Everything in Jamaica is a drive from Montego Bay. Here is what each one costs.
Whether the Blue Hole beats Dunn’s River when you only have one falls day. What the raft down the Great River costs before the foot massage. Reviews of every tour you can book on this coast.
The four bookings a first week in Montego Bay hangs off.
One in the hills, one in the water, one on a raft and one that gets you home at two in the morning. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The one everybody booksRastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego BayAn ATV run up into a Rastafari community above the bay, ending with lunch cooked by the people who live there. Nothing else on this coast comes close on numbers.
02The falls dayBlue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-TripBlue Hole, Secret Falls and Dunn’s River in one run east. A long day and the only way to do all three without a second trip.
03The slow morningJamaica Bamboo Rafting Experience with Lime Stone MassageA bamboo raft poled down the Great River, then a limestone foot massage on the bank. Half a day, and the cheapest good one on the coast.
04The night outNegril One Love Bus Bar CrawlA bus down the Hip Strip and along the Negril cliffs with the bar open on board. Book the hotel pickup — you will not want to drive back.
Every good day in Jamaica ends up in fresh water.
Dunn’s River is the one on the postcard. The Blue Hole is the one people come home talking about. The Great River raft is the one for a morning you cannot face a minibus. Three kinds of water day, and what it costs to get in.
Six places on this coast, and the best day out in each.
Montego Bay is the base. Falmouth is half an hour east with a lagoon that lights up, Ocho Rios two hours east with the falls, Negril an hour and a quarter west with the cliffs. Lucea and Runaway Bay are the quiet stops in between.
The days out more people book than anything else on this coast.
Every review on the site →What earns each of them the slot, what it costs, and where on the north coast it actually happens.
1
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego Bay
Ride an ATV through rural Jamaica, swim in a mineral pool, visit a ganja field, taste fresh fruit, and enjoy a homemade lunch from Montego Bay.
From · $164
Read our review →
2
Jamaica All-Access Adventure Pass at Ocean Outpost
from $163
3
Negril One Love Bus Bar Crawl
from $25
4
Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkeling
from $133
5
Blue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-Trip
from $125
6
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Negril
from $164
7
Triple Action pack Combo (Blue Hole, Horse back riding and river tubing)
from $141
8
Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus Transportation
from $134
The bay is warm, shallow and full of boats.
Catamarans leave the Hip Strip with the bar open and a snorkel stop over the reef. Glass-bottom boats potter across Doctor’s Cave. Jet skis go out from the beach, and a clear kayak over that water photographs like nothing else in the Caribbean.
What a day out of Montego Bay actually costs.
Every day out on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best ones come in under what the resort charges for dinner.
Rafting mornings on the Great River, beach passes, Rose Hall and the short runs along the Hip Strip.
The standards: falls combos east, catamaran days off the bay, Rick’s Cafe and the lagoon at night.
Private cars for the whole day, the community ATV rides and the long runs down to the south coast.
Montego Bay does not switch off at sunset.
Every evening out →
The lagoon east at Falmouth lights up where you disturb it, so people swim in it. Rick’s Cafe puts its divers off the cliff as the sun drops behind them. And the Negril bus leaves the Hip Strip with the bar already open.
Glistening Waters, after dark
Microorganisms in the lagoon glow where the water moves, so the boat leaves a trail and so do you when you go in. Forty minutes east of Montego Bay, and it only works once the light has gone.
Rick’s Cafe at golden hour
The divers start going off the high board in the late afternoon, the sun sets behind them and the bar is out on the rock. Most trips pair it with the beach end of Seven Mile first.
The Negril bus, bar open on board
It collects along the Hip Strip, pours on the way, works down three or four bars on the cliffs and does not head back until everyone is accounted for.
On ship days the falls fill up. Go early, or go the other way.
Falmouth and Ocho Rios both take cruise ships, and on those mornings the terraces at Dunn’s River and the car park at the Blue Hole are full from about nine. There are only two answers, and they are the ones the drivers give you: be on the first minibus east, or spend the day heading west instead — the Great River, the Negril cliffs, the quiet sand at Runaway Bay.
Negril is seven miles of sand and a cliff with a bar on it.
An hour and a quarter west on the coast road. The beach end is flat and warm and lined with loungers; the West End is limestone, sunsets and the divers at Rick’s. Most people go for a day and then wish they had booked two.
Every Negril day out →
Ocho Rios is two hours east and worth the early start.
Dunn’s River, the Blue Hole at St Ann, Secret Falls, the Green Grotto caves and Bob Marley’s Nine Mile up in the hills behind. Almost everything here leaves Montego Bay before eight and has you back for dinner.
- 1Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkelingfrom $133
- 2Catamaran Cruise Full Day Tour to Reef, Caves and Negril Beachfrom $90
- 3Catamaran Cruise with Snorkeling and Dunn’s River Fallsfrom $139
Three things that only happen on the Jamaican north coast.
Reefs, rum bars and zip lines turn up all over the Caribbean. A raft poled down the Great River, water that lights up when you swim in it, and the hill village where Bob Marley is buried do not.
Bamboo rafting, then the foot massage
A raftsman poles a thirty-foot bamboo raft downstream with two people on a bench seat, and the whole thing moves at the speed of the water and no faster. The Great River and the Martha Brae both run it; at the end somebody rubs your feet with a warm limestone from the riverbed. It is the cheapest properly good morning on this coast and nobody hurries any part of it.
- 1Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 559 reviews
- 2Bamboo Rafting and horseback★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 556 reviews
- 3Jamaica Bamboo Rafting Experience with Lime Stone Massage★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 549 reviews
The lagoon that lights up
Where the Martha Brae meets the sea at Falmouth the water carries dinoflagellates dense enough to glow blue when anything disturbs them. The boat leaves a burning wake, your hand comes out of the water dripping light, and people swim in it. It needs a dark night, so full moons and bright hotels are the enemy, and the boats run to the tide rather than to your dinner reservation.
- 1Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 419 reviews
- 2Mesmerizing Luminous Lagoon (Glistening Waters) Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 98 reviews
- 3Explore Montego Bay to Luminous LagoonGlistening Water Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 78 reviews
Where Bob Marley was born and buried
Two hours up into the St Ann hills, past the road signs and the goats, to the small green and yellow house where he grew up and the mausoleum built beside it. Guides are usually family or village, the singing is live rather than piped, and the rock he used as a pillow is still in the room. It runs as a full day out of Montego Bay because the road does not do anything faster.
- 1Bob Marley’s Nine Mile Admission and Guided Tour from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 350 reviews
- 2Jamaica Combo Tour: Dunn’s River Falls and Bob Marley’s Nine Mile★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 273 reviews
- 3Dunn’s River Falls, Bob Marley 9 Mile – Optional Lagoon Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 135 reviews
Four Jamaican days that will not wait for you.
Most of this coast can be sorted the night before at the hotel desk. These four run on daylight, on tide, on cruise-ship mornings and on a road that takes two hours no matter what time you leave.
- 01Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with SnorkelingCruise mornings fill the terraces from around nine. The early climbs are the ones that go first, and they are the only cool ones.
- 02Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego BayIt only works after dark, so the boats run to a fixed set of sailings. Turn up late and there is no later one.
- 03Bob Marley’s Nine Mile Admission and Guided Tour from Montego BayTwo hours each way into the hills, so it can only run as a full day and the minibuses leave Montego Bay early.
- 04YS Falls, Black River Safari, Appleton Rum Tour OR Pelican Bar (Choose Up to 3)The distillery is deep in St Elizabeth on a fixed tour schedule, so the coast pickups go before eight and the seats are counted.
Jamaican food is worth building a day around.
Jerk pork smoked over pimento wood in a split oil drum, patties from a bakery counter, escovitch fish at a beach shack, and the rum that has been made down in St Elizabeth since 1749. Do the food walk before the heat and the estate in the afternoon.
By place — the coast road, east and west
By kind of day — water, road, hill or night
West to the cliffs, east to the falls: the run almost everybody does.
The newest Jamaican tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Negril seven Miles Beaches & Shopping Only | Spend more time on the Beach:
Read our review →
Blue Hole, Dunn’s River Falls Luminous Lagoon Excursion From Montego Bay
Read our review →
Dunn’s River Falls and Park Tour with Zip Line from Montego Bay
Read our review →
Dunn’s River Falls,Zip lining & horseback riding Combo tour from Montego Bay
Read our review →
Private Negril Day Trip to Seven Miles Beach and Rick’s Cafe from Runaway Bay
Read our review →
Montego Bay Airport Transfers to Negril Hotels Jamaica
Read our review →
Dunn’s River Falls and Blue Hole Secret Falls Combo Daytrip
Read our review →
Private Airport Transfer- Riu Negril, Falmouth & Montego Bay Port
Read our review →
Glass bottom Boat Tour and Snorkeling Experience in Montego Bay
Read our review →
Bamboo Rafting & River Tubing Tour Ocho Rios(Entry Fee Included)
Read our review →
New! Family Fun-4-Seater Jet Car-45 Minutes Montego Bay
Read our review →