Dunn’s River Falls
A Brief Background
When I first arrived to United States back in April 1998, I moved to Astoria, Queens, NY (and I still live here 🙂 ). One day I walked to a nearby public library on Broadway and Steinway Street to inquire about their computer classes. The librarian told me they did not have that class in this branch, but they had it in Jamaica. Hearing that my jaw dropped. I asked her with surprise, “What! I have to go all the way to Jamaica to take some computer courses!!!” The librarian realizing what I was referring to, she corrected me with a smile, “There is a place called Jamaica in Queens. I am talking about that Jamaica, and not the country Jamaica.”
The Trip
Fast forward to 20 years and 7 months later, one fine morning I suddenly realized that I had a four-day weekend over thanksgiving 2018. This would be my first trip outside the country since Acangua Expedition back in January 2018! I booked the flight exactly a week prior to departure date. I tried to convince a few of my friends to join me, but nobody wanted to go. So, I decided to just go on my own. I was flying in to and out from Kingston.
After several days of research, I was able to come up with a rough itinerary of the things to do in Jamaica. Based on that, I made lodging arrangements at Deez Bed and Breakfast in Kingston for the first night and for the last night, two nights in Sunrise Club Hotel in Negril, and one night at a Bed and Breakfast in Ocho Rios.
Transportation:
Jamaica does not have passenger train service. So at first I was looking at the express bus services to travel between major cities. But the problem with that was that I would have to hire taxi for every place I wanted to go to after I would get off from the bus. It seemed like too much trouble. That’s when I started looking at car rental option. I was not considering it at first for a few reasons:
- They drive on the left side of the road, I had so far only driven on the right side of the road.
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I didn’t know the road condition there, or how people drove there, etc. But most importantly, I was not sure how I would feel driving on the left.
But after looking at a few things that I really wanted to do there, it made more sense to rent a car as those places were far out of the main cities or roads. I was not just going to lay in beach for four days. I wanted to explore! So, I ended up making a reservation for a car rental despite my friends and family telling me not to.
Anyway, I will post more details of the things that I did in four days on separate posts, but here is the basic list of places I visited while I was there:
A Rough Driving Route in Jamaica (not every stop is included here)
Day by Day Activities:
Day 1: Early morning arrival in Kingston, pickup rental car, check in to Deez Bed & Breakfast at 4 a.m., get a few hours of sleep before start driving:
From Kingston –> Milk River Hotel & Spa in Milk River –> YS Falls in Saint Elizabeth Parish –> Sunrise Club Hotel in Negril.
Day 2:Â I ended up sleeping in (it was much needed). After breakfast, I went to the world famous:
Seven Mile Beach: laying, relaxing, and swimming at the beach all day –> did some horseback riding at the beach –> went to Rick’s Cafe in the evening, got some dinner there while watching the sunset and listening to live music (no drinks as I was driving) –> back at the hotel that had an onsite bar and restaurant and also had live music going. So I listened to live reggae music with some Jamaican drinks.
Day 3: Drove from Sunrise Club Hotel in Negril –> Rose Hall Great House in Montego Bay –> Martha Brae Rafting Village –> Dunn’s River Falls & Park in Ocho Rios –> Dinner at Miss T’s in downtown Ocho Rios –> my lodging for the night at Pink Rock Inn.
Day 4: After breakfast, drove from my hotel –> Cool Blue Hole in Ocho Rios –> drove back to Kingston –> Rockfort Mineral Spa (Bath) –> Emancipation Park. At the park, there was a Christmas event going on organized by the Dept of Education –> Dinner at a cafe style restaurant nearby –> Ice cream –> Check into the Deez Bed & Breakfast at 8 PM to get a few hours of sleep before driving to the airport for an early morning flight back that was leaving at 3 a.m..
More details of my day by day itinerary will be added later. That’s it for now. 🙂
