City overview

Jamaica is the Caribbean's third-largest island and its most culturally exuberant, a place of reggae, jerk cooking, waterfalls that spill straight into the sea and a mountain range that grows some of the world's most sought-after coffee. Visitors spread across Montego Bay and Rose Hall in the north-west, Negril's Seven Mile Beach, Ocho Rios on the north coast, the quiet east around Port Antonio and the wide-open south coast. Jews have lived on the island since the 1500s, and Jewish life today centres on Chabad of Jamaica in Montego Bay, which runs the island's only synagogue services, its only kosher restaurant and its Shabbos hospitality. Hurricane Melissa struck in October 2025 and the great majority of the island's hotels and attractions have since reopened.