Where to Stay in Port Antonio — Best Hotels & Areas

Luxury

Portland has the best hotel in eastern Jamaica and one of the most characterful in the Caribbean. Neither has a sand beach, and one of them has a great many steps.

Boutique

Portland is boutique country — this is where the parish is at its strongest, and where its eccentricity shows.

Budget & Value

Both of these are genuinely inexpensive and both come with terrain caveats. Read them before you book.

Family-friendly

Portland is unexpectedly good for a multi-generational group, because villas with kitchens and space to spread out are the local currency.

Adults-only

No hotel in Port Antonio is formally adults-only, and we are leaving this empty rather than pretending otherwise. Trident and Geejam skew heavily adult in atmosphere — both are small, quiet, grown-up hotels where you would be surprised to meet a toddler — and they are the practical answer if that is the feel you are after. But neither carries an adults-only policy, and a policy is what the word means. If you want a guaranteed adults-only or couples-only stay, that is a different coast: see our guides to Negril and Ocho Rios.

Pet-friendly

Empty, for the same reasons as everywhere else in Jamaica. Nothing in the main Port Antonio hotel set accepts pets; the pet-friendly directories list only a couple of small private guesthouses that we cannot responsibly recommend unseen. And the import barrier is worse here than anywhere: Jamaica requires a Ministry of Agriculture permit, an ISO microchip, a rabies titre test taken three to twelve months beforehand and an international health certificate, with up to fourteen days of possible quarantine — and pets may only enter the country at Kingston, which then leaves you a two-and-a-half-hour drive out to Portland with an unhappy animal. Board your pet at home.

Beachfront

This is where Portland delivers, and it is worth being precise, because the booking sites are not: most Port Antonio hotels are coastal-view rather than beachfront.

All-inclusive

Port Antonio has no true all-inclusive resort, and that is the point of the parish rather than a gap in it. Portland deliberately resisted the all-inclusive model that reshaped Ocho Rios and Negril from the 1980s onward, which is exactly why it is still green, still quiet and still full of small individual hotels. Several properties — Great Huts, Frenchman's Cove and Hotel Mocking Bird Hill among them — offer meal plans or half-board, and that is the closest thing available. Book a meal plan, and do not let a booking site sell you an 'all-inclusive' here, because there isn't one. If an all-inclusive week is what you want, see Ocho Rios or Negril — or do both, with a few nights in Portland at the end.

Spa & Pool

One polished, one remarkably good value. Both have the view.

What You Need to Know Before You Book

Getting here

From Kingston (KIN): roughly two to two and a half hours for about sixty miles, and about a hundred and thirty dollars each way by private taxi. From Montego Bay (MBJ): at least five hours over a hundred and thirty-four miles via the A1, A3 and A4. Fly into Kingston. The Kingston road climbs through the Blue Mountain foothills and then runs along a dramatic, largely undeveloped coast — genuinely one of the better drives in the Caribbean — but expect traffic through the towns, some badly broken surfaces, and bicycles, goats and pedestrians in every village. It winds throughout, so anyone prone to travel sickness should sit in front. Do not drive it after dark.

Getting about once you are here

You will need transport every day. JUTA taxis run about twenty to twenty-five dollars to San San Beach or the Blue Lagoon; minibuses are a couple of dollars but keep unpredictable hours, and the scheduled bus service is not a realistic option. A hire car is more defensible in Port Antonio than in Kingston — the roads are quiet and there are no neighbourhoods to blunder into — but for a visitor over sixty we would still take a regular local driver: the roads are narrow, unlit and potholed, and a good driver doubles as your guide and gets you to the jerk pits and the raft landing without a wrong turn. Arrange one for the week through your hotel.

What is walkable, and what is not

The town centre is walkable in daylight — the core around West Street, the Errol Flynn Marina and Musgrave Market is compact and flat, the marina is pleasant and safe to sit at, and there is far less hustle here than in Ocho Rios or Negril. Your hotel is almost certainly not walkable to anything: Drapers, San San, Fairy Hill and Boston Bay are spread over ten miles or more of hilly coast road with no pavements.

Meal plans, not all-inclusive

There is no all-inclusive resort in Portland. Great Huts, Frenchman’s Cove and Hotel Mocking Bird Hill offer meal plans or half-board, and given how spread out the hotels are and how much of a production dinner becomes without a car, a meal plan is often the sensible booking here even if you would not normally take one. Ask what is included before you arrive.

What to do, and how demanding each is

Blue Lagoon — best by boat, usually with Monkey Island; far easier on the body than clambering at the edge. Frenchman’s Cove — the gentlest and probably the loveliest, with shade, lawns, calm water and level access. Rio Grande rafting — two to three hours, passive and gentle once aboard, but getting on and off needs a step down and a hand up, and you are in the sun on a raised bench, so take a hat. Boston Bay jerk — twenty minutes east, informal, smoky, low effort and high reward; go for lunch and carry cash. Reach Falls — beautiful and far quieter than Dunn’s River, but this one is physical: wet rocks, uneven footing and guided climbing through the river. There is a viewing area if you would rather watch.

Money and health

Carry Jamaican dollars — Portland is much less dollarised than the resort coast, and the jerk pits, market stalls and route taxis are cash only. Tap water is safe. Medical facilities out here are limited and the good hospitals are back in Kingston, so travel insurance including medical evacuation matters more in Portland than it does at a north-coast resort.

Frequently Asked Questions