Jamaica

1 Nine Mile: Bob Marley Shrine

Jamaica is well known for reggae, in particular the music of Bob Marley. For Jamaicans, Marley was more than a musician, but the route to his birthplace and gravesite is surprisingly humble. A single-lane road (called a 'one lane-two way' by locals) twists high into the mountains and finally up to the Nine Mile shrine. There, a dreadlocked guide - who punctuates every sentence with 'Yah mon. Rasta love' - shows guests the tiny room where Marley grew up, and the two-metre-high marble tomb where he rests with his soccer ball, bible and guitar. The shrine is run by the Marley family and, on occasion, a family member or old school friend willing to tell stories about their beloved Bob (bobmarleymovement.com) can be found in the grounds.

2 Adventure

Jamaica has soaring peaks, kilometres of white-sand beaches, wild forests and lots of opportunities for adventure. Ascend the steep rock ledges of Dunns River Falls, where the water tumbles 180-odd metres to the sea, or ride a raft down the White River. One of the best experiences entails a three-hour horse ride through sugar plantations out to a wild beach, where you can go cantering into the turquoise Caribbean Sea (chukkacaribbean.com).

3 Taste tour

Chilli lovers should head to the Walkerswood Village, high in the hills of the St Ann's region. Walkerswood is Jamaica's so-called burn zone, where the fiery Scotch bonnet peppers (the hottest on the planet) are grown. It's also in Walkerswood Village, at the company of the same name, that Jamaica's most popular hot sauces are made. The company encourages visitors to wander its spice gardens, sample Jamaican cuisine at the tasters' shack and tour the factory and kitchens (walkerswood.com).

4 St Ann's Bay Market

St Ann's is called the Garden Parish, and St Ann's Bay outdoor market (on the corner of Main and Market streets) is the best place to see the garden's abundance. Little wooden stands and the backs of open pick-up trucks overflow with big green coconuts, rough skinned soursop, long stalks of fresh sugar cane and piles of ochre pumpkins. The local market has a host of other attractions too - reggae music blares from dozens of radios, and dreadlocked rastafarians hawk handmade brooms and knitted caps in their emblematic red, green and gold. At the bush-medicine stands, all manner of twisted roots and bottles of essences with apparently curative powers cover every surface. From another stand a woman sells an unlikely combination of fresh eggs and handmade tambourines.

5 Art

Jamaica offers colourful expressions of local design worth taking time away from the beach to see. At Wassi Art (wassiart.com), a studio and gallery in a low-slung building just outside Ocho Rios, talented and mostly young artists create unique, signed terracotta items, which you can watch being produced from start to finish. The clay comes from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and many of the designs are literal or abstract expressions of the island's lush landscape. Although this is clearly a commercial venture, gifted artists can be found here, including Andrea Campbell, whose splashes of fruit and flowers on large serving plates are inspired by the nature around her.

6 Stingrays

Anybody can swim with dolphins nowadays, but few have the opportunity of swimming with 1.5-metre-wide, sleek, steel-grey stingrays. Stingray City, a new attraction in Orcabessa, 10km from St Ann's Bay, has more than two dozen southern stingrays. They loll in the shallows of the turquoise bay of James Bond Beach and rush over when visitors enter the water to satisfy themselves the intruders aren't snack material. Unlike dolphins, skeets as they're called locally, aren't affectionate, but they are curious and occasionally impart something that might be misinterpreted as a kiss, which trainers affectionately call 'stingray hickeys'. The feeling of the silky muscularity of the creatures' flapping wings and a close-up of their strange, protruding eyes are worth battling fears of these compelling animals - although, as the recent freak death of crocodile hunter Steve Irwin from a stingray barb in the chest will attest, these animals must be treated with care (stingraycityjamaica.com).

7 Eating local

Some of the best food in Jamaica is found roadside at brightly painted tin-roof kiosks, or informal restaurants with names such as Spicy Nice and Scotchies. Some eateries are just open-air stands with kerosene stoves, where truck drivers stop for a snack. Others are more permanent, with plastic tables and chairs and a daily menu chalked on a blackboard. The local favourite dish, jerk, is sold everywhere. Jerk, said to have been invented by runaway slaves in the 1600s, is meat or fish marinated with a searing mixture of Scotch bonnet pepper and spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon and thyme, then barbecued over an outdoor pit.

8 Partying

Jamaicans are party people and there are plenty of upmarket bars (Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, Ocho Rios) and down-home clubs (Jus Cheers, Windsor Road, St Ann's Bay). But when it comes to feeling the pulse of the island, try one of the many outdoor dances. There's no schedule and no set location. Information spreads by word of mouth and roadside posters simply appear to announce times and locations - often a vacant lot, field or beach. Live bands play reggae and its grittier sister, a style called dancehall. There are also open fires cooking up jerk and other local foods. Dances don't start until after 10pm and usually keep going until dawn. A minor caution for the conservative: decorum is in short supply. Just HK$25 or so buys a long night of revelry.

9 Caribbean unplugged

'There's slow, slower and Jamaica,' as the saying goes - and nowhere are slow, quiet and genteel perfected better than at time-honoured guesthouse the Jamaica Inn (jamaicainn.com), set on a private beach in Ocho Rios. Few things have changed since the likes of Noel Coward, Winston Churchill and Katharine Hepburn sat sipping cool drinks on the coral-stone verandah over the sea. The silence is still broken only by the waves, wind rustling the palms and the sound of mannerly conversation and laughter. There are no telephones, televisions or radios to interfere with the unequalled pleasure of reading a good book in the inn's library, which opens onto the ocean. Ceiling fans stir the warm air and the occasional thwack of mallet on croquet ball on the lawn below causes heads to turn. There's one computer available for discreet e-mail checking. 'It's a little noisier at the inn now,' says 80-year-old Arthur Boyne, guardian of beach chairs and towels for the past 50 years. But mostly time stands still. He knows his guests 'and they don't want nothin' changed'.

10 Positive vibrations

The neon exterior of Reggae Xplosion, Ocho Rios, looks like a tourist trap, but inside visitors find an energetic and thorough look at the history of Jamaican music. A project of record mogul Chris Blackwell, the museum houses artefacts, sounds and images of the music that is Jamaica's soul. There are collections of concert posters, jukeboxes, record players and sheet music, but the museum's interactive elements are the most entertaining. On a dance floor with piped music, visitors can learn some hot, booty-shaking moves, and audio posts send out everything from the ska tunes of Millie Small to the dancehall beats of Beenie Man.