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If Treasure Beach were any more laid-back it would risk floating off into the sea. With rocky headlands separating lonely, coral-colored sand beaches, the area is noted for its healthy supply of relaxed guesthouses and stylish boutique hotels. The sense of remoteness, easy pace, and graciousness of the local farmers and fisherfolk attract foreign travelers seeking an away-from-it-all, cares-to-the-wind lifestyle. Many have chosen to settle here – much to local pride.
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Spanish Town, Jamaica’s capital for more than 300 years, was once considered to boast exemplary town planning. Today, for visitors traveling from Kingston through the city’s blighted outlying ghettoes, it’s somewhat of a stretch to envisage the former capital’s erstwhile grandeur. However, this changes the moment one arrives at the evocative historic center, where you’ll find the Caribbean’s most extensive assortment of Georgian architecture and its greatest cathedral (albeit in a sad state of repair). Few other places in Jamaica bring to life the historic sweep of centuries like Spanish Town.
Untrampled by the lockstep march of the resort-catered hordes, the southern coast serves up an irresistible slice of the unspoiled Jamaica. The area is awash with natural splendor – majestic rivers, lugubrious swamps, gorgeous waterfalls, looming mountains, ominous cliffs and sandy beaches. It’s one of the island’s great ironies that a region so unsullied by mass tourism is so packed with sights and activities.
Savanna-la-Mar is the largest town in western Jamaica and the capital of Westmoreland parish. ‘Sav, ’ as it is locally known, offers few attractions.
This bay (16km west of St Ann’s) has a modicum of hotels and tourist facilities, though the place is far from sophisticated. Divers, however, find much to celebrate. This one-street village stretches along the A1 for 3km, merging with Salem to the east. Several small beaches are supposedly public, although most are the backyards for a few all-inclusive resorts. If you’re hankering for a dip in the big blue, head to the white-sand Cardiff Hall Public Beach (admission free; 7am-sunset), opposite the gas station. There is also a somewhat twee fisherman’s beach in Salem, east of Runaway Bay, where the occasional sound-system party is staged on the weekend.
East of Ironshore the A1 dips and rises past coastal scrubland, residential estates and several colonial-era great houses.
If you’re looking for a brief escape from the fun-in-the sun ethos of Negril, spend an hour or two down the caves at Roaring River Park (cave tours adult/child US$15/8; 8am-5pm). This natural beauty spot contains mineral waters that gush up from the ground in a meadow full of water hyacinths and water lilies. A stone aqueduct takes off some of the water, which runs turquoise-jade. Steps lead up a cliff face gashed by the mouth of a subterranean passage lit by electric lanterns (you can enter the caves only with guides from the cooperative). Inside, a path with handrails leads down to chambers full of stalagmites and stalactites. Take your swimming gear to sit in the mineral spring that percolates up inside the cave, or in the ‘bottomless’ blue hole outside the cave. Harmless fruit bats roost in the recesses.
East of Ocho Rios, habitations begin thinning out along the A3. Several beaches lie hidden below the cliffs; notable among them is Tower Isle, 8km east of Ocho Rios.
A sprawling residential suburb, Portmore stretches across the plains west of Kingston. Shopping malls, entertainment centers and fast-food joints add color to an otherwise drab environment. The suburb is linked to the capital by the Portmore–Kingston Causeway.
Once the pirate capital of the Caribbean – and for more than 200 years the hub of British naval power in the West Indies – Port Royal today is a dilapidated, ramshackle place of tropical lassitude, replete with important historical buildings collapsing to dust. Today’s funky fishing hamlet gives little hint of the town’s former flamboyant glory.