Famed as the site where Christopher Columbus landed in 1494, St. Ann’s Bay is a small village on the north coast of Jamaica. It’s the birthplace of political activist Marcus Garvey and musicians Burning Spear and Floyd Lloyd and serves as an important export point for the region’s agricultural produce.

Stroll through the centre of St. Ann’s Bay to see the statues dedicated to Christopher Columbus and Marcus Garvey and learn about the fort-like prison established here in 1750. To the west of St. Ann’s Bay’s is historic Cardiff Hall, a former plantation house owned by the Blagrove family and named after the Welsh capital.

If you drive in the other direction from St. Ann’s Bay, you’ll arrive at Dunn's River Falls. It’s one of the most famous waterfalls in Jamaica and cascades down a series of terraces into idyllic swimming pools. Eventually, the falls tumble into the Caribbean Sea at one end of a picture-perfect white sand beach.

Getting there

St. Ann’s Bay is around an hour’s drive from Kingston and 1.5 hours from Norman Manley International Airport. Regular buses connect to St. Ann’s Bay while the village is small enough to explore on foot.