Things to do in Montego Bay
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Rose Hall Great House
This mansion, with its commanding hilltop position 3km east of Ironshore, is the most famous great house in Jamaica. Construction of the imposing house was begun by George Ashe in the 1750s and was completed in the 1770s by John Palmer, a wealthy plantation owner. Palmer and his wife Rose (after whom the house was named) hosted some of the most elaborate social gatherings on the island. Slaves destroyed the house in the Christmas Rebellion of 1831 and it was left in ruins for over a century. In 1966 the three-story building was restored to haughty grandeur. Beyond the Palladian portico the house is a bastion of 18th-century style, with a magnificent mahogany stairca…
reviewed
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Greenwood Great House
This marvelous estate sits high on a hill 11km east of Ironhshore. Construction began on the two-story, stone-and-timber structure in 1780 by the Honorable Richard Barrett, whose family arrived in Jamaica in the 1660s and amassed a fortune from its sugar plantations. (Barrett was a cousin of the famous English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.) In an unusual move for his times, Barrett educated his slaves. Unique among local plantation houses, Greenwood survived unscathed during the slave rebellion of Christmas 1831. The original library is still intact, as are oil paintings, Dresden china, a court jester’s chair and plentiful antiques, including a mantrap used for catc…
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Sam Sharpe Square
The bustling cobbled Sam Sharpe Square, formerly called the Parade, is named for national hero the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe (1801-32), the leader of the 1831 Christmas Rebellion. At the square's northwest corner is the National Heroes Monument, an impressive bronze statue of Paul Bogle and Sam Sharpe - bible in hand, speaking to three admirers.
Also on the northwest corner is the Cage, a tiny cut-stone and brick building built in 1806 as a lockup, now a small souvenir shop. At the southwest corner is the copper-domed Civic Centre, a handsome colonial-style cut-stone building on the site of the ruined colonial courthouse.
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Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville
This popular place claims to have ‘put the hip into the Hip Strip’. Who would have thought that anything to do with Jimmy Buffett could obtain a cachet of cool? Ignoring the sleeping patterns of the strip’s many hotel guests, outrageously loud music is pumped into the air until the moment before dawn. Four open-air bars, 15 big-screen TVs and dance floors on decks that overhang the water offer plenty of diversion until the wee hours. If that’s not enough excitement, there’s a waterslide to carry revelers through the plumbing to flush them ignominiously into the ocean near a floating trampoline.
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Houseboat Grill
Moored in Bogue Bay at Montego Bay Freeport, this converted houseboat is one of Jamaica’s top-notch restaurants. The changing menu offers eclectic Caribbean fusion cuisine such as spicy conch fritters with a rémoulade dipping sauce, or honey-soy-glazed, grilled tenderloin of beef with Chinese oyster sauce, and homemade ice cream. You can dine inside, or reclusively out on the moondeck. The bar draws the local middle class and is open until the last guest goes home. Reservations are strongly recommended on weekends.
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Doctor’s Cave Beach Club
Founded as a bathing club in 1906, this world-famous stretch of sand with a perpetual party vibe is now owned by Doctor’s Cave Beach Club. It can get ridiculously crowded during the winter months, so if you’re going to make a day of it, arrive early to stake out your turf. Facilities include a food court, grill bar, internet cafe and water sports, plus changing rooms. You can rent shade umbrellas and inflatable air mattresses (lilos) for US$5, snorkel gear for US$5 and chairs for US$4.
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Native Restaurant & Bar
An excellent place to learn about Jamaican cuisine, this modest yet engaging spot features an extensive menu and open-air veranda. Try ‘goat in a boat’ (curried goat in a pineapple half) or ‘yard man fish’ (whole fish escoveitched or steamed). If you’re really hungry, consider the ‘Boonoonoonoos’ sampler (composed of ackee and saltfish, jerk chicken, curried goat, escoveitched fish, plantains and pineapple) – it’s like taking a crash course in Jamaican food.
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Town House
The Town House, with a handsome redbrick frontage buried under a cascade of bougainvillea and laburnum, dates from 1765, when it was the home of a wealthy merchant. It has since served as a church manse and later as a townhouse for the mistress of the Earl of Hereford, Governor of Jamaica. In the years that followed it was used as a hotel, warehouse, Masonic lodge, lawyer’s office and synagogue. Its current incarnation is a clothes store.
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Montego Bay Marine Park Trust
You can hire canoes or set out with a guide to spot herons, egrets, pelicans and waterfowl, while swimming and crawling below are barracudas, tarpon, snapper, crabs and lobsters. Request a guide two days in advance; there’s no charge but donations are gladly accepted. Authority is vested in the Montego Bay Marine Park Trust. MBMPT maintains a meager resource centre with a library on the vital ecosystem.
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Ma Lou’s
With African-themed decor and exciting nouvelle-Jamaican cuisine, this small place tucked away in the Coral Cliff Casino is one of the nicest restaurants in town. The adventurous menu features delicacies such as roasted Peking chicken, curry with coconut and fried plantain, and specialty jerks. A nice touch is the large window open to the kitchen by the front door, where you can chew the fat with the garrulous chef.
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All Nations Carriage Tours
All Nations Carriage Tours offers 40-minute, horse-drawn carriage tours to many MoBay historic sites spread between Gloucester Ave and the old town (US$15/25/35 per child/adult/couple). You can even arrange to have a carriage pick you up at the airport. If you don’t have a reservation, you can find the carriages parked by the Fantasy Craft Market on the ‘hip strip, ’ or across from Sandals Inn.
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Sunflower Travel & Tours
Sunflower Travel & Tours provides a full-day ‘Black River Special’ tour (US$95 per person) to the Appleton Rum Estate and YS Falls, which includes a brief incursion by boat into the Black River wetlands. Other offerings include Dunn’s River Falls (US$45), Blue Mountains via Kingston (US$110), Nine Mile (US$85) and Rose Hall Great House ($US60). All tours include transportation.
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Jamaican Bobsled Café
This watering hole makes a good-natured attempt to capitalize on everybody’s favorite fish-out-of-water story – the Jamaican bobsled team immortalized in the film Cool Runnings, which is in a perpetual loop on a corner screen. It’s a good spot for grabbing one of the many rum-based concoctions and watching the hullabaloo along the strip, a sight more engaging than watching John Candy.
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Burchell Memorial Baptist Church
Two blocks east of Sam Sharpe Sq, Burchell Memorial Baptist Church is a brick structure dating to 1835. Sam Sharpe was a deacon here. The original church was founded in 1824 by Rev Thomas Burchell. An angry mob destroyed the church in reprisal for Burchell’s support of the emancipation cause, but the missionary escaped to sea. Sam Sharpe’s remains are buried in the vault.
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Canopy Tour
2 hours (Departs Montego Bay or Negril, Jamaica)
by Viator
Swing through the trees with the greatest of ease on this adrenaline-charged Jamaica zipline tour! Ride a zipline in Jamaica - soar from one platform to the nex…Not LP reviewed
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Town House by the Sea
This elegant dining room overlooking the beach takes food seriously, so come seriously hungry. If you’ve been craving snails – and who hasn’t? – you’ll find escargot with a Jamaican twist. Equally rich is the stuffed lobster, red snapper or the filet mignon. If you’re merely peckish, choose from the pasta, curry and Jamaican dishes. The smoked marlin is one of the best on the island.
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Aquasol Theme Park
An attraction for both locals and tourists alike, Walter Fletcher Beach is a long sliver of white sand down at the south end of Gloucester Ave, and the venue for the Aquasol Theme Park, which offers netball, volleyball, tennis courts, water sports, the MoBay 500 go-cart track and Voyage Sports Bar & Grill. You can rent lockers, beach mats, chairs and umbrellas.
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Mobay Proper
Attracting a young local crowd, this exuberant bar serves libations on the terrace and has decent Jamaican cooking. Beneath a ‘chandelier’ of Heineken bottles, the pool table generates considerable heat, while dominoes are the rage with an older crowd out on the patio. On Friday night there’s a fish fry and vintage reggae, and live jazz rings in each new month on the first Sunday.
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Barnett Estate
The sea of sugarcane south of Montego Bay is part of the Barnett Estate, a plantation owned and operated since 1755 by the Kerr-Jarretts, one of Jamaica’s preeminent families; their holdings once included most of the Montego Bay area. Today the family (now in its 11th generation) holds the land in trust for the government and manages it accordingly.
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Maroon Attraction Tours
Maroon Attraction Tours runs a cultural, educational and historic tour to Maroon Town. This excellent educational excursion, which includes breakfast and lunch, takes visitors to historical sites, into private homes and to a local school. The intricacies of community, history and folklore are engagingly presented by an authoritative guide.
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Marguerite’s
Adjoining Margaritaville, this celebrated restaurant provides a lovely setting from which to watch the sunset while drinking cocktails, followed by dinner on the elegant clifftop patio. The pricey menu edges toward nouvelle Jamaican and fresh seafood, but also includes sirloin steak and inventive pasta dishes. The chef displays his culinary chops at a central flambé grill.
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Pelican
Don’t be mistaken by the roadside diner appearance of this good-value local favorite. Its menu of Jamaican dishes is outstanding, highlighted by red snapper in parchment paper, cooked in wine and béchamel sauce. Other dishes include stew peas with rice and stuffed conch with rice and peas, but the Pelican also serves sirloin steaks and seafood. Sunday buffet is US$12.
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Dunns River Falls and Ocho Rios Shopping Tour
Varies (Departs Montego Bay, Jamaica)
by Viator
A shopper's paradise and home to the world famous Dunns River Falls, Ocho Rios has become one of the most energetic cities in Jamaica. Leisurely browse through …
Not LP reviewed
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Rhapsody Cruises
Rhapsody Cruises offers a ‘wet ‘n’ wild cruise party’ aboard Day Dreamer and Tropical Dreamer, two swift catamarans specially designed as party boats, with an open bar and a snorkeling stop in the marine park. Cruises depart from Doctor’s Cave Beach Club. A bus will pick you up at your hotel.
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Jungle River Tubing Safari
2 hours 30 minutes (Departs Montego Bay or Negril, Jamaica)
by Viator
Combine water, adrenaline and lounging in the tropical sun on the tour that has it all! Go Inner tubing in a Jamaican river! Start your Jamaican inner tube adve…Not LP reviewed
