Montego Bay Travel Forum

I will be in Montego Bay for 5 days for a wedding and want to know what the "must see, must do, must eat", etc locations are. I consider myself a foodie and like to check out local mom and pop style restaurants, the places where the locals eat. Night life hot spots? I want to get the all around experience while i'm there, any help is uch appreciated. :)

At a minimum I'd take in a stop at Margaritaville and it's slide into the Caribbean from the bar area. A great place to meet other tourists and locals to find out where the "hotspots" are for fun and food.

Check out any of the "great" houses in the area like Rose Hall or Greenwood so see Jamaican life "as it was". You will meet locals working here also who will be happy to tell you other hot spots.

Doctors Cave and White Sand Beach for a day in the sun...always locals.

The Market Street Crafts market for some unique gift ideas by local artisans.

Glouster Avenue on Monday Nights for street parties and lots of locals

Best clubs for nightime:

The Pier, Margaritaville, Houseboat Grill, Coral Cliff Gaming Room, Witches Nightclub

I hope this helps a little. I'm more familiar with Ocho Rios than MoBay.

:-)

There are a variety of daytrips you can take from Montego Bay, assuming you are staying at a resort, there are people there that can help you. Snorkeling cruises are a lot of fun, you can do one of the booze cruises (snorkel, then drink), they usually stop at Margaritaville.

We've hired a private guide on a couple of occasions, I thought the Appleton Rum Factory was interesting, we went down along the south coast and swam with a manatee, all of the falls are nice-YS, Mayfield and Dunn's River, Dunn's is the most crowded and commercialized. I've written up most of our daytrips and put them somewhere on my Jamaica pages. You might also think about going to Negril for the day, the nicest beaches are in that part of Jamaica.

Can't help with the food, I'm not overly fond of jerk flavoring and the one time we did go off resort and have dinner at a recommended place, I just wasn't impressed. You can see some of the recommendations from Frommers and Fodors online

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/jamaica/93_inddin.html

http://www.fodors.com/world/caribbean/jamaica/restaurants-nam_loc:262140.html

I don't wish to unduly concern you, but in MoBay, the local advice is not to venture too far off the "Hip Strip" especially at night. The Hip Strip is essentially a portion of the seafront where most of the tourist places are. It is well patrolled by the JCF (police).

I worked in MoBay a few years ago, so didn't really daytrip much. However, in response to previous replies, I would avaoid Margaritaville, I found it an absolutely awful place and even composed a tourist trap tip to that effect.

Negril beaches are nicer than MoBay.

For restaurants there was an unnamed jerk restaurant which seemed to be popular with locals. If you stood with your back to Margaritaville, turn right and it was about 400 yards down there on the other side of the road.

Hope this assists,

fergy.

I've never been to Margaritaville at night, being married and frugal (some might even say cheap), I don't tend to drink off the resort since I'm already paying for it at the AI. But the booze cruise stops there during the day, you can use the slide and the trampolines and not drink there unless you choose to.

The one thing I did like off the resort was patties, I believe we stopped at a place called Juicy Patty. But I could only eat so much of it, at some point the jerk spices kill my taste buds.

You will find many things to do in Montego Bay. If you are a foodie check out Jerkies at fairview shopping centre. Here you will find authentic Jamaican jerk chicken,jerk pork among other foods that locals enjoy. On friday nights there is a all you can eat seafood buffet on the Doctor's Cave Beach.

The famous Hip Strip has lots of restaurants, pubs, bars and shopping. Here you can find many things to do during the day or night time.
A day trip to Negril or Ocho Rios is well advise as both places have day time entertainment.

www.bestjamaica.com/montego-bay-vacation.html