Q. How do your tours differ from other guided tours in Jamaica?
A. We try to treat everyone as a VIP. My staff has been running this tour for many years (our cook and others on the plantation have been here for 18 years). We offer as much valid information as possible on the 22-mile drive to the plantation and our tour guides speak clearly and professionally. The food on this tour is all “Jamaican homecooking,” without too many spices or peppers. Our lunch features not only a roasted 60-pound pig, but 12 exotic Jamaican vegetables, great for vegetarians. The visit to the local school (which we started in 1983) has been a big draw. We go to the school and visit with 67 children between the ages of three and six. They sing the national anthem and two folk songs.
Q. What would you say to encourage travelers to get off the beach for a while and see more of the island’s interior? What surprises await them?
A. We offer a relaxing day with hassle-free activities. The side-trip to Seaford Town (a German village) is of interest to some of the groups. The countryside in this area is spectacular, especially in the summer when it is very green and lush, and also in the winter months when we have a lot of flowering trees and flowers. Our “local” guide, Harris, takes people on an interesting walk along the village road, pointing out herbs and spices growing along the wayside. We also visit a pineapple field (and enjoy a taste of the crop) and a sugarmill to sample the sugarcane juice. Our visitors like seeing a real Jamaican home and village (although no one lives in the house now) and the house is theirs for a day, with staff to look after them.
Q. Can you tell us more about the tour’s visit to Cockpit Country?
A. The response to this excursion has been great. Unfortunately, we can no longer come back through some sections as the roads are impassable. We stay along the border of the Cockpit Country and tell all we can about the history of that area. The Cockpit Country has been written up by National Geographic as one of the beauty spots in the Caribbean. What a shame that our Government cannot see the importance of keeping the roads in working condition.
Q. Can you tell us more about the itinerary of Hilton High Day Tour?
A. Our itinerary is as follows: Pick-up at hotels in Montego Bay area at 8-9 am. Guided tour through countryside (22 miles), going through many plantations (sugarcane, bananas, coffee and pineapples), stopping to show and explain crops but not leaving air-conditioned buses. We then travel right through the villages to see how people live in the interior and reach the 360-acre plantation. No one lives there now, but the house is completely open and we have a staff of 22 to look after clients.
Breakfast and lunch are served in the plantation house (we can accommodate up to 70 people, but we average about 25 people, four days a week). After breakfast we have a short walk around the grounds to see native flowers and trees. A ride on a Jamaican merry-go-round is included. Our resident calypso band plays on the front porch for the group all through the day. Shandy (a traditional English drink made with beer and carbonated lemonade) is served on the porch after the walk.
Next is the short walk to the sugarmill and school and then a bus trip to the German village. The museum there is optional. Clients return to the plantation house for lunch with dessert and coffee and then head back (by bus) at 2 pm, arriving in Montego bay at 3 pm.
