Let’s face it, this year has been rough. We’ve all had to deal with mental, emotional, financial, social issues arising from all the craziness that has been 2020.
I was ok for the most part, quarantining or taking car trips to some of our beautiful Florida beaches that reopened.
But a few years ago, we had an amazing Christmas in Cancun!
That was a total gamechanger for me! We flew out Christmas morning and by 5 pm, my daughter, Nicole and I were on the beach having a drink!
It was from then on, I decided, God willing, we would spend every Christmas in the Caribbean!
This year, more than ever, I needed a Caribbean Christmas! I NEEDED the perfect location to relax and disconnect from all the 2020 mess we’ve endured.
I knew the location had to include the chance to experience a beautiful island, reef-lined beaches, majestic waterfalls, tasty local cuisines, rich culture and more.
As much as we love to explore the Caribbean islands, we also wanted someplace that felt familiar.
For us, Jamaica is that place.
It was a relief to know Jamaica was as ready to get tourism restarted as we were to get there. They’ve come up with some creative and manageable ways to address COVID-19 and restart their tourism economy.
Many of you have asked me about the details of coming so I wanted to share this post immediately so you’ll know, what to know when traveling to Jamaica.
I started by checking into the travel requirements on the website of the US Embassy in Jamaica.
For understandable reasons, the Jamaican Health Authorities have marked the USA, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama as high-risk locations, and have set up measures and regulations to maintain the health and safety of travelers coming in or out of those regions. (Side note, this is SOOOOO embarrassing as an American, but I won’t get started on that!)
Visitors are expected to take a COVID-19 test within 10 days before the intended travel date to Jamaica. There are a number of ways to find places to get Covid testing near you. We went to the local urgent care center near us.
Speaking of embarrassing, this is me getting my test.
Take Covid test – check! We got our results instantly. We ran the cost of the test through our insurance and paid a co-pay but you could also pay the $100+ fee yourself.
With our test results in hand, we could move on to the next step.
The next step is to request authorization to travel .
You’ll answer a series of questions, provide your passport information, provide the name and address to where you’ll be staying, you’ll be asked for details about your Covid test, like the provider name and date you took the test and you’ll be asked to upload copies of documents.
While you’re on the site, you can also complete the immigration form to save yourself a step on the plane before you arrive.
When you initially submit everything, it says they’ll start reviewing it immediately. They weren’t kidding! Within minutes, I got an approval and repeated the whole process for Michael.
Let me add the disclaimer, on the site they say an approval will be sent via email 2 – 4 days after the request has been made. Thankfully, we did get an instant result.
It is important to note that COVID-19 test results obtained with home test kits and antibody tests will not be accepted. You can read more about the COVID-19 test requirements here.
As you read information on the site, be prepared, you will read that US travelers arriving in Jamaica are subject to a quarantine according to an assigned traveler category. This simply separates out the different forms of travelers, business travelers, vacationers, etc..
If you hear something about visitors being required to quarantine to the hotel corridor, don’t panic like I did. I truly thought they were going to limit you to a corridor area of your hotel. I was not signing up for that!
Thankfully, it isn’t your hotel, it’s the whole hotel, tourism zone. Therefore, you can still enjoy all of the touristy things Jamaica has to offer. Here’s where you can read about the hotel resilient corridors.
So far, it’s been a great experience. You can tell, Jamaicans are ready for the tourists to come back. They’ve put in a number of safety precautions to help you feel more comfortable with traveling.
Masks are required in every building. Temperature checks on your hand and hand sanitation is required as you enter almost any building. We, of course, are staying masked up to do our part.
Want to get away right away? Check out this place that offers super fast service for an emergency passport.
I’ll be providing picture updates on my Instagram or on Facebook as we experience new parts of Jamaica we haven’t yet explored. Stay tuned as we experience the local flavors of Jamaica.
