Montego Bay Jamaica

Montego Bay is a city that lies in St. James Parish on the northwest coast of Jamaica. It is fourth in population to Kingston, Portmore and Spanish Town with about 120,000 people.

The bay is surrounded by low mountains. Doctor's Cave Beach with clear turquoise waters is one of the most famous beaches on the island. Montego Bay is known for its duty free shopping and cruise line terminal at Free Port on a beautiful peninsula jutting into the bay. The name "Montego Bay" is believed to have originated as a corruption of the Spanish word manteca ("lard"), because during the Spanish period it was the port where lard, leather, and beef were exported.

The Sir Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay is Jamaica's largest airport. Air Jamaica and several American and British airlines are connecting the island with the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The southern U.S. cities of Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami are reached by nonstop flights in less than three hours.

Jamaica was a colony of Spain from 1511 until 1655 when Oliver Cromwell's Caribbean expedition, the Western Design, drove the Spanish from the island. Christopher Columbus, when he first visited the island in 1494, named the bay Golfo de Buen Tiempo ('Fair Weather Gulf').

Today, the city is known for its large regional hospital (Cornwall Regional Hospital), port facilities, second homes for numerous upper class Jamaicans from Kingston as well as Americans and Europeans, fine restaurants, and shopping. The coastland near Montego Bay is occupied by numerous tourist resorts, some newly built, some occupying the grounds of old sugar cane plantations with some of the original buildings and mill-works still standing. The most famous of these are the "White Witch's" Rose Hall and Tryall, both of which now feature world-class golf courses.