[b]Jamaica Shore Excursion[/b]

[Cruise Crazy]

My family and I just got home from our first cruise in the eastern Carribean, and having been a little worried about our stop in Jamaica and can now say it was by far our favourite stop. I had read many notice boards before we went and decided that we wanted to book a private excursion in Jamaica to avoid the crowds and so we could see as much of the Island as possible. A friend of mine had toured with A-Z Jamaica Planners a few months ago and raved about their tour so we decided to see what they had to offer, and they did have a good choice with prices way below the cruise ship. We decided to go to Dunn's River Falls and tubing. We were picked up directly from the pier and there was only my family (2 adults and 2 teenagers) and one other couple on the tour. We went straight to Dunn's River and were the first ones there. Oscar, our driver, arranged a guide, Tony, to take us up the falls and he was great, showing us the best places to put our feet and get great photo's. Oscar stayed with us all the time and at the end he walked us through the craft market without hassle. dunn's River was great and i am glad we got there early as when we left there were hundreds of people coming in which must ruin the beauty of Falls. Oscar told us all about the Island, kept us ammused all day and taught us some of the local language "Irie Mon"! We drove up through Fern Gully then made a stop on the side of the road at a man who showed us different spuces grown on the island. We also visited a Pottery Factory where we got a tour then myself and the other couple both bought great pieces (much cheaper than we saw in town). . since we were now in the shopping mood Oscar took us to a craft market and my sons had a great time bargining for everything they saw. We had lunch at the Ruins Restaurant with it's beautiful waterfall and great food was a great choice. Tubing was definately the highlight of the tour, floating down the river is like nothing I've ever done. We had a great guide called Rambo who was fun and even sang to us, the tubes were safe and the water refreshing. All in all we can't say enough about Oscar and A-Z, my emails were answered quickly and even though Iasked lots of questions Belinda never got fed up with me. If you are stopping in Jamaica I recommend emailing them to see what can be arranged. There website is a-zjamaicaplanners.com.