Tourism is one of Jamaica’s leading industries. More than three million visitors visit our shores each year.

Montego Bay

The name "Montego Bay" is believed to have originated as a corruption of the Spanish word manteca ("lard"), allegedly because during the Spanish period it was the port where lard, leather, and beef were exported. Jamaica was a colony of Spain from 1511 until 1655 when Oliver Cromwell's Caribbean expedition, the Western Design, drove the Spanish from the island. Christopher Columbus, when he first visited the island in 1494, named the bay Golfo de Buen Tiempo ('Fair Weather Gulf')
During the epoch of slavery, from the mid-17th century until 1834, and well into the 20th century, the town functioned primarily as a sugar port. The island's last major slave revolt, the Christmas Rebellion or Baptist War (1831–1832) took place in the area around Montego Bay; the leader of the revolt, Samuel Sharpe, was hanged there in 1832. In 1975, Sharpe was proclaimed a national hero of Jamaica, and the main square of the town was renamed in his honour.
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Negril & Vicinity

The name "Negril" is a shortened version of "Negrillo," as it was originally named by the Spanish in 1494. The name is thought to be a reference to the black cliffs south of the village.[citation needed] Although Negril has a long history, it did not become well known until the second half of the twentieth century.[1] Negril's development as a resort location began during the late 1950s, though access to the area proved difficult as ferries were required to drop off passengers in Negril Bay, forcing them to wade to shore. Most vacationers would rent rooms inside the homes of Jamaican families, or would pitch tents in their yards. The area's welcoming and hospitable reputation grew over time and the first of many resorts were constructed in the mid to late 1960s.

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St. Elizabeth- The Southwest Coast

Saint Elizabeth originally included most of the south-west part of the island, but in 1703 Westmoreland was taken from it and in 1814 a part of Manchester. The resulting areas were named after the wife of Sir Thomas Modyford, the first English Governor of Jamaica.

There are also traces of Taínos/Arawaks existence in the parish, as well as Spanish settlements. After 1655, when the English settled on the island, they concentrated on planting sugar cane. Today, buildings with 'Spanish wall' (masonry of limestone sand and stone between wooden frames) can still be seen in some areas.

The parish is located latitude 18°15'N, and longitude 77°56'W; to the west of Manchester, the east of Westmoreland, and to the south of St. James and Trelawny. It covers an area of 1212.4 sq km, making it Jamaica's second largest parish, behind Saint Ann's 1212.6 sq km.

The northern and northeastern parts of the parish are mountainous. There are three mountain ranges —the Nassau Mountains to the north-east, the Lacovia Mountains to the west of the Nassau Mountains, and the Santa Cruz Mountains which, running south, divide the wide plain to end in a precipitous drop of 1600 feet at Lovers' Leap. The central and southern sections form an extensive plain divided by the Santa Cruz Mountains. A large part of the lowlands is covered by morass, but it still provides grazing land for horses and mules.

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Kingston & Vicinity

The capital and largest city of Jamaica. It is located on the southeastern coast of the island country. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. In the Western Hemisphere, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States, with a population of 651,880 (2001 census).

Two parts make up the central area of Kingston: the historic but troubled Downtown, and New Kingston. Several reggae stars, including Buju Banton, Sean Paul, Bounty Killer, and Beenie Man, hail from Kingston. Attractions include the nearby Hellshire and Lime Cay beaches, the National Gallery of Jamaica, the ruins of Port Royal, and Devon House, a mansion with adjoining park that once belonged to Jamaica's first black millionaire. Several annual and well-visited festivals are held in Kingston.

Kingston is served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller and primarily domestic Tinson Pen Aerodrome.

The Blue Mountains

Shrouded almost perpetually by mists that give Jamaica’s highest mountains their bluish color, the Blue Mountain range sprawls across the eastern portion of the island for a length of 28 miles and an average width of about 12 miles. They rise steeply in an area so compact that it is possible to drive from the coastal plains to an elevation of over 7,000 feet in less than an hour.

When Columbus discovered Jamaica in 1494, the mountains were heavily forested. Early Spanish settlers established their hatos or cattle ranches at the foot of the Blue Mountains on the southern coast at Liguanea, the Yallahs Valley and around the Morant Bay area. However, their numbers were few and it was after the island was captured by the English that the lower slopes were cleared for farming and the forests were harvested to meet the great demand in England for Jamaican hardwoods. Today, economic and population pressures have pushed the forest line to around 2000 ft. on the northern slopes and almost 5000 ft. on the southern slopes.

The 194,000 acre Blue Mountain and John Crow Mountain National Park was established in 1992 to preserve some of the remaining forests and to protect the island’s largest watershed. The park comprises about 6% of Jamaica’s total land mass. These diverse mountain forests have more than 800 species of endemic plants, the world’s second largest butterfly, Papilo homerus, 200 species of resident and migrant birds and is one of the largest migratory bird habitats in the Caribbean. There are also more than 500 species of flowering plants of which almost one half are native to Jamaica. Of these, the most interesting is perhaps the Jamaican bamboo, Chusquea abietifolia, that flowers only once every 33 years. The next flowering will take place in 2017.

From Kingston, two approaches via Irish Town and Guava Ridge converge at the town of Section where the road continues down to Bull Bay on the North Coast. This is the only road that traverses the Blue Mountains and is the main access to the region. All other roads follow the river valleys from the main road around the island to penetrate the lower slopes of the Blue Mountains including the Port Antonio - Bowden road that follows the Rio Grande between the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains.

It is this eastern face of the Blue Mountains that receives more than 300 inches of rain each year, providing water for almost one half of Jamaica’s population. Together with the John Crow Mountains, this area is Jamaica’s last remaining rainforest where many rare and exotic plants can be found as well as the world’s second largest butterfly. The land is particularly rugged and when the Spanish fled Jamaica, their freed slaves escaped to these mountains. The Winward Maroons, as they later became known, were led by Nanny, a legendary chieftainess who is said to have possessed magical powers. They harassed the English for decades before signing a treaty whereby they were allowed to live in relative autonomy.

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Port Antonio & The East Coast

The coast east of Port Antonio wins our beauty contest for one of the most beautiful shorelines in the Caribbean, and most definitely in Jamaica. There's a nostalgic aura to it, too, as if it yearns to return to the glamorous 1950s and 1960s when celebrities haunted its coves and villas much more often than they do today.

If some of the coast looks like a movie set, know that more films have been shot here than anywhere else in the Caribbean -- none of them really very good, however.

The northeastern coastline of Jamaica is sometimes called "Errol Flynn country" because the actor created a plantation along its shore. The A4 highway goes by the Errol Flynn Estates at Fair Prospect and Priestman's River. Flynn's aging, elegant widow, the film star of the 1950s, Patrice Wymore Flynn, still lives here on these 809 hectares (2,000 acres) of pastureland and coconut groves.

The first stopover is at: The Folly Great House -- Come here only if you don't have a lot to do that day, and expect to see a roofless structure with weeds growing up through the foundations. Perhaps it'll inspire you to write a Gothic novel. This house was built in 1905 by Arthur Mitchell, an American millionaire, for his wife Annie -- the daughter of Charles Tiffany (founder of the famous New York jewelry store). In one of the most outrageous frauds in the history of the Jamaican construction industry, seawater was used in the concrete mixtures of its foundations and in the mortar, and the house began to collapse only 11 years after the couple moved in. Because of the beautiful location, it's easy to see what a fine great house it must have been.

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Ocho Rios & Vicinity

Ocho Rios, located on the north central coast of Jamaica, is the favorite stop for cruise ships in the Caribbean. The town itself does not have much interest, but the area that surrounds Ocho Rios has plenty of attractions.On this virtual tour I will try to show you some of the most beautiful spots in the Ocho Rios area. Most cruise ships passengers only spend a few hours in Ocho Rios, here you will see what they miss!

The number of day trips in the area is almost endless, but there is one you should not miss: the visit to the Dunn's River Falls. Other attractions are the working plantations, the beaches, the Bob Marley mausoleum, the scuba diving sites, and, last but not least, some of the most exclusive resorts in the island.

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