First off, let me thank you for the wonderful website you have at
www.silver-sands.com and your total honesty. It was incredibly thorough, providing me with more than enough information to make my vacation decision.

I am so glad that I chose to vacation at Silver Sands through Custom Caribbean Vacations. I am a very picky person, and spent many many hours researching the perfect place to vacation in Jamaica. Your website, by far, had the most information (including photos!), and helped make my choice of where to stay easier. Then I had to choose between all the wonderful properties you rent at Silver Sands. On your recommendation, I decided on the Orchid House. Let me tell you about my trip...

We arrived at Montego Bay before lunch on Saturday, November 24th. After a quick trip through Customs, we met the CCV representative right outside the front door. She had a nice sign with my name on it, and was waiting for me.

There were no hassles getting our stuff loaded into the van, and our driver Mike got us to Silver Sands in less than an hour. Having never been to Jamaica, Mike was very helpful in pointing out lots of things on the way. He was kind of like a tour guide of sorts, and was even able to help us find things we were looking for on our vacation. Special thanks goes out to him for all his help!!! We drove by lots of the big resorts like Holiday Inn Sunspree, FDR, and the Ritz Carlton. They looked ok, but when we pulled in to Silver Sands I knew we had made the right decision.

We turned off the main highway and wound a mile or so through the lush landscape towards the beach. We passed through a security gate into Silver Sands and our eyes lit up with wonder. So much wonderful tropical plants, so many big houses with nice landscaped yards. And then we saw the ocean. The blue water was the most beautiful sight, and unlike anything we had ever seen before. We arrived at our villa, the Orchid House, and immediately fell in love with the place.

It was exactly what we were looking for. Very spacious, lots of tropical plants, a gorgeous indoor pool, and so much more. We met one of our staff, Nadine. She was very friendly, and offered to make us lunch to satisfy our hunger. We made the grand tour of the place, and was happy to see that the Silver Sands website did not exaggerate one single thing. What we saw on the website was what we got, and was exactly what we wanted.

The house had lots of special features that interested us on the website, and seeing them in person was outstanding and made wonderful impressions. Things like the indoor solar-heated pool with a waterfall, the HUGE garden tub with whirlpool jets, the huge mirror over the bed, the high ceilings in the HUGE master bedroom, the view from the sundeck, and the wonderful tropical breezes. We quickly changed into our bathing suits and hit the pool. It was absolutely gorgeous weather, and the water was wonderful.

Nadine had our lunch ready quickly, and we satisfied our appetites with the first of many wonderful meals from her. I was very glad that we had CCV stock our villa with groceries before we arrived. That made things lots easier, and we could spend our time doing fun things instead of worrying about the food. That was the best thing about having a staff, we never had to worry about a thing. We trusted them to fix us wonderful meals, and we were never disappointed.

After lunch we headed out to the beach. We walked across the street and down some steps and 50 feet later we were on the beach. The water was a magnificent blue color, and we could see the on-shore reef. We could not wait to snorkel, having brought our own equipment down. We walked down the beach and were very surprised by the large number of beautiful shells we saw, and of course the incredible view.

The beach was very nice, and we walked down to the beach bar area and had a rum punch, which we sipped on the beach. The bar was very quaint, and they made wonderful drinks, especially the rum punch and pina coladas. We took a dip in the ocean and played in the waves for a while before going back to the house. The vacation was getting off to a wonderful start.

When we arrived back at the house, we met our other two staff members, Margrette and Belvit. We briefly went over what they planned to fix us for meals, and since we are not really picky eaters and wanted to try real Jamaican food, it took very little time to plan our meals out. We grabbed a couple of cold Red Stripes and headed to the sundeck, where we spent a ton of time throughout the vacation.

The cottage was absolutely wonderful, and we quickly changed our itinerary to include spending more time at the villa. We had planned on doing lots of things like going to Dunn's River Falls, shopping in Montego Bay, rafting on the Martha Brae, and visiting the luminous lagoon. None of that seemed important after we saw how wonderful it was being pampered in such a lush, tropical paradise. That is what we kept saying to ourselves all week long, that we truly were in paradise.

We did manage to go out of the resort several times. We went to Braco Stables for a wonderful horse-back ride through the Jamaican countryside down to the beach, where we got to ride our horses in the water. A very wonderful and unique experience.

We also went with Nadine to the bend-down market in Falmouth on Wednesday. We followed her around and watched her make some of our food purchases for the week. It was a very exciting place, and a fantastic way to see some of the real Jamaica.

On Tuesday night we went for a nice swim in the ocean under the almost full-moon. The water was so clear you could see the bottom in the moonlight. That was quite a thrilling experience. After our swim, we spread a blanket down on the beach and just sat there admiring the beauty of our little tropical wonderland.

That was when I gave Fara a ring, and asked her to marry me. There could not have been a better place than on the beach at Silver Sands, in front of the cliffs, in which to propose. She said yes, thank god, and the rest of the week was spent being very excited about our engagement.

We spent lots of time laying in the sun on the beach, and in the sun by the pool. We went snorkeling several times at the on-shore reef, and saw lots of cool fish including an eel and many puffer fish. One afternoon we got Erol to take us to the private beach in his boat. For not much money, he drove us the 30 minutes to the beach in his boat, and we proceeded to have a picnic and hung out for a few hours on the beach. That was a wonderful part of our vacation, and one I highly recommend to others.

On Friday night we went to the party sponsored by CCV at the beach bar. There we enjoyed meeting lots of others staying at Silver Sands, and drank lots of good rum punch. They had a real Mento band playing, and that was wonderful to listen to. It was hard to keep our feet still listening to their warm tropical rythyms. It was a wonderful way to top off our vacation. Alas, all vacations have to come to an end eventually, and we had reached the end of ours. We were very sad, and were going to miss this little slice of paradise.

Nadine was absolutely amazing. She cooked, cleaned, and even braided Fara's hair, making sure we were content at all times. Margrette was great too, fixing us lots of authentic Jamaican meals and telling us things about the country. Belvit took amazing care of the house, and helped us out by giving us rides in his car a few times. We were able to look at a few other homes while we were there, and were so glad we chose the Orchid House. The indoor/outdoor dining and living room, coupled with the pool and everything else, made the Orchid House the best possible vacation spot.

We settled up at the local grocery before leaving. It was the first time all week we had been there, and it was a lot more like an American grocery than I expected. Our bill for the week was not bad at all. We spent J$10000 on groceries, and about J$5000 on meat and produce. That is about $350 US, and is really not that bad considering we had three huge meals every day, and drank lots of rum and smoked lots of American cigarettes, all purchased at the grocery. We had lobster, pork, chicken, and fish, all with fresh vegetables each meal. We ate like kings the entire trip, and the food was good for us and better than we would have eaten back home.

Overall, we were treated like a king and queen the entire week. We fell in love with the entire Silver Sands area. After seeing Silver Sands versus the other resorts, there is just no comparison. You get a huge house very close to the beach, you get an attentive staff that will see to your every need, you get solitude and can relax without fighting any crowds, and you get the peace of mind that you can do whatever you want and not have to worry about a thing. CCV took care of everything. It was the best vacation ever, and we have been telling that to everyone we know. 

We are already making plans to return to Silver Sands. We even want to get married there, and bring all our friends and family down to share in the wonder that is Silver Sands.

I will gladly talk with anyone thinking of vacationing at Silver Sands to tell them how wonderful it was. I am sold, and will never even consider staying anywhere else in Jamaica other than Silver Sands. Thanks again, Prem, for the vacation of a lifetime. We were truly impressed, and had the time of our lives!!!

Take care,

Alan Moore (Alan.W.Moore@bankofamerica.com)
Charlotte, NC, USA
December 2001