Ocho Rios, Jamaica: Dunn’s River Falls

Ocho Rios in Jamaica: go to Dunn’s River Falls.

We’ve stopped at Ochos Rios on a couple of different cruises and highly recommend going to Dunn’s River Falls. First, it’s a great excursion. Second, it’s one of the few excursions there that seems unique compared to options in other Caribbean islands. Third, the shopping at that port is not a great way to occupy your afternoon unless you plan on buying jewelry.

The shopping area at the port has most of the standard shops you come to expect at cruise ports in the Caribbean–and that’s not a good thing. You can see part of the shopping area in the picture below. The one nice part was that there were some nice quality wooden carvings being sold in the middle of the plaza. So if you plan on buying souvenirs, we recommend those.

Our excursion to Dunn’s River Falls was the highlight of our time in Ocho Rios. When you arrive, you should put your stuff in a locker, including any non-waterproof cameras. You will definitely get wet! We also strongly recommend bringing watershoes or renting some there. Some people chose to skip watershoes and wear sneakers, and that was not a good idea.

The excursion started with a walk down some stairs to the beach, followed by a single file climb with a tour guide at the front. The climb up the waterfall took us about 30 minutes. The rocks were quite slippery and we had to help a couple of the older tourists climb the falls in a few spots (an activity like this would probably not be available in the US because of liability issues). For us, the climb was relatively easy and was a lot of fun. See our short photo/video compilation of the climb below:

There are several stops along the climb to get pictures, and there was a second guide that joined the group to get pictures for everyone. Dunn’s River Falls is a great waterfall to climb and we definitely recommend it.