Bike riding tours are a wonderful way to explore Jamaica. Traveling by automobile just can’t provide the same experience. You miss so much, like the scents carried by the wind – the smell of the ocean, the tropical forests, the mountains, and the abundant flowers and other plants. The slower pace allows you to really see what you’re looking, to talk to local people, and to really savor the experience of Jamaica.
Blue Mountain Bicycle Tours, Ltd., located at 121 Main Street, in Ocho Rios, is one of the most well known providers of these sorts of adventures. Their specialty is a day long bike tour that begins 5,600 feet up in the Blue Mountains, which are the highest mountains in the Caribbean. Blue Mountain Bicycle Tours, Ltd., makes these tours available out of both Ocho Rios and Kingston, Jamaica, providing charter bus service from these points to the mountain for groups as large as 150, with the average group being made up of about 40 people. All necessary biking equipment is also provided, as are meals, and rates are reasonable -- $93US for adults and $65US for children under 12 years of age.
The bicycle tour is all down hill, which makes it appropriate for almost all age groups – age 7 is the youngest recommended for participation -- and means that you’ll be able to devote your most or your energy to enjoying the magnificent scenery. And, magnificent it is! Bikers pass through stunning mountain vistas that include the remarkable coffee plantations that produce the Blue Mountain coffee beans that are becoming well known to coffee connoisseurs for their superior taste and quality, and enjoy wild life sights that are found nowhere else in the world outside of Jamaica. They’ll see waterfalls and have the opportunity to enjoy a refreshing swim in the cool, clear mountain water. You’ll want to remember to bring a swimsuit, towel and camera.
Manfred’s Jamaican Mountain Bike Tours, located in Saint Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, offers a wonderful one-week get away tour. Participants enjoy quality lodging and excellent local cuisine on a 500 acre farming estate in Apple Valley. Each day features a bicycle tour to a different part of Jamaica, revealing parts of the country far beyond the usual tourist destinations. This experience of the real Jamaica – beyond the glitter and glitz of the tourism industries – is simply unparalleled.
In Negril, Rusty’s Xcellent Adventures offers a variety guided bicycle tours at different skill levels. Biking equipment and, if necessary, biking instructors, are available. For those who prefer independent exploration, there are numerous places throughout Jamaica that offer bicycle rentals, as well as rentals of scooters and the like.
Bicycle tours are an excellent way to explore Jamaica. In addition to enjoying the natural Jamaica, its ‘real’ people and culture, you’ll be doing so in away that has less of a negative environmental impact. Bicycle tours allow you to slow down and to savor your surroundings, collecting memories – and perhaps even a newfound cultural awareness and understanding -- that will last a lifetime.
