DESTINATIONS — CARIBBEAN
Seven Mile Beach EAT LIKE A LOCAL
Hotels often pride themselves on having a wide range of international cuisines on offer, but it’d be a crime to come to the Caribbean without sampling some delicious local dishes. Even the laziest of
clients can have a go – one of the highlights of my visit to Sandals Negril was a stop at
the mobile jerk truck that trundles along the beachfront, dispensing piping hot and mildly spiced chicken in baskets. Nothing feels more fitting than sampling seafood within spitting
strangers are welcomed with open arms. Farming and fishing are still the focus in this area, so tourism is small scale and personal. I’m told that this
area is how Jamaica used to be, and there’s certainly an old-fashioned welcome on offer in the boutique hotels, restaurants and bars, and at the community tourism initiatives, which include the Treasure Hunt Craft Shop, showcasing local talents, and a vast sports centre funded by Breds, the area’s community charitable foundation. I spent a Saturday there, watching kids from
more than 50 schools competing in track races during the day – I may well have spotted the next Usain Bolt or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – and in the evening cheering on competitors in a five-a-side football tournament. The whole town turned out to watch, and every so often, someone would amble over and chat to me over a Red Stripe. Creating interaction
between tourists and locals is
probably the trickiest challenge for any destination – the minute it feels forced, patronising or inauthentic, it’s a failure. But get it right and it’s gold dust. My most vivid memories of this sleepy corner of Jamaica don’t feature a sunlounger, despite the idyllic setting – they’re of the people I met. I can only hope some memory of me remains on the island too – otherwise there’ll be 64 five-year-olds in Negril struggling with the letter K. TW
Find out more:
visitjamaica.com
58 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 5 March 2015
distance of the ocean, so send clients to Cloggy’s on the Beach in Black River and Jack Sprat in Treasure Beach. The food is fantastic at both, and tellingly, when I visited the tables were just as full with locals as tourists. Jamaicans are proud of the quality of their food, whether it’s
served in a swanky restaurant or from a shack by the road. Some of my most memorable flavours came courtesy of my guide Oneil Smith, who stopped the car regularly to introduce me to his favourite stalls, selling everything from cold jelly coconut to the lip-smackingly- good peppered shrimp that is such a speciality of the southwest’s Middle Quarter. Pass on Oneil’s advice to clients – de-shell the prawns through the plastic bag they come in – that way you can avoid getting scotch bonnet all over your fingers!
FAST FACT Virgin Atlantic
flies to Montego Bay twice a week from Gatwick. Return economy fares start at £752
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