Kingston, Jamaica: The Complete Guide for First-Time Visitors
Most first-time visitors to Jamaica land in Montego Bay and never see Kingston at all, and most guidebooks are...
In This Guide
Negril doesn't have a downtown in the way Montego Bay does. It has a road, running parallel to seven miles of white sand, with everything from thatched beach bars to five-star resorts strung along it in no particular order. That's the whole appeal. It's flatter, quieter, and slower-paced than the rest of the island's tourist circuit, and it rewards showing up without a rigid itinerary more than almost anywhere else in Jamaica.
It's about an hour and a half west of Montego Bay along the coast, and the drive itself, particularly the last stretch past Lucea, is one of the better ones on the island.
The beach that gives Negril its reputation. It's public along its entire length, so you don't need a resort day pass to walk it, though the water sports, the beach bars, and the loungers do tend to belong to whichever hotel sits in front of that stretch of sand. Mornings are calm and near-empty even in high season; by mid-afternoon it fills in, especially near the resort clusters. If you want a quiet swim, walk ten minutes past whatever the busiest-looking stretch is.
At the opposite end of town from the beach, Negril's cliffs replace sand with dramatic drops into clear water, and Rick's Café is the famous one, mostly because of the cliff divers who jump from platforms 35 feet up for tips and applause as the sun goes down. Get there an hour before sunset if you want a seat with a view; it fills up fast and reservations don't cover every table. You don't have to eat there to watch the diving, but you'll want a drink in hand either way.
The cliffs continue past Rick's with several other bars built right into the rock, quieter and less touristed, worth exploring if the crowd at Rick's isn't your scene.
A small uninhabited island just offshore, reachable by short boat trips arranged from the beach, good for snorkeling on the surrounding reef. It's touristy in the sense that every hotel's water sports desk will sell you the trip, but the reef itself is genuinely worth seeing, especially if you haven't snorkeled elsewhere on the island yet.
A wetland reserve a short drive inland, with boardwalks through royal palm groves and mangroves, and a reasonable shot at spotting Jamaica's native bird life if you go early or late in the day. It's the anti-beach afternoon, quiet, shaded, and almost nobody does it, which is exactly the point if you need a break from sun and sand.
A small, still-operating lighthouse near the southern end of the cliffs, worth a stop if you're already driving that direction, more for the view along the coast than the lighthouse itself.
Jerk stands along the main road tend to be better value and often better food than the resort restaurants, look for the ones with a line of locals rather than tour buses parked outside. The beach itself has everything from casual jerk chicken shacks to higher-end dinner spots built out over the water for sunset.
The drive from Montego Bay hugs the coast through Lucea and Green Island before reaching Negril, roughly 90 minutes without stops, though the coastal views make stopping hard to resist. Once you're in Negril itself, the town is long and narrow, running the length of the beach and cliffs, so having a car (or at minimum a scooter or bike, both easy to rent locally) matters more here than in a compact town like Montego Bay, since walking from the beach end to the cliffs and back is a serious trek in the heat.
Negril also works well as a base for a day trip further afield, the YS Falls and Black River safari tours in St. Elizabeth parish are both within reach if you're willing to add another hour or two of driving.
Negril rewards more time than a rushed day trip allows. Seven Mile Beach in the morning, the cliffs at sunset, and a proper meal in between is realistically a two or three-night stop rather than a there-and-back afternoon, especially given the drive from Montego Bay. If you're tight on time, prioritize sunset at the cliffs over the beach; the beach exists all over Jamaica's coast, the cliff sunset does not.
Esteem Car Rental picks up right at Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport with free meet & greet, so the drive to Negril can start the same day you land. Browse available cars in Montego Bay before you plan the route west.