One Day Itinerary for a Fun Non-Touristy Day in Beautiful Jamaica

What do you do when you’ve already visited many of the top tourist locations and destinations in Jamaica? You spend the day exploring off the beaten path; visiting those non-touristy areas in Jamaica where visitors rarely go. The places where you can truly get to experience life in Jamaica and meet local Jamaican people.

Planning our off the beaten path day in Jamaica

Our visit to Jamaica last Spring was our third visit in recent years, fourth if you consider a trip many years ago when Caiden was just a baby. Because of this, we had already experienced the ‘must do’ tourist spots like Dunn’s River Falls.

While we tried to find new and exciting spots over the years, and we loved most of the places we explored, this year it was time to truly explore Jamaica off the beaten path.

Initially we had planned to do a day trip to the east coast of the island, around Portland Parish. We planned to visit a few beautiful non-touristy areas of Jamaica including Winnifred Beach, Reach Falls and Port Antonio.  While planning though, we realized that with Lucas’ car sickness issues, a three-hour drive each way was probably not a good idea. Instead, we opted to stay more local and visit a few off the beaten path non-touristy areas closer to Ocho Rios.

Our ultimate itinerary is a great full day option for any one staying in Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay or even Montego Bay, although the latter would have an extra hour or more of driving each way. If you follow this itinerary for your day, you’ll get to experience at least three wonderful non-touristy activities that will give you a chance to see a different side of Jamaica; a side tourists rarely get an opportunity to see.

How to get around Jamaica when exploring non-touristy areas

As we had no intention of driving in Jamaica (absolutely not for the faint of heart), we hired a guide for the day. Many initially think that the cost would be astronomical but in reality, that’s far from the truth. (check out our post, Why You Should Hire a Private Guide)

After lots of research and many emails, we decided to book with Riley Tours and we’re so glad we did. For less than $300, we met two amazing people and spent 9 hours exploring areas of Jamaica that most tourists never get to see. That worked out to less than $60 per person for the FULL day and we had full control of our itinerary.

Kemrod Riley, owner of Riley Tours, is super sweet and has the patience of a saint. I reached out to him many months in advance with our plan to visit Portland Parish. He checked into the status of all sights we wanted to visit and kept in regular contact with me during our planning. A few weeks before we left for Jamaica I did a complete turnaround. He handled our changes with grace and a smile. I guess that’s the reason many call him Smiley Riley!

One day itinerary for exploring off the beaten path on the north coast of Jamaica

Our day was great! We planned an early start at 7:30am and Kemrod arrived even earlier at our hotel. Our itinerary for the day included Brown’s Town Market, rafting on the White River and lunch with Keith’s Bamboo Crew, and a visit to Sun Valley Plantation. Kemrod made additional stops along the way showing us time and time again many things tourists don’t get a chance to see.

1. A Local Market

Once settled into our minivan, we went directly to visit the market in Brown’s Town.

Kemrod’s lovely fiancée Peeta joined us and brought us around the market, introducing us to new fruits and vegetables along the way. The vendors were incredibly welcoming!

Peeta helping while one of the vendor peels and slices fresh pineapple for us

We tasted several new fruits including naseberries.  Delish!

Sydney tasting some fresh watermelon

I loved the explanation on the wall as to when ackee is safe to eat. If it isn’t fully ripe, it is poisonous.

Ackee – Is it ripe enough to eat??

I also purchased freshly ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and wonderful chocolate balls. These chocolate balls are made with fresh cocoa seeds, nutmeg and cinnamon. They pounded with a mortar and pestle, rolled into a ball and dried until they are solid enough to be grated.

We were told that they’re grated into water and boiled along with cinnamon sticks or leaves. It’s sweetened with condensed milk and sugar and strained into a cup. A very special hot cocoa for Sundays, Christmas and other special occasions.

We’re saving them for Christmas!

2. A Small Family-Based Coffee Plantation

Once we finished at the market, we headed towards our next planned stop, but we had a little time so Kemrod and Peeta made a few surprise stops along the way. We also stopped along the roadside to enjoy the fantastic rural Jamaican views.

How pretty is this?!

Our first stop was a wonderful coffee plantation. Unfortunately, the coffee plantation owner wasn’t there but Kemrod and Peeta parked and told us all about the medicinal and edible plants we could see near the entrance.

Coffee beans!!

I think these are scotch bonnet peppers … I wish I took notes!

I really wish we had planned this stop in advance as I would have loved to have met the owner and heard all about how their coffee is grown. One of the places we had originally wanted to visit around Portland Parish was a Blue Mountain coffee plantation so this would have been nice.

3. The Home of Jamaican National Hero

En route, Kemrod made sure to point out the place where Marcus Garvey was born. Marcus Garvey is one of Jamaica’s national heroes.

4. An Old Plantation House

Our next stop was Liberty Hill Great House. It’s an old plantation house that looks over the Caribbean Sea.

Such a gorgeous view! Can you see the Caribbean Sea in the distance?

We didn’t visit the interior as the owner was not at home but the grounds keeper brought us around the outside and explained some of the history of this beautiful house.

The gardens were filled with beautiful flowers and for our first time, we were able to see cocoa pods or, in other words, chocolate!

Cocoa pods!

The grounds also had a few friends to meet

A goat!

Look at the size of that lizard!

5. River Rafting with Lunch Cooked on the Shore

Our next stop was the White River for bamboo rafting with Keith’s Bamboo Crew.  

I first read about Keith on a Facebook page. He’s a local Jamaican that used to work the beach and offer raft rides down the beach from one of the all-inclusive resorts near the White River.

He recently started his own Facebook page to offer raft rides and lunch to others and called his venture Keith’s Bamboo Crew. Very few people know about him or his new business. I called the phone number on his website. Our plan was a fire cooked meal by Keith on the shore of the river.

I mentioned it to Kemrod. While he had never brought people there before, he reached out to Keith long before our day trip. On arrival at the White River, Kemrod ensured we were going with the right people and met us an hour or so later at our lunch spot.

The river raft was a bit narrow for our family of five so John, Caiden and Lucas rode with Noel while Sydney and I rode with another great guy.

Rafting down the river with Noel

It took no time at all for us to arrive at the bend in the river where Keith had set up his cookery location. Keith welcomed us with open arms as if we were old friends.

We were sat at a large picnic table and immediately served an incredible array of food. Jerk fish, lobster, and jerk chicken had all been cooked on site over an open fire along with fried plantains and festival. The food was simply amazing!

After lunch, we splashed in the water for awhile until our rafters returned.

We then travelled down the White River to the beach and the kids were thrilled to all have a chance at ‘driving’ the raft.

We weren’t ready for the adventure to end but it was time to head back to our drop off point where Kemrod awaited.

6. A Real Family Owned Plantation

Before we knew it, we were off to St. Mary’s Parish for a visit to Sun Valley Plantation.

Sun Valley Plantation is operated by Brian and his mom Lorna. Brian was waiting for us when we arrived at the plantation. Today, Sun Valley is a family owned plantation that gives educational tours mostly to school children. On this particular day, we were the only ones there.

Brian provides the tours of the plantation while Lorna cooks lunch (we passed as we had already eaten) and explains the history of the plantation.

Lorna started by explaining the different fruit that are grown on the plantation and their importance to the Jamaican people.

Brian then brought us around the plantation, explaining the fruit and trees as we explored.

What an incredible wealth of knowledge Brian and his mom have! We were running short on energy but we could have easily spent an extra hour there to learn more about the history of the plantation.

7. A Local Grocery Store

One of our planned stops for the day was to visit a local grocery store in Ocho Rios. We also planned to buy some Jamaican patties on our way back to the resort.

Despite the fact that it was already 5:30p.m., Kemrod was more than willing to bring us. The children, however, were tired and were ready to head back to our resort so we didn’t make the stop.

We did visit a local grocery store the year before and it was wonderful. We were able to buy many local treats such as spices and plantain chips for a fraction of the cost that tourists are usually charged. It’s definitely a doable off the beaten path thing to do that can be added on to any day trip that you’ve planned.

Overall, our off the beaten path non-touristy day was a long but incredible day.

You can reach out to Kemrod Riley for a tour like this or another at Riley Tours.

If you’re looking for other ideas for things to do and places to see on Jamaica’s north shore, check out our blog post for 10 Unique and Fun Things to Do in Jamaica.

And please, don’t forget, Kemrod or any other guide or driver can bring you to visit a local school.

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