Geejam

Geejam has always made the most of its music-business connections, for good reason — without reggae, Jamaica just wouldn’t be the same, and the hotel might never have existed at all. This place was actually a recording studio first, where the likes of Gorillaz and Björk went away to focus on their music. It seems the beachside surroundings and the sunny contemporary interiors were a great improvement over the usual dank and darkened studio control room, and the addition of some stylish on-site lodgings turned out to be a move that appealed equally to the non-musician general public.

Any hotel in the Caribbean that’s worth staying at had better be small — even after a recent expansion, adding twelve new rooms to its existing seven cabins and villas, this one fits the bill. And for all the place’s hipster cachet, its atmosphere has remained remarkably low-key; it’s closer to some of Jamaica’s finest beaches than it is to the nightlife in Port Antonio, ten minutes away. There’s some small chance it’ll be a bit stressful for a musician on holiday, being that close to the workplace — but for anyone else, a thoroughly effective escape.


How to get there:
The main international airport is Norman Manley in Kingston. Guests can connect to a fifteen-minute private flight via plane over the Blue Mountains to a local airstrip, known as Ken Jones. Geejam is approximately 30 mins. drive from Ken Jones. Alternatively, a private helicopter can also be chartered directly to and from the airport, and for those who are a little squeamish with small planes, Geejam is currently a two-hour drive from Kingston.