Hedo trip dates 1/19/01 through 1/26/01. I know its been a while since our trip. But Brenda (my wife) and I keep detailed travel journals, and Denny said its never too late for a trip report. We are a 27 year old couple. This was our first trip to a Hedo resort. We were very excited. We met a few people through this we site before we went.
Getting there: In the weeks before our trip we read all of the trip reports listed on this web site. Many of them recounted horror stories of their trip to the resort. We didn't pay much attention to them because we wanted to know more about the resort itself. But the bus ride from the airport to the resort should be mentioned in any trip report. The bus was large (seats about 50) and air conditioned. The driver was very entertaining! But everyone drives crazy in Jamaica. It was like a video game. He was driving like, if he got into an accident, he could just hit the reset button and start over again. The drive was about 3 hours. We are pretty easy going so we saw it more as entertainment. No Problem. Also, he stopped about a third of the way there for a rest stop. We could have done without the stop.
Check-in/Room: We flew direct from Minneapolis, so from the time we woke up to the time we checked in was about a 10 hour trip. We checked in, waited about 15 minutes for our keys, and the bellman took us to our room, explaining were the divisions were for Nudes and Prudes. Our room faced the quad pool on the third floor. It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but we didn't plan to spend very much time in the room anyway. The room was very nice as I had read in many trip reports. The thing that disappointed us was the mirror above the bed. It was a large chrome plated sheet of metal with some of the chrome chipped off that gave a reflection more like that of a rusty toaster, or a car bumper than a bathroom mirror. Otherwise, the room was very comfortable. Also, if you are lucky like us, you may find some green smokey treats in your CD player, or hidden somewhere in your room
The Resort: Later, after taking a nap, we took a stroll around the grounds. It is a very beautiful place. The nude beach is not very impressive. The beach itself is about 120 feet long and about 40 feet wide. The swimming area is about 120x120 and bordered by a large bolder retaining wall(probably to shield what little beach there is from erosion). The prude side has a far better beach, but very few people are ever there. This is not a "beach resort." The main dining area is very comfortable. One side of the dining area is completely open and faces the Caribbean. The main bar is right next to the dining area. It seemed that the main bar was the place to meet new people. There is a steam room, but not very many people use it (probably because its 70-80% humidity all of the time). The health club is small(max. capacity about 8). We worked out twice during our stay, but most of the time it seemed to be dominated by people who looked like they work out 3 hours a day while NOT on vacation. The piano bar was nice, but small. Some nights they have karaoke. The disco: We are not really into disco/dance clubs at home, but this is where everything happens at night, so we tried it out a couple of times. The nude side: Most of the people at Hedo are on the nude side. The nude side is very small, so there tends to be a shortage of chairs around the pool and the beach. Some groups will have someone from their group lay towels over some chairs, most likely to signify that those chairs are taken. So, if you get to the nude side any later than 8am, 2/3 of the chairs will be occupied, and the other 1/3 will have towels draped over them. We were of the opinion that if your personal things are not there, it is just a Hedo towel on a Hedo chair. The beach/pool area chairs followed this pattern every day that it was sunny. At night the nude side is mostly empty except for the hot tub. The hot tub is where the action is. Some nights sex, other nights just drinking and conversation. There is a towel cabinet near the hot tub, but we found towels there only at the slowest times of the day, so bring a towel from your room. The hot tub is hot sometimes and cold other times. I think they turn it down in the day time, so people can sit in it when its 82 degrees and sunny, but it takes a while for it too warm up after dark, then it gets too hot, then by 3am its too cold again. The Prude Side: We didn't spend much time on the prude side. Really, the only reasons we found to go to the prude side were (a) dining, because there is no nude dining. (b) shows/disco/ and other all resort entertainment (c) vendors. There are some vendors selling carved pipes, jewelry, and other art. (d) Watersports.
Socializing: Hedo 3 is a nice resort, but the best thing about it is the social atmosphere. The best place to meet people/socialize is in the nude hot tub at night. We met some pretty fun people of all ages in the nude hot tub. Some were people we communicated with though e-mail before the trip, but we didn't get a picture on line (trade photos on line. It makes things easier). Although it may fluctuate from week to week, the demographics are roughly about 70% age 40+ and 30% age 18-39(most of the 20 somethings stay on the prude side). Many people on this web site will say that "its not age, its attitude." They are right. We had a lot of fun with people twice our age, as long as the conversation didn't center on work, or family. The hot tub in the quad pool area typically had a younger crowd, and a younger attitude, which means its not always nude. We went between the nude hot tub and the quad hot tub and had fun at both. We did notice that there was some separation of some of the young (and maybe self proclaimed beautiful) people from the rest of the crowd to almost high school clique proportions. Even though we may be considered young and good looking, this group seemed very alienating. We had more fun with people twice our age.
Sex: Where the "its not age, its attitude" argument breaks down is in the sex department. We are a 27 year old couple that dabbles in the Lifestyle from time to time. But typically, attitude won't override the fact that most of these people are our parents age. We met a couple that was around our age but they left a day after we arrived. Other couples our age had either hooked up before the trip, and were exclusive sexually, or were into only girl/girl. Slim pickings for young Lifestylers. Needless to say, we enjoyed sex with each other for our stay. We didn't participate in sex, but we enjoyed watching. If you sit in the nude hot tub for long enough, you will see something. One night we saw some girl/girl action. Another night we saw a couple of blow jobs. We didn't see any "sex police." We wanted to play some dirty dice, or do some body shots, but it was our first time there, and we had only read about these activities, and we are kind of shy in new situations, so we weren't comfortable initiating any games.
Food: The restaurants are great. I suggest looking at the main dining menu right away when you arrive and making reservations at the restaurants for the nights that seem questionable. Exception: Jamaican night; Jamaicans do Jamaican food well.
Customer Service: Service is second to none!!!! I don't know if it is Jamaican service or Hedo service, but it is unbelievable! One day, lounging on the nude side, Brenda decided to go up to the nude bar and grill to order a fruit plate. She was told that they had run out of fruit, but they would have some from the main dining area shortly. We went swimming for a while, and joked and laughed about a tropical resort running out of fruit, but having plenty of beef. Later, we went back up to the pool area to relax and read a little. Just as we got comfortable one of the cooks at the bar and grill, picked Brenda out of about 60 people and delivered her fruit plate. Also, if you order wine at dinner, your glass is always full. Same goes with coffee at breakfast
After a few days we were more comfortable with the resort, people, and activities (sexual or otherwise). It rained for 5 out of the 7 days that we were there. After asking the front desk people a few times(you have to be persistent), we were issued two free days under the sunshine guarantee. We are planning to use them for another stay this year in December. We will be looking for others on this web site to go at the same time.