Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

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Jamaica

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Matt Munro

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Overview

Home to the nation’s largest airport and a busy Caribbean cruise terminal, Montego Bay is many people’s first view of Jamaica before they get whisked off to the surrounding beaches, golf courses and all-inclusive resorts. So it's ironic that, barring MoBay's excellent dining scene, most of the area’s attractions are found outside Jamaica's second city. The north coast is replete with plantation-era history, from its well-preserved plantation houses to the historic core of Falmouth. Inland, adventure beckons, from hiking and spelunking in Cockpit Country – a roadless wilderness of hidden caves and eerily silent hills that is disorientating, even to hardened locals – to rafting and zip-lining through the jungle. Filling in the gaps is a dense network of small towns and tiny villages that pulsate with the rawness and romance of everyday Jamaican life.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Rose Hall Great House

Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

This splendid 1770s mansion is the most famous great house in Jamaica. John Palmer, a wealthy plantation owner, and his wife, Rose (after whom the house…

Greenwood Great House

Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

This marvelous estate, sitting high on a hill, is not as famous as Jamaica's most famous great house, but offers a far more intimate and interesting…

Hampden Estate

Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

A lane lined with palm trees leads you to the landscaped grounds of Hampden Great House estate, dotted with strutting peacocks. Tours assemble beneath a…

National Museum West

Montego Bay

This well-curated, revamped museum, peppered with period objects, takes you through the history of western Jamaica, from the Cohaba ceremonies of the…

Jewish Cemetery

Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

Established in the early 19th century, Falmouth's Jewish cemetery lay abandoned in recent decades before being restored, and contains the graves of the…

Windsor Cave

Montego Bay & Northwest Coast

This cave may be off the beaten track to most people, but it's one of Jamaica's most important bat habitats, home to 12 species of around 100,000 bats. It…