Quadrille Villa. Silver Sands, Jamaica
Words by Jen Amadio
For our annual New Year’s Eve pilgrimage to Jamaica, we decided to check out a new part of the island called Silver Sands. It is a small, gated community of individual houses near the town of Duncans and approximately 45 minutes from Montego Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast. I use the term “gated” loosely as this place is not your normal resort or all-inclusive area, and “gated” simply means someone needs to move a wooden bar out of the way so you can drive through.
I’ve been to Jamaica several times before and have had the pleasure of being robbed, swindled and harassed in various parts of the island, but I still love it and go back every year. I was a bit worried that Silver Sands would be too neat and clean, or shall I say “American” for me, but it was actually pretty great. Silver Sands is the type of place you go to relax and pretty much do nothing all day without feeling like you are in a resort. There is a small community club house, bar and snack bar (where I waited at least an hour for the worst pizza of my life), but we spent most of our days hanging out by the pool with our housemates and taking naps. And our nights were spent drinking as much rum as possible and contemplating various winning strategies in dominoes before passing out by midnight.
We stayed at a beautiful and recently renovated villa called Quadrille perched on a rocky cliff overlooking a white sand beach. The villa had four bedrooms, a pool, and a quiet gazebo with two hammocks tucked into the side of the cliff. The owners were very nice and the staff was amazing. They cooked and cleaned for us everyday (they even washed our underwear!) and kept the fridge well stocked with Red Stripe and Appleton Estate Rum Reserve at all times. The cook Hyacinth loved to bake and every night she’d leave us a plate of homemade coconut cookies, brownies or a pie to keep us full and happy.
All in all, a nice trip and I’d go back to Silver Sands again, especially since it’s so easy to get too and affordable. (You can take a direct flight NYC-Montego Bay in 4 hours, then it’s only a short 45 minute car ride away.)
We stayed at the Quadrille Villa which I highly recommend, but there are plenty of other houses to choose from in Silver Sands. Here are some other choices below:
Summertime
Rum Jetty
Eirie Blue
Santa Margherita
Sand Dollar
Tu Mac
Dreamin’
Seashell
Cannon Cottage
Check out our previous post on Treasure Beach, Jamaica.
