Company: kst travel

Courtesy Of: Sue Kraft Company: KST Travel Phone: 678.559.8596 E-Mail: Sue.Kraft@KSTTravel.com

Overview

The waterfront is lined with white-sand beaches, hotels and elegant resorts. Its main attractions include championship golf courses, excellent beaches, the Montego Bay Marine Park, and some classic Georgian architecture downtown. Gloucester Avenue, known locally as the Hip Strip, parallels the shore and is the commercial tourist hub.

Because it's a much larger city than Jamaica's other tourist areas, Montego Bay offers more in the way of sightseeing, shopping and nightlife.

Must See or Do

Sights—Snorkeling and diving at Montego Bay Marine Park; Doctor's Cave Beach, with its fine vistas across the bay.

Museums—Rose Hall Great House, recalling the historic significance of the plantation-slave era; Croydon Plantation, granting a latter-day perspective on the workings of a modern sugar plantation.

Memorable Meals—Hearty Jamaican fare at the historic Town House By the Sea; nouvelle cuisine at the Houseboat Grill International Restaurant; mouth-searing jerk chicken, pork or fish at Scotchies.

Late Night—Nonstop partying on the Hip Strip; letting your hair down at Margaritaville; the Monday-night street party on Gloucester Avenue; jazz and drinks at Blue Beat on the Hip Strip.

Walks—The historic downtown, with its colorful, bustling life, Sam Sharpe Square, St. James Parish Church and the craft market.

Especially for Kids—Go-karts and safe swimming at AquaSol Theme Park; exploring the undersea world aboard a semisubmarine with bubble-dome windows.

Geography

The largest town on the north coast, Montego Bay occupies a broad valley and the slopes of the surrounding Bogue, Kempshot and Salem hills. The beaches line the east side of the bay, north of downtown.

Residents tend to live downtown, south of the square and in the hills. Hotels, tourist-oriented businesses and vendors are concentrated to the north along Gloucester Avenue—the main tourist strip. The main all-inclusive resorts line the sandy shore and extend for several miles/kilometers east of the airport, which is northeast of town.

Highway A1 (the North Coast Highway) is the main thoroughfare. Upgrades to the road have reduced the drive time from Montego Bay to the other major cities.

Christopher Columbus named the bay Golfo de Buen Tiempo, or Gulf of Fair Weather. Montego's modern name comes from the Spanish Bahia de Manteca, or Bay of Pigs' Lard, after the large quantity of lard exported by the Spanish. (It came from the wild boars that lived in the hills around the bay.) The Spanish also planted sugarcane, importing slaves from Africa to work the plantations. After the British drove the Spanish out in 1655, they continued the plantation tradition. The town grew with warehouses and lavish homes sprouting up along the waterfront.

Around Christmas 1831, slave and part-time preacher Sam Sharpe convinced other slaves to stage a nonviolent strike. The rebellion turned violent, however, and it was brutally suppressed by British troops. Sharpe and several other slaves were hanged in Montego Bay. The square where the gallows stood is now named for Sharpe (a statue there honors him as a national hero).

Early seeds of tourism were sown in Montego Bay when wealthy plantation owners took their families to Doctor's Cave Beach, where the mineral springs were thought to have curative powers. By 1908, the Montego Bay Citizens' Association was promoting the city as "the most beautiful spot in Jamaica." Although hotels emerged, tourism remained limited until the advent of commercial jet aviation. Ensuing decades witnessed construction of top-class hotels in the hills, and all-inclusive resorts were built in the 1980s. Cruise traffic has been given a boost by enhancements to the harbor, and a new convention center is located just east of the city.

As many as four cruise ships can dock at the pier in Montego Bay's Freeport zone, about 3 mi/5 km west of downtown. The city spreads east and north around the harbor from the Freeport zone past the town center and the tourist district. There's a tourist-information booth in the cruise-ship terminal, a telecommunications center (phone, Internet and fax services), a refreshment stand and many duty-free shops.

When you get off your ship you'll walk into a fenced, secure area that's off-limits to vendors and unlicensed taxis. There's plenty of licensed transportation available. A taxi ride to the city center will cost about US$5. We advise against walking from the terminal to town: It's a hot, shadeless 3-mi/5-km hike. There is no bus service between the pier and town.

Another option is to take one of the JCAL (Jamaica Cooperative Automobile & Limousine Tours; phone 876-971-8063) or JUTA shuttles (phone 876-952-0813) that run from the pier. They charge about US$5 to the city center. If you specify a time that you want to return to the pier, the driver will return for you.

The Jamaica Tourist Board office has moved from its previous location on Gloucester Avenue to the Jamaican Tourism Centre, 18 Queens Drive. It is open Monday-Friday 8:30 am-4:30 pm and Saturday 9 am-1 pm. Phone 876-952-4425.

The Tourism Product Development Co. (TPDCO) licenses attractions (Jamaica has 150 licensed attractions, more than any other Caribbean island). It is located in the Jamaican Tourism Centre and is open Monday-Thursday 8:30 am-5 pm and Friday 8:30 am-4 pm. Phone 876-979-7987. http://www.tpdco.org.

Consider signing up for the excursions offered by your ship. They may not be the least expensive way to see the island, but you won't have to waste your limited time making arrangements yourself—and you won't have to worry about missing the ship.

Typical excursions out of Montego Bay are tours of historic houses and plantations, a round of golf, overland treks by bus or on horseback, and forays to explore underwater mysteries in a semisubmersible boat or through a snorkeling mask.

Shore excursions—and their prices—vary from cruise line to cruise line. Check with your ship's shore-excursion staff or your travel agent for additional information.

The expanse of land from the Hip Strip to the Parish Library was once part of the shore, and all development there is fairly recent, within the past 30-50 years.

Doctor's Cave Beach does not have a cave. It was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1800s.

The Morant Point Lighthouse—an unmistakable red-and-white, 100-ft/31-m tall, 18-ft/5.6-km wide cast-iron tower—was built in 1841 and is the oldest lighthouse in Jamaica.

The Burchell Baptist Church was a haven for freed slaves and was where Sam Sharpe, one of seven national heroes, instigated the rebellion that led to the 1834 Abolition Bill.

The Montego Freeport was originally a group of keys to the west of Montego Bay. The harbor was dredged and the land built up to facilitate this development.

The tiny cemetery at the end of the Hip Strip is the little-known Jewish cemetery, with gravestones dating back hundreds of years. The cemetery was declared a national monument in 1993.

Montego Bay is a golfer's nirvana with several championship courses within a 10-minute drive of one another.

You can easily explore downtown Montego Bay on foot if you have tolerance for vendors (keep your sense of humor). The town is almost always crowded with local shoppers and noisy with the sounds of reggae music wafting from the clubs and from car radios. Much of MoBay consists of modern structures built on land reclaimed from mangrove keys in the 1960s, but there are many fine historic buildings of note concentrated around Sam Sharpe Square.

Several elegantly restored homes from the 1700s now contain restaurants. One example is the Georgian House on Orange Street, which also has an art gallery.

Northeast of downtown are the meager ruins of Fort Montego, built in 1752 on a hill overlooking the harbor. Three of the fort's 17 original cannons are still pointed out to sea.

Montego Bay is all about the water. Visitors flock to the lovely beaches to indulge in sailboarding, fishing, snorkeling and glass-bottomed-boat tours. Even horseback rides on the beach can be arranged, and local golf courses sport a few holes with great views of the bay. If you want a more relaxing day on the water, you can take a raft ride down the Martha Brae River in nearby Falmouth.

Montego Bay is bordered by lovely white-sand beaches, most of which offer changing facilities and a variety of watersports. Cornwall Beach

The sea is rough outside the protected bays and coves, so no one rents powerboats or large sailboats. For fun in the bay, try a small Sunfish, available for rent at all major beaches (US$30 per hour).

Party cruises are offered by several boat operators. Because the lineup of companies is subject to change, contact the Jamaica Tourist Board for current information on tour operators and trips. Phone 876-952-4425.

If you want to observe marine life, book a glass-bottomed-boat tour from any of the main beaches and sail out to the airport reefs for around US$30 per half-hour. If you are feeling adventurous, try a trip in a semisubmersible vessel that takes you 10 ft/6.5 m underwater.

In Falmouth, about 25 mi/40 km east of Montego Bay, you can go rafting on the Martha Brae River. It's a relaxing way to experience the tropical rain forest. (Wear clothes that can take a good soaking.) Open 9 am-5 pm. Two per raft US$55. Trip lasts one and a half hours. Contact River Raft Limited at 876-952-0889. Another option is Mountain Valley Rafting, west of Montego Bay, which takes you on a ride down the tranquil Great River, stopping for a swim whenever you like. Open 8:30 am-4:30 pm. Two per raft US$45. Trip lasts one hour. Phone 876-956-4920. Calico Sailing & Undersea Tours
This company is a popular choice for an outing. The pirate ships Calico A and Calico B are wooden, gaff-rigged, semisubmersible schooners. Daily except Wednesday. Day sail US$60 10 am-1 pm. Sunset sail US$40 5-7 pm. Tours sail from Pier 1, Montego Bay. Phone 876-952-5860. http://www.calicojamaica.net.