many of them.
Minor Disappointments/baffling things, but no big deals overall:
No Lobster! When paying to stay at an upper level resort like a Grand Lido I would like to find Lobster on the menu at least one time during a 7 night stay. Lobster is out of season April-June, but by the middle of July we expected at least some lobster. Vendors were selling lots of fresh lobsters along the roadside on the way to the resort, and yet none was available at Braco. On previous trips we were able to order lobster at the French Restaurant (Surf and Turf along with a tenderloin) and that made it seem worth it to take a dinner jacket all the way to Jamaica, but no such luck this time.
About half the days we were there no bananas were available at the A/N bar. This is not a huge deal unless your drinks of choice on vacation are Dirty Bananas and Hummingbirds and still it is only a minor thing. It was just confusing since bananas seemed so plentiful on the roadside and since some days there were hundreds of them on the breakfast buffet in the morning, but still none made it to the bars. In the absence of a banana they use a banana liqueur that just does not work in those drinks for us.
Overall, we loved it and will be back there again in the future.
Pics:
A few pics will be posted at webshots.com when I get around to it, If interested, just do a search for rhallva to find them.
Respect-
Roy and Nancy in VA