Montego Bay
A cruise port and a reef park on the north-west coast of Jamaica, with old sugar estates behind the town and a runway ten minutes from Gloucester Avenue.
- Arrival
- Sangster International · MBJ
- To the town
- About 10 minutes to Gloucester Avenue by car
- Private jets
- Signature and IAM Jet Centre at MBJ
- Best time
- December to April
The city
Sugar estates and a reef.
The tourist board calls Montego Bay Jamaica's second city. Along the shore runs Gloucester Avenue, renamed Jimmy Cliff Boulevard and known to everyone as the Hip Strip, with Doctor's Cave Beach halfway down it; offshore lies a marine park. In town, Sam Sharpe Square and the Cultural Centre keep its history, and at Cinnamon Hill an 18-hole course rolls across what was once a sugar plantation.
The dry months, December to April, are when most people come and when the airport is at its busiest. From May the showers return, and the wet season, which overlaps with the hurricane season, lasts into November; October brings the heaviest rain.
Arriving
A short drive from the runway.
Sangster International sits on the edge of town: Gloucester Avenue is about ten minutes by car, and the resorts at Rose Hall, seven to ten miles east, fifteen to twenty.
- Miami 1 h 25
- Panama City 1 h 45
- Atlanta 2 h 40
- Washington 3 h 15
- San Francisco 6 h 30 long-range jet
When to go
December to April.
Highs of 29 to 32 °C and water at 27 to 29 °C in every season. Rain eases from December, falls least in March, then returns in May; by October, the peak, it tops 160 mm.
- 29° J 85 27°
- 29° F 69 27°
- 30° M 27 27°
- 30° A 53 27°
- 30° M 100 28°
- 31° J 122 29°
- 32° J 53 29°
- 32° A 95 29°
- 31° S 127 29°
- 31° O 166 29°
- 30° N 110 29°
- 29° D 103 28°
What to see and do
Days in and around Montego Bay.
-
Landmark
Rose Hall Great House
A plantation house east of town, bound up with the tale of Annie Palmer, the White Witch, and open for tours after dark.
-
Landmark
Montego Bay Marine Park
Snorkelling and diving over coral just off the beaches, at sites such as Doctor's Cave Reef and Secrets Reef.
-
Landmark
Martha Brae River
A slow trip downstream on a bamboo raft, an outing the tourist board lists for Montego Bay.
-
Culture
Greenwood Great House
Built in the 1780s by Richard Barrett, the house keeps a plantation library, an 1862 Erard harp and a piano that belonged to Edward VII.
Official site -
Wildlife
Rocklands Bird Sanctuary
Hummingbirds, among them the red-billed streamertail, drink sugar water from visitors' hands at afternoon feedings in the hills at Anchovy.
Official site -
Nature
Glistening Waters
Boats leave at sunset onto the Luminous Lagoon near Falmouth, where swimmers stir up light from bioluminescent organisms in the shallows.
Official site -
Golf
The Tryall Club golf course
Ralph Plummer laid out these 18 holes in 1958, and the course hosted the Johnnie Walker World Championship from 1991 to 1995.
-
Food & wine
Hampden Estate
On one of Jamaica's oldest sugar estates, guides lead small groups through the working distillery that makes Hampden's pot still rums, a visit of about two hours.
Official site
Where to stay
Peninsula, crescent and north coast.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Round Hill Hotel and Villas Plantation-style rooms and villas on a 110-acre peninsula, receiving guests since the 1950s and holding the town's one MICHELIN Key.
- Half Moon Rated Four-Star by Forbes Travel Guide, one of only three Jamaican hotels on its 2026 list.
- Eclipse at Half Moon The newer wing of Half Moon, rated Four-Star by Forbes in its own right.
- GoldenEye One of five MICHELIN Key hotels in Jamaica, a long drive east along the north coast from Montego Bay.
Where to dine
Where to book in Montego Bay.
No MICHELIN Guide covers Jamaica. These are the dearest tables in Fodor’s Montego Bay listings; prices are Fodor’s bands.
- Sugar Mill Fodor’s Caribbean $$$$ Half Moon
- Marguerite’s Fodor’s Seafood $$$$ Jimmy Cliff Boulevard, the Hip Strip
- Seagrape Terrace Fodor’s Seafood and grill $$$$ Half Moon, on the beach
Elsewhere in Jamaica
More reasons to come.
Flying to Montego Bay?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.