Falmouth is a less popular cruise port to stop in which means that any excursions you’re looking to book will require some travel time. The more common destination is Ochos Rios or even Montego Bay. In Falmouth there was only room for one other ship to dock while we were there unless other tendered in. Immediately off the ship is a small little town square completely set up with shopping options and American restaurants like Dairy Queen and Qdoba. Not exactly what I had in mind, but that’s ok.
The “town” area is very small and beyond it is a set of gates that you must pass through to go on any excursions. However it’s “not advisable” to pass through these gates and explore the rest of Falmouth just beyond the tourist trap part. I think if it was just Pablo and I traveling we probably would’ve ventured out there and been just fine! It looked VERY poor but I’ve been in much worse conditions in the past. However, most everyone caught a taxi that would take them to the beach (not accessible via foot) or on an excursion or just stayed in the tourist town area.
We decided on an excursion that involved tubing down the Rio Bueno River. We booked our excursion here:
The cost was $65 per person and I don’t think it was worth quite that much. The company was excellent and it was very easy to find our driver waiting for us off the ship. I just asked at the Information kiosk where the independent tour guides were located and they told me to walk down the street until I saw the white tent on the right. When I got there I asked for Duane and he came right over. I gave him our printed reservation information and he had my name on the list. There was another family joining as well and we all climbed into a brand new van/bus to travel the 45 minutes to the river. Everything ran very smoothly and was quite professional.
Getting to the river did involve a bit of walking through the jungle and one of my sisters got eaten alive by mosquitos along the way! Not sure she was the only one but when we reached the end of the river she was covered in itchy bug bites. They do offer water shoes for you to rent if you’d like, but we had bare feet and were just fine as you never actually really get into the river to wade around. Be sure to leave all your valuables on the bus as you WILL get wet.
Surprisingly the water wasn’t as warm as I expected, but we certainly didn’t freeze. We floated along with trees hanging over the river as well so there was no sunburn to worry about. The rapids were very small the whole way and it was fun, but very far from thrilling. You could take small children along no problem, I was actually wishing it was a bit wilder! The disappointment was that the actually river tubing was pretty short, I’d estimate around 30- 40 minutes total. It seemed that we had just started and it was already done. Was it fun? Yes. Was it worth $65? Probably not.
We had a guide with us floating down the river the whole time as well so we always felt safe. The excursion mentioned some shopping as well and we were wondering if it was going to turn into any pushiness with urging to buy local goods. But we had none of that. About halfway down the river our guide asked us if we wanted to stop as there was a local lady selling some goods and snacks. We told him no and got the “yah, mon, no problem” response right away and just kept on going by. There was no pushiness back in town either.
All in all with transportation time and everything this tour was around 3 hours. Had I known ahead of time that there was not a beach available very close in the port I think I would have just gone to the beach via taxi instead of doing this excursion. I was picturing us doing the excursion and then relaxing on the beach afterwards. But we didn’t feel like paying for a taxi to take us there and going back and forth some more. Instead we poked around some of the shops and then headed back to the ship.
Bottom line: There’s not much to do right in the Falmouth Port. Be prepared to use a taxi to get to the beach though I don’t think it was very far or very expensive. The actual town of Falmouth is past the gates so really you’re pretty limited unless you’re using a taxi or going on an excursion. Jamaica was pretty, but not as beautiful as some other parts of the Caribbean I have visited and it’s also very, very poor.
Fire Round the World 
HI Kelly. Happened upon your page while randomly snooping around on facebook. I will put in one comment on your JA trip – there is a great deal more to see of JA than you did see and there is a lot of variety when it comes to beauty. So there are more beautiful places but there is a lot more to see.
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