Montego Bay is the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the third by population (after Kingston and Spanish Town). It is a tourist destination with duty free shopping, cruise line terminal and the beaches. The city is backed by picturesque low mountains. Popular beaches include Doctor’s Cave Beach and Walter Fletcher Beach, home to an amusement park. Today, Montego Bay is known for its large regional hospital (Cornwall Regional Hospital), port facilities, second homes for numerous upper class Jamaicans from Kingston as well as North Americans and Europeans, fine restaurants, and shopping opportunities. The coastland near Montego Bay is occupied by numerous tourist resorts, most newly built, some occupying the grounds of old sugarcane plantations with some of the original buildings and mill-works still standing. The most famous is the White Witch's Rose Hall which now features a world-class golf course.

Negril is a small but widely dispersed beach resort town located across parts of two Jamaican parishes of Westmoreland and Hanover. It is famous for its 7 miles of cool, white sand beaches and another 7 miles of 40' cliffs. One of the most beautiful towns in Jamaica, it has a more laid back atmosphere than that of Montego Bay and is more touristy than Ocho Rios. When you stay at a hotel on the beach you are literally on the beach when you walk out of the beachside of your hotel. You have probably never seen water this clear or warm. You will be amazed at how far out you can walk in the water before it gets up to your neck. The water is gentler and the sand is whiter(smaller grained aka softer) the farther down(away from town) you are. The end of the beach down by the all-inclusives is the whitest.

Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica. Just outside the city, travelers and residents can visit Columbus Park, where Columbus supposedly first came on land, and see maritime artifacts and Spanish colonial buildings. Ocho Rios was once a fishing village but it’s now a resort with a cruise ship harbor and a busy bay beach that’s lined with hotels. Scuba diving and other water sports are offered in the town's vicinity. The name "Ocho Rios" is a misnomer because there are not eight rivers in the area. It is most likely a British corruption of the original Spanish name "Las Chorreras" ("the waterfalls"), a name given to the village because of the nearby Dunn's River Falls - (a famous waterfall and a major Caribbean tourist attraction that receives thousands of visitors each year).

Runaway Bay is a town in Saint Ann Parish on the northern coast of Jamaica and is considered one of the most naturally beautiful places on the island. It is a notable tourist destination located 16 km west of Ocho Ríos, and slightly east of Discovery Bay, where Christopher Columbus landed in 1494. Ocean View Beach is a private beach situated at Runaway Bay.