Sure Jamaica is filled with large superclub-style resorts, but they aren’t the only places to sleep. Jamaica is also home to some of my favorite small boutique sleeps. Try the luxurious Trident Hotel on the island’s wild southeast coast. You’ll stay in a luxury villa with a private plunge pool fronting the sea. Just down the street from Trident, and owned by the same two music producers, is Geejam. This boutique property has just five rooms, a full-scale recording studio on the grounds, and is a favorite with music-industry heavy hitters.
For a truly special holiday, ditch the hotel and book a private home stay. Jamaica has dozens of these, but some of my personal favorites are found at the exclusive, gated Tryall Club — one of the Caribbean’s largest villa resorts located just outside Montego Bay. If you really have the dollars to splash out, however, I absolutely loved my time at Roaring Pavilion, pictured above. It sits on a pristine beach made famous in the James Bond flick, “Dr. No.”
Ian Fleming wrote all 14 of his James Bond novels at the GoldenEye Hotel & Resort in on Jamaica’s northern coast. The island has been featured as a location in many James Bond films over the years.
Jamaica has miles of gorgeous white sand beaches fronting an aquamarine sea, but if you tire of playing in the ocean, there’s also plenty to do inland. The island is also home to the Blue Mountains, which offer plenty of opportunities for hiking. The Blue Mountains are also Jamaica’s coffee growing region, and bringing a few bags of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee home with you is a must.
Jamaica and reggae music go hand in hand, and while Bob Marley may be dead, his legacy lives on. Up-and-coming local groups are still influenced by his original style. Music moguls own island properties, including Chris Blackwell, owner of Island Records, who owns Strawberry Hill in the Blue Mountains. Blackwell bought the property back in the 1970s as part of his Island Outpost hotel collection, and it has been popular with musicians ever since. Bob Marley, Willie Nelson and Mick Jagger went there to escape and sometimes record.
Frenchman’s Cove, located on Jamaica’s southeast coast, is one of the world’s most beautiful beaches. If the scenery gives you a sense of deja vu, it’s because it has been featured in a number of films including “Night and Day” with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
Jamaica’s most-famous method of seasoning and grilling meat and fish, jerk cooking began in the John Crow Mountains that run parallel to the island’s northeast coast. Today the most authentic jerked dishes on the island are cooked up at roadside stalls at Boston Bay. Come hungry and be ready to eat with your hands.
Jamaica’s northern coastline has some excellent opportunities to snorkel and dive east of Montego Bay. Head to the beach at Runaway Bay and swim out about 50 feet to a patch of sea that looks darker than the usual emerald sparkle. This is actually a fantastic coral reef with scores of tropical fish that’s perfect for snorkeling. This area is a diving mecca with a number of ship – and even airplane – wreck dives in the vicinity.
Jamaica’s most iconic natural attraction, Dunn’s River Falls near Rio Ochos attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. They come to trek hand-in-hand up slippery rocks and along a rushing stream to reach the sparkling green lagoon at the foot of a cascading 600-foot-waterfall. If it looks familiar, that’s because it had a cameo appearance in Tom Cruise’s 1988 hit, “Cocktail,” and a bigger role in the 1962 Bond flick, “Dr. No.”
The Jamaicans had a bobsled team in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, qualifying for the first time in 12 years. The team gained fame during its 1988 Winter Olympic debut in Calgary. Representing a tropical country in a winter sport, the Jamaican team was seen as an underdog. If you’d like to try your hand at bobsledding in Jamaica, ride the chairlifts to the top of Mystic Mountain near Ocho Rios on the northern coast, then make your descent on the bobsled track.
