thanks for posting upon your return. ONE LOVE

Could you post more about your experiances in Kingston please? We will be going in March for our 4th trip in 3 years and we have never made it to Kingston. We would be going from Treasure Beach and many people tell us not to bother. Did you ever feel threatened? Many drivers we hired in the past trips wont even take us there. They say the neighborhoods surrounding the center of town are bad and they dont want to risk going. We want to visit so bad, but have always been swayed the opposite way. Thank you in advance. BTW, we have never had a bad experiance in any of our travels.

I think I recommended the hotel to you. It is called Christar by the way.

As for the other person who asked if Kingston is safe. It is safe as long as you stay out of the trouble zones. I personally love Kingston and go there frequently without worry. You will find a lot of "country" drivers who won't go to town but their fear is based on ignorance because they have never been. Don't let anyone deter you from going. It is a worthwhile experience.

Here we will disagree Maureen. My 'friend' is not a country driver...his father lives in Kingston....he will not go there because of safety issues. I trust and believe what he says about the runnings...he's proved me wrong many times ...now I listen.

I'm sure the New Kingston is safer.

Persons who do not live in Kingston are scared to drive there because of the road net work. You can easily get lost if you do not know where you are going. The one-way streets are not always well documented, so persons outside of Kingston may have problems. Kingston can be a headache with the traffic-jams.

The people who advise against going to Kingston usually don't know the city. Without a doubt it has its trouble spots: avoid them. But Kingston is the place for some of the best restaurants, art and culture, history, shopping etc. Not for the beach, booze and dance crowd, admittedly, but for people with a wider range of interests I think Kingston is a great place to visit. There are more places to visit in Kingston than any other part of Jamaica.

BTW, New Kingston is a district of Kingston, you cannot go their without passing through other districts of Kingston.

The traffic can be bad at peak times, but most taxi drivers know the rat runs. I cycle around much of Kingston with little problem, but it has taken time to learn the routes and places to avoid. Constantly keeping an eye on the Jamaican news and looking where trouble spots are on the map is the key there.

A true story. On my first visit to JA with a bicycle, I told some Kingston cyclists that I was going to Clarendon. One laughed and said 'so your going to the country, dem rob an teif yu there'. While in the country I mentioned I was going back to Kingston. Someone said 'Kingston, dem rob an teif yu there'.

I love Kingston. It has such a varied character, from rough and basic to very sophisticated. Plus it is so close to the best scenery in the whole of Jamaica, The Blue Mountains and the East Coast. It's the tourist areas I don't spend too much time in; visitors get targeted and a bit hassle there.

The first 32 photographs in my Jamaica Early 2007 album were all taken in Downtown Kingston. It’s at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/JAsoldier

A few other pictures in that album were taken in Kingston yards and the Pictures in the Back Bush Dances album were taken through the night in a ghetto area. However, I’m not recommending that other people should go wandering around any ghettos or into the yards.

This is a thread you may be interested in regarding Kingston:

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g147310-i806-k1167…

Berbican, a tourist who visited Kingston, made a good post there. A small quote from him/her sums up some aspects for me:

‘I spent two weeks in Kingston in 2003 and never felt unsafe. In fact, I experienced much less hassle than I did in Montego Bay. There are some parts of Kingston which you shouldn't enter on your own, but you probably wouldn't be interested in these areas anyway.’

Having a pretty solid knowledge of most of Jamaica, Kingston is by far my favourite place. Beaches get VERY boring after a few months let alone years. It is a great city with a complex and fascinating culture and social life.

Although I have been robbed at gunpoint in Ocho Rios I have never, ever been troubled by anyone in Kingston and I have been to all of the "bad" areas...Waterhouse, Tivoli Gardens, Mountainview, Seaview Gardens, Riverton City, Trenchtown, etc. Obviously I am not recommending this to other people who don't know the runnings, but I am merely making the point that I have done it without any harm coming to me. In fact I have never been treated with anything other than respect in these areas.

WR - Even if people have relatives living in Kingston if they themselves don't live there and don't travel there the fear becomes exaggerated.

Where would the music be without Kingston?

The foregoing is not to deny that it is a little "hot" at the moment and not a time to visit the places where the volatile action is:) But then Montego Bay is just as "hot". Hopefully, now that the elections are over, the violence will cool down.