Shopping in Jamaica
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Harmony Hall
Six kilometers east of town, Harmony Hall has the best quality art. It’s renowned for its Christmas, Easter and mid-November craft fairs, and regular exhibitions.
reviewed
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Jamaica Agricultural Society Shop
This organization has been championing the cause of the small farmer in Jamaica since 1895. Here you can buy local honey, spices and Blue Mountain coffee at a fair price.
reviewed
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Taj Mahal
Soni Plaza and Ocean Village Plaza, both on Main St, host duty-free stores, including Taj Mahal, which offers a vast array of watches and jewelry.
reviewed
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Sovereign Centre
A large shopping center with whole floor dedicated to fast-food outlets.
reviewed
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Coronation Market
In the exhilarating pandemonium of Coronation Market, shoppers come face to face with the dynamic – and sometimes daunting – aspects of life in downtown Kingston. Stall after stall is stocked with every manner of bric-a-brac, from handmade tools to sound-system speakers. In negotiating with the vendors you’ll need to penetrate their artful patois. Coronation Market’s proximity to the unpredictable Tivoli Gardens district means that you’ll need to choose your friends carefully; many visitors feel more comfortable arriving with a local companion who knows the territory. Don’t go wandering any further west downtown without a guide who’s respected locally. Leave…
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E
Coconut Grove Shopping Village
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
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Dunn’s River Craft Park
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
reviewed
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Pineapple Place
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
reviewed
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Wassi Art
Family-owned Wassi Art employs over fifty artists to make its colorful, richly decorated terra-cotta pottery. It is named for the ‘wassi’ wasp, or potter wasp, which makes a mud pot for each of her eggs and stuffs it with a caterpillar for food for her hatchlings. Free tours are offered, detailing the entire process including painting and firing. A store sells work (US$5 to US$5000). The owners will ship.
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craft shop
Local craftsmen still make goombay drums here. These - along with an array of medicinal herbs, calabashes and abeng horns - are for sale in the tiny red-and-green-painted craft shop as you enter town. The hand-carved goombay drum is box-shaped and covered with goatskin, and makes a wonderfully deep and resonant racket.
reviewed
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Sundial
A colorful store that strives to bring you ‘natural and traditional healing remedies from the laboratory of the Most High for what might be ailing you.’ On the shelves you’ll find booklets, videos and tonics produced from old Maroon recipes with ingredients including African eyebright, woodroot, manback and koromantee.
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R Stewart
In Drapers you’ll find the roadside gallery of renowned self-taught artist R Stewart, who more than likely will be working on his latest canvas at the edge of the road. His whimsical, masterful depictions of Jamaican life regularly inspire impulse buys from passersby.
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Crafts Market
The sedate, waterfront Crafts Market resides in an old iron building where you’ll find dozens of stalls selling wickerwork, carvings, batiks, straw hats and other crafts – at prices somewhat lower than elsewhere on the island.
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Art Beat
On the main square in Walkerswood, facing the post office, is the craft shop Art Beat, owned by Nancy Burke, alias Inanci. She sells jewelry, carnival and duppy (ghost) masks, painted rocks, and other intriguing creations.
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Gallery of West Indian Art
In the suburb of Catherine Hall, this is a quality gallery that sells arts and crafts from around the Caribbean including Cuban canvases, hand-painted wooden animals, masks and handmade jewelry. Most of the work here is for sale.
reviewed
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Jubilee Market
The covered Jubilee Market, which verges on the western end of the Parade, was named in honor of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. It's an extremely lively market where seemingly everything's for sale. Be very wary of pickpockets.
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Rutland Point Craft Centre
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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A Fi Wi Plaza
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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Negril Crafts Market
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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Lioness
A small shop that sells clothing, drumming CDs, crafts and art. It’s run by Sister P, a woman regarded by many to be the heart and soul of the community. Sister P also organizes the Fi Wi Sinting festival.
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Swa Craft Centre
Behind the Manchester Shopping Plaza, this place trains young women to make a living from crochet, embroidery, weaving and so on. Its most appealing item is the famous ‘banana patch’ Rastafarian doll.
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Gallery Carriacou
Gallery Carriacou boasts a fabulous array of paintings, ceramics, sculptures and other quality works of fine art by local artists. It also hosts workshops and cultural events.
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Patoo
You’ll find local treasures (Tortuga puddings laced with rum, Busha Brown sauces, potpourri baskets, ceramic tableware, decorative ornaments and batik sarongs) at Patoo to tempt you.
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Philip Henry’s Art Bus
You might call in at Philip Henry’s Art Bus, roadside at Turtle Crawle Bay, to check out his array of woodcarving and assorted crafts.
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Portland Art Gallery
A simple gallery and studio staffed by Hopeton Cargill, a Port Antonio realist painter. He’s delighted to act as an ambassador for the local art scene.
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