The beach came with the hotel. Dunn’s River and the Martha Brae did not.
Which falls you can actually climb, and in what order. What a car from Sangster to Negril really costs. Whether the Blue Hole beats Dunn’s River when you only have one free day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Jamaica.
The falls, the raft, the quad trail and the lagoon that lights up.
Four bookings a first week in Jamaica hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who went say about it.
01The falls dayBlue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-TripBlue Hole and Dunn’s River in one run. Climb the terraces in a chain of hands, then swim in the jungle pool nobody photographs.
02The river morningJamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus TransportationThirty feet of bamboo, one push-pole and a captain who has run this water his whole life. Three miles of Trelawny at walking pace.
03The hill dayRastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego BayQuad trails up behind Montego Bay into a Rastafari community, with lunch cooked where you stop.
04The night oneLuminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego BayThe lagoon at Falmouth flashes where you swim through it. There are only a handful of bays on earth that do this.
Sangster to your hotel is the run nobody books until it is too late.
Montego Bay airport is twenty minutes from the Hip Strip, ninety from Ocho Rios and a full two hours from Negril. Three ways to cover it, what each costs a head, and which strip it suits.
Pick the coast first. On this island the day trips follow the hotel.
Almost everything here is sold as a run out from a resort town, so where you sleep decides what you can reach before dinner. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Montego Bay: the airport, the Hip Strip and everything west of it.
Everything in Montego Bay →
Most people land here and most people leave from here, which is why more than half the tours on this site start in a Montego Bay hotel lobby. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the parish.
Quad trails behind the bay
Up out of the resort strip onto farm tracks and dry riverbed, usually with a stop where somebody cuts a coconut open for you. You come back the colour of the road.
Catamaran along the north coast
Sound system on the deck, a reef stop with masks handed out, and a rope swing off the back. The bar opens on the way out, which tells you how the afternoon goes.
The lagoon that lights up
An hour east at Falmouth, where the water flashes when anything moves through it. Boats leave after dark, cut the engine, and you swim in it. Bring nothing you mind getting wet.
The falls at Dunn’s River are a staircase, and you climb them holding hands.
Six hundred feet of terraced limestone dropping straight into the sea at Ocho Rios, a jade pool in the bush behind it, and a bamboo raft on the Martha Brae that takes ninety minutes to cover three miles. The best of this island is fresh water, not salt.
What a day out in Jamaica actually runs to.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. The cheap end is transfers and entry tickets; the top end is a boat with nobody else on it.
Airport runs, falls entry, river tubing and the short hops along the north coast.
The full days out: Blue Hole and Dunn’s River together, catamaran with lunch, the lagoon after dark.
A driver for the whole day, quad and horseback combos, and the boats you charter rather than share.
Negril runs on seven miles of sand and one cliff at sunset.
The west end is where the island drops its shoulders. Sunset at the cliffs is a crowd, a cliff dive and a very long queue at the bar; the beach south of it is flat, shallow and goes on forever. Two hours from Sangster, which is why people come for the whole week.
Every Negril day out →
Three of these exist in Jamaica and almost nowhere else.
Waterfalls and beach bars run the length of the Caribbean. A limestone staircase you climb in a chain of hands, a bay that flashes when you swim through it, and a raft poled by hand down the Martha Brae do not.
Climbing Dunn’s River
Six hundred feet of limestone terraces drop into the sea, and the river has cut its own staircase down them. You go up barefoot in a chain of hands with a guide at the front, stopping to sit in the pools on the way. It is the one thing on the island that everybody who has been will bring up unprompted, and the reason the cruise ships put in at Ocho Rios at all.
- 1Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 997 reviews
- 2Blue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 973 reviews
- 3Blue Hole and Dunn’s River Falls Private Tour from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 420 reviews
The Luminous Lagoon
Where the Martha Brae meets the sea at Falmouth, the brackish water holds microorganisms that flash when they are disturbed. Boats go out after dark, cut the engine and let you in. Every stroke leaves a trail of light behind your arm and your hands come up glowing. Cloud and a new moon make it better, not worse.
- 1Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 419 reviews
- 2Mesmerizing Luminous Lagoon (Glistening Waters) Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 98 reviews
- 3Private Tour from Ocho Rios Runaway Bay to the Luminous Lagoon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 74 reviews
Rafting the Martha Brae
Thirty feet of bamboo lashed together, a raised bench for two and a captain standing at the front with a pole. Three miles of river take about ninety minutes, which is the entire point of it. The rafts were built to move bananas downriver; somebody worked out that visitors weighed less and talked more.
- 1Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 559 reviews
- 2Bamboo Rafting and horseback★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 556 reviews
- 3Margaritaville Hip-Strip and Great River Rafting Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 245 reviews
Jamaica’s most popular days out.
Every Jamaican tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the island, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Club Mobay Sangster Airport VIP Lounge with Priority Entry
Club Mobay at Sangster Airport offers priority immigration, lounge food and drinks, Wi-Fi, and helpful arrival or departure service for $37.50.
From · $37
Read our review →2
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego Bay
from $164
3
Montego Bay Airport (MBJ) Transfer One-Way or Round-Trip to Hotel
from $18
4
Jamaica All-Access Adventure Pass at Ocean Outpost
from $163
5
Negril One Love Bus Bar Crawl
from $25
6
Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkeling
from $133
7
Blue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-Trip
from $125
8
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Negril
from $164
Ocho Rios is a cruise pier with a waterfall behind it.
Ships come in for the day and half the island is arranged around that fact, which is good news if you are staying: go early and the falls, the Blue Hole and the bobsled run are yours until about eleven. The town itself is small and the good stuff is all a short drive inland.
- 1Montego Bay Airport (MBJ) Transfer One-Way or Round-Trip to Hotelfrom $18
- 2Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkelingfrom $133
- 3Catamaran Cruise Full Day Tour to Reef, Caves and Negril Beachfrom $90
Four things here run on somebody else’s clock.
Most of this island can be sorted from a hotel lobby the night before. These four run on cruise-ship schedules, on the tide, on sunset, and on a lounge with a fixed number of seats in it.
- 01Club Mobay Sangster Airport VIP Lounge with Priority EntryThe arrivals lounge caps how many people it lets through at once. On a heavy landing day the walk-up desk is simply shut.
- 02Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego BayBoats only go after dark and the glow reads strongest with no moon up. The good nights fill first and the bad ones are cancelled outright.
- 03Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with SnorkelingEntry runs on timed slots and the cruise ships have first call on the morning ones. Turn up at noon and you climb it shoulder to shoulder.
- 04NEGRIL CATAMARAN CRUISE Sunset Ricks Cafe Adults only ALL HOTELSThe whole thing happens in about twenty minutes and everybody in the west end arrives for the same twenty minutes. Without a seat you are standing at the back.
Jamaican rain comes down hard for half an hour and then stops.
May and October are the wet months, and even in those it usually clears before you have finished complaining about it. What it does reliably ruin is a boat day. Keep the caves, the great houses, a massage and the after-dark trips in reserve and you lose an afternoon, not a holiday.
Nine Mile, a jerk drum at the roadside and a bus with a bar in it.
No island this size exports as much of itself. The Marley trail runs up into the hills of Saint Ann to the house he was born in, the food comes off a split oil drum over pimento wood, and the bar crawl in Negril is an actual bus.
By base, west to east
Land at Sangster, work east along the north coast, turn round at Kingston.
The newest Jamaica tour reviews.
More of the new ones →
Nine Mile Reggae & History Guided Tour to Bob Marley’s Birthplace
Read our review →
Blue Hole & Secret Waterfalls Tour from Falmouth Cruise Ships
Read our review →
Bahia Principe Grand Jamaica Private Airport transfer
Read our review →
Montego Bay Sightseeing, Souvenir Shopping and local food hunt
Read our review →
Jamaican Countryside Food Tasting Tour from Montego Bay
Read our review →
Jamaican Street Food and Rum Tasting Private Tour
Read our review →
Private Airport transfer from MBJ to & from Hotel’s in Ochi Rios
Read our review →
Airport MBJ Round Trip Transfer to Ocho Rios Airbnb Home, Resorts
Read our review →
Airport /Hotel Transfer Norman Manley airport and Montego bay
Read our review →
SUNSET PARTY CRUISE Rick’s Cafe Ocean Coral / Eden Bay Guests
Read our review →
Private Luxury & Grand Bahia Principe Roundtrip Airport Transfer
Read our review →