One Love. One Heart. Let’s get together and feel alright. Jamaica. My home. My people. The food. The beaches. The beauty. Aaaaahhh. There’s no place like home. Now that that’s out of the way, this blog is about keeping it real. So today, we share how things can go awry even when traveling debt free.
Over a year ago, I told my family I wanted to do a Family Reunion in Jamaica. I hadn’t been back since 2007 and was vaguely aware of where my family was from – this was my mom’s side of the family. Working with my aunt we put together an itinerary of what we would do – we would visit where my family was born – Clarendon, stay at my cousins – three different homes in about as many days, go to Ocho Rios for the remainder of the trip where we would share an apartment with family and then go home. Sounds good right? Well, this trip was a reminder to always double, triple, quadruple check the fine details when traveling.
First – When planning a trip with family it’s always important to confirm that EVERYONE who says they are going, is going to go and doesn’t drop out at the last minute. That’s something that happens for various reasons, but trips are much more fun when everyone that says they can be there, is there. We had that down. Everyone who said they were going, not only confirmed but bought their tickets.
Second – Where to stay. It’s always a plus when you’re traveling to not have to pay for a place to stay. However, it’s vital to check that where you will be staying is somewhere you’d want to stay and has all the reasonable accommodations. It’s normal to trust that when family is planning they have that in mind. However, when traveling to the islands not all accommodations are equal. We learned that the hard way. Keep in mind that I was 5 months pregnant at the time. I think pregnancy brain blocked me from doing my due diligence when planning to go to Jamaica. We had a budget of $1000 including an overnight stay at a hotel and parking in Chicago. This took into account that we used points for our plane tickets so that was not an additional cost in the budget.
Costs in the budget (expected to be $1000):
Overnight Hotel in Chicago – $216.41
Parking – $110
Food in Jamaica – $500
TOTAL – $826.41
The $500 US dollars worked out to be – $12,000 Jamaican dollars. That should have covered us for the 10 day trip. That’s what we thought. Considering that we were staying with family for the first 5 days of the trip and the last 5 days in Ocho Rios was paid for by family we figured $500 was more than enough. Like the trip to Barcelona the budget had a buffer in it of about $180. But, Life Happens.
So what happened? The second half of the trip had costs that we weren’t expecting or even foresaw happened.
Third – Sometimes the buffer isn’t enough. Fisherman’s Point. Our understanding of this housing arrangement was that we would be staying at a hotel right on the beach and we would be comfortable. Unfortunately only part of that was true. We were staying right on the beach, but hotel room only had air conditioning in the bedroom, and there was only one bedroom. This meant some folks were staying on the couch. That was unacceptable. So Mr. HutchLife and I decided to get our own hotel room at the same hotel – $200 not in the budget. There was a plan to go rafting and the price we were told was not the price it actually cost so rather than $50 it was $200 – not in the budget. Not only that but we had to get a driver and I had to negotiate the price for the driver.
If there’s one thing Mr. HutchLife and my family know, I don’t play when it comes to our money. And one thing that can happen when you travel without making accommodations ahead of time is that as a tourist you can get swindled because you’re not from the country. Well, I’m of the mindset that if you can’t meet the price I want, then I just won’t do the activity. I don’t play. So the guy who I negotiated with (we’ll call him Devon), worked at the hotel/beach tried to get us to pay more and I walked away. He came down to the price I wanted and we got our driver. Now, the driver was supposedly a cousin of the man we negotiated with. Now Devon wanted a deposit for the vehicle so that we would show up. Devon decided to keep the deposit and not give it to the driver, Seymour. That wasn’t my problem. So Seymour had to work out the rest of his pay with Devon. Driver – $100, not in the budget.
Part of the trip to Rafting included a stop at some beautiful waterfalls and Boston Jerk – the home of the original jerk chicken. $80 – not in the budget. Boston Jerk though! Man, the ABSOLUTE BEST jerk chicken I have EVER had in my life. And the sauce, the fresh juice sold by the young man across the street!! If you have the opportunity to go to Jamaica – make sure you go to Boston Jerk.
Fourth – Confirm meals and food when staying at a hotel with a kitchen. We were under the impression that we wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money on food while in Jamaica. The first half of the trip we didn’t. When we got to Ocho Rios it was the only way to eat. And because we were in a tourist area everything was overpriced. So $300 – not in the budget. Was the food good though? Yes, it definitely was, but good food not in the budget makes it taste less sweet, as least to me.
Fifth – Always have departure details confirmed when you are in a different country. Driving to Ocho Rios from Mandeville, my suitcase was left because we thought we’d be going back to Mandeville and then to the airport when we were to depart. Those plans changed as the person who was to take us could no longer take us. So we had to arrange for our own travel and our own hotel room for the night before departure. $246 – not in the budget.
Were we happy about any of these unexpected costs? Absolutely not. Was it easier to pay for because we didn’t have debt and had money in our account? Absolutely
Costs not in the budget:
Fisherman’s Point – $200.00
Rafting – $200
Food on Trip to go Rafting – $50
Waterfall Visit – $30
Driver for Rafting Trip – $100
Food while in Ocho Rios – $300
Liguanea Club – $126
Driver to Kingston – $120
TOTAL: $1126 – buffer of $180 = $946 we did not expect to spend on the trip
Lastly – Our lessons learned were:
- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS confirm travel plans, itinerary, food, accommodations if/when traveling with family.
- Have money ready in case you have unexpected costs
- Never be afraid to negotiate prices and walk away if you need to
- Look for the brighter side of things when unexpected things happen
- Whenever we travel again with family we will be making our own hotel and driver accommodations. It’s less stress and hassle and it is easier for us to meet up with family at specific locations than to worry about traveling in a big group.
Have you done group travel before? How did that work out for you? How have you dealt with unexpected costs? Did it put you in a bind?
