Jamaica Editor Picks

Jamaica Inn—an old-school luxury retreat run by the Morrow family since 1958—is more of a whiteglove experience compared with the Island Outpost resorts, but it still provides an intimate holiday beyond the gated compounds. During the inn’s heyday, Winston Churchill painted in the garden, and Noël Coward and Errol Flynn paid regular visits. Now the retro ambience, highly experienced service—one staff member, Teddy, has worked there for 50 years!—and timeless style are cherished by repeat visitors. The property, on a private cove in Ocho Rios (lovingly called “Ochee” by the locals), boasts 47 spacious suites and four two-bedroom cottages, all with a private balcony or a veranda. The inn’s alfresco restaurant gets top marks for fl avorful local cuisine, and the seaside spa offers holistic treatments. The north coast around Ocho Rios offers prime excursions, such as tours of nearby historic estates, including Prospect Plantation, Firefl y, and Harmony Hall. Many of them have been restored and are now open to the public as museums, offering a glimpse of Jamaican island life as it once was.

If you’re going “all-inclusive,” this is the best of Jamaica’s seven wildly popular Sandals resorts. The genuinely enthusiastic staff ensures that the most you’ll worry about is which of the six specialty restaurants (including Jam-Asian Cuisine, a teppanyaki grill and barefoot dining destination on the beach) you’re going to dine at. Stretching along a half-mile of Negril’s famed Seven Mile Beach, the lively, super-casual, couples-only resort has 222 rooms from standard “luxury” units to two-story lofts to opulent zero-entry, swim-up suites to choose from. There are also two swimming pools (including one dedicated to scuba instruction) and two whirlpools. Families head for the chain’s nearby Beaches resort, which woos little ones with kid-friendly entertainment, programs, and food (www.beaches.com).

Okay, it’s expensive but Jamaica’s most extraordinary resort includes the opportunity to ‘lax in the villa where Ian Fleming penned all of his James Bond thrillers, complete with your own private beach and zero-entry swimming pool. Enveloped by nature, as Fleming wished, each of the five villas has an entertainment bungalow equipped with queen-size day beds, panoramic flat-screen TVs, and well-stocked bars. All meals are included, and water sports/snorkel gear are provided by the discreet staff. Perhaps the best pastime, however, is to marvel at your surroundings and crack a book – say Fleming’s Dr. No. Note: GoldenEye is currently adding 40 additional villas (construction is expected to be complete in early 2010), so inquire about noise when booking a room. Transfers from the airport can be arranged for a fee.

Experience the granddaddy of all Jamaica attractions in Ocho Rios. Marvel at the dramatic 600-foot-high falls, limestone caves, and gardens replete with orchids and breadfruit trees.

Take a bus to the top of Blue Mountain and bike down with Blue Mountain Tours. At 7,402 feet above sea level, the peaks are spectacular, with vistas of Cuba on a clear day and fresh coffee beans perfuming the morning air.

The shimmering, freshwater-fed Blue Lagoon (made famous by the 1980 movie of the same name) reaches a depth of 200 feet and beckons swimmers, scuba divers, and those who just want to say they’ve been there.

Constructed in 1868, the Manchester Golf Club was the first course to open in the Caribbean. With nine greens and 18 holes carved in the rolling hills of Mandeville, the course is nirvana for golfers and history buffs alike.

A loving commitment to local ingredients and classic technique along with gorgeous tropical...more

Perched 3,000-feet-high in the Blue Mountains, the out-of-this-world vistas of Kingston and the...more

A destination in itself, this expanded Jamaican cookshed serves its finger-licking delicacies in...more