Spanish Town, Jamaica’s capital for more than 300 years, was once considered to boast exemplary town planning. Today, for visitors traveling from Kingston through the city’s blighted outlying ghettoes, it’s somewhat of a stretch to envisage the former capital’s erstwhile grandeur. However, this changes the moment one arrives at the evocative historic center, where you’ll find the Caribbean’s most extensive assortment of Georgian architecture and its greatest cathedral (albeit in a sad state of repair). Few other places in Jamaica bring to life the historic sweep of centuries like Spanish Town.
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Once the pirate capital of the Caribbean – and for more than 200 years the hub of British naval power in the West Indies – Port Royal today is a dilapidated, ramshackle place of tropical lassitude, replete with important historical buildings collapsing to dust. Today’s funky fishing hamlet gives little hint of the town’s former flamboyant glory.
Its reputation preceding it like a police siren, Kingston deters most visitors. The crime, traffic, crowds and shantytowns of the capital are simply too volatile to mix into the average vacationer’s dream Jamaican cocktail. Few have the time (or inclination) to explore the city long enough to disprove the image.