Help with tour in Ocho Rios

[adriennerm]

DH and I are looking for a relaxing tour of Ocho Rios. We are scheduled to be there 7:30a-2:30p ship time. I believe I found a nice tour, but I need some help. I will post the description below. Please tell me what Spice Mountain is. Also how do you feel about the sampling local fruit. I know this should be in the Jamaica forum, but it's dead over there.

 

"Our Ocho Rios Highlights/Sightseeing tour includes Fern Gully, Wassi Art Pottery, Spice Mountain, a drive through the Local Village and Shaw Park look out, which is quite picturesque. Shaw Park look out is situated above the town of Ocho Rios, which give you a great view of the entire town. On this adventure tour it gives you the chance to see how the natives live and go about their day to day activities. You will be given the opportunity to taste a variety of local fruits which are in season at the time, as we share our warm Island hospitality with you. "

 

We also take you the shopping area before returning you to your cruise ship or hotel

[Unknotted]

I would do that tour in a heartbeat. As far as local fruit, I've eaten them on several cruises and believe me, if they are ripe you will never taste better ones coming from your local grocery store. Anyway...that tour sounds great! Spice Mountain is a mountain/hill where you can see the ocean and the views there are awesome. There's a winding little road up there and some villages along the way. It's really pretty.

[David-n-Rita]

DH and I are looking for a relaxing tour of Ocho Rios. We are scheduled to be there 7:30a-2:30p ship time. I believe I found a nice tour, but I need some help. I will post the description below. Please tell me what Spice Mountain is. Also how do you feel about the sampling local fruit. I know this should be in the Jamaica forum, but it's dead over there.

 

"Our Ocho Rios Highlights/Sightseeing tour includes Fern Gully, Wassi Art Pottery, Spice Mountain, a drive through the Local Village and Shaw Park look out, which is quite picturesque. Shaw Park look out is situated above the town of Ocho Rios, which give you a great view of the entire town. On this adventure tour it gives you the chance to see how the natives live and go about their day to day activities. You will be given the opportunity to taste a variety of local fruits which are in season at the time, as we share our warm Island hospitality with you. "

 

We also take you the shopping area before returning you to your cruise ship or hotel

 

 

I am not familiar with the other places but we ended up on Shaw beach on a tour once. It is a dump. The bathrooms were filthy and it was filled with locals pushing their wares on you. They outnumbered tourists and the entire time we were there, they were constantly at our chairs and very pushy. The beach has a small canal type thing that leads from the beach up into the land, not sure how far but it it became wider and the other side from the beach was all squatters shacks were these locals lived. Down the beach farther (quite a distance, the land jutted out and they had a resort there - and a nude beach)

It was not a nice place and we did not feel particularly safe there, we felt rather that we were lead there to this beach for a captive audience. I would not have felt comfortable if I had young children there.

 

Skip Shaw Beach, the other places are probably fine

[Unknotted]

Yes, I guess I forgot to mention that this tour will definitely show you the poorer side of Jamaica, which is not very nice...but the island itself has some beautiful qualities and I still stand by my opinion that it's a nice tour.

[LynnAnne]

DD and I did the cool runnings catermaran and DunnsRiver Falls and had great fun, so much that DH and I will do it in Feb

[sturderick]

I agree that this is a nice tour if you want to see the island. Very pretty and it's interesting to see how another cultures lives. As poor as they are, their children all wear uniforms to school and look immaculate! I loved seeing the island this way.

[van buren girl]

my husband and i did bamboo beach club you can try several kinds of jamaican foods and drinks as much as you want on a beautiful beach and watch dancers perform or if you want dance with them

[Anyislandwilldo]

If you go to Shaw Park, it's a very beautiful park. Very lush with lots of flowers and fauna. There is even a waterfall in the park where you can have your picture taken. We did a land based vacation years ago and had a private guide through the park. He explained what all the different types of flowers were. There is a look out section overlooking the ocean and I believe there was a cannon near by. there we also bougenvilla (sp) bushes there which created a nice area to have a picture taken with the ocean in the back ground as well. I know we were several feet up over looking the town of Ocho Rios. I would definately recommmend this to anyone. There weren't any vendors there that I remember. But that could have changed over the years. Enjoy your cruise!

[Beachlover76]

I went to Ocho Rios on our first cruise and we booked a day trip with Phil Layfayette in Ocho Rios. He was the best tour guide EVER.....We were completely safe and he knew everything about his glorious jamaica...Always go with Phil Layfayette

[sturderick]

I went to Ocho Rios on our first cruise and we booked a day trip with Phil Layfayette in Ocho Rios. He was the best tour guide EVER.....We were completely safe and he knew everything about his glorious jamaica...Always go with Phil Layfayette

 

We booked with Phil as well and he is excellent. I highly recommend him.

[momonthego17]

We booked with Phil as well and he is excellent. I highly recommend him.

 

We did a tour with Phil as well and he was wonderful! He took us into Dunns River falls and climbed the falls with a guide. Then he picked us up and we toured through Ocho Rios neighborhoods seeing the rich and not so rich. Saw a school with children holding class outside, uniforms and all. He drove us up to a very jungley spot where vendors were, but our bus decided not to stop. When he dropped others off at the port we asked Phil if he could take us to a local lunch spot for jerk chicken. He took us to Scotchies where we had a yummy lunch and later found the restaurant featured on Food Network!

 

Phil is a gem!

[Koval]

When we went to OR, we went with Pete Taylor tours, they were wonderful also...Pete Jr. was our tour guide...

So it sounds like if you are going with Pete or Phil, you will be very pleased with your time in Jamaica...

[mrsjetpup]

DH and I are looking for a relaxing tour of Ocho Rios. We are scheduled to be there 7:30a-2:30p ship time. I believe I found a nice tour, but I need some help. I will post the description below. Please tell me what Spice Mountain is. Also how do you feel about the sampling local fruit. I know this should be in the Jamaica forum, but it's dead over there.

 

"Our Ocho Rios Highlights/Sightseeing tour includes Fern Gully, Wassi Art Pottery, Spice Mountain, a drive through the Local Village and Shaw Park look out, which is quite picturesque. Shaw Park look out is situated above the town of Ocho Rios, which give you a great view of the entire town. On this adventure tour it gives you the chance to see how the natives live and go about their day to day activities. You will be given the opportunity to taste a variety of local fruits which are in season at the time, as we share our warm Island hospitality with you. "

 

We also take you the shopping area before returning you to your cruise ship or hotel

 

Can you tell me who this tour is with? My family is looking for something similar when we are there in December. Thanks!