FROM TOP: Il Giardino offers Italian specialties, including homemade pastas; an off-property excursion worth taking is to the Great House at the famous Rose Hall, where tours are offered day and night; for authentic Jamaican jerk, Scotchies is a must.
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country folk music, at the Sunset Bar cocktail hour rather than just defaulting to more tourist-friendly reggae bands. Even the jerk chicken, pork, and sausage served at Moonchie’s on Sunset Beach and the weekly barbecue at Sunrise Beach are sufficiently spicy to satisfy locals. Half Moon’s off-property tours also highlight excursions to coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica’s rugged backcountry, and a culinary adventure to Stush in the Bush, an organic farm where you can enjoy a Rastafarian-style vegetarian dinner prepared with locally sourced produce, much of it grown by hosts Lisa and Christopher Binns at Zionite Farm. Couples who marry at Half Moon are gently encouraged to give back to Jamaica via the Half Moon Foundation, an extension of the resort’s founding principles “to respect and contribute to the welfare of the community while offering discerning travelers the opportunity for remarkable vacation memories.” One of Jamaica’s best jerk restaurants, Scotchies, is within walking distance of Half Moon, while another, the Pork Pit, is a must-do when visiting downtown Montego Bay. The nightlife at the resort is pretty low-key, so if you crave some late-night excitement take a cab into town and cruise MoBay’s Hip Strip, a string of waterfront bars and nightclubs that includes Margaritaville, the Jamaican Bobsled Cafe, and Pier 1. To explore further, take the wheel of a spry Mini Cooper for a coastal tour with Island Routes to Ocho Rios or Negril, with stops for food and fun along the way. Many of the Half Moon’s 800 employees live right on property, so you’re constantly greeted with friendly waves whenever you’re riding the resort’s signature powder-blue bicycles from place to place. The ideal form of transportation at a place this big and flat, bikes are equipped with big baskets for your beach towels and water bottles. At a resort that enforces a dress code of long trousers and collared shirts even at lunch on the Seagrape Terrace, the bikes are refreshingly egalitarian: it’s hard to look stuffy while you’re pedaling