In Jamaica, luxury can come from a colonial-style canopy bed frame or an outdoor shower; from over-the-top pampering or warm hospitality; from a champagne flute garnished with sugar cane or a private drive to a roadside jerk chicken shack. We've searched the island for the best hotels and slept in their high-thread-count linens, and these are the few hotels that truly live up to their promised elegance or refined, natural beauty.
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1.
Half Moon
- Average Price: $294/avg. night
- Pearls: Rating: 4.5 Pearls
- Location: Montego Bay, Jamaica
Drawing everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to rapper 50 Cent, Half Moon strives for timeless, understated luxury (even at the swim-up bar). Stretching over 400 acres (including two miles of beach), the 400-room all-inclusive resort brings attentive service, exceptional cuisine, and an unbeatable list of features, ranging from its own golf course to horse stables for some trotting along the beach.
2.
The Caves
Composed of 11 colorful gingerbread cottages, this uniquely stylish adults-only (17+) eco-boutique hotel from Island Outpost is tucked along lush garden paths and dramatic seaside cliffs. Doing away with in-room TVs, the Caves brings luxury in the form of outdoor showers, private candlelit dinners inside a cave, fresh cuisine, and some of the friendliest, most attentive service in Jamaica.
3.
Round Hill Hotel & Villas
- Average Price: $251/avg. night
- Pearls: Rating: 4.5 Pearls
- Location: Montego Bay, Jamaica
A classic picture of Jamaican luxury, the historic Round Hill boasts sincere, intimate hospitality, private child care, beautifully designed suites and villas by Ralph Lauren, and breathtaking grounds (to which no photo can really do justice).
4.
Royal Plantation
Quiet and classy, the colonial-style, 74-room, adults-only (18+) Royal Plantation snatched a prime patch of beach when it was built in the 1950s. Though it's an all-inclusive Sandals outpost, the hotel still offers superb food, service, beds, spa services, and even affordable rounds on a championship golf course.
5.
The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Rose Hall, Jamaica
- Average Price: $188/avg. night
- Pearls: Rating: 4.5 Pearls
- Location: Montego Bay, Jamaica
Attached to one of the Caribbean's best golf courses -- White Witch -- the Rose Hall Ritz offers top-notch food, service, facilities, bathrooms, beds ... well, everything.
6.
Geejam
- Average Price: $316/avg. night
- Pearls: Rating: 4.5 Pearls
- Location: Port Antonio, Jamaica
A private hotel from the chichi hotel group Island Outpost, the Geejam consists of only five private, eco-friendly cabins on the lush (rainy) foothills of Port Antonio. High-tech rooms feature free Apple TV -- eclectic music and hip movies from a 42-inch flat-screen -- and a cell phone to call anyone from the hotel owner to the free, hotel-provided private driver. And Frenchman's Cove, one of the Caribbean's most beautiful beaches, is 10 minutes away. (There's no direct beach access from the hotel.)
7.
Jamaica Inn
A small, romantic resort that once drew Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, the Jamaica Inn is about quiet luxury -- a single thatch-roofed bar, a small pool, and beautiful rooms with oversize terraces and soft, colonial decor. The intimate, estate-like setting sports a crescent-shaped beach with chairs spaced comfortably away from one another.
