Explore Jamaica Carnival Extension

Over View

This trip is an opportunity to discover the real Jamaica, behind the resorts and cruise liners. By staying in smaller accommodation, we take you to the hidden corners of Jamaica, covering almost the entire island circuit as well as some of the inland’s beautiful mountainous areas. You’ll have plenty of time to swim in blue lagoons, sample delicious food and explore miles of white-sand beaches. End your trip with 4 nights at Kingston’s annual carnival, as the city comes alive in an explosion of music, colour and dancing. The stream of carnival parties and events culminates in a huge street parade, where the heavily costumed bands come together to dance and play along their route through the streets of Kingston.

Blue Mountains – See Jamaica’s wild side with hikes in the lush forest of the Blue Mountains National Park

Coastal beauty – Relax on Seven Mile Beach and swim in the turquoise waters at Frenchmen’s Cove

Tasty cuisine – Try authentic Jamaican Jerk, Rastafarian ‘Ital’ food and feast on tropical fruits, stews and curries

Itinerary

Day 1 Join trip in Port Royal

Arrive in Port Royal, just a short 15 minute drive from Kingston Airport and 45 minutes from the city of Kingston itself. Situated on the mouth of the Kingston Harbour, this unassuming village was once known throughout the Caribbean as ‘the richest and wickedest city in the world’, full of pirates, rum and debauchery. At its height, Port Royal was the capital of Jamaica and the busiest port in the Americas, when in 1692 an earthquake struck and devastated the city. The following tsunami and years of further earthquakes sunk much of the city and halted plans to rebuild. Nowadays it’s a sleepy village with an attraction for keen wreck divers and archaeologists.

Due to the number of evening flights into Kingston, your Leader plans to do the welcome meeting on the morning of day two, and will leave a message in reception with details on timings and everything else that you’ll need for the day. There are no activities planned today, so you are free to arrive in Kingston at any time. If you would like to receive a complimentary airport transfer today, you’ll need to arrive into Kingston’s International Airport (airport code: KIN), approximately a 15 minute drive from our hotel. Should you miss the meeting, your leader will inform you of any essential information as soon as you catch up.

If your flight arrives earlier in the day, you may wish to take a walk around the tiny village of Port Royal, or drink a Jamaican Red Stripe while taking in the Caribbean views. Alternatively, taxis to Kingston are easily organised by the hotel.

Day 2 Walking tour of Port Royal; visit Kingston

Port Royal is easy to explore on foot, with most of the key sites located within just one square mile. We’ll start at the 17th Century Fort Charles and continue to explore some of the historic corners of the town, trying to visualise how it may have felt to live here during its heyday.

In the late morning we’ll drive to Kingston, heading first towards the National Gallery of Jamaica. The museum showcases Jamaican art, and even has some artwork and artefacts that date from as early as the time of the Jamaican Taino people in 1000 AD. Most tourists don’t make it to Jamaica’s National Gallery – a sad fact given the amazing collection of local and historic artworks.

From here, we’ll drive to Devon House, the 19th Century home of George Stiebel, the first black millionaire in the Caribbean. It’s now a collection of local cafes and restaurants, and a good place for a lunch spot – as well as proudly serving some of the best ice cream in the Caribbean (well worth a try!). The rest of the afternoon is free to make the most of Jamaica’s capital city. Take a full guided city tour, learn to dance reggae and dancehall in a dance class, or visit Trench Town or Tuff Gong Studios, both entrenched in the musical legacy of Bob Marley.

We return to our hotel in Port Royal this evening.

Day 3 Visit the Bob Marley Museum; drive to the Blue Mountains

Our day begins with a visit to the Bob Marley museum in Kingston, situated in the colonial house where the legend of reggae lived from 1975. For anyone interested in music, the museum is a great look into the mind and inspiration of one of Jamaica’s most famous residents.

After our visit, we drive north out of the city on increasingly winding and unmarked roads, heading upwards into the Blue Mountains. Among coffee lovers, this place is known for its fine (and, when exported, expensive) single-origin coffee, and we’ll be stopping at a plantation to see what makes the coffee so impressive and tasty. We then continue to climb into the Blue Mountains National Park to our cabin accommodation at Holywell, where the lush, green countryside is a tranquil contrast to our stay near Kingston. The National Park is enormous, spanning four of Jamaica’s parishes and covering the eastern part of the island in breathtaking mountain scenery. There are lots of walking trails around our cabins and nature-lovers will be in their element, with endemic trees, flowers, birds and butterflies to discover. The cabins are simple, with two or three rooms in each, sleeping approximately four people per room, and shared facilities in each cabin. They are the perfect location from which to explore the Blue Mountains.

Day 4 Hike on nature trails; drive to Port Antonio

The morning we will walk on one of the nature trails around our cabins, soaking up the views of the forested mountains. These trails are short, varying from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, and can be steep in parts. This steepness pays off in a variety of ways, from looking up at canopies of Blue Mahoe, Jamaica’s national tree, to spotting the Giant Swallowtail, the largest butterfly in the New World and endemic to Jamaica, or hearing the sound of cascading water as a waterfall signals the end of the path. In the afternoon, we leave the mountains and descend to the northeast coast next to Port Antonio.

Day 5 Swim at the Blue Lagoon and Frenchmen’s Cove

We’ll drive to the Blue Lagoon this morning, one of those places where the name really does it justice. The water seems to fluctuate between bright turquoise, royal blue or a deep sapphire colour depending on where the light hits. We’ll have chance to swim in this special place before driving just 15 minutes down the coast to Frenchmen’s Cove, a gorgeous white-sand beach, sheltered in a secluded cove and backed by lush greenery.

We will be staying in Frenchmen’s Cove for lunch. The area around Port Antonio is known for being the home of Jerk – so it’s well worth trying a tasty plate of jerk pork or chicken today, washed down with a bottle of Jamaican Red Stripe.

After spending some hours here, we will continue our journey west up the coast to Montego Bay. Before arriving, we’ll head for dinner at one of Jamaica’s more unusual sites – the Luminous Lagoon. The name says it all – the lagoon becomes illuminated at night in an iridescent blue glow, by millions of tiny microorganisms called dinoflagellates. Jamaica is only one of a few places in the world that you can see this phenomenon, and during the evening you’ll have the opportunity to take a boat trip onto the lagoon if you wish. After dinner, we continue to our hotel in Montego Bay.

Day 6 Visit a Rastafari village; drive to Negril

Just outside of Montego Bay is one of the island’s many (but dwindling) Rastafari indigenous villages. During our morning visit we’ll get to grips with the Rasta lifestyle through learning about their music, lifestyle and spirituality as well as eating a delicious ‘ital’ lunch. Ital food is closely linked to Rastafari beliefs about vitality and purity – usually vegetarian or vegan, they use plenty of spices and natural ingredients to make delicious dishes like curries or stews.

After lunch we drive around the northwest coast to Negril, a small town with a wide reputation for some of the most beautiful coastline in Jamaica. As well as miles and miles of sandy beach, at one end of Negril we find clusters of high, craggy cliffs, jutting out over the water like spears. Perched high on one of these crags is Rick’s Cafe, which we’ll be visiting for sunset, one of the best on the island, as well as to watch the daring cliff divers who usually gather here to perfect their daredevil tricks.

Day 7 Free day in Negril; visit Seven Mile Beach

Today is free to enjoy everything that Negril has to offer. The long stretch of sand at Seven Mile Beach (in reality, it’s closer to five miles!) is perfect for a long walk, or just to swim or relax with a rum punch and a lunch of chicken or curried goat or a quick and tasty Jamaican patty. There are many restaurants and cafes down the length of the beach if you want to get away from the midday sun. Alternatively, if you’re interested in getting out on the water, scuba diving, snorkelling or glass-bottomed boat trips are all available.

Day 8 Drive to Accompong Maroon village via Appleton Rum Distillery

Our drive this morning takes us inland towards the rolling hills of Jamaica’s interior, and our first stop at the Appleton Estate Rum Distillery. In a beautiful countryside setting, the estate has been producing rum since the 1700s, and our tour today will show us how the sugar cane is magically transformed into Jamaica’s beautiful golden rum. We end the tour at the bar, where we will, of course, be sampling the goods!

Leaving the distillery, we drive slightly north into Jamaica’s mountainous interior, named Cockpit Country. There are some doubts around the name’s origin, but it is agreed that the area was dubbed ‘The Cockpits’ by British soldiers in the early 18th Century, as the mass of rounded, jungle-covered mountains that sink away sharply into steep-sided holes reminded the army of either (depending on your retelling of the story) the cock-fighting pits of Britain, or the round cockpits in man-of-war ships where their wounded were taken. Historically, the area is completely fascinating. Since the 1700s these mountains have been the home of Maroons (escaped or freed slaves), who fought off the British and were granted a treaty of relative autonomy within the region. Other New World slaves were not granted the same freedoms for another 100 years. Pockets of Maroon settlements still exist in Jamaica, and tonight we will be staying with one such community in Accompong, in their family homes. On our arrival we’ll visit the village and discover a bit more about these amazing people, their historical legacy and way of life (Accompong is extremely proud to have been crime-free for nearly 300 years!), before splitting off into our host families. Each family will host two people on a twin-share basis, and there are shared bathrooms. Meals are often communal between the entire village.

Day 9 Drive to Treasure Beach via YS Falls

Starting the day with a communal breakfast prepared by the villagers, we’ll begin our drive back towards the coast via the YS Falls. The falls have seven tiers, tumbling into natural pools and lush gardens. Some attempt to commercialise the area has been made, with a couple of man-made pools located away from the waterfalls, but the natural beauty of the falls is stunning. The more intrepid can swing off the vines into the natural pools, whereas others may choose to swim or just relax and check out the hummingbirds.

After a dip, we’ll set off towards Treasure Beach, a low-key community that isn’t a regular tourist hot spot. This afternoon is free to explore the town and its beach, or perhaps take a Jamaican cooking class and discover the secret of a true Jerk seasoning, learn to cook steamed fish and bammy (traditional cassava flatbread), or to prepare a lobster dish. Seafood is excellent in Treasure Beach, so it’s well worth tasting some of the local lobster or other catch at dinner this evening.

Day 10 Free day in Treasure Beach; visit the Pelican Bar or go dolphin spotting

There is plenty to explore in Treasure Beach, aside from the coastline itself. Just 1km offshore is the unusual Pelican Bar – a fantastic driftwood construction on a sandbank in the middle of the ocean, the wood all nailed together with a thatched roof plopped on top. Taxi boats are easily found. Alternatively, go dolphin spotting or take a boat ‘safari’ up the Black River, a swampy river home to the Jamaican crocodile and over 100 species of native bird. For those who prefer to stay on dry land, the local Treasure Beach Women’s Group do arts and crafts workshops, giving an interesting insight into Jamaican crafts.

Day 11 Drive from Treasure Beach to Kingston

We say goodbye to our fellow travellers this morning as we take our 2.5 hour drive to Kingston, and the rest of our group heads off to the airport. Once in Kingston, we have the rest of the afternoon to relax in preparation for our carnival parties over the next three days. You may wish to visit Trench Town, the government yard where Bob Marley grew up, or take a walk in Kingston Town where some carnival celebrations are already in swing.

You will have a Explore Leader with you during this extension, who will be on hand for any questions and recommendations.

Day 12 Free day in Kingston; Evening carnival party

We’re free to relax and explore some more of Kingston before heading out this evening to one of Kingston’s carnival parties. Make sure to bring some evening wear! Some of the revellers might be in costume (although the big feathery outfits are usually saved for the street parade) and certainly many will be wearing bright clothes, glittery make up etc. It’s not in the least formal, but an excuse to get dressed up Caribbean-style. The cost of the ticket includes performances by popular artists and drinks. Events normally go on until at least midnight – a transfer is arranged on a flexible basis, and you can discuss with the Explore Leader a time to be picked up.

Day 13 Breakfast and evening carnival parties

We’ve got two events in the diary today, starting with the Sunnation Breakfast Party. Jamaicans like to carry the carnival through all day, and the morning events are quite chilled out. Each event is in a different location, some private residences and others public, most of them all outside. At the breakfast party you’ll have food and drink while listening to music performances, usually the bouncy calypso-esque sounds of soca – guaranteed to give you Caribbean vibes!

After having the afternoon to nap or relax, we’ll head out again this evening to another event – depending on the schedule we plan to get tickets for the Frenchmen Bazodee party, but it may change when the 2019 carnival schedule is released. Again, the tickets include food (usually some Jamaican street food like tasty curried goat or BBQ pork), drink and performances. It’s a great time to people watch, and is a real taste of the Jamaican nightlife.

Day 14 Carnival day; watch thousands of costumed dancers in the annual road march

The carnival road march is the culmination of weeks of events and preparation – literally thousands of revellers, bands and costumed dancers marching through the streets. Some have steel pans, but most have DJs and artists up on trucks following behind, keeping the energy up with their dancehall and soca beats. We’ll dance on the side lines with the locals as the fantastically costumed participants move past us. Normally it starts around 11 and goes on until… close! After the parade it’s our last night in Kingston, so we’ll have dinner together this evening to celebrate the end of the carnival.

Day 15 Trip ends in Kingston

The trip ends after breakfast at our hotel in Kingston. There are no activities planned today, so you are free to depart from Kingston at any time. If your flight departs later in the day, luggage storage facilities are available at our hotel. Ify ou would like to receive a complimentary airport transfer today, you’ll need to depart from Kingston’s International Airport (airport code: KIN), which is approximately a 45 minute drive from our hotel.