This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
In Jamaica’s coffee-growing Blue Mountains, rooms come with burlap pouches of fresh grounds to brew amid the morning mist. Remote Port Antonio is all about the sleepy rhythm — as slow as a raft punted down the Rio Grande. Hotels around the waterfalls and white sands of Ocho Rios try to outdo one another at the barbecue. And around the west coast in Negril, evenings are spent watching the sunset, whether you’re on Seven Mile Beach or the rocky cliffs around Rick’s Cafe. What they all have in common is year-round sunshine — and a culture that radiates warmth in spirit and song.
Best for: views
In 1780, the British royal family gifted this patch of mountain plateau to the Walpole family, descendants of the prime minister, kicking off a chain of illustrious English families coming here to winter. The current owner, Jamaica’s Island Records impresario Chris Blackwell, purchased the land in 1974 and built 13 clapboard cabins with views over twinkling Kingston, their fanciful fretwork and handsome verandahs mingling with almond trees. They’re charmingly modest, like stately homes that have let themselves go just a bit — and so traditional, Blackwell even debated whether it would be right to add the infinity pool it now has. The mahogany bar and dining room overlook the spectacular mountains in the other direction to Kingston. On Sunday mornings, distant church bells peal across the valley as you sip Blue Mountain coffee from the nearby estates. Rooms: From US$370 (£287).
Overlooking the coffee-growing Blue mountains, Strawberry Hill’s restaurant boasts an idyllic breakfast setting.
Photograph by Strawberry Hill (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Strawberry Hill (Bottom) (Right)
Best for: waterfront living
Yes, Ian Fleming was here first. He wrote all 14 Bond novels in the original ocean-front villa and based the character of Pussy Galore on Jamaican heiress Blanche Blackwell. In the 1970s, Blanche’s son Chris bought the north-coast property and began a slow expansion around Oracabessa Bay, inviting friends, then travellers, to partake in the temperate waters. The most popular cabins hover over the turquoise lagoon and come with outdoor showers and their own dedicated kayaks. New, colourfully painted beach villas sit on stilts around a pristine stretch of sand. Water is the focus, whether you’re learning to snorkel, sipping sundowners at the pool bar or paddleboarding further out to sea. All activities are analogue: no motorboats allowed. Rooms: From US$400 (£311).
Best for: foodies
Once you’ve made it to this south-coast hideaway on the jungle B road, you won’t want to leave — particularly once you’re plied with pink gin cocktails and shellfish plucked from Frenchman’s Bay. Jakes’ restaurant overlooking Treasure Beach champions a menu that might include its legendary jerk crab and leafy callaloo harvested at local farms. The bounty from the surrounding valleys is as colourful as Jakes’ psychedelically styled cabins, built among the mangroves. Choose from oceanfront bungalows, cottages, villas and simple wood-shuttered hotel rooms, some with private plunge pools, sleeping from two to 10 people. Gourmet-minded guests can also sign up for jerk cooking classes or the monthly full-moon farm-to-table feasts. Rooms: From US$150 (£117).
Best for: beach-lovers
Even competing hoteliers admit Jamaica Inn sits on the finest stretch of sand in Ocho Rios, and perhaps in all of Jamaica. A 700ft crescent bookended by rocky outcrops that block out the neighbours, the beach is so vast that you won’t even hear the guest on the nearest sunlounger — regardless of whether the 55-room hotel is at full occupancy or not. Pivoted to the northwest, it stays sunny until at least 6pm, at which time the red jacket-wearing bartenders from the 1950s bar start taking gin orders. It was here that Ian Fleming and Noël Coward agreed the most refreshing martinis were well-shaken with ice, not stirred. Come evening, the band strikes up on the deep lawn and the entire shore becomes one big festival. Rooms: From US$430 (£334).
Jamaica Inn sits on one of the island’s finest beaches in Ocho Rios.
Photograph by Nigel Lord
Best for: boho style
Little has changed in Negril since barefoot boho types were jumping off its volcanic cliffs in the 1960s, and reaching the water still requires a leap or a tiptoe down the stepped rock face. Rockhouse’s top attraction is its thatch-roof huts on the edge of those cliffs, with four-poster beds and outdoor showers. You can also stay by the pool in a green-painted studio or a new ocean-view suite for four. Yoga, candle-making and relaxation sessions make it feel like a summer camp for adults. Visit the dining hall for seafood salads and two-for-one rum cocktails at happy hour, then head to Pushcart for barbecue and beats. Rooms: From US$95 (£73).
Best for: family fun
Bringing a slice of Miami Beach to Negril, Skylark is a low-rise in white stucco, decorated with kidney-shaped tables and vintage travel posters. Long and deep, it’s obscured by thick palms ending at a private beach. Turquoise doors to the guest rooms are portals to the past: four-posters have side tables with Sputnik legs and Bakelite lamps, pink walls have psychedelic blaxploitation posters and there are no TVs. You pay by the room rather than guest, so an extra daybed for a third child comes free. In-house cafe Miss Lily’s is the hottest spot for fried chicken and coconut cake. Rooms: From US$170 (£131).
Best for: five-star luxury
The 27 plantation-style villas on this former sugarcane estate near Montego Bay hosted Noël Coward, a Borghese prince and John F Kennedy before the buildings were transformed into a hotel. Furnished in whites by Ralph Lauren, the two- to six-bed villas have staffed kitchens, private pools and cotton-canvas walls that are rolled up each morning to reveal ocean views. Golf carts ferry guests downhill for afternoon tea in the mahogany bar. Down by the bay and public pool are 36 hotel rooms with shuttered picture windows. Rooms: From U$650 (£503).
Located upon a former sugarcane estate, each of the 27 villas at Round Hill emanate a plantation-style feel.
Photograph by Round Hill Hotel & Villas
Best for: digital detox
There are no screens in this jungle idyll outside Port Antonio, nor wi-fi in the eight treetop cabins. You wake in your hand-carved four-poster to warblers in the 100ft banyan trees outside, then inhale the scent of cedar and wild lilies in the waterfall shower. The hotel’s Living Room restaurant, serving Blue Mountain for your morning coffee, is cantilievered over the hillside. You won’t find a menu here: dishes depend on the catch of the day and what’s been harvested. But you do have the option of ordering dinner to a private table at the Blue Lagoon, where you can jump into the water between courses. Rooms: From US$400 (£311).
Best for: creatives
Some of the best places in Jamaica are hard to reach — and Geejam, up a sheer cliffside from Port Antonio, is one of them. Guests have to travel over the Blue Mountains and into the treetops to get to this 19-room retreat, built cabin by cabin by two veteran music execs over 16 years. Private terraces jut into the jungle, a haven for tree frogs and rather vocal birds, and many overlook the tree canopy to the sea beyond. The hotel’s social life plays out around the music-filled Bush Bar and the new beachfront restaurant down the hillside. There’s often an artist of some stripe passing through. Back in the early days, Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys recorded in the treehouse studio. Beyoncé has stayed while filming a video on the property, and Banksy added to the vast art collection when he left three tags on one of the hotel’s walls. Rooms: From US$474 (£368).
Private terraces jut out into the jungle at Geejam Hotel, a sanctuary positioned among the treetops.
Photograph by Geejam Hotel (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Geejam Hotel (Bottom) (Right)
Best for: self-catering
An arty couple from America came across this Ocho Rios cove decades ago and have gradually transformed it into a fairytale village using hand-carved wood and stone. There are 13 multilevel villas in all, including nine tall, flamboyantly painted Victorian-style cottages and a thatch-roof treehouse that wouldn’t look out of place in The Lord of the Rings. Most villas have their own private pool and all have a full-sized kitchen that can be stocked on request before arrival. There’s also a casual restaurant and beach bar for weekly barbecues, if cooking doesn’t appeal. Free kayaking, a cascading saltwater pool and a roaming masseuse are nice touches, too. Rooms: US$560 (£436), B&B.
This story was created with the support of Visit Jamaica.
Published in the October 2024 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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Publish date : 2024-10-12 01:06:00
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