Hotels in Montego Bay

Montego Bay: Jamaica's Second City on the North Coast

Montego Bay sits on Jamaica's northwestern coast, roughly 190 km from Kingston by road. Known locally as MoBay, it has anchored Jamaican tourism since the 1950s, when the first jet-age visitors arrived at what is now Sangster International Airport — one of the Caribbean's busiest, handling over 4 million passengers annually. The city blends resort corridors with a working port, a commercial downtown, and hillside residential neighborhoods.

Where to Stay in Montego Bay

Accommodation clusters along two main zones. Hip Strip (Gloucester Avenue) runs parallel to Doctor's Cave Beach, a public beach credited with popularizing MoBay as a health resort in the 1920s. The Rose Hall corridor, 10 km east of the airport, holds large all-inclusive resorts adjacent to Rose Hall Great House, an 18th-century plantation manor open for tours. Budget guesthouses concentrate in the Canterbury and Mount Salem neighborhoods inland.

Practical Tips

• Getting there: Sangster International Airport receives direct flights from North America and the UK; downtown is a 10-minute taxi ride.
• Getting around: Route taxis run fixed fares along main roads; private transfers are standard for resort guests.
• Currency: The Jamaican dollar (JMD) is official; USD is widely accepted at hotels and tourist sites.
• Best timing: December to April is dry season; hurricane season runs June to November.