There’s much more to Jamaica than just beer and jerk chicken
By Bobbie Thurgood From Daily Star
JAMAICA is the home of rum, reggae and Rastas.
It’s the one Caribbean island that everyone has heard of and everyone has an opinion on – some of them not so good.
But whatever you do, don’t listen to the scaremongers and go and find out yourself.
It’s a shimmering green gem of a country full of some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet who are fiercely proud of their homeland and heritage.
And there’s no better time to go than spring.
The prices are much lower than high season winter, while the weather is a steady 28-31 degrees and the beaches are less crowded.
As Jamaican newbies we had no idea what to expect outside of Red Stripe beer, Bob Marley and Usain Bolt (it’s the birthplace of both men) but quickly discovered we’d landed in paradise.
Think Bounty advert white sand beaches, azure waters and swaying palm trees and you’re beginning to get the picture.
Add the towering Blue Mountains, lush jungle, buzzing towns and a million and one things to do and you’re talking.
Of course it’s very easy to stay in the bar and on the beach chilling for your entire holiday.
Especially if you stay in a delicious all-inclusive resort like Sandals.
Jamaica is the original home of this luxury holiday company that has since spread throughout the Caribbean offering everything tourists need.
Our base was the stunning mountainside Sandals Grande Riviera Beach and Villa Golf Resort in the seaside town of Ocho Rios in the north of the island.
With 529 villas, 105 pools and 16 restaurants, all with breathtaking ocean or mountain views, it would have been easy not to have moved.
Especially as the villas come with a butler service which will organise everything from restaurant bookings to packing your case for you.
It’s not as pompous as it sounds and the lads looking after us – Alshane and Ormando – were more like mates in the end.
But we were determined to explore the real Jamaica outside our resort.
Despite what you may have heard, we felt perfectly safe wherever we went and the highlight was visiting Bob Marley’s home in the notorious Trench Town “slum” district of the island’s capital, Kingston.
As there was no organised tour, we hired a licensed taxi independently and simply told the driver-cum tour guide where we wanted to go.
Kingston is on the south side of the island, across the banana grove and coffee plantation-covered mountains.
The capital is a bustling, slightly overwhelming, sprawl with the downtown port area and its magnificent, if slightly faded, colonial architecture sitting cheek-by-jowl with the posh, corporate buildings uptown.
Incredibly there are Kingstonians who live in the city their whole lives and never venture from one part to another.
“Jamaica really does have something for everyone”
Our first stop was the Trench Town Culture Yard, which was the young Bob Marley’s first home in the city.
Entire families still live in one tumbledown concrete room in this area and you do need to be sensible with your valuables.
Bob’s home has now been turned into a museum charting the incredible music to have come out of this part of Jamaica.
A local guide will also walk you around Trench Town itself – and while the poverty is depressing, the locals are feisty and friendly.
It’s a sin that more tourists don’t brave the area’s tough reputation.
We were the only holidaymakers there but wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
A couple of blocks away is Tuff Gong recording studio, still owned by the Marley family and a going concern producing some of the world’s best reggae.
We were given a personal guided tour which, if you like your music, would be unmissable.
If you want to do Bob Marley the “comfortable” way there are plenty of organised tours (Sandals work with the extremely efficient Island Routes company) to his final home in “uptown” Kingston.
Again this has been turned into a museum and is stuffed full of memorabilia.
It is very touristy, though.
The final stop for music fans – again there are plenty of organised tours – is 9 Mile, the mountain village where Bob was born and where he, his brother and mum are buried in marble mausoleums.
You travel there in an Irie bus (an original Jamaican country bus) with music and rum punches both fl owing non-stop.
Again it is very touristy and even includes a semiofficial opportunity to sample some of Bob’s favourite, um, “herb”.
Drug-taking is illegal in Jamaica but ganja is tolerated almost everywhere.
In fact you are positively encouraged to smoke a “herbal” cigarette while walking around Bob’s tomb.
It’s what he would have wanted!
A word of warning, though – beware the “special” chocolate fudge brownie cakes and “tea”.
They like their herbs strong in Jamaica!
While the island rocks from dawn till dawn with 24-hour “riddims” – be it reggae, ska, dance hall, R&B or just the lyrical local patois – there’s plenty of other things to enjoy.
Culture vultures can take a trip (again it’s best to organise it independently) to Sir Noel Coward’s beautiful home, Firefly, set on a cliff top high above a stunning cove.
The playwright, songwriter and actor spent 30 happy years here before his death in 1973.
Once again it’s been turned into a museum and is untouched from the day that Coward entertained the Queen Mum, Winston Churchill and Sophia Loren.
If James Bond is more your thing, then you have to go to Goldeneye.
This was the home of Bond creator Ian Fleming and you can stay there – provided you’ve got around £5,000 a night!
A $75 day pass will allow you the same level of luxury on the stunning beach with its own private island and free water sports.
Fleming came to Jamaica in 1942, fell in love with the place and spent every winter here until his death in 1964.
All 14 of Fleming’s Bond novels were written here and five were actually set in Jamaica.
There are books and memorabilia galore.
In fact Fleming chose the name James Bond for his spy after spotting it on the cover of his favourite book – Birds of the West Indies by James Bond.
Both Firefly and Goldeneye are short trips from Ocho Rios, which is a busy port and market town.
To really meet the locals, walk around the bustling food market on a Saturday morning and chill down with a Red Stripe in Momma Marley’s bar (yes, the family did own it).
You’ll be perfect safe and the fresh fruit is delicious.
To most tourists, though, Ocho Rios means Dunn’s River Falls.
This is the one picture tourist brochures and travel agents use to sell Jamaica.
And to be fair it is a lovely series of waterfalls tumbling down to a white sand beach.
It’s perfectly safe to climb the falls by yourself once you’ve paid the park entrance fee but the guides can be very persistent and a bit stroppy if you don’t tip them well enough.
They’ll also try to flog you a DVD of your climb for $40.
There is a height limit for little kids.
Give it a try but don’t expect peace and quiet.
Talking of younger holidaymakers, Sandals resorts are adult-only and specialise in honeymoons, weddings and loved-up couples’ massages at the blissful onsite Red Lane spas.
However the company also has its Beaches chain aimed at families.
The children can be looked after while mum and dad chill and there’s even a Sesame Street link-up so the nippers can learn patois with Big Bird and Elmo!
Jamaica really does have something for everyone.
You will come back glowing with a good tan, unique memories and the urge to say “Yeah, mon” at every opportunity.
It’s really an island of One Love as Bob himself sang.
PHOTOS:
GEM: The beaches are only one of the major attractions in Jamaica [GETTY]
BLISS: Fun for all the family at Dunn’s River Falls [DAILY STAR]
LUXURY: Sandals resort [DAILY STAR]
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