Montego Bay · Things to do

The town beach on Jimmy Cliff Boulevard, a bathing club since 1906 and still run as one, open daily 8:30am to 5:30pm. Admission is about US$8 for adults and US$4 for under-12s, which buys lifeguards, changing rooms and calm shallow water good for snorkelling.

The restored 18th-century plantation house on the coast road east of town, told through the legend of Annie Palmer, the so-called White Witch. Guided day tours run through the house and gardens, and there is a separate night tour if you want the ghost-story version; the estate also holds the Cinnamon Hill golf course and the house Johnny Cash owned from the early 1970s.

Three miles of river on a 30-foot bamboo raft poled by a licensed captain, about an hour and a quarter, run by the same operation since 1970 with roughly 85 captains on the books. The put-in is inland from Falmouth, about 40 minutes east of Montego Bay; book on +1 876-952-0889.

Adventure park west of town whose signature is a zipline that runs over the sea and drops you into it, alongside horseback rides into the water, ATV safaris and catamaran trips. The all-in Ocean Outpost Pass is US$163.90 per person and pickup from Montego Bay hotels is free, so it is a full day rather than a stop.

The protected water fronting the city — coral reef, mangroves and fish sanctuaries — managed by the Marine Park Trust, and the reason the snorkelling off the town beaches is worth the effort. Their site maps the zones and currently warns about lionfish, whose spines are venomous, so look and do not touch.