Jamaica
Montego Bay
Montego Bay: Doctor's Cave Beach and the Story of Sam Sharpe
Most visitors to Jamaica arrive and leave through Montego Bay, by air or by sea, and the city is the center of the country's tourism. It sits in a broad valley that runs down from limestone hills to a narrow coastal plain, drained by rivers such as the Montego.
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Good to know
Arriving at Montego Bay
Cruise ships berth at Montego Freeport, a port built in the 1960s on what were once the Bogue Islands, about 3 km south of downtown. The Jamaica Tourist Board oversees the transport stand at the terminal building and has an information booth there.
- The port has five main berths, two of them used only by cruise ships.
- Part of the bay, almost 16 square kilometers including Bogue Island, is protected as the Montego Bay Marine Park.
- The Jamaican dollar is the currency, but US dollars are widely accepted at hotels, most restaurants and shops, and almost all attractions in the areas visitors use.
- Crime rates are high in Jamaica, though tourist areas are not usually affected by gang violence; most attacks on visitors are robberies.
Montego Bay on Your Own
Gloucester Avenue, with its hotels, shops and restaurants, is the place for an independent day, and visitors explore it on foot. Take a taxi from the terminal, spend the day there and at Doctor's Cave Beach, and come back the same way.
- Gloucester Avenue: The avenue has sidewalks on both sides. Away from it, walking may be less safe.
- Doctor's Cave Beach: The beach on Gloucester Avenue has clear water for snorkeling and is part of the marine park. It can be crowded in the busy season.
- Downtown: The town's main square is named after Samuel Sharpe, the leader of the 1831 rebellion.
- Staying safe: Stay in groups and in the tourist areas, do not walk in isolated places or on deserted beaches, even by day, and use licensed taxis and reputable tour providers. Never get into an unmarked car with someone offering a ride.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
- Watch the clock: All-aboard is given in ship's time, which may not match local clocks or your phone. Jamaica keeps UTC−5 all year with no daylight saving, so while the US is on daylight time, Jamaica is an hour behind US Eastern time.
Getting Around
Taxis are easy to find in Montego Bay and link the port, Gloucester Avenue and downtown. Buses, minibuses and route taxis use the transport center downtown.
- Stick with taxi services you recognize, and ask at the terminal's information booth if you are unsure.
- Buses, minibuses and route taxis leave from the transport center off Barnett Street, at the south end of St. James Street.
Food and Drink
The two Jamaican dishes to know are jerk and ackee and saltfish. Jerk is served on Gloucester Avenue itself.
- Jerk is a way of cooking meat, usually chicken or pork, with a hot spice rub or marinade built on allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers. Its roots go back to the Taíno and to the Maroons, the escaped slaves who lived among them.
- Ackee and saltfish is the national dish: the ackee fruit sautéed with salt cod, onions, Scotch bonnet peppers and tomatoes. It is usually eaten at breakfast with breadfruit, hard dough bread, dumplings or boiled green bananas.
- Ackee is the national fruit, brought to the Caribbean from Ghana before 1725. Parts of it are toxic until the fruit opens as it ripens, which is why some countries, the United States among them, restrict its import.
A Brief History
Montego Bay grew as a sugar port worked by enslaved Africans under British rule, and the Christmas Rebellion of 1831, the largest slave uprising in the British West Indies, took place in and around it. Freedom came in stages from 1834.
- 1494: Christopher Columbus sailed into the bay and named it Golfo de Buen Tiempo, the Gulf of Fair Weather. Jamaica's first known inhabitants, the Arawaks, were there when he arrived.
- Spanish Jamaica: Spain ruled Jamaica from 1511 until 1655. The name Montego is believed to come from manteca, Spanish for lard, which was among the goods shipped from the bay.
- The sugar years: Under British rule, Montego Bay became the island's largest producer of sugar cane, and the town was mainly a sugar port until well into the 20th century.
- The Christmas Rebellion, 1831: Led by Samuel Sharpe, a Baptist deacon, a planned peaceful strike at Christmas 1831 turned into an uprising of up to 60,000 enslaved people. It was put down within two weeks.
- 1832: Sharpe was hanged in Montego Bay on 23 May. He was later proclaimed a National Hero of Jamaica.
- Emancipation: Slavery ended on 1 August 1834, but most freed people had to work as apprentices for their former owners for four more years.
- The 1960s: The cruise port was built on the Bogue Islands.
- 1980: Montego Bay was proclaimed a city again by act of parliament.
- 2025: In October, Montego Bay was heavily affected by Hurricane Melissa.
- To learn more ashore: Rose Hall Great House, on Rose Hall Road, is a Georgian plantation house now run as a historic house museum.
Montego Bay with Children
With children, keep a Montego Bay day close to the water: a taxi to Gloucester Avenue, a swim at the beach and lunch nearby. Older children can add the history of the rebellion or a plantation house.
- Younger children: Doctor's Cave Beach is sheltered, with clear water for paddling and snorkeling, though it can be busy in high season.
- School age: The beach has a story of its own: Alexander McCatty, who ran a sanatorium in town, let his friends bathe at his small beach, which they entered through a cave, and in 1906 he gave the land to a private members' club that still exists.
- Teenagers: Rose Hall is the setting of the White Witch ghost story, which a 2007 investigation concluded was fiction modeled on a Jamaican novel of 1929, a good lesson in how legends grow. Sam Sharpe Square downtown is named after the leader of the real rebellion of 1831.
Beaches
Montego Bay's white-sand beaches lie on the east side of the bay, with coral reefs offshore to the north and south. Doctor's Cave Beach charges for entry.
- Doctor's Cave Beach, on Gloucester Avenue, is one of the best-known beaches on the island.
- Avoid deserted beaches, even during the day.
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