How to travel to Jamaica - Travel ideas in Jamaica

Jamaica, land of freedom, reggae music, Caribbean sea, huge beaches of white sand and ganja.

Jamaica is a small island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, considered dangerous by most although in my experience it is anything but. Or rather, take the usual travel precautions to avoid dangers and you can be sure that you will literally lose your head over this small island where Jamaican Attitude is an integral part of an extremely interesting society.
Saying that I fell in love with it doesn’t quite explain what I felt during my weeks of travel. Jamaica is a place where it is easy to get caught up in her rhythms, slow but still punctuated by this background music which if not Bob Marley it’s close.

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I think considering Jamaica a country for backpackers is risky because it isn’t. There are not many hostels, the expense is considerable especially when compared to that in the Central American countries and although there are means of transport between the various main destinations (Negril-Montego bay, Montego Bay – Kingston etc) the journeys in many cases are very long despite the rather small size of the island.
I believe that on balance Jamaica is as big as Sicily, from Montego Bay to Kingston it takes 4 hours by car, the same time it would take from Messina to Palermo.

Apart from the large trips between Montego Bay-Negril, Montego Bay-Kingston which are rather agile and smooth with local minibuses, if you want to reach all the other tourist destinations, such as Eight rivers o YS Falls just to name a few, these journeys really take a long time. More time would be spent on the vehicles than at the destination.

For this reason my advice is to pay for a taxi for the days and have a driver take you wherever you want.
Although alone I was lucky enough to meet a Canadian girl during my stay in Negril with whom I went on excursions and with whom I hired a taxi driver for a few days, the best I’ve ever had: WAWA.
In reality his name is Denis but his nickname, as everyone has it in Jamaica, is Wawa and so we called him too.
A silent and kind man, who even with the fever drove us up and down the island, offering us food and giving me the mangoes that I wanted so much and couldn’t find (it wasn’t in season). The only Jamaican I’ve met who doesn’t smoke weed btw. No red eyes and slurred speech… just a few words but always wise and at the right time.

From Negril we went one day to the waterfalls of Eight rivers an experience that I recommend having given the fun climb and another day at YS Falls other heavenly waterfalls, and we took the tour in Black river the river where there are crocodiles and you go on a boat safari in the middle of the Jamaican forest.
If you ask the driver, who I hope is WAWA for you too, you can also stop at a ganja farm and see how it is grown and find out more about this tradition (which is ILLEGAL so be careful what you do and where) by speaking directly to the Rastaman who takes care of it.

I visited two of them and discovered what being a true Rasta means and new notions unknown to me about this religion (Rasta o Rastafari), because it is a religion, coming from Africa.
The tours took two full days leaving in the morning at 9am and returning in the evening.

We negotiated the prices so that we paid $25 each per day, $50 per day for the taxi.
Alternatively, if you are alone and believe that taxi costs are excessive, you can take part in one of the many organized tours.

Thanks to Wawa I ate coconut jelly for the first time and typical local food in some restaurants where I’m sure the tourist bus will never stop you.

So if you are lucky enough to go to Jamaica for a few weeks and want to discover it without having to change accommodation every 3 days and you find yourself in Negril with its 11 mile beach, organize your excursions with a taxi. You will be much more free, independent and the costs are equivalent (or perhaps even cost a little less) to those of organized tours.

Most tours depart from Montego Bay rather than Negril, especially if you want to go to Ocho Rios and rafting e Nine Mile (Bob Marley experience).