G’day folks! Today a little blog for you about the capital of the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, Kingston and the places I visited/saw whilst I was there. I’ll start by recommending fellow vlogger Rochelle’s book on sight seeing in Jamaica – Sightsee Jamaica (click on the link for the amazon page) for a comprehensive guide to all of Jamaica as a traveller. Rochelle’s website Adventures from Elle is also a fountain of information on this beautiful Caribbean island!

Kingston as a city is spread out, with the Blue Mountains in the background and the Caribbean Ocean to the south. There’s a peninsula that juts out to a place called Port Royal, which was once the capital but at the end of the 17^th century there was an earthquake followed by a tsunami and the place was mostly destroyed and submerged.

However, today you can take a bus out to Port Royal (which I did when I was visiting nearby Lime Cay, to be covered in another blog) and see/feel the chilled old world atmosphere there. There’s a few forts you can visit that survived/were partially restored, the main one being Fort Charles. For divers you can dive from there and see parts of the city that are surviving underwater.

Kingston then was the new capital, based on the island of Jamaica proper, surrounded by beautiful mountains. The metro population is just under 1.2 million, making it the most populous city in Jamaica. However, foreign visitors tend not to stay in Kingston. Many are on cruise ships, and often come to Kingston to check out the Bob Marley Museum and other features of the city. Others choose to fly in and out of Montego Bay in the north-east of the island. Me – well I knew someone in Kingston and so I didn’t think too hard about it and booked flights in and out of Kingston.

How did I find it? It’s attractively set up although the downtown, where generally it’s not recommended to spend a lot of time, is somewhat chaotic and not necessarily 100% safe. However, apart from a couple of museums and I guess potential the port, the highlights of this town are not downtown.

Transport is fun, but not fast in Kingston. Buses and ‘coasters’ – mini-buses for want of a better description, ply the streets and often beat out some loud tunes too. These will set you back a buck or two, they are not expensive (however I should mention that Jamaica is not a ‘cheap’ destination I guess), or uber is another decent alternative. Just be aware that at certain times of the day and especially downtown, traffic can be stalled a lot of the time. Also it helps greatly to have a local to ask questions of in navigating the coasters.

Anyways, in my time in Kingston I visited a few places, here they are:

Emancipation Park

This is a nice little park, not far from the downtown area, where there are some lawns and gardens and also a stage for performances. Although the park was opened in 2002, it is so named to commemorate the end to slavery in the Caribbean. There are two rows of busts/statues of heroes to that aim, and outside the park and an impressive statue called ‘Redemption Song’. I ended my first day of sightseeing there and it was nice to chill on the grass. I was told not to take photos with my DSLR there, although phone/action camera was okay.

Devon House

This historical colonial house was built in 1881 by George Stiebl, who was Jamaica’s first millionaire of African Descent. Today it’s large grounds are open to the public and regular guided tours are run. It’s wonderfully preserved and definitely worth visiting, the guides are cheerful and enthusiastic, video was not allowed inside (although I may have been sneaky once or twice). Behind the house are some more buildings including the Devon Bakery which has a great reputation.

Later on in the grounds I was told off for taking photos – which I was completely unaware was not allowed, and it was okay inside the house. I would definitely say that there are some unclear rules in Jamaica about the permissibility of taking film and photos.

Bob Marley Museum

Case in point, here at the Bob Marley Museum, inside the museum itself photos and filming is not allowed. Even if you are not a fan of Bob Marley, you really can’t miss this place, a lot of the cruise ships send their passengers here because this is pretty much the only place in Kingston I saw foreigners. The museum is inside, well it IS Bob Marley’s House and also his recording studios in the 1970s. And again it’s perfectly preserved. The tours run super frequently and are so popular that there are multiple tours going on at the same time. See the studios where he recorded, and more incredibly see bullet holes from the failed assassination attempt in 1976. Bob Marley was a political figure without ever being a politician. And you learn a lot on this tour about Jamaican history. There is also ‘Marley Natural’ on site if you are looking for something to smoke.

Hope Botanical Park

This park was kinda cool and I wandered if for a couple of hours on my last day in Kingston. Loads of mango trees and mangoes on the ground too, families come to gather here. There was a concert in preparation on the grounds – Romaine Virgo was rehearsing and I could just pass through the entrance and watch which was very cool.

I had earlier gone up the hills to a place Google listed as ‘Skyline Lookout’. It was really just a spot on the side of the road that admittedly afforded great views across Jamaica. There was I think a stone seat there. I’d taken an uber up, I think this was the start of the Blue Mountains, and then I was going to walk back down. Well, that was going to be a long walk and it was hot and humid, in the end I walked halfway down and then hitched a ride it was very cool.

That was the extent of the specific sites I visited I guess, but I will be doing a separate blog for Lime Cay and then one for Dunns’ River Falls (which is definitely not Kingston, the falls are in the north of Jamaica). I was there six days and it’s amazing how six days are just not as much as you think. One day arriving, one day it rained, one day sight seeing, day trip to Dunns River, day trip to Lime Cay, last day spent a couple of hours out and about before returning to pack and prepare to move on. Gone in an instant!

Thanks for popping by today! More Jamaica-y goodness will be incoming! Take care and May the Journey Never End!