Jamaica Guide
Western Jamaica
Home to two of the island's busiest resorts, western Jamaica is firmly on the tourist track. Montego Bay, once Jamaica's tourist capital, is losing out a bit to the hedonistic pleasures of Negril at the extreme western tip. In many ways, MoBay, as it's usually called, still delivers. Sitting pretty in a sweeping natural harbour and hemmed in by a labyrinth of protected offshore reefs, it remains the grande dame of Jamaican resorts and is particularly lively during its world-renowned summer reggae festival. Sybaritic Negril, boasting the longest continuous stretch of white sand in Jamaica and a front-row sunset seat, has a geographical remoteness that lends it a uniquely insouciant ambience. First visited by wealthy hippies in the 1970s, it is still immensely popular with those who favour easy living and corporeal indulgence, and is the best place outside Kingston for live reggae and nightclubs. Negril offers plenty of natural attractions around too, including the pleasant river walk at Mayfield Falls and the blue hole at Roaring River.