Around Portmore
Everything is close from here.
Portmore is a base rather than a destination, and that is the point. The beach is ten minutes one way, the airport is half an hour the other, and the north coast is an hour up the highway — without paying resort prices for any of it.
01
Sand and sea
Two beaches within a short drive, and a cave above one of them.
Hellshire Beach
10 minThe one everyone comes for. Fried fish, festival and bammy straight off the fire, boats pulled up on the sand, and a crowd that builds all through Sunday afternoon.
Fort Clarence Beach
The calmer alternative when Hellshire is heaving — a managed stretch with changing facilities, and the venue for a lot of the big stage shows.
Caymanas Mineral Bath
Spring-fed water under the trees a short drive inland — cool, green and quiet, and a different kind of swim to the sea. Locals have come here far longer than anyone has been going to the beach.
Two Sisters CaveHellshire hills
A sinkhole cave with fresh water at the bottom and Taíno petroglyphs cut into the rock — among the oldest marks anyone left on this island.
02
Eating and drinking
Portmore's restaurant scene has grown up considerably in the last two years.
TGI FridaysSunshine Outlet Mall, Braeton Parkway
Newly opened, and only the second in Jamaica after Kingston. Same menu as the Kingston store, plus a signature cocktail served at this branch and nowhere else.
StarbucksParkway Square, Municipal Boulevard
The eleventh Starbucks on the island when it opened, and the one that finally saved Portmore the run into Kingston for a flat white.
Hellshire fish shacksHellshire Beach
10 minNot a restaurant so much as a row of them. Pick your fish, watch it go in the pan, eat it with festival at a plastic table with your feet in the sand.
Waves Beach
Seafood and a bar with your feet more or less in the sand — thatched shade, benches under the palms, and the catch depending on what came in. The easy answer for a long afternoon.
Sovereign Village food court
Popeyes, Wendy's, Subway, a pizza place, a Chinese restaurant, pastry shops and frozen yoghurt — the reliable answer when nobody can agree.
03
Quick and local
Jamaican staples first, the international chains when you want them.
Juici Patties
A national institution and the island's largest patty chain. Beef, chicken, cheese, soy — usually eaten standing up, before you have got back to the car.
Island GrillSovereign Village
Jamaican fast food done properly — jerk built on thyme, pimento, escallion and scotch bonnet rather than a spice packet. The one to try first.
KFCPortmore Mall, Braeton and Cumberland
Three branches within a short drive, all open 10am to 9pm. Here it is less a fast-food chain than a Friday-evening ritual, and the queue will tell you as much.
Burger KingBraeton Road, Greater Portmore
Open 7am to 11pm every day — the longest hours on this list, with a drive-through. The late-arrival and early-departure fallback.
04
Shopping and essentials
Everything a self-catering stay needs, none of it far.
Fontana PharmacyBraeton Parkway & Municipal Drive
Twenty-five thousand square feet of pharmacy, cosmetics, baby goods and household bits — the seventh Fontana on the island, and far more than a chemist. The stop for anything you forgot to pack.
Portmore Pines Plaza
Progressive Foods supermarket, plus a bank, a doctor's office, a laundromat and restaurants. The practical stop for a stay of any length.
PriceSmart Portmore
Membership warehouse club — worth it if you are cooking for a week or stocking up at the start of a long stay.
Sovereign Village
The main shopping and leisure hub — retail, the food court and cinemas under one roof.
Portmore MallPortmore Town Centre
Opened in 1993 and once the largest covered indoor mall in the Caribbean. Still the centre of gravity for the older part of town.
05
Nights out
A cinema with better projection than most of Kingston, and a Sunday institution.
Sunshine Palace Cinemabeside Sovereign Village
Four screens, opened in 2019, running Christie digital projection including the first RGB pure laser projector in Jamaica. The picture is genuinely better than most of what is in the capital.
Rocket GoKartingCongreve Park, near Bayside
A proper floodlit kart track, plus paintball, mini-golf and an arcade on the same site. The obvious answer for an evening with teenagers, and rather more fun than adults tend to admit.
Soul SundaysHung Way Mall
Every Sunday, and a Portmore institution — soul and oldies, a grown crowd, and Appleton and Campari now behind it. If you are here on a Sunday evening, this is the answer.
Sovereign Village cinemas
Five screens showing Hollywood releases and Caribbean films, and a cold, dark, air-conditioned hour when the afternoon gets too much.
06
Further out
The advantage of Portmore: the rest of the island is a drive, not a flight.
Norman Manley International
30 minHalf an hour to the terminal, which is why late arrivals and early departures work so well from here.
Kingston
Straight up the causeway. Devon House, the Bob Marley Museum, the National Gallery, and the restaurants of New Kingston.
Ribbiz Ocean LoungeVictoria Pier, downtown Kingston
Grill and Jamaican cooking right on the water, looking out over Kingston Harbour — the same stretch of sea you see from this side. Open from midday, late at weekends, and worth booking if you want a table by the edge.
Ocho Riosvia the Edward Seaga Highway
1 hrThe north coast in an hour on the toll highway, which cuts straight through Mount Rosser instead of winding over it. Dunn's River and the Blue Hole make an easy day out. Carry cash for the toll.
Port Royal
Across the harbour — Fort Charles, the sunken pirate city beneath it, and the seafood at the end of the road.