For Atlanta-based Lana Charles, Jamaica has always meant more than a vacation.

There’s a particular stretch of Seven Mile Beach where the sand flattens out, the water stays shallow longer than you expect, and the days tend to move at the same unhurried pace they always have.

A New York couple honeymooned for 10 nights at Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica, and found that the best moment of the trip came from slowing down enough to say yes to a stranger’s invitation.

Royalton Negril, part of the Marriott umbrella. The beach at Negril stretches west under wide Caribbean skies, with long swimming days, cliffside sunsets and the easygoing rhythm that has made the ...