COMING IN FROM THE COLD

We're off to Jamaica tomorrow. Each year my wife and myself go to Jamaica for a Reggae holiday. We're passionate about Reggae Music so there is no better place to go because in Jamaica, a mayority of the people are passionate about Reggae music. It took us a couple of trips to learn the ins and outs though. Jamaica is mostly promoted as an all-inclusive tourist destination, but if you choose to go backpacker style, nothing is all-inclusive or ready made: you have to get around, eat, sleep, have fun and spend your money wize doing so. And then there's the question of finding out where the music is: the Stage Shows, the parties, the clubs, and how to get there. That's why we built reggaetourist.com. Feel free to check out our site and like us on Facebook. 

You can never totally prepare your reggae holiday. The main reason is that you want to be where the music is, but the information on stage shows and parties is not easily available, and certainly not months beforehand. But here's the thing: you don't really have to prepare your trip. Just make sure to include one or more of Jamaica's top Stage Shows and the rest will follow. Jamaica has a dozen of annual reggae Stage Shows with fixed dates. We are listing them in our Annual Reggae Events section. Have a look at the month you plan on going and plan your trip accordingly. As soon as you reach Jamaica, you will hear about more shows and parties. We've listed some strategies on finding out where the party is in our Reggae Tourism 101 section. 

I'll tell you what we prepared beforehand for this trip. First of, we made sure we are in Kingston in february. February is Reggae Month and Kingston is Reggae Month capital. Reggae Month is organised by Jaria, the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association. Right now, ten days befor Reggae Month starts, there is no programme yet whatsoever. In fact, it even looks like Jaria lost the domain of its website. But that nuh matter. I do not need a program to know that Reggae Month will be magical!. So we've booked a Kingston appartment on Airbnb for most of February. 

We fly out to Jamaica on January 20th so no Rebel Salute this year. Unfortunately, but flight tickets were just too expensive. But we know of this great event that has been organised a week after Rebel Salute for the last three years: Ninja Man's Birthday Party. When I booked our tickets, no information on this year's event was available so I just had a little faith. And it was rewarded because last week I suddenly saw the poster and a promo film pass by on Facebook. Gonne be a hell of a show. Oh yes, and it just became a two day event with a sound system night and a fully fledged Stage Show. In Ocho Rios that is. I sent the cheap hotel where we always stay in Ochie an email and, no problem, they confirmed a room for five nights.

So that's all we know now: we gonna start out in Ochie with Ninja Man Bday Bash on January 22 and 23 and we have to arrive in Kingston February 3rd. That leaves us with ten days or so to travel the island. We'll see what's up. Oh yes, and I found this flyer (below) online just yesterday. Good thing we're in Kingston February 6. I have no idea if we will actually be going to this show because the 6th is Bob's birthday as well, and there'll probable be another Stage Show as well. We'll see.