Villa Viento (tel. 876/975-4395, US$125 per night per room, US$4,800/6,800 weekly low/high season for the whole house) has seven bedrooms in a large seaside ranch-style house two minutes down the road from Reggae Beach. This is one of the few villas that will rent out individual rooms.

Beaches Boscobel (tel. 876/975-7777, US$420/night for double in high season) dominates the waterfront just west of the airfield, and with 323 rooms it's easily the largest hotel on the North Coast east of Ocho Rios. Like all Beaches resorts, Boscobel is a family-oriented all-inclusive getaway.

Oracabessa is yet another bastardized Spanish name, whose derivative, Oro Cabeza, translates as "gold head." A half hour's drive east of Ocho Rios, Oracabessa is a secluded enclave of high-end tourism where Ian Fleming's Goldeneye has become the benchmark for sophisticated, hip luxury tourism in Jamaica.

In the center of Oracabessa there is a covered open-air produce market as well as a supermarket. Across from the police station there is also a produce stand, and up a lane by the school a bit farther east there's a shop that sells the basics like eggs, bread, and jam that opens around 7 a.m.