MoBay shopping splits three ways: the zinc-roofed craft markets downtown where haggling is the whole point, the duty-free plazas strung along the Rose Hall road, and the galleries and supermarkets locals actually use. Three days covers all three.
Montego Bay's working produce market off Barnett Street, where higglers stack scotch bonnet peppers, whole pimento berries, ackee, yam and dried ginger. Wednesday to Saturday mornings are fullest and bargaining over spice bags is expected.
The largest of MoBay's three craft markets, roughly 200 stalls under zinc roofing selling carved lignum vitae bowls, straw baskets, knitted Rasta tams and hand-painted signs. Opening prices are set for cruise arrivals, so counter at about half.
Built on the site of Fort Montego just above Sam Sharpe Square, this shaded craft park holds about 180 vendors working wood, shell jewellery and embroidered shirts. Several carvers finish pieces on site, so you can watch blue mahoe being shaped.
The craft market at the Gloucester Avenue end of the strip, smaller and far calmer than the downtown ones, strongest on batik sarongs, coconut-shell jewellery and painted canvases. Vendors take US dollars but quote a worse rate for them.
An open-air plaza opposite Rose Hall Great House with around 30 units: resort wear, bamboo-fibre clothing, Jamaican skincare, duty-free jewellery counters and rum and cigar shops. Air-conditioned interiors, shaded courtyards, free parking.
A colonial-style arcade inside the Half Moon resort grounds: a courtyard ringed by Jamaican art dealers, linen resortwear, a cigar room and jewellers working in gold, pearl and semi-precious settings. Non-guests enter through the main gate.
Ironshore's open-air centre on the Rose Hall main road, about 40 tenants deep — Jamaican skincare lines, pepper sauces, a pharmacy, a wine shop and clothing stores that residents use, which keeps pricing domestic rather than resort-inflated.
The Ironshore mall a short walk from Whitter Village, anchored by a supermarket with a strip of small boutiques around it selling dancehall-cut denim, hair and wigs, phone accessories and sneakers. Evening is when MoBay actually shops here.
A converted house in Catherine Hall showing Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban painting alongside hand-carved and hand-painted wooden animals made in the workshop out back. The smaller carvings and unframed canvases pack flat into a suitcase.
Jamaica's homegrown bookshop chain on St James Street, and the place for locally published titles: patois dictionaries, Anansi story collections for children, Jamaican cookbooks and reggae histories that never reach the airport shelves.
A hillside gallery and cliff garden above the city in Camrose, where Ian 'Ras Natango' Williamson sells his own paintings and his family's carvings. Booking is required, the access road is steep, and the bay view comes with the visit.
Edible souvenirs at local prices: Blue Mountain coffee beans, Walkerswood jerk seasoning, Pickapeppa sauce, sorrel syrup and Appleton Estate rum in bottle sizes the craft markets never stock — all well under any resort gift-shop price.