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The west coast
MontegoBay
Beyond the ordinary.
Where the city runs out, the road climbs, and the houses start looking north over the water.
The coastline west of Montego Bay, with catamarans at anchor. Photo: Supplied.
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Find your kind of Mobay
Eat, swim, stay, shop — and the barbers, mechanics and printers the city actually runs on.
A day in Montego Bay
Dawn, noon, six o'clock, and the small hours
One ordinary day in this city, in four parts. Press an hour.
The water is flat and nobody is on it
First light lands on the bay before the city is up. The sea at this hour is glass, the strip is empty, and the only people on the sand are the ones who swim every morning of their lives.
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Worth knowing
Five places, and what's actually true about them
The ghost story, the curative water, the queue for the jerk pan — sorted into what is documented and what is legend.
The beach a doctor made famous by swimming in it
A sheltered crescent off Gloucester Avenue with water clear enough to see your feet in. A private club beach, so there is an entrance fee, loungers, and somewhere to buy lunch. Go early: by midday in winter, when the ships are in, it fills.
- Gloucester Avenue
- Entrance fee
- Reef just offshore
The beach at Montego Bay. Just a Brazilian man from Brazil, CC BY 2.0.
Then & now
The same harbour, two and a half centuries apart
Montego Bay is three hundred years older than the hotels. Drag the handle.
Voices
What was actually said about this place
Not testimonials. Words really spoken or written about Montego Bay, with who said them and where you can check.
“I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.”
Recorded by a man who visited him in his cell before he was hanged in the square that now carries his name.
Read the piece →
“Bahía de Manteca — the Bay of Lard.”
The best-supported explanation of how Montego Bay got its name. There was never a Mr. Montego; there were wild hogs, and their rendered fat was shipped from here.
Read the piece →
“The water has healing properties.”
He swam at Doctor's Cave and said so in Britain. People came to bathe in curative water, and Montego Bay's life as a resort town effectively started there. Treat the cure as a story; the clear water is real.
Read the piece →
“The White Witch of Rosehall”
The ghost story sold on the Rose Hall tour comes from this novel. A woman named Annie Palmer did live there; the murders attached to her name belong to the book.
Read the piece →
For business owners
What changes when you claim it
Your business is probably on here already, with public facts and nothing else. Here is exactly what each step adds.
No photo yet
Scotchies
Eat & drink · Ironshore
Open-pit jerk cooked over pimento wood.
Your business is probably already here
We seeded well-known Montego Bay places with public facts only — the name, what it is, the area. No hours, no prices, nothing in your voice, and it says plainly that it's unclaimed. Free, and it stays free.
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Property & developments
Where Montego Bay is built
Eight areas, and they are nothing like each other. Read the area first, then look at what's listed in it.
What's happening
What's on in Mobay
This calendar is empty, and we’d rather say so than fill it with dates nobody can turn up to.
Events go up when an organiser sends them in or we can point at an official source. Putting something on? Tell us.
Submit an eventQuestions
Everything you might ask
One column for people coming to Montego Bay, one for the businesses in it.
If you're visiting
If you run a business here
So — when are you coming?
The beaches, the jerk, the history under the square and the music that runs till morning are all still here on an ordinary Tuesday. Start anywhere.
Dusk over the sea at Montego Bay. Blake Handley from Victoria, Canada, CC BY 2.0.