This week’s dream: a quiet corner of the Jamaican coast

Big-name hotels and gated communities now dominate much of Jamaica’s coast. However, beyond the Blue Mountains in the island’s northeast corner is an area that has largely escaped these modern blights, says Ondine Cohane in Condé Nast Traveller. At its heart is Port Antonio, a little town of tin-roofed markets and “dilapidated” clapboard mansions three hours’ drive from Kingston, close to “gorgeous” beaches and forested hills. There’s a wonderfully laid-back atmosphere here, and in recent years, several stylish small hotels have opened, all with an “offbeat, barefootchic” vibe.

After docking his yacht in Port Antonio in a storm, Errol Flynn bought an estate here. Other stars – Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor – visited and, in 1957, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller came for their honeymoon. The opening of the world’s first all-inclusive hotel, Frenchman’s Cove – a collection of private villas where you didn’t have to worry about extra costs – caused a stir in the early 1960s. Even the Queen stopped by, in 1968. Today, the “fashion and music” sets are drawn to Geejam, a boutique hotel in the hills of the San San estate. Still more secluded and intimate is Kanopi House, which has four treehouse villas with “colonial-style” interiors, set beside a quiet lagoon dotted with “emerald-topped” islets.

The latest opening is East Winds Cove, a 1950s beachside hotel that has been rescued from dereliction, and stuffed with “mid-century and vintage finds”. Rooms have small private gardens, floor-to-ceiling glass doors and terraces. Borrow a kayak to explore the mangroves or go rafting on the rapids of the nearby Rio Grande, where each bend “presents a new snapshot” of jungle creepers, exotic blooms and mountains rising “sharply” from the banks. For information on East Winds Cove, email stay@eastwindscove. com (rooms start at £380 per night). The former Aga Khan’s compound, Ti Amo, is also due to open as a hotel next year.