Jakes Hotel

A Handbuilt Village at Calabash Bay

Jakes was not designed so much as grown. The buildings at Calabash Bay carry mosaic pathways, walls studded with shell and rock, bottle glass set into openings where stained glass would go, and awnings woven from twigs, and the whole thing has been assembled piece by piece by a family rather than drawn by a studio. Cosmopolitan once called it Gaudi-esque, which is closer to right than it sounds. Colour runs through everything, no two rooms repeat, and the property has been described by Conde Nast Traveler as the heart and soul of its community, a claim that survives contact with the place.

Why It Works

We kept Jakes because it is the most original hotel on the island, and originality on this scale cannot be reproduced. The design is a single family’s hand applied over decades, the staff are from the village, and the money stays in Treasure Beach rather than leaving it. The second reason is the south coast itself, which almost no visitor sees and which is the part of Jamaica that has changed least. The third is the food: with Jakes and Jack Sprat next door to each other, a guest can eat well for a week without repeating a meal or leaving the sand.

Why This Location

Treasure Beach is a string of fishing coves on the south coast in Saint Elizabeth, dry, cactus dotted and entirely unlike the north shore. There are no all inclusive compounds and no cruise piers, and the beaches are shared with the boats that work them. From here a boat runs out to the stilted bar standing on a sandbar offshore, YS Falls and the Black River wetlands are within an hour inland, and Lover’s Leap is along the coast east. Montego Bay is roughly two hours away by road, the trip across the island being part of the point.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Bohemian, handmade, community rooted, entirely unpolished by design

• Rooms: Forty nine rooms, bungalows, cottages and villas, each one different, several with outdoor showers walled in shell and stone

• Best For: Independent travellers, writers and artists, couples who dislike resorts, families taking a villa

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the bottle glass set into the walls, which turns the afternoon light inside the rooms into something nobody else on the island has

• Dining: Jakes restaurant and bar for Jamaican cooking and the evening, with Jack Sprat next door for fish, pizza and the beach at lunchtime

• Amenities: Saltwater pool, Driftwood Spa, yoga, gardens running to the water, weddings and small gatherings

• Attractions: The offshore bar on its sandbar, YS Falls, the Black River wetlands, Lover’s Leap, the fishing beaches of Treasure Beach itself

Rooms, Cottages and Villas, No Two Alike

Booking here means choosing a personality rather than a category. Some rooms sit on the rocks with the sea directly below, others stand back in the garden with more shade and more quiet, and the villas suit a family or a group who want a kitchen and a terrace of their own. Outdoor showers are a signature, screened by walls of shell and rock rather than by a cubicle. Ask about proximity to the water and about which units have air conditioning, because the older ones were built for the breeze and many guests prefer them that way.

Jakes, Jack Sprat and the Saltwater Pool

Two kitchens serve the property, and they do different jobs. Jakes handles the evening with Jamaican cooking and a bar that draws people from along the coast. Jack Sprat, immediately next door and on the sand, is the lunch answer, built around fish landed locally and pizza that has acquired a following well beyond Saint Elizabeth. Between them sits the saltwater pool, which on a coast where the sea can run rough is more useful than it looks.

The Driftwood Spa and the Pace of the South Coast

The Driftwood Spa keeps to the same logic as the rest: simple rooms, local hands, treatments that do not require a brochure. Yoga runs for guests who want it. Beyond that the programme is deliberately thin, because Treasure Beach is a place for reading, walking the coves and talking to people, and the hotel has never pretended otherwise. Travellers who need organised activity will be restless here within two days. Everyone else tends to extend.