Review of the Aqua Negril bed and breakfast in Negril, Jamaica

This new boutique B&B sits smack on Negril Beach and is a beauty -- it's small but lavishes its guests with the attentive treatment typical of more richly staffed resorts.

A lovely middle-aged couple, Ken and Liz Sealey, own and run Aqua Negril on the fabled Seven Mile Beach, having bought the property a couple of years ago and completely renovating the place, top to bottom. The couple plunked significant dollars into beautifying this small, five-room boutique bed-and-breakfast. Ken is a retired psychiatrist, which made me ask, "Are you crazy?" He laughed. But he didn’t disagree.

The fruits of the Sealeys' labor are nothing short of spectacular. The place was a wreck when the couple bought it, but they fell in love with the beachfront home. After years of work, everything about Aqua Negril is either new or improved.

My favorite spot at the B&B was a giant Jacuzzi on the second-story deck, gauzy curtains billowing in the breeze inviting liquid lazing, drink in hand. The property also features is a gigantic open great room, meticulously appointed with the requisite busts of Bob Marley, red-painted walls broken up by white-stone pillars. Furnishings are rich, lush, and warmly invite a sit down for a read facing the ocean outside the large glass doors. The interior is graced by all manner of artwork, some by the talented hand of Liz herself. Stone and hardwood floors abound throughout.

The back door opens to a beautiful small beach, and to one side is a veranda where full breakfasts are served. By the sugar-sand beach is the Aqua Negril bar, offering the mind-boggling (and liver-rattling possibility) of sampling up to 65 brands of rum.

Some of the bedrooms are small, but the light and airy décor provides some sense of spaciousness. The Blue Oasis room is the largest, at 400 square feet, and has its own deck and ocean view. Other rooms with lilting names -– Rhapsody in Green, Tropical Splendour, Sea Foam and The Cove –- are smaller, but equally tasteful. The latter two are on the ground floor on opposite sides of a pleasant, enclosed courtyard, with a gently tinkling fountain and a towering wooden grate-wall that allows light in but keeps unwanted people out.

Little things mean a lot here; Liz insists on daily washing of bedspreads and blankets, for example, and she is a wonderfully talented cook (she takes part in a live Sunday culinary webcast. She whips up amazing bar snacks like spicy nuts made with Scotch bonnet pepper and amazing olives marinated in a bit of bonnet, olive oil, cumin and other herbs and spices. Pop some of these in your mouth, sip some world-class rum at the bar, and kick back to gaze into the ocean, enjoying the sheer joy of sated inertia.