In November of 1997, Ann and I had an opportunity to visit the property formerly known as Braco Village. The management of this property has transferred to the SuperClubs family of resorts. A new addition to the resort that was already underway to add a family section has been transformed into a section dedicated to nude use only - more on this area later. SuperClubs is also training the staff in the manner of service standards of the other Lido resorts. Other changes are being made to add other Lido style amenities, like 24 hour room service.
The first part of the report will be for those who have not been to the resort. The second part will focus on the new area.
The resort (I'll call it just Braco) is slightly less than 4 years old. It is located west of the very small village of Rio Bueno, Jamaica. It's between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios - about a 50 minute trip by bus from the Sangster airport in MoBay. Patrick, our bus driver, filled us with various stories about the various locales as we made our way to Braco.
Upon arriving, you enter what looks like a Jamaican village - albeit a newly painted one. You proceed down the main street into the registration area. Registration went really quickly even though there were a few other couples registering at the same time. We were given room keys and a safe lock/key set. We also left a credit card imprint in case we wanted to use the room phone. We ended up not using it. The porter took our luggage and led us to our beach front room.
There are two rows of guest room buildings. There is a row along the beach and a row off of the beach. We had a first floor beach front room. We could walk out our back door onto the beach. The room was vary spacious with a large sleeping area and a large bathroom. There was plenty of closet and dresser space. There was a bedside radio/CD player. There was a TV receiving several satellite stations from the US.
Since we got in rather late in the afternoon, prime beach time had already ended. So we decided to walk around the resort and get an idea of the area and meet some people. We headed to the center of the village. There is a nice fountain there which provided for a lot of photo opportunities. Around the village were several shops. We strolled through them and received a friendly greeting from the staff. Once we told them that we were just looking, we were left to look at our own pace.
We then strolled over to the main bar for some drinks. The bar wasn't crowded and Randy served us a couple of cold drinks in no time. We took our drinks and checked out the rest of the building housing the main bar. It included a piano bar and lounge area, and a TV area downstairs. Upstairs was a game room with pool and ping pong tables. There was also an exercise area with some stationary aerobic equipment and some gym equipment - Universal, I think.
We then walked around the main pool area. It is a very large pool with an space set aside for volleyball. There is a swim up bar with about a dozen stools. One end of the pool has a walking bridge over it. Just off the pool is a whirlpool. It held 4 or 5 couples.
Beyond the pool area is the beach. I believe I read where it was about 2000' long. There is a booth housing the water staff and is the central place for checking out snorkel gear, getting clean beach towels, and checking out the sailboats and kayaks. The beach is very sandy. However, there are some rocks just off shore that can make walking a little bit tricky. A pair of water shoes came in handy.
As we returned to the main area, they were setting up for dinner in the town streets. Various food stations were located around the area and tables were set up along the street. The wait staff was eager and quick to bring drinks to you or you could get them from the bar. A couple of times a week, dinner is eaten in this manner. After dinner there was the presentation of the Jamaican flag and their national anthem. On other days, meals are served in a variety of other locations. There is the Victoria Market area, which is the main dining room. Meals are served there buffet style. Part of the dining room houses a stage. However, during our visit, this part was closed off and construction was going on behind a temporary wall. An auxiliary stage was set up outside of the market area for nightly use by the various Showtime groups. There is also an Italian Pasta and Pizza restaurant. Next to that is a bakery and ice cream parlor. For a European flavor, there is a French restaurant which requires advanced reservations. There is also a jerk pit. The food was plentiful and very tasty. You can have a continental breakfast brought to your room in the morning. Of course, when the entire changeover to the Lido style is completed, you can get room service 24 hours a day.
Every night had some various forms of entertainment. It was mostly singers and dancers. One night they held hermit crab races where you could bet on your favorite and win cash! There is also a disco which opens later in the evening and has a lot of room for dancing. There is a small casino with various slot machine games. We never did see anyone other than guests at the piano bar, but the activity schedule did show that there was someone there - evidently at times that we weren't there.
For those that enjoy the clothing optional beach atmosphere, or are interested in trying it, the far end of the beach is designated for nude use. There is a bar there along with a grill serving lunch items. A hot tub for nude use is also located in this area. We had 8 couples in it and didn't feel too crowded. This area will revert back to a clothed beach once the nude addition opens. More on that later. The nude beach was not very crowded. If you are staying in the last couple of buildings and are on the ground floor, you can walk right out onto the nude beach area. We were with a group of about 8 other couples. Other than our group, there were never more than 10 others on the nude beach. We met several people who were trying nudity or partial nudity for the first time. They found it to be a very relaxing atmosphere. Since Braco is isolated, there are no outsiders walking the beach or boating by to make you feel uncomfortable.
Most of the guests were couples. All the singles we met were with some type of a group. The atmosphere made it very conducive to making new friends. The Jamaican national soccer team "The Reggae Boys" stayed at Braco for a few days preceding their match with Mexico held on the Sunday we were there in the stadium in Kingston. They needed a win or tie to qualify for next year's World Cup in France. They ended up in a tie. The prime minister declared Monday a national holiday. There was a lot of celebrating and flag waving. This was the first time that Jamaica qualified. It must have been their practice time at Braco that did the trick.
There is a 9 hole golf course on the premises. I did not play it. A couple of acquaintances who did, said they had a good time - they played the course twice. I saw my first mongoose in the wild. It was roaming the area at the edge of the beach and the lawn down on the nude beach.
The group we were with had special access to the new nude side. We were all acting as models in a photo shoot for publicity pictures. We spent a couple of hours in the nude pool and on the nude beach.
The nude pool is huge! It's over 200' long with a large swim up bar and an even larger bar above that. I think there will be food service from the larger bar. There is a lot of pool deck for relaxing. There is a water volleyball area. You can't even see the far side of the pool from one end to the other. At one end, you can enter and exit the pool via a shallow incline, much like a beach. Our group had the honor of being the first people in the nude pool.
There was a nude hot tub under construction. It will be kidney shaped. It was hard to tell at this stage how many people it could hold. For those who have been to Hedonism II, it is not as large as their nude hot tub - but it is larger than most. There was a tennis court going in for nude tennis. There are going to be many walkways suitable for bicycling, jogging, or walking.
There are several new guest buildings along the nude beach. Many of the rooms are suites of various sizes. They were putting the finishing touches on them. Some have small kitchens. All of them are on the beach front which has a lot of sand and will have chairs and umbrellas. A new Japanese restaurant is also under construction. This will add to the variety of selections for eating. It will not be for nude use, but is part of the new construction.
When completed, this area should be one of the premiere nude vacation spots in the Caribbean. The Lido philosophy will provide all the extra touches required for a truly memorable time. You won't have to have a room on the nude side to use the nude facilities. However, the convenience of walking out your front door to the pool or your back door to the beach can't be beat.
Construction is proceeding at the typical Jamaican pace. It's difficult to guess when the facility will be totally completed. I'm sure it will be after the first of 1998, though. Most of the activity left is related to the grounds. The guest building are complete and were being furnished. There is a lot of landscaping and finish work remaining on areas like the hot tub and tennis courts. The bar facilities were only roughed in.
It didn't take an exceptional imagination to see what the potential will be when completed. We can't wait to return and see the final results.
If you're planning a visit to Braco and expect to use the new nude area, be sure to check with your travel agent about the current status of the area. We traveled through Go Classy Tours - who we've used for many trips to the Caribbean. Their staff makes frequent visits to the resort to check on the progress first hand and would be a very reliable source of information on the status of the construction.
Let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me via email.
Denny