Kingston

Overview

Kingston's city life is among the best - and the worst - in the Caribbean. There are excellent restaurants, first class hotels and great shopping deals - try the Chelsea Galleries or the Sovereign Shopping Centre. The downtown streets are lined with hordes of street vendors known as 'higglers'. They have a style of commerce that is as uncomfortable as it is unwelcome. Kingston is not a shopper's paradise! The city has a few excellent museums, such as Devon House, the National Gallery, or the Arawak museum. Bob Marley fans are in luck. Kingston has the one and only Bob Marley Museum (Bob Marley was a Reggae legend who died of cancer at 36). Much of Jamaica seems to follow Bob's lifestyle, and the deadly influence of drugs on daily life has really been detrimental to the look and feel of Kingston over the last 25 years. Kingston is also the home of the Jamaica Campus of the University of the West Indies. The UWI campus hosts a virulent type of 'victim' academia, similar to that of Palestinian and African academia. North American and European travellers can expect vigorous and unpleasant verbal dustups with folks from this part of Kingston! In the harbour you can visit Fort Charles, one of about 24 forts that have protected Jamaica against invaders since 1655. Port Royal is the former pirate hangout, now restored as yacht moorage and, naturally, a bar. Historians will love the many historical sites in Kingston which have been restored...more

History

Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is located on the southeastern coast of the island. There are two major sections to this city: 'downtown' and 'uptown.' Kingston was for some time Jamaica's only city and is still the commercial and cultural capital. You will notice that the city is assigned the equivalent of zip codes, (Kingston 5, Kingston 10, etc.) which is a good representation of how truly large this city is, especially for an island such as Jamaica.