Hedonism II – A Naked Review
Hedonism II – A Naked Review
We are often asked what Hedonism II is like. Or when a couple has been there, they tell us their experience and have questions for us. Since we have recently visited, we thought we would share some thoughts we had about booking considerations, travel considerations, the resort itself, the routine there and ways to make the most of this fun destination.
Hotel – Things to consider
You are looking for that naked, swinger vacation and you have decided on Hedonism II. Now you are going to book your trip, and we have some advice on things you should first think about. If you are going at a time when there are no groups hosting at the resort, you have a couple options. Book directly with the resort or book through a registered agent for the resort, like….wait, their name will come to me…Black Ring Swing!! Lol, so what is the difference? The resort will give you a couple free items, a named necklace and a hat when you book through them, and we will give you a named necklace and a shirt. Both ways you will get Hedonism water bottles. With us you will also get our exclusive $30 credit. Other than that, the prices will be the same to be honest, just $30 cheaper with us. If you are booking with a group during a hosting week, then the group will have special rates (Here is a little hint, the rates will always be the same no matter the hosting group as they are set by the hotel for all the groups). Unless one of the groups books the room for you instead of providing you a link to the Hedonism portal, then the group may either increase the rate or take a little less commission and take money off your rate. We are not saying any groups do this, we just don’t want the emails that say, hey I booked for a takeover, and I didn’t get a special rate.
We appreciate any time you book with us as we give a large chunk of it back to you in our exclusive $30 credit. We don’t make that much commission from Hedonism, and the little we do make, we put right back into the Black Ring Swing community, so that we can keep having free Meet and Greets and giving prizes away at our events.
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The Groups – Ok you’d rather go during a takeover week or a week a group is hosting, so you don’t want to book with Black Ring Swing? This doesn’t always work out, but a little more about that later. What about the other groups? First off, as we just mentioned, you will get a discount during a takeover week as the group is guaranteeing to the resort, they will have at least so many couples in exchange for a little discounted rate for the takeover. You should also get the benefit of some activities with people from the group so you can meet some people in a sort of Meet and Greet setting. The reality can be a little different. We have spoken to a LOT of people that have booked with the Groups and here is what we learned. Not all the groups are created equal. A lot will not meet you when you arrive or assist with knowing when their events are happening so that you get the benefit of the whole group thing (haha). Some will not have many or any events to help you meet others from the group so that you have a built-in community. Some give away similar things like when you book directly with Hedonism and some do not. Make sure you get some reviews of the groups before you book with them and make sure you see what group is hosting the week you want to go. Hedonism II is not an extremely large resort, so you may find that there are no, or very little couples/people that fit what you are looking for, the week you decide to go unless you check it out.
The Resort – There are some things to consider before actually booking your room. Before we go too far, know the resort is NOT that large, so it does not take long to walk from the party pool area to what they call the Prude beach area rooms. So don’t let that deter you on room options. We have been to resorts that the walk can be killer from the one area to the other, but that is NOT Hedonism.
The Ocean View Au Natural rooms are, of course, really close to the nude only party pool with the swim up bar and the nude beach area. These are the more expensive rooms and can be really loud multiple times a day. During the day the DJ will be at this pool, groups hold their games at this pool and around 11:00PM at night the party goes back to this pool. So, if you like to escape and get some sleep to start the party over earlier the next day these might not be the rooms for you. You also MUST be naked in these areas of the resort. These are also the most expensive rooms.
The Clothing Optional Ocean View rooms are sitting on what they call the Prude beach and is a very quiet area of the beach and resort. This is also an amazing area to catch the sunsets no matter where in the resort you are resting your head over night. On this beach you can, of course, be nude, but you don’t have to be. These rooms are significantly cheaper than the nude side.
The Garden view rooms are a little cheaper than the Ocean View rooms, but in our opinion not that much cheaper. So we think that makes the Ocean View room worth it.
There are also premium rooms that have hot tubs, etc… for more money.
To each his own, but with the cost savings, the party and noise only when you want it and the short walk to the nude area, we personally would recommend saving the money and stay on the Prude side. Just our opinion and recommendation, so don’t start typing that email to us asking what we are smoking, lol. More on what is available in the smoke area later, wink.
Travel Considerations
When you book your reservation to the hotel, it is just that, the reservation to the resort, including all meals, tips, drinks, etc… It does not include your airfare, which you probably know, but what you may not think about in this day of Lyft and Uber, is it does not include the transfer to the hotel from the airport.
So, once you book your exciting Hedo Hotel getaway (Hopefully through Black Ring Swing as we offer the best prices, support and free gifts), you will then need to open a new tab on that internet browser to book your flights on your favorite airline. You are in luck as a lot of major airlines fly to this destination so the chances are good that your favorite airline goes there. One thing to keep in mind is that the fees and taxes Jamaica charges the airlines is higher than most locations. Therefore, your airline ticket may be a little higher if you are buying it and if you are using points, your fees from the airline are going to be a LOT higher than you are used to for a free ticket. It just is what it is, but we wanted you to keep this in mind.
OK you booked your Hedonism II hotel room through Black Ring Swing, you booked your airfare on your favorite airline (You can taste those airline pretzels already), now, you will need to book your transfer from the airport to the resort. There are several transfer companies, but there is one that the hotel recommends. Almost all resorts seem to use this company, and we would recommend them as well. They are Holiday Services, and their site is holidayservicesltd.com. The good thing about using this company is that Hedonism has a relationship with them. If there are issues, for instance, If your return plane time changes, the AMAZING Hedo front desk staff has their dispatch number and can reschedule your pickup time for you in minutes. The transfer company did give us a contact number of a representative to reach in case there were any issues, but we could never get through to that person or the other numbers. The front desk staff had the change made in a matter of minutes and we were back to being naked and sipping a cocktail. When you book the transfer, make sure you print out all the information from their portal so you can have it handy when you are checking in at the airport upon arrival. This really did come in handy for us when we were there.
OK, we feel we have given you a lot of good information already, but maybe we have been stalling too so we didn’t have to tell you this part so soon. It will be an hour and a half drive from the airport to the resort in what some have described to us as an eye-shutting, butt clenching, teeth gnashing, nail biting trip. Depending on what state in the US you hail from, you may think of it as just Tuesday. It is a little rough as the road has potholes the size of a cow sometimes and cars, busses and motorcycles are swerving in and out in attempts to make sure they are not swallowed up by one of them and on more than one occasion headlights were coming straight at us until the very last moment. Like I said, Tuesday. Anywho, yes, an hour and a half, but that doesn’t include the amount of time you will sit on the bus or in the van waiting for them to fill it before you leave, unless you decide on the private transportation option which is more expensive. It can be a good half an hour for that part too. So just keep that in mind when you are booking your flights, so you know how long it is actually going to take to get to the resort. Plenty of time to take a nap to store up energy for partying or getting a jump on making friends. There may be people on the bus that are going to the other resorts that are on the way or after Hedo, so not everyone traveling with you from the airport on the bus may be going to Hedo. People who are staying at the other resorts can get a day pass to Hedo, so, you could offer to give them a tour, wink wink.
If an hour and a half does not sound as good as 15 minutes, and money is not a roadblock for you, then there is another option, that we would be remiss for not mentioning. There is a small (We do mean small) plane that goes from the airport to near the Hedonism II resort. We have never taken this ourselves but spoke to someone at the resort that has in the past and they said it was great and quick, but a little expensive. Look them up on the interwebs and you will find the company and the most recent pricing.
The Experience
OK, so you pull up to the resort in your transportation of choice. If it was a bus, then some people at the resorts further down the road will still be on the bus and you will see their looks of wishing they were as adventurous as you. We just smile back at them with that unsaid, “we are going to have so much more fun than you” look, as the bell personnel are whisking our bags away telling us, they will take care of everything from here.
Here is where we do want to point out the discussion of tipping. The website clearly says all tips are included in your price and tipping of staff is not allowed as they want you to have a carefree experience. However, we found that tips are still very much appreciated. At the front desk, there is a sign that says “No tipping”, and about two feet away, is a tip box, so, yeah… But these folks deserve it. The staff is gracious and attentive, and they work hard and take good care of you.
They will check you in, give you your Hedo Water Bottles (Really come in handy at the beach and pools) and get you and your bags to your room. You get a red wrist band that tells everyone you belong on the resort and doubles as your room key so that is really awesome especially since…well…you usually are not wearing much or any clothes, lol.
The room we had was nice enough, had everything we needed, although might be due for some updating. Apparently, the garden view rooms have started to be renovated. It was clean though and housekeeping does come everyday unless you tell them not to. You do have a safe in the room, a TV (although we never watched it, but it did have 24/7 porn we found out later), a minifridge, a cool red light in the bathroom and a mirror on the ceiling.
There is a routine and some ins and outs, but they did not in our opinion do a good job of explaining or highlighting things. May have been in the little papers they handed us, but, you know, words, sentences, small print, lol. I would have liked a little highlight debrief at least.
There is kind of a routine at Hedo. We went in November, and it was not overly crowded. We were able to go out to the beach between 10-11am and still find chairs available, which was nice since at many resorts, the chairs are gone by 9am! Our building was the last building on the property, which we chose thinking it would be most quiet. It is clearly marked where the beach goes from clothing optional to nude. You are required to be nude past that point on the beach, and if you forget to take your bikini bottoms off (yes, me) then the security personnel will remind you that the beach there is nude and you must remove your clothes. I got a laugh out of that…in public places, you might be scolded to “Put your clothes on!” but here, you will be scolded to get your clothes off! As you get closer to the pool bar area, you find it is where most people are hanging out. Hedo has multiple pools actually, but the one with the bar next to the beach is the most popular. It got very crowded in the nude beach pool in the afternoon. The music was good, the vibe was positive, snacks and drinks were plentiful.
The beach is actually public so you will see people that are staying at Sandals down the beach coming over and walking up the beach in front of Hedo once in a while. They have to stay down by the water line as that is public and cannot come up further. There are security on the beach to enforce this. In addition to the Sandals couples, there will be the local dealers (I would say weed but they were selling more serious stuff too), the lobster guy selling lobster, a guy selling hats, a woman selling jewelry, etc…These individuals have to stay on the water line too. The resort stresses not to buy weed from these people as it is technically illegal and does not get put back into the businesses and communities of Jamaica. Our personal thought is that you have no clue what this stuff really is. Hedonism II does have a fully legal dispensary on-premises.
Also, if you are sunbathing at the water line, be prepared to be hit on by these people. We never got the feeling that anyone was threatening, but they may hit on you.
It being November, the sun set at 5:30, almost to the minute. People started to head in to get ready for dinner. The pools closed at 7pm for treatments.
The pool up by the large main dining area was a great escape during the day as you could still be naked, but there were only several couples there, it was quiet, and the pool was almost all yours.
Around this pool, the small pool below and right on the beach near one of the restaurants are also little cabana type areas where you can play at any time during the day or night. Great if you are an exhibitionist.
The bars are well stocked with not just rail quality alcohol. You will find Titos, Gray Goose, and many other higher shelf brands. Being in Jamaica they of course have Red Stripe, but only the main dining area can get you a Red Stripe light if you are looking after that amazing figure of yours.
Each night had a theme, and we were prepared to participate. But we were surprised how few people did. Those who did looked awesome! We love seeing people’s enthusiasm and creativity. They usually did a contest for those in theme, but nothing else really centered around the theme so we kind of understand why more didn’t participate. This happens at the main dining area stage where the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets occur.
There are several restaurants if you do not want to do the buffet, including a steak house, Italian restaurant and Japanese restaurant.
The food was good, not amazing, but if you have stayed at any mainstream All-inclusive in Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc…it is comparable. It is not the quality of a Sandals resort. But there was always a good selection, was tasty, all you can eat, and the staff was always accommodating.
We have heard people say that it can be hard to meet people there, because of the small resort size. We did see how that could be the case. You really have to make the effort to initiate conversations, follow up with people you met before, or make a plan to meet later. Costumes can be good conversation starters, as can anything with your name or a clever saying on it. One gal had a hat that said “Orgy Referee” which we thought was adorable – you know who you are, Beautiful!
One of the things we thought about while we were there was sitting at one of the large tables in the main dining area for dinner. That way, others who need seats will ask to join you. During/after dinner, there is a show of singing and dancing by very talented and sexy staff members and local entertainers, and always a costume contest. After the show, people milled around by the pool next to the dining area, went to the piano bar, or went back to their rooms. The nude beach pool re-opened at 11pm and people went back for more naked partying!
The playrooms were spacious, nicely appointed, with an indoor water feature/hot tub, a BDSM area, showers, and staffed with attendants. Again, you are required to be nude AND to participate. No looky-loos!
The resort also had a dispensary as we mentioned, a store for some snack items, clothing, toys, etc.., a piano bar and a wine bar. There were also excursions you could book like the catamaran tour.
For people who are shy, very new, or generally introverted, we can see how tough it may feel to get things going. But, fortune favors the bold, and you really just have to put yourself out there, be brave enough to start chatting with people, ask to sit with them, introduce yourself and see where it takes you. We thought it was a comfortable, well-run place, full of cool people and attentive staff, where Matthew and I were able to relax, meet new people, and catch up with each other as well.
Now, on to planning the next adventure—Bliss Cruise, April 2025!!
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