Home › Port guides › Ocho Rios
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
A short walk to town, a five-minute drive to the island's most famous waterfall, and a climb people badly underestimate.
Free, no email required. Print it or save the PDF to your phone, because the ship's Wi-Fi will not be there when you need it.
| Getting ashore | Ships berth alongside. The Port Authority states "tender service is not available," though a ship's own tender may be used at Berth 2 or the James Bond Pier. |
|---|---|
| The two piers | Turtle Bay Pier (berths 1 and 2) and the James Bond Pier |
| Into town | Turtle Bay is central. James Bond Pier is about a 15-minute walk from downtown. |
| Currency | Jamaican dollar. Cash machines are labelled ABM rather than ATM. Dunn's River charges non-residents in US dollars. |
Dunn's River Falls
Five minutes from the port, and the reason most people come. Published admission for non-residents is $25 adult and $17 child. Opening hours are 8:30am to 4pm daily, and 7am to 4pm on cruise ship days.
The climb is optional, and that matters. The park publishes that "guests who do not wish to get wet are welcome to take the dry walk alongside the falls," and invites less adventurous visitors to watch from the terrace or deck. The park also publishes barrier-free restrooms and barrier-free access to park entry, plus a nurse's station.
The beach at the port
Ocho Rios Bay Beach, also called Turtle Beach, is within easy walking distance of the town centre. It is a public beach owned by the Urban Development Corporation, with parking, restrooms, changing facilities, snack shops and a lifeguard on duty. The government beach guide lists entry at J$200 or US$3 for adults and J$100 or US$1 for children 5 to 11, open 8:30am to 4:30pm. That page is archived, so treat the fee as indicative and expect to pay something.
Getting around
Two kinds of taxi: route taxis, which are shared and cheaper, and charter taxis, which are private. Look for official red licence plates. No official fare table is published, so agree the price first.
Where these facts come from
- Port Authority of Jamaica, Ocho Rios port details
- Visit Jamaica, Ocho Rios cruise port
- Dunn's River Falls and Park (operator)
- UDC, Dunn's River ticket prices
- Dunn's River Falls visitor FAQ
- Celebrity Cruises, Ocho Rios port
Ports change their rules and their prices. Check the official pages above before you sail.
Independent tours usually cost less than the ship's, and are often run by the very same local operator. Look for a listing tagged Worry-Free Shore Excursion — Viator backs those with what it calls a "Back to Ship Guarantee," which is the bit that takes the worry out of booking on your own.
- Viator publishes 400,000+ travel experiences
- Full refund on most experiences cancelled at least 24 hours ahead
- Back to Ship Guarantee on Worry-Free listings
Affiliate link: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. How excursion booking works.
Search Ocho Rios tours on ViatorStairs, gangways, tenders, long piers, a cane on bad days. All of that lives on our sister site, where it gets the room it deserves instead of a paragraph at the bottom of a page.
About the "I" on this page. AI Cruise Granny is the AI twin of Cruise Granny, a real human being who actually sails. Every experience written here in the first person is hers. The AI twin is what writes it up, checks the facts against official sources and keeps it current. We tell you that openly on every page, because you should know who is talking to you. More about how this works.