Strawberry Hill

Rooms and decor

Picture driving up a winding road from Kingston, where the air sits at a humid 32°C, past coffee gardens and pastel timber houses lining the hillside, until you reach 3,000 feet. Cool air touches your face, the engine cuts out, and you step out to a white sea of mist below your feet and dark-green peaks running on without end. This is arriving at Strawberry Hill, and it feels nothing like checking into a hotel. The place is 12 colonial Jamaican cottages, 26 rooms in all, scattered across the ridge on an old Blue Mountain coffee estate, painted clean white against emerald zinc roofs and pale-blue louvered shutters. Ceilings run high and open, floors are polished real wood, and the four-poster beds are draped in mosquito netting straight out of a colonial painting. The wide wood veranda comes with a rocking chair and a coffee table, and the view from it is the whole of Kingston laid out below, the Caribbean stretching to the horizon. There are no TVs by policy, because Chris Blackwell meant for guests to truly unplug, just a small Bluetooth speaker and a shelf of old books. Some cottages have a fireplace for nights when the temperature drops below 18°C. Many reviews say the same thing: the deepest sleep in years, with no traffic, no loud air-con, only wind through the leaves and birds in the surrounding forest.

Food and amenities

One of the things guests come back raving about most is the infinity pool, where the edge seems to vanish into the sky and the city below, emerald water ringed by tropical planting with long loungers for the warm afternoon sun. Next to it sits the hillside spa, working with local herbal oils and Jamaican coconut oil, and many say the birds and wind during a treatment nearly put them to sleep. Not to be missed is the Mango Tree restaurant, set under a hundred-year-old mango tree with an open roof that lets the leaves and sunlight through. The chef uses produce from the resort's own vegetable and herb gardens, plus meat and fish straight from local farmers. Standouts include traditional jerk chicken rubbed with allspice grown on the estate, ackee and saltfish, the national dish served at breakfast, and a rich coconut soup many praise. The Blue Mountain coffee poured in the morning comes from the surrounding estate, widely held to be one of the priciest and best in the world. Drinking it hot on a morning with mist below your feet alone justifies the airfare. The restaurant runs occasional rooftop dinners, and Saturday nights often bring live reggae or soft jazz from local musicians in the lobby. Strawberry Hill made the Michelin Guide hotel selection, and real guest scores of 9.0/10 on Agoda and 8.8 on Booking show people leave thoroughly impressed.

Location and getting there

The resort sits well above central Kingston, a 45-minute to one-hour drive on a narrow, winding mountain road, with the village of Irish Town nearby. From Norman Manley airport (KIN) it's roughly 1 hour 15 minutes by car. The climb is about 27 km uphill, and that distance is the whole point: it buys you the cool air, the quiet and the view. Because the road is steep, narrow and unlit after dark, the hotel shuttle is the smart choice over a rental, and the local drivers know the route and share Blue Mountains history along the way. Plan to make the most of your time up here rather than running down to the city every day.

Things to know before booking

To be straight with you and help you decide, the most common gripe is the distance and the road. The resort is a fair way from central Kingston, a 45-minute to one-hour drive on a road that's narrow, winding and unlit at night, and anyone prone to carsickness or afraid of heights may not enjoy the trip. Several reviews say it took longer than expected because oncoming cars have to pull aside, and daily taxis to and from the city add up. The fix is to use the hotel shuttle and plan your days on the mountain. Another point some raise is unreliable Wi-Fi in spots, since you're deep in forest at altitude, so anyone with online meetings or remote work may have to sit in the lobby or restaurant. There are no TVs in the rooms by policy, so families with young children should bring books or games. Finally, it's cooler than people expect. Many forget that 3,000 feet up the air turns cold, especially at night and in winter, when December to February can drop below 15°C, so anyone without a sweater may need an extra blanket. Thick fog on some days can also hide the Kingston view. None of this is a dealbreaker, just worth knowing so you set your expectations.

Our take

From reading through real reviews and digging into its history, Strawberry Hill is a hotel that does not sell the showy luxury of a typical Caribbean resort. It sells quiet, the view and the story at a level you won't find elsewhere, the real place Bob Marley recovered, the place the head of Island Records chose as his own home, the place you wake to clouds floating below your veranda. If the trip in your head is escaping up the mountain, sipping Blue Mountain coffee in your pajamas, reading on the veranda, soaking in the infinity pool at sunset and ending the day under the mango tree with soft reggae, this is about as perfect as it gets. It suits honeymooners, luxury travelers after something unique and anyone who loves music history. But if you mean to tour Kingston every day, or you want strong Wi-Fi and city-hotel convenience, the far location and the cottage-in-the-forest amenities may not fit. Overall we give it 9.0/10, a hotel worth a night once in your life, as long as you know what you came for.