Jamaica
Four and a half hours from Boston, and the Caribbean island with the most going on once you leave the resort gate.
Small island, outsized influence
Jamaica is about half the size of Rhode Island's neighbour Connecticut and has exported more culture than countries fifty times its population. Ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and dancehall all originated here inside about twenty-five years, and the recording studios that produced them are still working. The national motto — "Out of Many, One People" — reflects an island of West African, British, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese descent, and the food shows every one of those threads.
Independent from Britain since 1962, Jamaica drives on the left, plays cricket seriously, and speaks Patois among friends and English to visitors. The interior is far more dramatic than the beach resorts suggest — the Blue Mountains rise over 7,400 feet within a dozen miles of Kingston, and Cockpit Country in the west is a limestone maze that sheltered the Maroon communities who won their freedom by treaty in 1739.
Seasonally, the dry high season runs mid-December to April and is the reliable window. May and June are excellent value with brief afternoon showers. Hurricane season runs June to November with the real risk concentrated in August through October — travel then is cheap, and travel insurance stops being optional. Most travelers fly into Montego Bay for the western resorts, or Kingston for the mountains and the music.
Jamaica, four ways
What we'd actually send you to do
Not an exhaustive list — the handful of things our travelers come home talking about.
Things to do
- Climb Dunn's River FallsSix hundred feet of terraced limestone at Ocho Rios, climbed in a human chain. Touristy, genuinely fun, and go at opening.
- Raft the Martha BraeAn hour on a bamboo raft poled by a guide who has done the river his whole life. Slow in the best way.
- Hike the Blue Mountain Peak for sunriseA pre-dawn start to 7,402 feet, with Cuba visible on a clear morning. Then coffee at the source.
- See Negril's Seven Mile Beach from the west endCliff jumping and sunset at Rick's Café, then dinner along the cliffs.
- Visit the Bob Marley MuseumHis Kingston home and studio on Hope Road, left largely as it was.
Places to go
- Montego BayThe main airport and the largest concentration of all-inclusives. Shortest transfer of any Jamaican resort area.
- NegrilSeven miles of beach on one side, limestone cliffs on the other. The most relaxed of the resort towns.
- Ocho RiosThe waterfalls, the river rafting and the cruise pier. Best base if you want to be doing things.
- Port AntonioThe quiet northeast — the Blue Lagoon, Frenchman's Cove and almost no crowds.
- Kingston & the Blue MountainsThe real country. Music history, coffee estates and mountain air, an easy add-on to a beach week.
Things to see
- The Blue LagoonA two-hundred-foot-deep spring-fed pool meeting the sea, shifting between blue and green through the day.
- Rose Hall Great HouseAn eighteenth-century plantation house above Montego Bay, and the ghost story attached to it.
- A Blue Mountain coffee estateOne of the most valuable coffees in the world, grown between 3,000 and 5,500 feet.
- The Rio Grande valleyRafting country, and the greenest part of the island.
- Trench Town, KingstonThe Culture Yard where Marley lived, run by the community.
On the table in Jamaica
Dishes to order
- Jerk pork or chickenRubbed with scotch bonnet and pimento, smoked slowly over pimento wood. Boston Bay in Portland is where it comes from.
- Ackee and saltfishThe national dish, eaten at breakfast. Ackee looks and behaves like scrambled egg and is nothing of the kind.
- Curry goatLong-cooked, Indian-influenced, served with rice and peas at every celebration on the island.
- FestivalSlightly sweet fried dumplings. The correct accompaniment to jerk and to fried fish.
Where locals eat
- Roadside jerk pansA halved oil drum, smoke, and a man with a cleaver. Better than any resort buffet version.
- Fish shacks at Hellshire or Little OchiePick your fish from the ice, tell them how to cook it, wait, eat it at a plastic table on the sand.
- Off-resort in NegrilEven on an all-inclusive, take two nights out. The west end has real kitchens.
What to drink
- Appleton Estate rumAged in the Nassau Valley since 1749. The estate tour is worth the drive.
- Red StripeCold, in the stubby bottle, on the beach. It does not travel as well as it drinks there.
- Blue Mountain coffeeBuy it at the estate rather than the airport, and check it says Blue Mountain rather than "blend".
Let's put dates on Jamaica
We book Sandals, Beaches and the independent properties — and always the flights and airport transfers, so the vacation starts at the terminal. Tell us roughly when you'd like to travel and we'll come back with real options and current pricing.
