Dunn’s River Falls

Jamaica

　　These famous falls, 3km west of town, are Jamaica’s top-grossing tourist attraction. Great throngs of people at peak hours can sometimes make it seem more like a theme park than a natural wonder, but this doesn’t make the climb up the falls any less exhilarating. You clamber up great tiers...

Winnifred Beach

Jamaica

　　Perched on a cliff 13km east of Port Antonio is the little hamlet of Fairy Hill. Follow the road steeply downhill and you’ll reach Winnifred Beach, yet another totally gorgeous strip that puts a lot of the sand in more famous places to shame. It's the only truly public beach...

Mayfield Falls

Jamaica

　　Few of Jamaica's waterfall experiences match Mayfield Falls for crowd-free natural beauty. Picture this: you climb into the cool river beneath giant thickets of bamboo and scramble upstream for around 40 minutes, swim through an underwater tunnel, jump into the deeper pools, then sit bubbling in the froth of a...

Pelican Bar

Jamaica

　　A thatched hut on stilts, built on a submerged sandbar 1km out to sea after owner Floyd saw it in a dream, is still Jamaica’s – and perhaps the planet’s – most enjoyable spot for a drink. You can carve your name into the floorboards, play a game of dominoes,...

Nanny Falls

Jamaica

　　The idyllic waterfall and swimming hole of Nanny Falls is a 30-minute walk uphill from the end of Moore Town, passing under huge ferns, Jamaican apple trees and cathedral-like stands of giant bamboo. It's worth the hike to be able to clamber over the rocks at the end to reach...

Blue Mountain Peak

Jamaica

　　Highest of the highlights, Blue Mountain Peak reaches 2256m above sea level, and no visit to the area should neglect a predawn hike to its summit for a sunrise view. ...

YS Falls

Jamaica

　　Deeply secluded in St Elizabeth parish, you’d be forgiven for thinking YS Falls emerged out of Eden. This series of seven cascades, hemmed in by limestone cliffs and surrounded by lush jungle, are among the most beautiful in Jamaica. The cascades fall 118ft (36m) from top to bottom, separated by...

Appleton Rum Estate

Jamaica

　　You can smell the sweetness of molasses wafting from the Appleton Estate well before you reach it, almost a mile northeast of Maggotty. The largest and oldest distillery in Jamaica has been blending rums since 1749. After complimentary rum cocktails and a short video, the sleek tour explains how molasses...

Blue Lagoon

Jamaica

　　The waters that launched Brooke Shields’ movie career are by any measure one of the most beautiful spots in Jamaica. The 180ft-deep (55m) “Blue Hole” (as it is known locally) opens to the sea through a narrow funnel, but is fed by freshwater springs that come in at a depth of...

Blue Hole

Jamaica

　　High on the White River, Jamaica's heavenly Blue Hole is a vision and is an undisputed highlight in Ocho Rios. To reach this popular spot, make your way up a series of magical falls (one measuring 20ft high) and blue pools surrounded by forest, with ample opportunity to swim, dive...

Reach Falls

Jamaica

　　Even in a country that abounds in waterfalls, Reach Falls stands out as one of the most beautiful places in Jamaica. The white rushing cascades are surrounded by a bowl of virgin rainforest; the water tumbles over limestone tiers from one hollowed, jade-colored pool into the next. It’s possible to...

Tuff Gong Recording Studios

Kingston

　　Tuff Gong is one of the Caribbean’s largest and most influential studios. It was Bob Marley's favorite place to record and is now run by his son Ziggy. Visitors are taken on a one-hour 'Making of the Music' tour with the entire music production process explained from rehearsal room through...

Trench Town Culture Yard

Kingston

　　Trench Town, which began life as a much-prized housing project erected by the British in the 1930s, is widely credited as the birthplace of ska, rocksteady and reggae. It has been immortalized in numerous reggae songs, not least Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry,’ the poignant anthem penned by Marley’s...

Parade

Kingston

　　William Grant Park, more commonly known as ‘Parade,’ is the bustling heart of Downtown, and originally hosted a fortress erected in 1694 with guns pointing toward the harbor. The fort was replaced in 1870 by Victoria Park, renamed a century later to honor Black Nationalist and labor leader Sir William...

Liberty Hall

Kingston

　　At the end of a tree-lined courtyard, decorated with cheerful mosaics and a mural depicting Marcus Garvey, stands Liberty Hall, the headquarters of Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) in the 1930s. The building now contains an excellent multimedia museum about the man and his work, which allows the visitor...

Life Yard

Kingston

　　An innovative art and permaculture scheme, Life Yard is regenerating an area of downtown Kingston once beset with gang problems. The program is centered on an urban farming project, and its Rastafari organizers have also worked with the community and visiting artists to cover the whole street with beautiful and...

Devon House

Kingston

　　This beautiful colonial house was built in 1881 by George Stiebel, the first black millionaire in Jamaica. Antique lovers will enjoy the guided tour, highlights of which include some very ornate porcelain chandeliers and fascinating paintings and photographs. Note the trompe l'oeil of palms in the entrance foyer and the...

Bob Marley Museum

Kingston

　　The large, creaky, colonial-era wooden house on Hope Rd, where Bob Marley lived and recorded from 1975 until his death in 1981, is the city’s most-visited site. Today the house functions as combined tourist attraction, museum and shrine, and much remains as it was in Marley’s day. 　　The hour-long tour...

National Gallery of Jamaica

Kingston

　　The superlative collection of Jamaican art housed by the National Gallery is the finest on the island and should on no account be missed. As well as offering a distinctly Jamaican take on international artistic trends, the collection attests to the vitality of the country’s artistic heritage as well as...

Montego Bay Cultural Centre

Montego Bay

　　At the southwest corner of Sam Sharpe Sq you’ll find the copper-domed Civic Centre, an elegant colonial-style, cut-stone building on the site of a ruined colonial courthouse where trials were held in the wake of the Christmas Rebellion of 1831 and where Sam Sharpe was sentenced to death. Inside there's...

Sam Sharpe Square

Montego Bay

　　This bustling, cobbled square is named for Samuel Sharpe (1801–32), national hero and leader of the 1831 Christmas Rebellion; it is also where he was hanged in its aftermath. At the square’s northwest corner is the National Heroes' Monument. Nearby is the Cage, a tiny brick building built in 1806...

Bellefield Great House

Montego Bay

　　Built in 1735, the restored Bellefield showcases 18th-century colonial living and Jamaican culinary history. You get to see the local gardens with tremendous, centuries-old trees, meander past an on-site jerk pit and miniature version of a sugar mill, wander the house, and gorge yourself at a delicious lunch buffet (eight-person...

St James Parish Church

Montego Bay

　　Regarded as the finest church on the island, it was originally built between 1775 and 1782, but was so damaged by the earthquake of March 1, 1957, that it had to be rebuilt. With luck, the tall church doors will be open (if not, call the rector) to view the...

Montego Bay Marine Park & Bogue Lagoon

Montego Bay

　　The waters of Montego Bay are gorgeous to behold both above and below the surface, but they have long been compromised by the effects of fishing, water sports and pollution. With the creation in 1991 of the Montego Bay Marine Park, environmental regulations at last began to be strictly enforced...

Indigenous Rastafarian Village

Montego Bay

　　If you want to learn about the Rastafarian movement, come out to this…hmmm...‘theme park’ is definitely not the right description. How about ‘living interpretive exhibit'? There’s not exactly a natural mystic floating in the air, but this ‘village’ is still a good introduction to Jamaica’s most-famous indigenous religion. If coming...

Doctor’s Cave Beach

Montego Bay

　　It may sound like a rocky hole inhabited by lab-coated troglodytes, but this is actually Montego Bay’s most famous beach and the one with the most facilities. A pretty arc of sugary sand fronts a deep-blue gem studded with floating dive platforms and speckled with tourists sighing happily. Er, lots...

National Museum West

Montego Bay

　　This well-curated, revamped museum, peppered with period objects, takes you through the history of western Jamaica, from the Cohaba ceremonies of the indigenous Taínos and the arrival of the Spanish, followed by the English, to the transatlantic slave trade, the advent of king sugar, Maroon rebellions, emancipation and the development...

Kool Runnings Adventure Park

Negril

　　If you prefer your water fun doled out in a theme park, descend on this 2-hectare collection of different experiences, from the main water park with flume rides (US$39) to riding on a bamboo raft and paintballing to canoeing, and even spinning in a human gyroscope. Separate entry fees for...

Negril Hills

Negril

　　This range of low-lying hills rises inland of Negril’s West End. The raised limestone upland is wild and smothered in brush. Tiny hamlets sprinkle the single road that provides access from Negril: Whitehall Rd leads south from Sheffield Rd to the hamlet of Orange Hill, swings east through the hills...

Bloody Bay Beach

Negril

　　A splendid option in between two large all-inclusives, with no facilities and few people, save for a few savvy travelers and a smattering of locals enjoying some repose away from the hubbub. ...

Long Bay Beach Park

Negril

　　Toward the north end of Seven Mile Beach, this beach is more peaceful and far less crowded than the sand further south. Here you’ll find more sugary sand and picnic tables, plus changing rooms. But there’s also coarse grass here, so it’s not quite as picturesque. ...

Barney's Flower & Hummingbird Garden

Negril

　　At the south end of West End, follow the signs to this private garden, where Jamaica's endemic hummingbirds flit between the firecracker flowers, bromeliads and heliconia blooms. The admission fee gets you some sugar water and around an hour to attract the tiny feathered marvels. Barney also arranges guided garden...

Royal Palm Reserve

Negril

　　Officially closed to the public, the 289-acre Royal Palm Reserve stretches along the southern side of the Great Morass, and consists of three distinct swamp forest types: royal palm forest, buttonwood forest and bull thatch forest. They’re all home to butterflies, doctorbirds, herons, egrets, endangered black parakeets, Jamaican woodpeckers and...

Seven Mile Beach

Negril

　　Seven Mile Beach was initially touted on tourism posters as ‘seven miles of nothing but you and the sea.’ True, sunbathers still lie half submerged in the gentle surf, and the sweet smell of ganja smoke continues to perfume the breeze, but otherwise the beach has changed a great deal....