Montego Bay and Ocho Rios in Jamaica offer three good choices for lodging

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT) - The emcee at the pool party wanted more diversity for the dance contest.

"C'mon, ladies, don't be shy," he said over the mike. "Let's get a little vanilla up here."

Wisely, the visitors from the north stayed in the lounges, leaving the competition to a half dozen lithe young islanders.

The music began thumping, and each girl did her version of a step that might best be called booty shaking. One girl even managed to stand on her head, on the concrete, while never missing a beat.

After a minute or two, the music stopped and the emcee called on the audience to vote with applause for a winner. The lady with the most bountiful booty won, hands down.

There's never a dull moment at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach, a new 366-room resort east of Montego Bay. There are aerobics on the beach, and in the pool. Kids' activities by day and adult entertainment at night. Sun bathers are treated to a frequent flow of waitresses balancing trays laden with the rum drink of the day.

The aim of my stay in Jamaica was to check out some of the lodging choices, so I evenly divided the nights. Two were spent at the five-star Iberostar; two at Couples Sans Souci, an adults-only resort at Ocho Rios; and two at the Jamaica Inn, a family owned resort that hasn't changed much since Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were photographed there on their honeymoon in 1950.

The Iberostar was a 20-minute ride from Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport. The vast hotel has two four-story wings of cream-colored buildings. Down the back staircase, walkways led through lagoons decorated with fountains and tropical foliage to the pool complex, which had a swim up bar with Red Stripe on tap.

Beyond the pool, a grove of sea grape trees provided a shady refuge on the beach along the Caribbean's famed turquoise waters. Spotting the Europeans among the sun worshippers was easy _ no tan lines here.

The Iberostar is all-inclusive, meaning food at the five restaurants and drinks at the six bars are included in the price, which averages around $200 a person a night, based on double occupancy. That means guests tend to spend most of their vacation on the property, rather than experience the rest of the island.

Many visitors to Jamaica view that as a plus because of its reputation for pesky peddlers, who sell carvings, necklaces and, often, contraband. At the Iberostar, security guards were posted at both ends of the beach. The street merchants resorted to canoes and kayaks, which they tied up to the roping that marked the end of the shallow waters. Shoppers who waded out could peruse their cargo of carvings and beaded necklaces in the island colors, plus plastic baggies of ganja buds for $40.

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On the other hand, Jamaica is among the most beautiful of the Caribbean islands. While many are flat and covered with desert scrub, Jamaica has misty mountains and flowing streams where you can climb through waterfalls or take the island's version of a gondola raft ride. When he arrived in 1492, Columbus called Jamaica "the fairest isle mine eyes ever beheld."

Never venturing from your hotel would be a mistake. Just follow the usual rules for touring foreign outposts or America's big cities _ stay in groups, stick to public places and don't call attention to yourself with flashy clothes and jewelry. Where Jamaica's mantra used to be "no problem," the best way to fend off unwanted peddlers these days is a mutual "respect," combined with a fist bump.

The Iberostar is a family friendly resort, with kids swimming up for ice cream at the pool bar or playing with the giant chess figures on the beach. If you want partying, Negril, on the island's west end, is the place to be.

The highway heading east from Montego Bay has been improved, so the 65-mile ride to Couples Sans Souci at Ocho Rios was smooth, although not uneventful. The taxi driver maintained a steady 60 mph, swerving into the oncoming lane when approaching a slow-moving vehicle, curves be damned.

Sans Souci was built on a hillside overlooking a half-moon of sand 37 years ago and served as an island hideaway for celebrities from Harry Belafonte and Steve McQueen to Jimmy Cliff. The suites today bear the name of the stars who stayed there, and I was booked into Whoopi Goldberg's old haunt, which had a veranda looking out to sea.

The resort was built over two mineral springs, which still feed a small swimming pool and a shaded grotto for soaking. The jungle is reclaiming the hillside, and strolling the terraced gardens down walkways that join the buildings to the beach is like visiting a botanical garden, maintained by 17 gardeners.

Couples Resorts bought the 150-room Sans Souci a couple of years ago and now owns four all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica. Couples Sans Souci was rated the Caribbean's top all-inclusive in 2007 by Travel + Leisure readers. Its claim to fame is romance; guests must be 18 or older. One of the two beaches is au natural; swimsuits are banned between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., although you can come and enjoy the sunset with your pants on.

"We capitalize on honeymooners and anniversaries _ we have a very high repeat clientele," spokesman Aldane Mullings said. "We're about rekindling that first love. You can have intimate dining on the beach with a personal waiter. When you return to your room, the bath is drawn, rose petals everywhere."

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I was traveling solo, so a rose-petal bath wasn't a must.

However, diving is among the amenities included in the price of a stay and I headed underwater, where I earned the respect of Leon, the divemaster, by pointing out a delicate red-and-white sea horse clinging by its tail to a clump of coral. "In 15 years of diving, that's the second sea horse I've seen," he said back on board.

The activities desk in the lobby offered a visit to Nine Mile, the mountain village where reggae legend Bob Marley was born and laid to rest. But it was a full-day tour, so I headed instead to nearby Dunn's River Falls.

For $15 admission, the falls is the best buy on the island. (I didn't try the ganja.) The surging stream of water begins high up on a jungle hillside, and cascades in pools and chutes down to the sea. Visitors begin at the beach, and climb up, getting soaking wet on the way. Guides point out the best footholds, and the limestone is scraped of slippery moss daily to provide traction for climbers.

Conde Nast Traveler has named Sans Souci's dining as the best in Jamaica. The dessert table included lemon cream puffs, peach cobbler, coconut cookies, pineapple cheese cake, fruit pie, chocolate chip cake, bitter chocolate torte and pistachio ice cream with pistachios. And that was at lunch.

Two of the resort's other star attractions are Charlie, an ancient green sea turtle that has its own mineral spring pool, and Charlie's namesake spa, which has treatment rooms where you can get an ocean-view massage.

Nearly 40 percent of the resort's clientele comes from travel agents; Apple Vacations had an agent set up in the lobby. A minimum three-night stay in an ocean suite in November was $415 a couple, a night, which includes meals and drinks.

Caribbean Travel & Life magazine and Ian Keown, author of the guidebook Caribbean Hideaways, teamed up this summer to name the top 10 classic resorts in the Caribbean. Jamaica Inn, in Ocho Rios, was among the picks. Travel + Leisure named the inn the best on the island this year.

The inn has earned a reputation for quiet elegance since its opening in 1950. The 47 suites have sweeping views of the sea, and the louvered door in my bedroom opened to a covered veranda with a couch, coffee table, writing desk and waves lapping just below.

The six-acre property of two-story, sky-blue buildings is unpretentious. There's a small pool, a manicured croquet lawn, a beachside bar with a half dozen stools and kayaks for venturing onto the natural cove. On starry nights, dinner is served on an outdoor terrace, with a singer for entertainment. One night featured a sumptuous barbecue buffet near a bonfire on the 700-foot beach.

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Celebrity guests are provided their privacy, although the antique-filled White Suite bears a plaque with the name of its famous former resident, Winston Churchill. Nightly rates through Dec. 14 range from $290 a suite to $820 for the two-bedroom cottages with kitchens on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. Both cottages have outdoor showers and infinity pools. Add $170 a person for the meal plan.

Also built into the cliff is the KiYara Ocean Spa, with treatment rooms in a tropical setting and ointments and creams made from flowers and herbs from the garden. "You really feel like you're in a jungle when you're back here," said director Carolyn Jobson. "When people come in, they immediately start to relax. The sound of the waves changes your brain pattern."

The Jamaica Inn has been in the same family for nearly half a century, and one of the two brothers who owns it, Eric Morrow, was at the beach barbecue. "Not much has changed since 1950, except maybe the dress code," he said. Jackets are no longer required at dinner, although men must wear long pants and collared shirts.

Morrow also noted that the resort is not activity based; guests amuse themselves and most sun, swim, read and nap. "Can you imagine if we had some guy out there yelling, 'All right, everybody in the pool'?" he said.

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IF YOU GO:

Iberostar Rose Hall Beach: The Iberostar chain has luxury resorts all over the world, including six on Mexico's Riviera Maya. The Rose Hall Beach in Jamaica is 20 minutes from Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport. The hotel has a main buffet and four specialty restaurants. Rooms have cable TV, safe, complimentary mini-bar and balconies. Lucy's Kids club is for children 4-12 and offers supervised activities daily. 1-876-680-0000 and www.iberostar.com. From $200 a person a night.

Couples Sans Souci: The resort has four restaurants, six bars and nightly live entertainment. Watersports, including scuba, are included in the all-inclusive package. Tipping is not allowed. The hotel offers a shuttle service to the airport in Montego Bay. 1-800-268-7537 and www.couples.com. From $415 a couple a night.

Jamaica Inn: Dress is casual during the day; long-sleeved pants and collared shirts for men at dinner. Children 12 and older are welcome during the high season, and 10 and older during the low season. Meals can be purchased, or guests can buy the all-inclusive plan. 1-800-837-4608, jaminn@cwjamaica.com and www.jamaicainn.com. Private taxi transfers can be arranged from Montego Bay and Kingston airports. From $290 a night for a suite.

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© 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.