Just returned from Country Country, Negril yesterday. I want to write a long review but I am very tired. lol.

Negril - Flew from ATL to Montego Bay. No worries, Mon. The turquoise ocean hinted at the beautiful beaches yet to be seen. We landed and got through customs and the helpful Jamaican airport employees pointed us in the right direction to get on our transportation to the hotel. We booked through Travelocity so we went ahead and arranged for transportation. We checked in with transportation and walked outside to where we were directed to get onboard a van that carried a few other passengers. The trip to Negril from Montego Bay took 1.5 hours? Maybe 2 hours? We stopped halfway there at a small shop. Some bought beers, some bought food. Another transportation van stopped after we did. We got back on the van ready to get to our hotel.

Hotel - As we rode up to the hotel strip, we started dropping people off, a few at the Riu, a few at another large resort, and each drop off included comments from those on board the van, "Nice resort", "That one's nice too!". Then we got to Country Country and you can barely make out the hotel due to the palm trees and greenery and flowers. The checkin desk was a hut. There were whispers on the van, "What's this? Country Country? Never heard of it!". A lot of confused looks and a little worry that people would choose to stay somewhere so... so... non-resort-y. lol!!! I wanted to say so bad, "I've done the big all-inclusive resorts and decided that sometimes, a Miami hotel is not what people always want!"... but why explain???? *shrug*

We walked to the hut and were greeted kindly by Shayfala. She checked us in promptly and called a guy to assist us with bags. I'd call him a bellboy but this was by no means a regular hotel! So we walked down the paved walkway and headed to our cottage. I was hoping we'd get the PRIME cottages on the beach but we stopped way before the beach. It was fine though! We walked up stairs and walked across the patio to our wood shuttered cottage. I was nervous. lol. We opened our wood shuttered door and in we went!!! It was so different and it was HOT! We immediately searched for the a/c and found it to our relief! (Thank God for a/c! Note: In the next few days, we used it less than we thought we would!). Anyhow, we quickly inspected the room to our satisfaction. The bathroom was small and the room was clean and had enough to be of comfort in the few hours we needed it for sleeping. Including a TV with channels from Ft Lauderdale.

We were so hungry we rushed outside to eat at the beachfront restaurant but unfortunately they were closed (between lunch and dinner). We decided to walk the beach and find something before we fainted from hunger. Luckily we walked to the right and next door was a bar with tables that were serving food. Unfortunately the waitress didn't realize we were eating when we ordered water and disappeared for 45 minutes!!!! As we stood up to leave, the bartender rushed to call the waitress after being informed she hadn't taken our order. She came out 5-10 minutes later and took our order. They say that in Jamaica, time doesn't exist. IT'S TRUE!!! NOTE: GO EAT BEFORE YOU ARE HUNGRY! YOU WILL WAIT! :) So we received our food (I think we ordered jerk chicken and something else - I forget). It was good and satisfied us. We also ordered a Miami Vice, my signature drink for the entire weekend. Yum!

The hotel breakfast was good. I had the banana pancakes with a side of bacon. He had the french toast plate. I tried the Jamaican Special breakfast of ackee & saltfish with 3 rolls of some type. It was good. We ate at other restaurants the rest of the weekend but had lunch at our hotel. We also kept ordering Miami Vices... yum. Oh, we had dessert twice. Chocolate cake and ice-cream. The chocolate cake tastes like box but the ice-cream was very good. We had some the next day and it was obviously the same cake but drier... yuck. Ice-cream was still good. :)

The days were kind of similar, beach, ocean, eating, walking, laying around, eating... lol. They all run together. I think I will type the rest in the Negril forum since this review is primarily for the hotel.

Bottom line - Loved it. Private, beautiful beach, wonderful employees, nice comfortable rooms.

One issue - We ordered room service and my bf had to go get it so we weren't supposed to be charged the $3 service fee. Upon check out, the bill included it and we had to "convince" the front desk that we didn't have room service delivered and the lady who wrote the ticket was off of work. The $3 charge wasn't the issue. It was the fact that we didn't have the service provided and they kind of looked at us like, "Are you telling the truth"... Ha... over $3 huh? lol... Minor issue.

Anyhow, I will elaborate on our excursions in the Negril forum... Under "Country Country May 2008"

It has been a year since my stay at Country Country and I would not trade my memories for a refund of every penny spent. I was in no rush to review the property because 99% of the reviews written since my stay have expressed my sentiments. But recently noticing their rankings have dropped them to 12th in Negril I felt they needed someone to put the three negative reviews that precipitated the fall in perspective. CC really derserves to be ranked much higher than 5th in Negril.

Any travel agent that books three couples of old fogey's into CC during college spring break deserves to be ranked the worst at their occupation. You can hit Margaritaville with a thrown rock from CC's beach. The management at CC can't dictate the way Jimmy Buffetville does business. During our stay in May the noise was minimal and ended before midnight. I didn't have to use the foam earplugs I had packed once.

How many resorts have you stayed where you developed a first name friendship with everyone on staff. I still email Monique, co-manager, to see how she is. I called last year just hours after the Category 5 hurricane passed to verify that everyone was safe. And that is not my usual personality.

There is no need for me to say how CC's rooms are clean, spacious and comfortable/the beach is perfect and the water is calm and refreshing/entertainment is within walking distance in any direction/you can dine at one of the best restaurants in Negril on site. Their dinner entrees average in the $18 to $25 American dollar range.

But the best testimony for staying at the CC is that for $150 American per day a couple gets a cottage directly on the white soft sand beach, just steps from your door, and it includes the best breakfast you have ever tasted. Priceless!!!

I shouldn't be so concerned about the drop in their rankings as it will insure I continue to get accomodations as I want. I just feel they work so hard making sure your stay is just perfect they should be rewarded for their efforts.

I was hoping to book a rather last minute Spring Break trip to Jamaica with my 12 yr old son, and I found Country Country on Trip Advisor. From the website and online comments it looked perfect...small, cute, quaint, and well cared for. Initially, there was nothing available for our dates... I asked that I be notified if something opened up...and luck was on our side.
Our experience at Country Country was everything I hoped for. The room was clean and spacious, the bathroom smallish but perfectly fine for the two of us, the porch big, comfortable and did I mention cute? The staff was friendly and helpful...beyond helpful, really...it was clearly important to them that we enjoy our stay. With my son in tow activities were important and again, the staff was right there to help...with great suggestions for things to do and drivers always available. I also felt very safe, there were security people around (very discreet, but clearly paying attention to who came and went) and when my son wandered down the beach with a new found friend without telling me one of the staff knew where he was. The beach at CC is terrific...and the food! so good...tho we explored Negril and ate at other restaurants, the food at CC was the best we had during our visit.
I am looking forward to another visit as soon as possible!

We were seeking the PERFECT HOLIDAY. And truly found it here.

Glowing Recommendation:
If like us you seek a non-pretencious hotel of charm; demonstrating island character with boutiqe style, with golden sands and gentle caribbean waters, blended with a genuine warmth of staff, then look no further.

We were blessed with 17 nights at this sanctuary and like so many guests before us, can guarantee that we will return. The management have put together a fine team of staff and again like so many before us, we left feeling they were not staff, but special friends. (Hello :>))) Amadean, Romaine, Shana-Kay & Super - you can't know how much we miss you all)

Food:
Breakfast and lunches are great at Country Country (& remember we were here for 17 days). Supper was a little disappointing but the Negril area has much to satisfy within a short taxi ride: Hot recommendations for dinner, Catcha Falling Star (best food of our stay and stunningly beautiful setting) / The Hungry Lion (boutique style restaurant within local art gallery) both charming & unusual / The Rockhouse (great food & super setting). Sweet Spice was outstanding for simple local foods but it is "dry". You are however permitted to take your own wine or beer with you. So do. :>). If you're just walking up the beach - do not miss Norma's for supper - fantastic. And for a great pizza, try Chances, also on the beach. Oh and for lunch, there is a little beach hut to the right of Country Country that do little patis that are, to die for - don't miss them.

Room for Improvement:
This is the real world and of course, no where is absolutely perfect. The observations I make reference to below are for the benefit of the travellers yet to come and equally I hope, tips for the hotel which if embraced, will put the perfect stay quite beyond reproach:

1) Trolleys serving the restaurant rumble past the cottages on the paved pathway. The heavily laden carts particularly at 6am and 10pm are a nightmare and were the subject of much discussion on the beach amongst the guests. You need only to put wheels on with inflated tyres and guess what - problem solved! Please do it.

2) I would not advocate that you stay here during some of Feb/most of March. This is the Spring break and the dates vary a little each year - so book with caution. We were lucky because our first night (28/3) was the last night of 'Margaritaville' in all her glory. This is the club-from-hell (unless you're a teenager) further up the beach. The negative comments on this subject you may have read from a couple of previous guests are truly no exageration (although prior to experiencing it for ourselves, we thought it might be). At 2am we had to shout to each other, within our cottage, with all the doors and windows shut, in order to be able to hear one another. And quite literally, the vary foundations of the property vibrated from the heavy base. Solution simple - don't stay here during Spring Break.

3) This next comment really only affects guests staying in the two beach front properties and only when the 'team' are setting up the restaurant for breakfast. Please, please bear in mind, we are here on holiday and because of that, we do not need to wake up at 6.30am. And certainly not to the sound of clattering cutlery, china and hoots and howls of laughter. Don't get me wrong - it's delightful to hear people clearly so very happy in their work (and so early in the day!) but we don't want to hear any of it, until we're "up" and certanly not before you even open the restaurant at 7.30.