After visiting Desire 7 times in the last two years, including a stay at Pearl in March of this year, we are self-admitted Desire fans. Let that be disclosed up front. We are 43 year old, married, committed, experienced swingers that got into the lifestyle by visiting Desire many times and being coaxed in by its sexiness, charm, honesty and fun. If you want see our evolution, look back at our many past trip reports posted here.
A common topic of afternoon conversation in the Desire rooftop Jacuzzi is the other most famous lifestyle-friendly nude resort in the world...Hedonism II in Negril, Jamaica. We’ve heard all the stories and we had to see it for ourselves. When we returned earlier this week we were showered with questions from our network of other Desire enthusiasts about our trip. Its important to understand that while admittedly biased, we went with truly open minds and insisted to each other that we would not compare the two resorts during the trip because we wanted to just enjoy and get the full effect. We promised ourselves we would wait until we got home for comparisons. So, we are home now. Here's our honest, brutal assessment...
Our vacation was fun, really fun, and after all any trip like that is really about the people you meet not the resort. We met some very fun sexy people, but here is the thing, there is no way to deny it, when it comes to the actual resort, Desire is just better.
Before we went, we were told that the rooms are nicer at Desire...they are. That the pool is nicer at Desire... it is. That Desire's grounds are more lush and beautiful...they are, and that the service at Desire is way better... it is...WAY better. By the way, the service at Hedo was fine. No complaints here. You have to remember that you are on “Island Time” and relax. The pace and attentiveness isn't really slow, but its hardly impressive. Is just that Desire’s service is ridiculously awesome by any standard. You just cant beat it. We understood all that, but the trade off was that Hedo has the reputation of being an amazing, unrivaled party that is worth giving up some comforts for and that’s what we wanted to see. Our observation...The party was fun and sexy but honestly, in 5 nights we never saw anything that we don't see on every trip to Desire. The party is fine, just not unprecedented as it was advertised. The same action and playfulness exists at both resorts and the amenities are way better at Desire.
When we talked with veterans of Hedo, they always seem to say they haven't tried Desire for 3 main reasons.
They say they have heard...
- 1. At Hedo you can have sex anywhere you want but at Desire you cant.
Thats technically true, but not the practical reality. In actual fact, 99% of the public sex that happens at Hedo occurs in the same spots where it does at Desire. Around the hot tub/poll in the afternoon, and around the hot tub late at night. After all, realistically, not many people have sex on the beach at 10:00 in the morning. There is definitely not more public sex at Hedo and the sex that does occur is WAY hotter at Desire because Desire is set up for it. It isn't crude uncomfortable groping on the concrete by the hot tub like at Hedo, its slow, hot, sensual love making or even group play on comfortable open air beds set up by the pool. Its much hotter and more erotic at Desire. No question. One more huge factor contributing to this is that there are singles at Hedo. Now, don't get us wrong, we do enjoy a little play with singles once in a while. We have been with both men and women and had great experiences (some even at Desire). We aren't opposed to that situation, but Hedo is an uncomfortable meat market. We were all but driven out of the hot tub every night and eventually began to skip it because we didn't want to fight the sharks waiting to pounce. If, in the hot tub, late at night, after an evening of grinding on each other in the disco, we started kissing or touching each other in an amorous way, my wife would inevitably feel the probing touch on her leg or back of a creepy single guy hoping that she was too distracted and turned on to resist his advance. It was a very uncomfortable vibe and ruined a sexy situation that, at Desire, where there are only couples allowed, is one of our favorite times of the day. The crowd at Desire is classier, and on average, sexier and the vibe, which is made possible, in part because it is exclusively couples policy, is romantic and sensual unlike Hedo where it is borderline crude and crass at times.
2. Desire is boring. Hedo's party is better.
Definitely not true. We were there during the last few days an annual group’s takeover and were adopted by a fairly large group (75 couples) and got the feel of the fun party time at Hedo. After they left, our last few nights were spent with no group and the party was expectedly dependent on the crowd. Good some nights and slow some nights. Thats understandable and true at Desire too. The crowd changes from day to day and so does the vibe. Some nights are off the hook hot, and others are mellow and we have found ourselves almost alone in the Desire hot tub at midnight wondering where everybody is. Its not that different at Hedo. The point is, Hedo's reputation for a nonstop ridiculous party is over-hyped. Desire’s is, in actual fact, essentially the same party and sacrificing all of the other superior amenities of Desire is not worth the supposedly superior Hedo party. We believe that Hedo, which was the first resort of of this kind, was, for a time, the only and best option for this kind of fun and its reputation was deserved as being unprecedented, but thats just not reality anymore. Most of the 10, 20 or 30-trip Hedo veterans understandably have adopted it as their second home and love it. More power to them, but most haven't tried Desire. If, and when, they do, Hedo is in trouble because the Desire experience is empirically better for most people....Not all, but most.
3. Desire is more expensive.
Well, all we can say to that is that the day after we got home from 5 nights in Hedo, we went online and booked 5 nights from March 18-24 at Desire for $100 less than we paid for our Hedo trip. Granted, it is at a lesser room category. We stayed at a ocean view room at Hedo on the nude side and booked a garden view room (as we always do) at Desire, but the flight is direct from Detroit to Cancun for us and way more convenient and that reduces the price as well as gets us on the beach faster and easier. After all, the two hour transfer to and from Montego Bay to Negril and the multiple stops to drop off other passengers at neighboring resorts which is common in Jamaica is, in itself, a huge deterrent to returning to Hedo especially when Desire is a quick, 15 minute, $35, private ride to the naked fun!
We could go on and on about the comparisons. Some things are of essentially equal quality (room cleanliness, food, entertainment, disco, water sports and activities). Some things are a little nicer at Hedo (fitness center, piano bar) but overall, Desire is clearly superior.
We could easily complain about things that occurred on our Hedo trip like the lack of air conditioning in the evening dinner areas making meals extremely uncomfortable, or the rooms that have paper thin walls which prevented us from sleeping soundly on any night due to the inconsiderate drunk people yelling or smashing things in adjacent rooms or right outside our door in the middle of the night, or the fact that most off the resort had no hot water for the first two days of our trip forcing us to wipe off with towels in the sink, dry shave, and heavily perfume before dinner each night (incidentally, the staff was apologetic, but really couldn't do any thing to fix the problem of an old main boiler that wasn't working and probably, like most things there, could use an update or replacement). We really aren't complaining.
We had a fun trip. It is what you make of it and attitude makes or breaks a vacation. We learned long ago that if you let little inconveniences ruin your vacation, thats your problem, but here is the final word...
Would we return? Yes, BUT only the day after Desire closes its doors forever. There is just no reason to go back when a clearly superior alternative exists.
Desire is unmatched. Don’t miss it.