Michael & Heidi - April, 2005
Having just returned from our third trip, and realizing I had
not yet written anything resembling a trip report ever , I decided it was
about time for us to finally submit my comments, recollections and opinions.
I know how much I enjoy reading every one else's report and have finally felt
guilty enough to write one of my own.
This was our best trip yet, and I think a lot of it had to do
with the fact that it took three trips to finally figure out what we truly
wanted in a vacation, and how to make sure we got what we wanted. Rather
than organize this trip by day, or topic, I'd rather present it as lessons we
learned this trip. As anything related to Hedo (or life for that
matter), while these lessons may be highly pertinent to us, somebody else may
decide they're just a load of crap.
Lesson #1 Decide each day on some type of general plan
you want from the day. We had several days wasted on past trips because
we started drinking in the nude pool at noon, were plastered by 4, passed out
at 6 and missed most of the evenings activities. Again, some people
might be ok with this, but it didn't make for a lot of great travel memories
for us. Our plan most days ran like this, up at the crack of noon,
lounge around on the nude beach for most of the afternoon, cocktail hour at
the nude pool around 4:30, later dinner, dancing in the disco followed by
water slide and hot tub. This gave us a great blend of romantic together
time as well as plenty of time to meet fun new people, and connect with the
people you've already met.
Lesson #2 Remember this is YOUR vacation. For the
first time, we realized we didn't have to do anything other than what we
wanted to do. This trip, we avoided the main dining room as much as possible.
It's not that the food was that bad, but Pastafari's had such great food,
wonderful service and air conditioning. We tried Scotch Bonnet one
night, the setting was wonderful, but we discovered we aren't big fans of
Jamaican cuisine. Some of my favorite memories were our quiet dinners at
Pastafari's, just my husband and I. We didn't even eat at Munasan.
While we loved the food on previous trips, it was just too hot and the noise
from the main dining room is sometimes overwhelming.
Lesson #3 Don't be afraid to try new things. We
both did the trapeze lessons and they were fantastic. It was a little
intimidating. That platform is a LONG climb to the top and I've
definitely experienced nothing like it. It took a lot of courage to let
go and trust you were going to be ok. There are all kinds of things like
that offered on the resort. Check your daily schedule.
Lesson #4 Visit with as many people as possible.
Hedo offers something few other resorts do, friendly, approachable people
I met fascinating people that I'd never meet in my own hometown, people from
all different backgrounds, living in situations I'd never imagine. Only
at Hedo would you meet Canadian nudists who live in an actual nudist colony in
Canada, or a man who lives with his wife and their girlfriend (yes, I said
THEIR girlfriend). I can't tell you anything more, maybe when you go to
Hedo, you'll meet them one day, or someone from just as interesting of a life.
Lesson #5
The beach is gorgeous past Hedo. Every day, we would walk
down the beach for a good 30 minute walk, there was always something
interesting to see and it felt good to get a little exercise.
General Observations:
1. Our room had NO hot water, ever. I think it was
probably the most miserable bathing experience I've had in my life.
Other people had a surplus of hot water, I think we just had the end of the
line or something.
2. The phone cards from the gift shop worked great.
3. If you want to eat at the specialty restaurants, get
to the tour desk early, they booked up fast.
4. This was definitely an interesting week. At the
beginning of the week, occupancy was way down and the energy was the lowest we
had ever seen. I think we'd been there four days before we even saw any
PDA at all. At the end of the week, the energy picked up quite a bit,
the butt crackers and the tease um swim models came in.
It was a wonderful trip, and anyone who is thinking about going
needs to do it!
Michael & Heidi