I ended up at this beach by unplanned invitation. A friend of mine was taking his 6 year old brother there for the day and they asked me to come along. I was glad I went! Its only about a 15 minute walk from the public beach in Ochi and its FREE. At the public beach you have to either be a guest at a hotel or pay $200 JMD to access it. And Morgan beach is much nicer!

My favorite thing about this beach is its full of locals, I don’t think I saw any tourists there this day.  You know me….always trying to stay away from the tourists LOL.  Once I arrived at the beach I realized I’ve been here twice before…after dark for night swims.  I just didn’t pay as much attention to where I was going in the dark.

There’s a boat dock where the yachts pull in at this beach too.  We wandered out to the end of the dock and my friend swam while I sat on the edge of the dock and watched.  I didn’t swim this day because I was too lazy to put on my swimsuit.  But I definitely enjoyed the scenery, the cool breeze off the water and watching my friend take a dip.

Off in the distance I could hear some party song like “Hot hot hot” or something, I can’t remember.  And I could see it was coming from one of the booze cruises that docks here.  The boat was coming in rapidly and I didn’t really want to be on this dock when all those drunk tourists unloaded.  So we decided to head over to the little beach bar/restaurant.

My friend, his little brother and I grabbed a table at the bar and had a basket of french fries and some Pepsi and relaxed.  From my table we were just steps away from this little craft marketplace.  I see these everywhere in Jamaica and I’m always dazzled by the craftiness and color of the things they sell.  Although I already have plenty of wood carvings from Jamaica so I never buy stuff anymore.

If you’re in the Ocho Rios area and are looking for something much better than the public beach, just catch a taxi at the clock tower in the town centre and ask them to get to you Morgan beach.  The taxi will cost you $100 JMD and the beach is free.  If you have time on your hands just take the 15 minute walk!

Negril Beach Restaurant

This was such a great place to hang out and eat and drink on a breezy afternoon in Jamaica! It was recommended to me by a lady I know who lives in Negril and it was perfect! The location is very central on the right hand side of West End Road, not far from the town center round-about.

I loved the location of this place, its practically IN the ocean!  The day we dined there was an extrememly breezy day in Negril and the waves were beautifully crashing onto the sand.  It was awesome scenery.  So close to the water that I regularly got up from the table just to go dip my feet in the water!  We were sitting on the outer deck just behind the mesh in the picture below.

Looking at Canoe from the beach.

The food at Canoe was great in my opinion.  The menu had a great variety of things ranging from Western food, to slightly Western, and TONS of seafood!  And the prices were extremely reasonable which is why my lady friend recommended the place.  Its one of the only places where you can get a Red Stripe for local prices.

Menu at Canoe

We were there in a large group that day for our Jamaican forum link-up, I think there were 8 of us.  They accommodated us at a big table on the outer deck, and I noticed they have an inside section to the restaurant as well but never checked it out inside.  The cook was always outside BBQ-ing fresh seafood on the grill beside us.

One of the most memorable things I ate here was desert!  It was HOT brownies served up on a plate with loads of whipping cream on top.  My friend ordered it and we all helped her eat it.  Not even remotely close to Jamaican food but who cares!  It was to die for!

We all met at Canoe around 2pm and our goal was to hang out and visit until sunset since Negril is the best place to watch it.  We ate and drank by the seaside, soaked up the magnificent view and ocean air and had a great time!  I will definitely go back to Canoe when I’m in the Negril area again, its one of those places on the roadside that you might never stop at because you didn’t know about it.  She recommended it to us and now I’m recommending it to you.

View through the mesh from our table.

We finished off the evening with another of Negril’s spectacular sunsets.  I was a little disappointed with the clouds that kept us from watching the sun dip into the ocean but beautiful none the less.