At One Jamaica Hotel, The Art of the Vacation Memory
By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor
How do you remember your vacation?
At Jamaica’s Hedonism II, the clothing-optional, adults-only all-inclusive resort in Negril, it’s done through hundreds of painted stones commemorating guests’ visits.
Scattered in flowerbeds, along the beach, and beneath tropical trees on the 22-acre beachfront property, the colorful stones are either painted by a local artist, who visits the property daily and creates custom designs starting at $30, or are brought to the hotel by guests themselves.
Guests put the stones wherever they like, with the understanding that they’ll forever remain in the same location they placed them, a permanent symbol of their loyalty to the racy resort, which enjoys a returning guest rate of more than 50 percent and turns 35-years-old in November.
Since 2014, the hotel affectionately known as “Hedo” has also begun selling “legacy bricks,” stone pavers that are embedded in the courtyard between the dining room and the piano bar, and can be engraved with a customized message and logo.
For Hedo’s die-hard fans it’s a tangible and enduring way to show their love for the adult playground, which, despite its location on a traditionally conservative island, has a reputation as a come-as-you-are, judgment-free zone.
It’s a reputation that, after more than three decades, you could say is … ahem … rock solid.
