Runaway Bay
Runaway Bay sits on Jamaica's north coast in Saint Ann Parish, where the limestone bluffs give way to a reef-sheltered shoreline and the sea runs an improbable shade of blue-green. It's quieter than Ocho Rios to the east, without the cruise-ship rhythm, and the pace here is set more by the dive boats heading out to Ricky's Reef than by any resort timetable.
Underwater, a pair of sunken aircraft — the so-called Ganja Planes — have become an accidental reef, and the Green Grotto Caves hold a half-million-year-old underground lake in their innermost chamber. Nine Mile, where Bob Marley was born, lies in the hills a short drive inland.
How Runaway Bay came to be
The name carries two competing explanations: that this stretch of coast was an escape route for enslaved people fleeing their captors, or that it marks the point where Don Arnaldo de Ysassi, the last Spanish governor, sailed away in 1660 after Britain's forces took the island. The Spanish connection runs deeper still — Runaway Bay was the site of the first Spanish settlement on Jamaica, which means this quiet town bookends the entire colonial period: arrival and departure, both from the same shore.
Tourism arrived in the 1960s with the opening of Cardiff Hall, and a golf course and hotel followed shortly after. The population recorded in the 2011 census — 8,640 — was roughly eight times what it had been in 1970, a measure of how quickly the place transformed.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Temperatures stay between 25°C and 31°C year-round, with July the hottest month and February the coolest. The north coast catches more rain than the south, with wetter spells from May through November, though showers tend to be brief.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.