Jamaica
Jamaica Holiday
Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean, famous for its laid back pace of living is an ideal place to relax and unwind.
The powder soft beaches, blue waters, lush green mountains and shimmering waterfalls will have you convinced you're in paradise. If you are looking for action after lazing on a golden beach, try an exhilarating raft trip down the Rio Grande or climb Dunns River Falls. Watersports too are popular, with the colorful sea life and clear waters providing excellent conditions for snorkeling or scuba diving.
The range of all inclusive holidays enables you to take advantage of the wonderful array of food and drink, nightly entertainment and unlimited watersports on this island.
The earliest testimonial to Jamaica's reputation as a prime vacation land was given in 1494, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island. He described it as "the fairest land that eyes have beheld".
Jamaica is the third-largest Caribbean island after Cuba and Hispaniola, 233 km (145 miles) in length and 82 km (51 miles) at its maximum width. Today's more than 2 million Jamaicans are a rich cultural and racial mix, bringing together strands of African and European culture along with Arab, Chinese and Indian influences; they underline the truth of the motto: "Out of many races, one people".
The capital is Kingston, situated on the south coast. If the island is mostly an exotic paradise of sighing breezes, swaying palms and turquoise seas, not so its capital, which is neither pretty nor charming, but everything you would expect a busy Caribbean port city to be-crowded, lively, and occasionally even aggressive.
The city throbs to the sound of reggae and calypso. Rastafarian men stroll by with their hair twisted into dreadlocks, while the women wear long, colourful skirts and cover their heads. Exotic smells fill the air, which hums with the song of the island's 200 species of birds. And ever present in the distance are the Blue Mountains wreathed with trailing mists.
Kingston was founded by survivors of the Port Royal earthquake of 1692. It soon expanded and took over Port Royal's role as the seat of trade and principal Jamaican port. Despite frequent damage from earthquakes and fire over its 300 years of development, Kingston still boasts some fine colonial-style buildings-relics of a bygone era.