Best Kingston Hotels

This is Kingston’s Mack Daddy of business hotels. The lobby of the Jamaica Pegasus hums with business handshakes and deals going down. The 17-story high-rise property is the best place to stay in Kingston when it comes to large-scale conferences and official events. This top Kingston hotel has been open for 30 years, so you may feel as though you’ve entered the hotel equivalent of Hot Tub Time Machine. We prefer the rooms that face the picturesque Blue Mountains, but the views of Emancipation Park aren't bad either. The lobby level restaurant dishes up Jamaican and international specialties, and the 24 Seven Café stays open day and night with light snacks from jerk wings to pizza. In the mahogany-furnished Polo Lounge, bartender Franklyn entertains with local lore and, if he’s in the mood, will bring out tasty hors d'oeuvres on the house. The pool bar is a popular meeting place for locals and tourists from neighboring hotels. The gift shop next to the bar stocks the city’s daily newspapers, although the lobby keeps a stack free for the reading pleasure of guests. 

Courtleigh Hotel & Suites is smack in the middle of the financial district of New Kingston. Within a five-minute walk, you’ll find plenty of options for shopping, dining and nightclubbing. This 127-room hotel (including three two-bedroom suites) has accommodations offering views of either Kingston Harbour or the Blue Mountains (they also just completed an extensive redo of the guest room furnishings). At the Courtleigh they take the word “complimentary” seriously: You’ll get complimentary buffet breakfast (which you can enjoy either inside the air-conditioned dining room or outside on the patio overlooking the pool), Wi-Fi, gym and parking. Find the tastiest jerk burgers in town at the property’s Mingles Bar, where the minutes of happy hour tick off in a lively way. Bartender Clive Drummond has been shaking and stirring his signature fruit punch with a splash of Appleton rum for seven years, and, in the true “Cheers” tradition, he never forgets your name.

We love the 20-room Alhambra Inn for its attention to history. Located across from the National Stadium, the inn has a restaurant, two bars and a courtyard pool. More unexpectedly, it also has more than a thousand antiques on display. A self-proclaimed history aficionado, co-owner Trevor Clarke delights in showing off his treasure trove to guests of the hotel. With relics dating back to the 17th century, his collection is the largest in Jamaica, with each piece personally selected by Clarke himself. His collection started about 30 years ago and has grown to include everything from antique typewriters, dial telephones and suitcases, to original Red Stripe beer bottles and old-fashioned coffee grinders. The curios are not only for the curious, but also for school and church groups who stop by for a lesson in Jamaican history (and then there are the visiting old-timers who smile when they see artifacts that they may have thrown away). Definitely arrange to come for Sunday brunch, when an array of island specialties are laid out, from hominy corn porridge and ackee and codfish to dumplings, boiled bananas and roasted breadfruit.