Trip to GL Braco July 2-12th
Having made prior trips to Ochie and Negril, I decided for a change of pace and to throw caution to the wind. I booked a SS+ thru FunJet, excluding Breezes MoBay.
A week before departure, I found out I’d been assigned Breezes Runaway Bay. Not a big surprise, but not what I’d been hoping. However, I was thrilled to get a call three days later from my TA saying I’d been switched to GLBraco. I whooped for joy and told my traveling companion (good ol’ Mom) the news, and to pack appropriately.
Our flight in on Air Jam was unremarkable…yeah, it was late, yeah it was crowded. What else is new?
Soon enough we were in that gorgeous Jamaican sun and on the road to Braco with a whole busload of folks heading there and Breezes Runaway Bay. Check in went as usual—“It’s only noon, your rooms aren’t ready yet. Everyone get some lunch and come back at 3pm!” Well, we made it till 130 then trooped back to reception and got our keys. I was happy to find out we’d been assigned to one of the blocks close to the reception desk and “town square” of Braco where all the restaraunts are. We were in room 1234, which means, Block 12, Third floor (UGH!), fourth room. The room was clean very spacious and the beds firm. They had a CD player and a TV and a coffee maker. To my surprise, we did NOT have a mini fridge in our room—I guess that’s only for nude side rooms. Our balcony had two inviting chairs and a gorgeous view of the garden. No ocean view, but what can we expect? We were on a super surprise after all! This proved perfect for listening to the tree frogs at night. The AC was strong and the shower had plenty of hot water, though the drain was a bit slow.
After washing up we did some exploring. There are a few shops in the resort—one jewelry shop, one sundries shop, two clothing shops and a “trinket” shop. I liked the lay out of the hotel and thought everything was easy to find and the bars where plentiful and not too crowded. Internet service was available at the reception desk but it was 75 cents a MINUTE!! And that was slooooooow service so the minutes added up.
The “prude side” pool is pretty large and partially wraps around the Victoria’s Market—the main dining room. There are lots of chairs and floats, and true to form, towels at times can be a challenge to find, but not as bad as at Hedo 2. The prude beach is very long and the sand a bit course but very walkable. However, for those that venture in the water, be warned. The tide is fairly strong, and there are LOTS of sea urchins out there. (I found these out while paddling around snorkeling in the area just off the beach. Pretty poor visibility, but I sure saw those urchins!) I decided the beach was nice for a change of scenery but spent most of the tanning and water time in the pool.
I did venture over to the nude side a few times and found the pool to be even bigger, and busier. The beach is smaller, but both sites had lots of chairs and floats. The ocean is rough just like on the prude side. And, again, true to (hedo 2) form, I found the nude side more friendly and lively than the prude side.
We tried Muahana, the Japanese/Behnihana type restaurant and liked it quite a bit…everyone gets sushi/tempura/miso soup appetizers, and then you choose what items you want prepared for dinner: steak, chicken, shrimp or Tilapia fish. Everyone also gets veggies sliced and diced for dinner. There was a woman who was a vegetarian on our first time at Muahana’s, and she was accommodated with extra veggies and some tofu. They serve wine and saki with dinner, and dessert. It’s a fairly quick meal, but filling and a nice change of pace.
Victoria’s market serves buffet breakfast (with an omelet station), buffet lunch (with a pasta station), and a la carte dinner. Can’t say I had anything great there but the stations (omelet and pasta) were great for making sure you had fresh and hot food. Occasionally stuff from the buffet seemed kinda cold or tepid.
The Italian restaurant was great. Its set up as an open air café. You serve yourself from the antipasti bar, and the salad bar, and order your entrée. There are several pasta dishes and pizzas. They have a bakery right next door where you can choose dessert and order lattes and the like. Slow service but fun and good food, IMHO.
Last but certainly not least, Piacere, the French restaurant. We almost didn’t get to go here. Our first reservation had to be cancelled cuz my mom felt unwell. Our second attempt was aborted because the AC was out. (Sorry, but its an upstairs, enclosed restaurant, and dressy, to boot. Sweating in my nice clothes didn’t appeal.) Thankfully, third time was a charm. We had great fun, great food, and were sad we didn’t get to go there a second time. They even had a violinist playing in the restaurant as we dined. (Ok, he was playing acoustic versions of some pretty diverse songs like “Dust in the Wind”, “La Bamba”, and “My Heart Will Go On”!!) We both had surf and turf and thought it was great. I recommend the Soave wine (it’s a white Chilean wine, very nice.)
For lunch a nice alternative is Nanny’s jerk pit (they are not open for dinner.) They have plenty of authentic Jamaican foods including jerk pork and chicken, patties and coco bread.
As far as activities go, I loved the pool volleyball—watching and playing. Mixology is a blast and offered at least a couple of times a week. The pool aerobics were very hit or miss—sometimes they happened, usually they didn’t. There is a nice boat for SCUBA folks and the equipment looked pretty good (though I didn’t dive). The hobie cats and windsurfboards went largely unused because the wind was pretty fierce. I appreciated the strong wind, because July in Jamaica in not a cool temperature setting!
I did check out the spa and had a package which provided a body scrub/facial/massage/reflexology. I believe it was about $180 for two hours of service. Not cheap but VERY relaxing. The spa is small but clean and quiet. Its in the same building as the gym, which seemed to have a good collection of equipment, though the AC in there seemed weak to non existent, though the ceiling fans were kicked into overdrive to keep it comfortable.
Most evenings were pretty low key. I’m not much for clubbing so I didn’t check out the disco. I do recommend checking out the clubhouse on the far end of the prude beach. Its just a bar and a hot tub, but you can order food and its usually quiet enough to chew the fat with the staff. However, there is a significant mosquito problem over there, so wear some block before you go out there.
Across the board, I thought the bar service at the resort was great. The bartenders were friendly and we never waited long for a drink. The Entertainment coordinators were fun and enthusiastic=sometimes enough to make up for the guests’ LACK of enthusiasm. Most everyone seemed happy, helpful and friendly.
I recommend Braco for most folks, especially if you’re happy to stay on your AI resort and not go out. Its pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so excursions offsite weren’t cheap. A day trip to Ochie for shopping (booked thru the resort) was $25 per person. A day trip to Port Antonio was $80 or 85 pp (but we didn’t get to take it because they couldn’t find anyone else who wanted to go!!) I think we would have done well there for a shorter stay. To be honest, 11 days at the same resort, with no option to explore the area for free was a drag. But we suffered well…ha ha
Needless to say, the return home was hard to face, but we did it. My thanks to Denny for the message board and Trip Report pages---we got so much info there, and it was good to be prepared.
Until next time…
Sharyn and Dianne
Fort Lauderdale, FL