Under-visited
The south coast
The half of the island the brochures forget. Black River morning mist, Pelican Bar standing on a sandbank a mile out to sea, and Treasure Beach — fishing villages that never turned themselves into a resort.
The island
There is a lot more of it than the brochure suggests.
Most visitors see one beach and an airport transfer. Staying in Portmore puts you in the middle of the island instead of at the edge of it — and everything is a drive rather than a flight.
Why here
A base in the middle beats a resort at the end.
Book a room in Negril and you have committed to Negril. From Portmore the mountains are ninety minutes, the north coast is two hours, the south coast is under two, and the capital is across the causeway.
It also means you eat where people actually eat, pay what people actually pay, and come home each evening to a whole house in a quiet village rather than a corridor with a keycard.
Blue Mountains, Port Royal, Treasure Beach, Pelican Bar, Dunn's River, Mystic Mountain, Blue Hole, Seven Mile
Where to go
Six directions from the door.
Day trip
The Blue Mountains
An hour and a half from the front door and two thousand metres up. Cloud moving through cedar, coffee terraces stacked down the valley, and air cold enough that you will want a jacket. Doctor birds work the flowers along the roadside — the streamertail hummingbird, Jamaica's national bird, and found nowhere else on earth. The island's other climate.
Across the water
Port Royal & the harbour
The wickedest city on earth until the sea took it in 1692. What is left sits across the water from you — Fort Charles, the sunken town beneath it, and the best fried fish in the parish at the end of the road.
Twenty minutes
Kingston
Where the music actually comes from. Trench Town, the Marley museum, the National Gallery, Devon House at dusk, and a sound system somewhere in the hills that nobody advertises.
Two hours
The north coast
Ocho Rios, Dunn's River, the Blue Hole and the long white run to Montego Bay. Worth the drive for a day or an overnight, and easier from here than most people assume.
Worth an overnight
The far west
Negril's seven miles of sand and the cliffs at the West End, where the whole island stops to watch the sun go into the sea. Best given a night rather than a day.
The set pieces
And the ones everybody comes for.
All three are on the north coast, all three are a morning's drive, and all three are doable in a day from here and back for dinner. Take the car for the week and you can do them one at a time instead of paying a tour to rush you through all of it.
Ocho Rios
Two hours
Dunn's River Falls
Six hundred feet of terraced limestone falling straight into the sea, and the one thing almost everybody climbs. Hold the hand of the person in front, go early before the cruise ships empty out, and wear something you do not mind soaking.
Ocho Rios
Two hours
Mystic Mountain
A chairlift up through the canopy, a bobsled run back down through it, and the whole of Ocho Rios bay laid out underneath you at the top. The best hour on the north coast if you have children, or if you have simply had enough of lying still.
White River, Ocho Rios
Two hours
The Blue Hole
Turquoise pools stepped down through the bush, with rope swings, ledges to jump from and a cave under the falls. Less polished than Dunn's River and better for it — go with a guide, and bring shoes that can get wet.
Further afield
The rest of the island's famous days out, with roughly how long the drive takes from the door. Anything over two hours is better given an overnight than a round trip.
- Bob Marley MuseumKingston30 min
- Green Grotto CavesDiscovery Bay1 hr 45
- Konoko Falls & ParkOcho Rios2 hr
- Y.S. FallsSt Elizabeth2 hr 15
- Floyd's Pelican BarParottee2 hr 30
- Rafting the Martha BraeFalmouth2 hr 30
- Luminous LagoonFalmouth2 hr 45
- Blue LagoonPort Antonio2 hr 45
- Reach FallsPortland3 hr
- Rick's Cafe & Seven MileNegril3 hr 15
Photographs — Floyd's Pelican Bar, Nosferattus CC0 · Red-billed streamertail, Charles J. Sharp CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Charles, Port Royal, Raychristofer CC BY-SA 4.0 · Downtown Kingston, Ralf Steinberger CC BY 2.0 · Negril, West End, wardyboy400 CC BY 2.0. Placeholders until our own photography replaces them.
When to come
There is no bad month. There are different ones.
- Dec — Apr
The dry season
Clear, warm, and the busiest. Christmas and New Year go early, so ask well ahead.
- May — Jun
The quiet stretch
Green, hot, occasional afternoon rain that clears by evening. The best value of the year.
- Jul — Aug
Summer and carnival
Loud in the best way. Long evenings, big crowds at Hellshire on a Sunday.
- Sep — Nov
Low and slow
Hurricane season on paper; in practice mostly empty beaches and a lot of rain that passes.