There's no island quite like Jamaica

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - It was one of those moments that every traveler longs for - a memory of a particular place that defines it and will remain etched in the mind forever.

I was sitting on the terrace of Montego Bay's Half Moon Hotel, sipping that most famous of the island's frothy concoctions, the yellow bird, when a steel band struck up the song of the same name. Suddenly - and I'm not making this up - I noticed a tiny, buttercup-yellow bird extracting its own cocktail from deep within the folds of a scarlet hibiscus. I waited for the director to yell "Cut!"

When Harry Belafonte first crooned, "This is my island in the sun," he made sultry, saucy calypso a colorful stitch in the fabric of American music. His song of Jamaica had another lasting effect - it made his island everyone's island in the sun. Thanks to its awe-inspiring natural beauty, sun-kissed beaches, verdant forests, azure seas and kaleidoscope of tropical blooms, Jamaica first became the winter getaway of choice for a generation of European royalty, movie stars and international jet-setters - everyone from swashbuckling film star Errol Flynn to writers Noel Coward and Ian Fleming.

I have to confess that I consider much of the Caribbean to be homogeneous. Plant a palm tree on a beach somewhere, and I have trouble distinguishing one island from another. Jamaica - with its own culture, its own music, its own food, its own art and its vibrant history - is an exception. It's a real country, not just another generic island.

Bustling with excitement, Mo Bay (as the locals call Montego Bay) has plenty of enticements. For starters, the gleaming stretch of sand called Doctor's Cave Beach has lured sunbathers since the early 1900s, when word got out that its waters cured almost any ailment. Its restorative powers have proven more fiction than fact, but there's nothing fictitious about the shimmering sand and crayon-colored surf.

If you prefer something more active than basking on a beach, there's golf (most notably, at Half Moon Resort, Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall and the Tryall Club), rafting on the Martha Brae River and horseback riding - for the latter, head to Good Hope Plantation, where miles of trails wind through lush, rolling countryside, dappled with purple jacaranda and flame-colored African tulip tree blossoms.

Shopping is quite possibly Mo Bay's most popular sport, with a tempting cornucopia of merchandise - from baskets, batiks and wood carvings at the Craft Market on Harbour Street to Scottish cashmere, English china and French perfumes at duty-free shops.

Whatever else you do, you must visit two of the island's most famous plantation great houses, remnants of its British Colonial past: Greenwood and Rose Hall.

The former, furnished with elegant period antiques, was built by a cousin of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and visitors are positively intrigued by Rose Hall, a haunting (and supposedly haunted) testament to an altogether different kind of passion.

In the 1700s, it was home to Annie Palmer, the "white witch" who ended three honeymoons shortly after they began by disposing of each husband in the same upstairs bedroom.

More than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus landed on the beach below the north coast's fern-clad cliffs and proclaimed Jamaica "the fairest island ever beheld . . . where the mountains seem to touch the sky."

To this day, brilliant blue bays, hidden coves, tiny fishing villages, lush mountains - even a drive-through rain forest, Fern Gully - come together in a breathtaking tapestry. At the heart of it all is Ocho Rios (eight rivers), another of the island's playgrounds.

The premier attraction here is Dunn's River Falls. Starting at beach level, visitors (be sure to wear your swimsuit) carefully negotiate their way up limestone tiers to the 600-foot summit, stopping along the way to bathe in small pools and cool off beneath the rushing white spray. FYI: For the best experience, go in the morning, before cruise ship passengers take it over in the afternoon.

The Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios is a small hotel (47 suites) that is consistently ranked one of the best in the Caribbean by U.S. travel magazines and satisfied customers alike. Situated on a private crescent beach, all rooms overlook the beach, the sea or both.

If you crave a more out-of-the-way slice of paradise, head for nearby Port Maria and take the winding road up to Firefly, the former home of English playwright Noel Coward, and now a museum chronicling his life and career. After touring the house, stroll across the sloping lawns to marvel at the vista of sea, sky and mountains that many consider the best view in Jamaica.

The nearby home of another writer, 007 creator Ian Fleming, is now a luxurious hotel, Goldeneye, where the villas are set on (naturally) James Bond Beach.

To see Jamaica as it looked half a century ago, head for Port Antonio, a sleepy fishing village cradled by the Blue Mountains, on the northeast coast. In the 1950s, because of its remote location and laid-back lifestyle, film star Errol Flynn called this favorite haunt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen - and he had surely seen his share.

Today, Port Antonio remains a peaceful reminder of paradise unblemished. Most visitors head straight to the Blue Lagoon near San San Beach. The 200-foot-deep hole, with its electric-blue color, is surrounded by groves of coconut palms, and it is the perfect spot for swimming or taking one of the ubiquitous raft rides.

Port Antonio continues to slumber, but Negril was jolted out of a similar sleep in the 1970s by the arrival of sun and fun seekers.

Now Jamaica's undisputed capital of cool, it has a split personality: There is the boisterous beach end, with 7 miles of sugary sand hugging the sea, and the more subdued cliff end, stretching to the landmark Negril Lighthouse and peppered with hidden grottoes and caves.

More about Jamaica at www.visitjamaica.com.