Travel Eye on Montego Bay (Jamaica, Caribbean)

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Overview:

Montego Bay has drawn tourists to its sandy beaches for decades. Jamaica's second largest city and the capital of St James province, Mo'Bay, as its affectionately known, offers a vast array of hotels, from basic to ultra-luxurious, an international airport and a wealth of historical attractions. Montego Bay's main beach, Doctor's Cave Beach, is located immediately to the south of the town and is owned by Doctor's Cave Bathing Club. As you would expect, there are a range of watersports and bars on offer.

Montego Bay attracts a mixed, though mainly young, middlemarket couples and singles who enjoy the sea and water sports. There are some quiet, inexpensive properties in the hills behind the beach strip may suit families with children, while Round Hill, Tryall and Half Moon are definitely upmarket areas.

The accommodation here is mainly middle-of-the-road properties, with an assortment of larger, more expensive all-inclusive operations in the surrounding area. Accommodation in the more pleasant, wooded hilly area behind the town is generally a quieter alternative to that along the main road below and near the airport.

Cornwall Beach, a 100-yard wide white sand beach just behind St James Shopping Plaza, draws a trendy young crowd of jet-set tourists. A central focus is the Bird Watchers Bar, which is built around a massive oak tree. Nearby snack bars serve sandwiches, steamed fish fillets and fish and chips. If you wish to do a tad more than just eat your fill and laze in the sun, try your hand at water sports or volleyball.

Less glitzy and far less touristy is the Walter Fletcher Beach. Largely the preserve of locals, this is a place to soak in the sun, flex your muscles playing netball or tennis, or whizz around the small go-cart track.

Locality:

Montego Bay can be found towards the west end of the north coast of Jamaica (120 mls NW of the capital Kingston, 2½ mls S of Sir Donald Sangster international airport). Montego Bay faces west overlooking the bay, which rises quite steeply to wooded hills at the rear.

Entertainment/Facilities/Attractions/Things to do:

The beaches in the central area get heavy usage, the most popular ones being Doctor's Cave (entrance charge but a good range of facilities) and Walter Fletcher Beach, both of which offer water sports; these are better than the main narrow public beach that runs alongside Kent Avenue.

There are modern shopping areas in the centre and E of Montego Bay at Ironshore provide a wide variety of goods, from crafts and souvenirs to duty-free perfumes, jewellery, porcelain and crystal. Good casual shopping is found along the beach strip, a crafts market is on the other side of town. Most hotels have their own boutiques and shops.

During the daytime there are a wide range of water sports including water-skiing, pedalloes, parasailing and jet-skis. Other activities are scuba diving (including a number of dive schools), several 18-hole golf courses, horse riding, tennis, and go-karting at Aguasol theme park.

The nightlife here is mainly centred at the hotels and all-inclusive properties, it is quite expensive in town where there are a range of bars and a couple of discos. The "Bob Marley Experience", is based at the Bob Marley Centre.

There is a wide choice of restaurants, offering Caribbean flavours abound. There is also a number of international fast-food options.