We used A-Z Jamaican Planners and went to YS Falls and very much enjoyed it! I have cut and pasted the detailed account of our trip from my review of the Conquest:
Montego Bay, Jamaica – Believe it or not this was my favorite port! After reading so much about how aggressive the vendors can be, wild driving stories, I was very nervous about this port. After reading Huck Finn’s review on this message board I thought that YS Falls sounded like something we would enjoy. I booked the trip with Barrett Adventures a couple of months before. Then, just the week before we left, Carolyn Barrett let me know that she would have to be off island that day, but she had hired a substitute driver for the group of 20 that would be going to the Falls that day. (Her husband Errol was already scheduled to take another group river rafting.) That made me nervous, so we cancelled. So, just 2 days before we left I booked the same trip with Belinda at A-Z Jamaican planners.
Reyn was our driver and it was just our group of 8 in a van which seated 10. An excellent day! We went on the extremely narrow road down to the south coast, went along the south coast past Negril, then turned North to YS Falls. It is BEAUTIFUL! With the help of the guides there at the Falls, we swung out on a rope from a huge tree into a pool in the middle of the waterfall. There was another group also there and a man in a red hat (I thought he was one of the YS Falls guides) who said that he would take the other group down to the tubing part of the river and suggested that the two guides who stayed with us take our group back behind the waterfall. I’ve never seen a waterfall from underneath – it is awesome there as well! Then we walked down beside the waterfall to another pool where we played in inner tubes while we waited for the first group to finish tubing down the river. We didn’t mind the wait at all as it was so beautiful. The guides even picked fresh mangoes from the trees for us to snack on. Then it was our turn to tube down the river. Very fun! It even had a few “mini-rapids†that we went over with the help of the guides. They were very careful with the children.
The entire day was shaded by a canopy of trees over the river – which was a welcome relief to our skin from the Caribbean sun. When we finished, we went back to the entrance where we ate jerk chicken for lunch (excellent!) and then shopped in the YS Falls gift shop. They were not pushy at all and a t-shirt was $5 for child’s and $10 for adult. We found out later that the man in the red hat was Errol Barrett! The other group was our “old†group that we were originally booked with. I’m not sure what happened to the substitute driver, but it seemed that the Barretts’ group all had a great time as well. I can highly recommend A-Z Jamaica Planners and Reyn though as our tour guide. The road to the Falls is very narrow with very aggressive (ok – scary) driving, but Reyn’s driving did not scare us at all. He was very knowledgeable about the foliage and history of the area. Cost was $56 for adults, $46 for children. Covered the price of admissions, but not lunch (about $5 per person).
