Montego Bay is Jamaica’s gateway: the airport takes the great majority of international flights, and most stays on the island begin here, even when the hotel is two hours away. It is also the country’s second city, with a lively centre, a cruise port and a long hotel front stretching east.
The essentials in four lines
- About four and a quarter hours non-stop from Montreal to Sangster airport (MBJ), ten to thirty minutes from the hotels depending on the sector.
- Jamaica stays on Eastern time all year: same hour as Montreal in winter, one hour behind in summer.
- The north coast is largely spared by sargassum, which mainly affects the south and east of the island.
- December to April is the dry season. Hurricane season runs June to November.
The three sectors
The Hip Strip
Gloucester Avenue runs a little over a kilometre along the sea: bars, restaurants, shops, and two of the best-known beaches on the island. It is the liveliest and most urban sector, the one where you walk out in the evening. In exchange it is noisy and vendor attention is constant.
Rose Hall and Ironshore
East of the airport, fifteen to thirty minutes from the terminal, a run of large hotel estates on private beaches, with golf courses. This is where most of the upper-tier all-inclusive supply sits, in a quiet, enclosed setting.
The west and Reading
Toward Negril the coast turns rocky and holds a few characterful hotels perched on the cliff, with views over the bay and sea access by stairway rather than beach.
The beaches
Doctor’s Cave is Montego Bay’s historic beach, open to the public since 1906. Its reputation was built on a mineral spring that once flowed into the bay and was credited with curative powers; the water today is simply clear and calm, sheltered by the reef.
Cornwall Beach, next door, is smaller and quieter. The Rose Hall hotels have their own beaches, generally wider and free of vendor pressure.
A marine park has protected the whole bay since 1992, with reefs, seagrass and mangroves. Snorkelling works directly from several beaches.
What to do around
Rose Hall great house, built in the 1770s on a hill above the sea, is visited by day and in the evening. The legend of its mistress, called the white witch, belongs to local folklore more than to history, but the house itself documents the sugar plantation system in very concrete terms.
The bamboo raft trip down the Martha Brae or the Great River lasts ninety minutes, standing on a raft poled by a boatman. It is slow, quiet and surprisingly absorbing.
Otherwise Montego Bay serves as a base: Dunn’s River Falls is an hour forty-five to the east, Negril an hour and a half west, the luminous lagoon of the southwest two hours away.
At the table
Jerk is not a sauce but a method: a marinade of scotch bonnet pepper, allspice, thyme and scallion, then slow cooking over pimento wood. The best places to try it are the roadside jerk centres, where chicken and pork are sold by weight and chopped with a cleaver on a board.
Also worth trying: ackee and saltfish, the national dish, coconut bread, and the patty, a yellow pastry turnover filled with spiced beef and eaten standing up.
All-inclusive in Montego Bay
This is one of the densest markets in the Caribbean, with every category represented: large family resorts, couples-only properties, historic luxury addresses and affordable mid-size hotels.
Three criteria make the difference here: distance from the airport, the real width of the beach, and whether that beach is private or public, which changes the level of quiet entirely. Our criteria for choosing an all-inclusive hotel cover the rest, and our selection of family all-inclusive resorts helps if you travel with children.
When to go
From December to April the air holds around 29 °C, the trade winds blow and rain is brief. This is high season, with price peaks over the holidays and March break.
May, June and the first half of December offer the best balance of weather and price. From August to October, heat and humidity climb and the cyclone season peaks. The island’s largest reggae festival takes place in Montego Bay in July. Our guide on when to travel south from Montreal sets out those cycles.
To plan this trip, see also our Jamaïque page, Runaway Bay, South Coast and how to choose an all-inclusive hotel.
