After taking your snapshots there you can stroll through the gardens and admire the old bouganvillas and other plants. One lovely old specimen is a seventy year old banyan tree whose aerial roots have dropped to the ground and formed trunks of their own.

Once accompanying the gardens was the Shaw Park hotel. It has long since closed and been resurrected into the Shaw Park Beach Hotel down by the water. This hotel still retains a more European feel and is better for those trying to get away from that. The suites here are pricey but very nice with two bedrooms, a small kitchen, two baths, a living area, and a patio on the beach. Breakfast is included with suites. The regular rooms are quite nice too. Pleasant but not false Caribbean decor and a small patio come with most.

A great place to eat in town is the Jerk Centre. If you don't mind eating off a paper plate outdoors its is an ideal establishment to get a sampling of a famous Jamaican specialty. For more upper class cuisine The Almond Tree is nice and is well known for its presentation oriented dishes. A bit expensive for what it is though. There is a Burger King in town for the homesick. Just across the street from the home of the whopper is a craft market. Bring your best haggling skills.

The most fun excursion in Ocho Rios is Dunns River Falls where you can climb them for a fee. A beautiful drive is Fern Gully which is a sunken road that is home to hundreds of species of ferns. A note about Fern Gully: don't buy souvenirs from vendors here. They are unwittingly damaging this ecotreasure and need to be encouraged to move.