Jamaica sells you a beach. Go up the rivers instead.
Which Blue Hole trip actually lets you jump. What the Dunn’s River climb costs once transport is in. Whether the raft down the Martha Brae beats the one down the Great River. Reviews of every tour you can book on the island.
A falls day, a raft, a sunset on the cliffs, and one river in a rubber tube.
The four bookings a first week in Jamaica hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The falls dayBlue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-TripBlue Hole and Secret Falls in the morning, Dunn’s River after lunch. One minibus, both of the island’s famous climbs.
02The slow oneJamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus TransportationNinety minutes poled down the Martha Brae on a bamboo raft built for two. Nothing else on the island moves this slowly.
03The Negril nightNegril One Love Bus Bar CrawlA bus that stops at four West End bars and lands at the cliffs for the jump and the sunset.
04Feet upRiver Rapids Waterfalls Tubing and Beach Adventure with TransportA tube through the rapids with guides walking the shallows beside you, and a beach at the end of it.
Blue Hole, Dunn’s River, a bamboo raft or a rubber tube. Pick your water.
Jamaica’s limestone spine drops the rain back out through the north coast as rivers, and four completely different days out grew on them. Here is what each costs to board.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Blue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-Trip
Blue Hole and Secret FallsRope swing, ledge jumps and a stack of green pools.
Dunn’s River FallsSix hundred feet of terraces, climbed hand in hand.
Bamboo raftingOne raft, two seats, a man with a pole and no engine.
River tubingFeet up through the rapids, guides in the shallows.
All 159 river days on the island →
Six Jamaican towns, and the best day out from each.
The airport strip and its hip strip, the falls town, the sunset cliffs, the rafting parish, the capital under the Blue Mountains, and the quiet bay in between. Where you sleep decides most of what you can reach.
Negril runs on the reef by day and the cliff jump at seven.
The sand ends where the limestone starts, and everything worth doing in Negril hangs off that line. Glass bottoms and snorkel boats out to Booby Cay in the morning, horses in the surf at Bloody Bay, and the whole West End pointed west for the last twenty minutes of light.
Every Negril day out →
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Jamaica.
Every Jamaican tour we have reviewed →What the island actually books, in order, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego Bay
Travel from Montego Bay to Roaring River for a guided cultural adventure with Rastasafari Experience. Meet local guides such as Gilbert, Paul, Nick, or Ali, learn about coffee and Jamaican traditions, ride an ATV through farms and forest, swim in a mineral pool, visit a ganja field, taste tree-ripened fruit, and finish with a homemade lunch.
From · $164
Read our review →
2
Jamaica All-Access Adventure Pass at Ocean Outpost
from $163
3
Negril One Love Bus Bar Crawl
from $25
4
Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with Snorkeling
from $133
5
Blue Hole, Secret Falls, and Dunn’s River Falls Combo Day-Trip
from $125
6
Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Negril
from $164
7
Triple Action pack Combo (Blue Hole, Horse back riding and river tubing)
from $141
8
Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus Transportation
from $134
Three things that happen in Jamaica and nowhere else.
Beaches and boat trips exist all over the Caribbean. A bar built on a diving cliff, a massage given with a hot river stone, and a bay that lights up around your arms do not.
The Cliff at Rick’s
Rick’s Cafe is a bar with a thirty-five-foot limestone ledge attached, and the queue for the ledge starts long before the sun does anything. Locals go off the high tree, everyone else goes off the low platform, and the boats bob underneath waiting to pick out anyone who changes their mind halfway. The whole West End points the same way for the last twenty minutes of light.
- 1ATV Jungle Ride and Sunset at Rick’s Cafe from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 224 reviews
- 2Negril Seven Miles Beach Day and Rick’s Cafe Sunset Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 109 reviews
- 3ATV, Zipline, Horseback, Bamboo Rafting and Rick’s Cafe★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 107 reviews
The Limestone Foot Massage
It began as something raftsmen did for their passengers at the end of the Martha Brae run: a smooth river stone, warmed in the sun, worked over the soles of your feet while the raft is tied up. It costs almost nothing, it is usually bundled onto the rafting trip rather than sold alone, and nobody who has had one on a riverbank ever asks for a hotel spa again.
- 1Private Montego Bay Bamboo Rafting with Limestone Foot Massage★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 200 reviews
- 2Bamboo Rafting and Limestone Foot Massage on Lethe River Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 114 reviews
- 3Bamboo Rafting & Limestone Massage (Great River) Lethe★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 111 reviews
The Luminous Lagoon
Where the Martha Brae meets the sea at Falmouth, fresh water and salt water trap a bloom of microscopic organisms that flash when the water is disturbed. Boats go out after dark and people swim in it, and every arm stroke pulls a green streak through the water behind it. A bright moon washes the whole thing out, so the dark half of the month is the half to book.
- 1Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 419 reviews
- 2Mesmerizing Luminous Lagoon (Glistening Waters) Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 98 reviews
- 3Explore Montego Bay to Luminous LagoonGlistening Water Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 78 reviews
Jamaica’s back country is dirt track, cane field and river crossing.
Twenty minutes inland from any resort the tarmac gives up and the island turns into red mud, bamboo and hill farms. Quad bikes, buggies and horses are how most people see it, and half of them finish in the sea.
What a day out in Jamaica actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the island’s best mornings cost less than the taxi from the airport.
River entries, the rafting add-ons, hip-strip walks and the short hops out of the resort strips.
The full-day standards: the Blue Hole and Dunn’s River combos, catamarans, Nine Mile, the lagoon at night.
Private drivers for the whole day, the big combo runs, and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Four Jamaican bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast for the same afternoon. These four run on climb schedules, boat timetables, a distillery’s opening hours and the phase of the moon.
- 01Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with SnorkelingClimb parties leave in waves and the park fills the moment a ship berths at Ocho Rios. The early departures out of Montego Bay are the ones that beat it.
- 02Luminous Lagoon Night Tour from Montego BayThe glow is washed out by a bright moon, and the boats only run after dark. The dark half of the month is the half worth booking.
- 03Bob Marley’s Nine Mile Admission and Guided Tour from Montego BayNine Mile is visited on a guided ticket only, and the road in is an hour and a half of hill switchbacks. Nobody does it on a whim.
- 04NEGRIL CATAMARAN CRUISE Sunset Ricks Cafe Adults only ALL HOTELSThere is one sunset a day and the buses out of Montego Bay leave mid-afternoon to reach it. Miss the pickup and the cliff is a three-hour drive away.
Ocho Rios takes four thousand cruise passengers in a morning.
On a two-ship day the Dunn’s River terraces are shoulder to shoulder by ten and the Blue Hole car park is full behind them. The answer is the same either way: take the first departure of the day, or spend it on the water and the falls the ships never reach.
By place: north coast, west end and the capital
By kind of day: river, road, reef or rum
Montego Bay to Negril the long way, along the road everybody drives first.
The newest Jamaican tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Rocklands Bird Sanctuary and Montego Bay Highlights Tour from Falmouth
Read our review →
Dunn’s River Falls And Shopping Tour From Ocho Rios
Read our review →
Full Day ATV, Ricks Café, Beach and Shopping Tour from Montego Bay
Read our review →
Private Montego Bay Shopping Tour with Transportation
Read our review →
ATV and Jet Ski Options in Montego Bay with Transportation
Read our review →
Dreams Rose Hall Resort & Spa Montego Bay Airport Transfer
Read our review →
Round-trip Airport Transfer to Grand Palladium Resort & Spa
Read our review →
Airport Transfer to Breathless Montego Bay Resort & Spa
Read our review →
River Rapids River Tubing Adventure Tour from Falmouth
Read our review →
Luminous Lagoon Small Group Tour from Ocho Rios
Read our review →
Konoko Falls and Tropical Garden Tour from Ocho Rios
Read our review →