Sights in Northern Jamaica
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Dunn's River Falls
Widely held to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world, these famous falls, on the A3, 3km west of town, are Jamaica’s top-grossing tourist attraction. As long as you’re not expecting a peaceful communion with nature, a morning here can be an enjoyable and invigorating experience. Join hands in a daisy chain at the bottom and clamber up the tiers of limestone that stairstep 180m down to the beach in a series of cascades and pools. The water is refreshingly cool and the falls are shaded by a tall rain forest and a number of magnificent tree specimens. Today, the place seems more like a man-made theme park than a natural wonder. The St Ann Development Company s…
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Puerto Seco Beach
The eastern side of the bay is rimmed with white-sand beaches. With its soft sand and limpid waters, Puerto Seco Beach, in the center of town, is a real charmer. Open to the public, it sports rustic eateries and bars and a fun park with a waterslide for kids not interested in sun-tanning. On weekends and holidays the beach is teeming, but during the week the place is often deserted. You can rent fishing boats, sea bikes and jet skis.
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Turtle River Park
Near Island Village on Main St, this welcome new green space in the middle of downtown represents a positive new trend in Jamaica’s approach to urban development. The lushly gardened park with manicured lawns also provides a zone free from the hustle of the main drag.
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Turtle Beach
The main beach of Ocho Rios is the long crescent of Turtle Beach, stretching east from the Turtle Towers condominiums to the Renaissance Jamaica Grande Resort. There are changing rooms, and palms for shade.
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Island Village Beach
Island Village Beach, located at the west end of Main St, is a peaceful, small beach that offers lockers (US$5), towels (US$5) and beach chairs and umbrellas (US$5 apiece).
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Cove
This popular cove, adjacent to Dunn’s River Falls along the A3, allows you to swim with bottlenose dolphins. Three dolphin packages are offered, notably ‘Swim with Dolphins, ’ which grants you 30 minutes in the dolphin lagoon. Professional trainers direct the sociable dolphins, who display an almost goofy desire to please. For the most expensive experience, the thrill-seeker grabs the dorsal fins of two dolphins and is lifted from the water. Even more adventurous visitors can touch and feed sharks – under the Cove’s watchful supervision. And if direct contact doesn’t appeal, basic admission includes an aquarium and pools with tropical fish, sharks, stingrays and eels, as …
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Island Village
Since its 2002 opening, this self-contained entertainment park, at the junction of Main St and DaCosta Dr, has changed the face of Ocho Rios. The 2-hectare development, brainchild of resort and media visionary Chris Blackwell, claims to resemble a ‘Jamaican coastal village.’ It doesn’t. Quibbles aside, you will find a peaceful beach, upscale craft shops, a cinema, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and Blue Runnings (both with bars and restaurants), a video-casino, Reggae Xplosion and a village green and amphitheater for live performances. The fences around the place reveal that this is not a public space, but rather a kind of daycare center for skittish, newly arrived cruise…
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Island Village Entertainment Park
Since its 2002 opening, Island Village Entertainment Park, at the junction of Main St and DaCosta Dr, has changed the face of Ocho Rios. The 2-hectare development, brainchild of resort and media visionary Chris Blackwell, claims to resemble a 'Jamaican coastal village.' It doesn't.
Quibbles aside, you will find a peaceful beach, upscale craft shops, a cinema, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and Blue Runnings (both with bars and restaurants), a video-casino, Reggae Xplosion and a village green and amphitheater for live performances. The fences around the place reveal that this is not a public space, but rather a kind of daycare center for skittish, newly arrived cruise-ship…
reviewed
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World Beach
A curlicue spit, Bear Cay, hooks around the north side of the bay. World Beach, the lonesome 3km-long white-sand beach on the north side, has long been appreciated by savvy travelers for its good snorkeling, sunbathing and solitude. At the time of research, 75% of Bear Cay remained undeveloped. Hawksbill sea turtles - an endangered species - are regularly sighted coming to shore to lay eggs in the deep, soft sand.
The gorgeous beach lined with casuarina pines is an unheralded Jamaican treasure that ought to qualify for protected status. But change is coming fast. Construction is set to begin on a 1700-room resort, and few here are speculating on the fate of the turtles.
Yo…
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Green Grotto Caves
This impressive system of caves and tunnels, 3km east of Discovery Bay, extends for about 16km. The steps lead down into the impressive chambers, where statuesque dripstone formations are illuminated by floodlights. Pre-Columbian Arawaks left their artwork on the walls. Much later, the caves were used as a hideout by the Spanish during the English takeover of the island in 1655. Runaway slaves in the 18th century also took refuge here, and between the two world wars, the caves were used by smugglers running arms to Cuba. The highlight is Green Grotto, a glistening subterranean lake 36m down. The entrance fee includes fruit punch and a guided one-hour tour. Your guide will…
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Winnifred Beach
Thirteen kilometers east of Port Antonio, Fairy Hill is a small clifftop hamlet. A dirt road from here leads steeply downhill to Winnifred Beach - up until recently a great place to hang with 'real' Jamaicans.
At last visit, the vendors who had long done brisk business at Winnifred Beach had been evicted by the UDC and fence posts had been set up around the property. The UDC reportedly intends to develop the beach as an eco-attraction, but many local residents who have always enjoyed free access are wary of the plan. In February 2008 the government agreed to hear the lawsuit between local activists fighting to keep it accessible to local community, but at the time of writ…
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Navy Island
This lushly vegetated 25-hectare Navy Island is popular with local day-trippers on weekends…or it was when the ferries ran. In colonial days the British Navy used it to careen ships for repair and it built a small battery, plus jetties and warehouses. Nothing remains of the navy's presence. In the mid-20th century Errol Flynn bought the island. His former home became a hotel, which later fell into decay.
In early 2002 the Port Authority and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) jointly took over the island with a view to developing the jaded property as an upscale resort and ecological theme-park.
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Reggae Xplosion Museum
This impressive museum provides an excellent presentation of the grand lineage of Jamaican music, from ancient African drumming to the futuristic digital rhythms of dancehall. The self-billed ‘interactive reggae experience’ is divided into mento, ska, reggae, dancehall and other sections, including one commemorating Bob Marley. It features posters, photographs and videos. Headphones let you listen to sounds of each era. There’s even a makeshift artists’ recording studio with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s original sound-gear. The entrance fee includes a guided tour.
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Prospect Plantation
If you’ve been wondering why St Ann is called ‘the garden parish, ’ you’ll find your answer at this beautiful old hilltop great house and 405-hectare working plantation, 5km east of town. On a pleasant, educational tour you’ll travel by tractor-powered jitney through scenic grounds among banana, cassava, cocoa, coconut, coffee, pineapple and pimento. Three horseback tours are also offered (US$58) through a gorgeous working plantation with excellent views of the sea and countryside. For US$89, you can take the tour on a camel.
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Folly
Thes two-story, 60-room mansion known as the Folly on the peninsula east of East Harbour was built entirely of concrete in pseudo-Grecian style by a North American millionaire. It was in private use until 1936, when the roof collapsed. Sea water had been used in the construction, causing the iron reinforcing rods to rust. Today the shell of the structure remains, held aloft by limestone columns.
It makes a perfectly peculiar locale for a picnic. Nearby stands the bright-orange Folly Point Lighthouse, built in 1888.
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Columbus Park
This open-air roadside museum sits atop the bluff on the west side of Discovery Bay. Highlighted by a mural depicting Columbus’s arrival in Jamaica, the eclectic museum features such memorabilia as anchors, cannons, nautical bells, sugar-boiling coppers and an old waterwheel in working condition that creaks and clanks as it turns. There’s also a diminutive locomotive formerly used to haul sugar at Innswood Estate.
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Trident Castle
Just 3km east of Port Antonio the road circles around the deep Turtle Crawle Bay. Squatting atop the western headland is a magnificent gleaming-white castle built in the 1980s by Baroness Elisabeth Siglindy Stephan von Stephanie Thyssen. This is Trident Castle, part of the Trident Hotel & Villas resort. The architect, Earl Levy, eventually took over the property after a tiff with the Baroness. At the time of writing the castle was for sale.
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Coyaba Museum
Coyaba is an Arawak word for ‘heaven’ or ‘paradise.’ The Coyaba Museum traces Jamaica’s heritage from early Arawak days to independence. There’s a gift store, vegetarian restaurant, waterfall and art gallery. Coyaba is just shy of 2km west of St John’s Church (on the A3), not far from Shaw Park Gardens; follow the signs. Admission includes a 30-minute guided tour.
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Martha Brae River
A rafting trip down a 4.8km stretch of the Martha Brae River is a quiet thrill. The journey takes 90 minutes on 9m-long bamboo rafts, each carrying one or two passengers, poled by a skilled guide. The upper reaches tumble at a good pace before slowing further downriver, where you stop at 'Tarzan's Corner' for a swing and swim in a calm pool. At the end, after being plied with rum punch, you'll be driven back to your car or tour bus.
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Shaw Park Gardens
The Shaw Park Gardens is a tropical fantasia of ferns and bromeliads, palms and exotic shrubs, spread out over 11 hectares centered on an 18th-century great house. Trails and wooden steps lead past waterfalls that tumble in terraces down the hillside. A viewing platform offers a bird’s-eye vantage over Ocho Rios. There’s a bar and restaurant. The gardens are signed from opposite the public library on the A3.
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Frenchman's Cove
This small cove, just east of Drapers, 8km from Port Antonio, boasts one of the prettiest beaches for miles. A stream winds lazily to a white-sand beach that shelves steeply into the water. Bring insect repellent. There's a snack bar serving jerk chicken and fish, alfrescoshowers, bathrooms and a secure parking lot.
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Christ Church
Following William St south to Harbour St, you can turn left to peek inside Christ Church, a red-brick Anglican building built in neo-Romanesque style around 1840 (much of the structure dates from 1903). The singular item of note is the brass lectern donated by Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker.
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Enchanted Gardens
The 8-hectare Enchanted Gardens are an Edenlike setting featuring a lush landscaped park with 14 waterfalls, huge pools, a fruit orchard and separate fern, spice, cactus and lily gardens. It also has a walk-in aviary. Guided tours are offered.
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Cocktail Beach
At the Blue Lagoon you'll also encounter boat operators eager to take you on a short boat ride to nearby Cocktail Beach (where parts of the Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail was filmed) and lovely, undeveloped Monkey Island, a short distance away.
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San San Beach
A private beach used by residents of the villas on Alligator Head, and by guests of Goblin Hill, Fern Hill and Jamaica Palace hotels. Passersby, however, can gain access. It has a bar and restaurant, snorkeling equipment and kayaks.
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