Jamaican food is full of fire, taking advantage of pungent spices and peppers.
Things to know: Bars have table and/or counter service. The legal drinking age is 18. There are no licensing hours and alcohol can be bought all day.
National specialities:
• ‘Rice and peas’, a tasty dish with no peas at all but with kidney beans, white rice, coconut milk, scallions (spring onions) and coconut oil.
• Salt fish (dried cod) and ackee (the cooked fruit of the ackee tree).
• Jamaican pepperpot soup (salt pork, salt beef, okra and Indian kale known as callaloo).
• Chicken fricassée Jamaican-style (a rich chicken stew with carrots, scallions, yams, onions, tomatoes and peppers prepared in unrefined coconut oil).
• Roast suckling pig (a three-month-old piglet which is boned and stuffed with rice, peppers, diced yam and thyme mixed with shredded coconut and corn meal).
National drinks:
• Jamaican rum is world famous, especially Gold Label and Appleton.
• Rum Punch.
• Rumona is a delicious rum cordial.
• Red Stripe beer.
• Tia Maria (a Blue Mountain coffee and chocolate liqueur).
• Blue Mountain coffee.
Tipping: Most Jamaican hotels and restaurants add a service charge of 10 per cent; otherwise 10 to 15 per cent is expected. Chambermaids, waiters, hotel bellboys and airport porters all expect tips.

There is no shortage of night-time entertainment on the island that is the home of reggae music. Every town or village has some sort of nightlife, and there are regular street dances. Folkloric shows at larger resort hotels are held and steel bands often play. At least once a week, there is a torchlit, steel band show with limbo dancing and fire-eating demonstrations. Nightclubs feature jazz, soca, reggae and other music. For details of events, visitors should consult local newspapers. The Jamaica Tourist Board arranges ‘Meet the People’ evenings in various scenic locations throughout the island. Contact the Tourist Board in Kingston, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios or Port Antonio.

Special purchases are locally-made items and duty free bargains. Crafts include hand-loomed fabrics, embroidery, silk screening, woodcarvings, oil paintings, woven straw items and sandalmaking. Custom-made rugs and reproductions of pewter and china from the 17th-century ruins of the ancient submerged city of Port Royal can be bought in the In-Craft workshop. At Highgate Village in the mountains, Quakers run a workshop specialising in wicker and wood furniture, floor mats and other tropical furnishings. Jamaican rum, the Rumona (see National drinks) and Ian Sangsters Rum Cream are unique purchases. Other local specialities are Pepper Jellies, jams and spices. The most famous produce market in Jamaica is Coronation Market, Kingston. Other markets: Linstead Market, St Catherine; Brownstown Market, St Anne; the Savanna-la-mar Market, Westmoreland; and the Albert George Market, Falmouth. There are shops offering facilities for ‘in-bond’ shopping, which allows visitors to purchase a range of international goods free of tax or duty at very competitive prices. These goods are sealed (hence the ‘bond’) and, because goods are tax- or duty free, can only be opened once away from Jamaican waters or territory. All goods must be paid for in Jamaican currency. Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1600, Sat 0800-1300. Some shops close half day Wednesday in Kingston, and Thursday in the rest of the island.