The Sea Cliff Hotel Resort & Spa

A Cliff Above Long Bay, Where the House Grew Into the Rock

Portland is the green, unhurried end of Jamaica, and Ross Craig is one of its quieter addresses: a headland on the Long Bay road where the land stops and the Caribbean starts some way below. Sea Cliff Resort sits right on that edge. It is a small, family-run boutique hotel rather than a resort in the usual island sense, with rooms strung along the clifftop, island artwork on the walls, and a saltwater pool set into the terrace so that the swimming and the sea happen at the same height. The tone is easy rather than formal.

Why It Works

Three things settled it for us. The first is that there is no bad room: every one of them looks at the Caribbean, and every porch carries a hammock, which turns the afternoon into the point of the trip rather than an interval between excursions. The second is the restaurant. The Cliff Hanger is not a captive hotel dining room but a lounge deck that Jamaicans drive to from other parishes, and that is the surest sign a kitchen is worth sitting down in. The third is scale. The family that runs the bar is the one that books your rafting trip.

Why This Location

Long Bay is the surf beach of the east coast, long and open, and it sets the pace of a stay here: slow, local, mostly empty on a weekday. The coast road west runs through Boston Bay, the stretch most closely associated with jerk cooking and still lined with pimento wood smoke, then into Port Antonio, about seventeen kilometres away, with its twin harbours and the Errol Flynn Marina. Beyond the town lie Frenchman’s Cove and the Blue Lagoon. Inland to the south-east, the Drivers River drops through the forest to Reach Falls. Kingston and its airport are some fifty-two kilometres off, over the Blue Mountains.

Fast Facts

• Price: upper mid-range boutique

• Vibe: barefoot, family-run, tropical elegance

• Rooms: oceanview throughout, air-conditioned, each with a private porch hammock

• Best For: couples, surfers, and slow travellers who want the east coast rather than the north-shore strip

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the saltwater pool cut into the clifftop terrace, fed from the sea it looks out over

• Dining: The Cliff Hanger Restaurant, Bar and Lounge, local and international cooking on a deck above the water

• Amenities: saltwater pool, concierge and excursion desk, free private parking, a cliff terrace used for weddings

• Attractions: Long Bay beach, the Boston Bay jerk stands, Port Antonio and the Errol Flynn Marina, Frenchman’s Cove and the Blue Lagoon, Reach Falls

Rooms That All Face the Same Water

The room stock is deliberately simple: everything is an oceanview room, air-conditioned, opening onto a porch with a hammock. What changes is position on the cliff, so the difference between one room and the next is how much sky and how much water you get, and how close the surf sounds at night. Island artwork does most of the decorating, which keeps the rooms warm rather than styled.

The Cliff Hanger, and the Table People Drive For

The restaurant is the social heart of the hotel and, to a degree, of this part of the coast. It works as a bar and lounge as much as a dining room, with a deck hanging over the water and a kitchen that runs Jamaican dishes alongside international ones. Guests eat here because it is convenient; islanders come for the view and the food, and the mix is what keeps the room from feeling like a hotel canteen. Sunset is the busy hour, and it is also the hour to be on the deck.

What to Know Before You Book

This is a cliff, not a beach hotel: swimming happens in the saltwater pool, or at Long Bay a short way along the road, and the ground is uneven in places. Check-in runs from mid-afternoon, check-out late in the morning. Children are welcome and the property is set up for families and for weddings, so the terrace is occasionally given over to an event. Parking is free and on site, which matters, because Portland only opens up with a car. Take the concierge up on the excursions: the rafting, the waterfalls and the good beaches are spread out here, and none of them come to you.