Geejam ★★★★

A Working Studio in the Portland Rainforest

Port Antonio has always been the quiet end of Jamaica, the side the island keeps for itself, and Geejam is built into the hillside above San San Beach where the rainforest runs down to the water. Jon Baker and Steve Beaver put a professional recording studio at the centre of it, and everything else arranged itself around that decision. Accommodation is scattered through the gardens rather than stacked in a block, the rooms carry the names of Jamaican music genres, and the whole site sits inside a bird sanctuary, which explains the soundtrack at six in the morning. It feels less like a hotel than a private estate that happens to take guests.

Why It Works

We kept Geejam for the studio, because it changes what the stay is. Guests can book sessions in a facility that has recorded No Doubt and Grace Jones, which turns a beach holiday into something with a story attached, and it explains the artists and producers who keep coming back. The second reason is the scale: a handful of cabins, a suite and one villa, served by a kitchen and a bar that would suit a property three times the size. The third is Portland itself, still the least developed coast on the island, which is exactly what a traveller tired of the resort strip is looking for.

Why This Location

San San sits east of Port Antonio town, about fifteen minutes by road, on the stretch of coast that holds the best swimming in Jamaica. Frenchman’s Cove is five minutes away and guests are given passes to it, which is the single most useful thing the hotel does for a first time visitor. The Blue Lagoon is close enough for an afternoon. Arrival is usually through Kingston, roughly two hours over the Blue Mountains, a drive worth doing in daylight for the road itself. Nothing here is walkable in the resort sense, and that is the point of the address.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Rainforest hideaway, musical, barefoot, deliberately private

• Rooms: Rumba rooms, Ska cabins and the three bedroom Cocosan Villa, all named for Jamaican music and spread through the gardens

• Best For: Couples, creative travellers and musicians, small groups taking the villa

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Geejam Studios, bookable by guests, in a room where records have actually been made

• Dining: Bushbar, built around two three hundred year old fig trees, serving Jamaican and Asian cooking with a 180 degree view of the sea, breakfast included

• Amenities: Recording studio, infinity pool, private beach below the property, gym, kayaks and paddleboards, gardens inside a bird sanctuary

• Attractions: Frenchman’s Cove five minutes away with guest passes, the Blue Lagoon, San San Beach, Port Antonio town fifteen minutes west

The Cabins, the Suite and Cocosan Villa

The Ska cabins are the signature: one bedroom units set apart in the greenery, private enough that you can go a day without seeing another guest. The Rumba rooms sit closer to the heart of the property for anyone who prefers to be near the bar and the pool. Cocosan Villa, with three bedrooms, takes a group or a family and comes with the run of its own terrace. Ask for a cabin if seclusion is the priority and for the villa if you are travelling with people you actually want to eat breakfast with.

Bushbar and the Fig Trees

Bushbar is the social centre, an open room built around two enormous fig trees with the Caribbean filling the horizon on three sides. The kitchen works a Jamaican and Asian line, which is more interesting than the jerk and grilled fish circuit that surrounds it, and breakfast comes with the room in Continental, Jamaican or English form. It is also where the property’s two populations meet, the guests who came for the beach and the ones who came for the studio, usually somewhere around the second round of drinks.

The Pool, the Beach and the Water

An infinity pool hangs over the treetops with the sea beyond it, and a private beach sits below the property for anyone who wants salt water instead. Kayaks and paddleboards are there for the taking, and the calm water around San San rewards them. A gym handles the rest. The rhythm of a day here is slow by design: the pool in the morning, Frenchman’s Cove or the Blue Lagoon after lunch, Bushbar at sunset, and the studio whenever the mood arrives.