Port Antonio

Portland is Jamaica at its most pristine and least commercial — the parish that Hollywood discovered in the 1940s and locals have quietly protected ever since. Errol Flynn built his home here; Robin Moore wrote here; today's visitors come for the same reason: rainforest, waterfalls, and coves that feel like private discoveries.

The Blue Lagoon is the headline — a 200-foot-deep, spring-fed cove where cold mountain water swirls with warm Caribbean sea, creating shifting ribbons of turquoise and sapphire. Nearby, Frenchman's Cove and Winnifred Beach deliver postcard sand without the crowds, while Reach Falls, deep in the rainforest, is the most beautiful waterfall on the island.

Inland, the Rio Grande winds down from the Blue Mountains — the original bamboo rafting river, still poled by boatmen the way Errol Flynn pioneered eighty years ago. Portland is the Jamaica for travellers who want fewer resorts and more river, more rainforest, and more of the island's original quiet.