Jamaica Travel Guide

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Top Things to See

• Don’t miss a chance to visit the Port Royal in Kingston, a fine museum on top of the peninsula bordering Kingston Harbour. Honoring Jamaica’s ancient capital city, submerged under the sea after an earthquake in 1692.

• Be sure to have a camera at the ready when dolphin-spotting in Dolphin Cove in Ocho Rios. Surrounded by tropical rainforest, the cove is home to numerous bottle nose dolphins.

• For stunning ocean views head to Montego Bay (or Mo’ Bay, as it is called by the locals), where from Gloucester and Kent Avenues the clear Caribbean waters are particularly dazzling. Look out over the protected bay out to bobbing yachts and sea birds.

• For truly vibrant blooms check out the exhibits at Shaw Park Botanical Gardens, a 10-hectare (25-acre) collection of exotic Caribbean flora in Ocho Rios. Situated high on a hilltop overlooking the Caribbean Sea, the gardens has a waterfall as a centerpiece.

• Pop into the 24-hour open-air museum and see relics of Jamaican history at Columbus Park, a commemorative park to mark the 1494 landing of Christopher Columbus in Discovery Bay.

• Head out to Lover’s Leap, a sheer 518m (1,700ft) cliff overhanging the sea east of Treasure Beach. It was here that two slave lovers leaped to their deaths rather than to be separated. Those with vertigo should stand well away from the edge - the view is terrifying.

• Be sure to take to the streets to witness Jamaica’s riotous fun-filled carnival. Parading musicians, skimpily dressed dancers and floats typify this world famous street party. Expect outlandish behavior to the sound of soca, steel bands and beating drums.

Top Things to Do

• Stroll around the ancient streets of Spanish Town, Jamaica’s former capital, on a historical walking tour. It was once a magnificent and impressive metropolis and some fine stately red-brick homes and grand monuments remain, including a resplendent plaza.

• Follow one of many hiking and climbing trails up the Blue Mountains to heights above 2,100m (7,000ft). Shrouded by mists that give the peaks their bluish tinge, the Blue Mountains are home to more than 200 bird species and 800 species of plants.

• Explore the hundreds of paths connecting villages and settlements around the mountains, including several non-tourist utilitarian paths around Newcastle on the Kingston to Buff Bay Road where trails lead to Catherine’s Peak and Mount Horeb.

• Take a rejuvenating dip in the curative waters of the aged Milk River Spa, a naturally radioactive mineral bath. Discovered in 1794, these spring-fed therapeutic waters reach temperatures of 33°C (86°F).

• Ride a bicycle downhill through an elfin forest of stunted soapwood and redwood trees, home to hundreds of species of bird and blossoming plants. Speed through the world-famous Blue Mountain coffee plantations or meander at a leisurely pace along hedgerow-flanked lanes.

• Chill out Jamaican-style on Montego Bay’s laid-back Doctor’s Cave Beach. Beautiful white sands and sparkling spring-fed waters earned its name from Dr Alexander James McCatty, a medical man who used to enter the beach through a cave, since destroyed in 1932 by a hurricane.

• Dive in underwater gardens, with many sunken wrecks as well as a rainbow of sponges, corals and varicolored fish. Spot nurse sharks, furry sea cucumber, eagle rays, upside-down jellyfish, tobacco fish and snapper in shallow spurs and grove reefs amidst an assortment of caverns.

• Check out a huge labyrinth of limestone caves on Jamaica’s north coast, a stunning natural phenomena. Characterised by stalactites, stalagmites, overhead crags, tunnels light holes, and in its depths a subterranean lake, the Green Grotto was once used as shelter by the Arawak Indians (Tainos).

• Hop aboard a bamboo raft to explore the Rio Grande for a thrilling trip through banana and sugar cane plantations. Set sail from the peaks of the Blue Mountains at Berrydale before winding down to Margaret’s Bay along one of Jamaica’s largest rivers.