"Kingston" a Kingston Travel Page by morgr

Don't let the grim looking picture dissuade you, Jamaica, and indeed Kingston, is a wonderfull place. But this page is about Kingston, so lets talk about that.

Kingston is a far cry from the Jamaica of tourist brochures. Certainly you won't find in this city drunk American college kids on spring break or Euros tanning their teets. There are no sandy beaches to speak of, and the beaches that do exist are not inviting, rocky and polluted. You'll probably grow a third eye on your forhead and extra limbs if you do decide to swim here. Factor in Kingstons reputation as a rough, crime ridden city, and it's no wonder the tourist hordes tend to avoid the place. So, in turn, do the touts hassling tourists, making it, in my opinion, a much more relaxing atmosphere than the resort towns.

Despite Kingstons lack of beaches, there is plenty to do here to occupy you for, at the very least, 3 or 4 days. The Bob Marley museum being an essential stop on anyone visiting Kingstons itinerary. Also worthwhile are devon house, the national gallery, botanical gardens, tuff gong and culture yard amongst other possibilities. The best way, however and as with any city, to get a feel for Kingston is to just wander the streets. Despite what LP (AKA paranoid planet) may say, we ventered a small ways into trench town with no problems.

Kingston has a couple different faces to it. At one end is New Kingston, wich is cleaner (but not clean) and is probably where you will spend most of your time. This is the area that hosts all the big name hotels (I don't know wich ones specifically) and here you can find several nice local restaurants, as well as mcdonalds or KFC.

At the other end of the scale is the area of West Kingston, wich encapsulates the famed Trench Town, where Bob Marley grew up. Admittedly there is not much to see or do in this part of town, wich is very crime ridden and decrepid looking. You could visit tuff gong studio or the culture yard, a museum of sorts, set in a house Bob Marley grew up in. Though to a non-fan, neither would be terribly interesting.

While, as I mentioned above, I had no problems walking in Trench Town, if you do decide to go there, I would recomend catching a taxi strait to your destination. It is a rough looking community, and I certainly would not venture in after dark, so make sure to visit in early day, if at all.

As well, there are several day trips that could be made from Kingston. Probably the most obvious, and rightfully so, being Port Royal, an old pirate hangout. (YO-HO! YO-HO! A pirates life for me!) You can take a taxi or bus here, but by far a better way to get here is taking the ferry from downtown.

Other daytrip possibilities include Lime Cay island or Spanish Town, of wich really only the former is worth seeing.

I think I will go write to SOS foods now and inquire about the possibility of free bulk drinks and syrups for me in exchange for free advertisement for them here.