Portland Parish: Jamaica's Wild Coast

The drive east from Kingston climbs through pine ridges, drops over the crest into banana country, and hits the north coast at Buff Bay. From there to Port Antonio the road narrows, the sea shows up on your left, and the parish announces itself in specific sensory terms — a wall of pimento smoke from a jerk pit, the smell of wet ferns, the sound of a waterfall you cannot see yet.

Portland Jamaica is the parish locals cite when you ask them their favorite. It is also the parish that never quite breaks through to mainstream tourism, partly because it is a three-hour drive from either airport and partly because the weather is less predictable than the north-coast marketing departments prefer.

Why Portland is different

This is the wet side of the island. Annual rainfall on the eastern ridges tops 200 inches in places — twice the national average. That rain produces the waterfalls, the rivers, the jungle canopy, and the impossibly green farmland that make Portland photograph like Costa Rica more than like the Caribbean.

It also produces a different tourism pace. There is no Hip Strip here. Port Antonio is a small town of 15,000, the resorts are small and eccentric, and dinner reservations are mostly unnecessary. The rhythm is slower than Negril, more coherent than Ocho Rios, and closer to what rural Jamaica actually feels like.

What to do

Reach Falls in the rainforest inland from Manchioneal — three tiers, a jungle hike, far fewer crowds than Dunn's River. The Blue Lagoon, 180 feet deep and the color of stained glass. Rio Grande bamboo rafting down a lazy jungle river led by a raft captain who will point out edible plants. Winnifred Beach, the last major public beach in Jamaica that successfully fought off private development.

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Portland is the Jamaica the rest of the island is pretending to be. No strip, no cruise port, no brochure. Just the coast and the rain and the people who stayed.

— — Andre Bennett, Senior Editor

Boston Bay and the jerk

• 01Boston Bay — the literal birthplace of jerk, pimento wood pits, a roadside scene, not a restaurant
• 02Try at least two stands — every pit master has a different spice paste
• 03Go early in the afternoon, not after 6pm when the best cuts have already sold out
• 04Order the pork shoulder if it is available — the chicken gets more press, the pork is better
• 05Pair with festival bread and bammy, never with ketchup

Portland's jerk tradition is not a tourist pitch. It is a 300-year-old cooking method that started with Maroons smoking wild boar to preserve it in the hills. The Boston Bay pits are its cathedral, and a lunch there is the single best food hour on the island for most people who try it.

Beyond the food and the water, Portland is a hiking parish. Trails run into the John Crow Mountains, up to the Nanny Falls above Moore Town, and along the undeveloped stretches of coast between Long Bay and Manchioneal. Bring waterproof shoes. Expect to get wet.

Practical notes

Fly into Kingston (KIN) and drive 2.5 hours over the mountains, or Montego Bay (MBJ) and drive 4 hours along the coast. Port Antonio is the base for most trips. Rates are reasonable — boutique guesthouses run $120 to $220, the Trident and the GeeJam are the high-end exceptions at $500+ per night. Weather risk is real in September and October; February through April is the sweet spot.

Portland Jamaica is where long-time Jamaica travelers eventually go back. Our Portland experiences at /explore — Rio Grande rafting, Boston Bay jerk, Reach Falls — are the short list a Jamaican would send their own visiting cousin.