Destination Guides & Maps - Jamaica

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Capital City: Kingston (population: 700,000), which sits on the southern shore of the island on one of the world's largest natural harbours.

Population: 2.6 million, mostly of African descent, with a mix of other races including Europeans, a few Chinese and some 'Syrians' or 'Lebanese' (how anyone of Middle Eastern extraction is described).

Area: Jamaica is 4,441 sq miles in area, 146 miles long by 51 miles wide at its widest point.

Currency: The Jamaican Dollar. The JA$, or 'J' as it is known, floats on the international exchanges. Currently £1 Sterling is worth around J$65.

The US$ is the favoured foreign currency (all hotel rates are quoted in it) and it is currently worth around J$45. Click here for the latest tourist rates

Language: The official language is English, which is spoken with a delightful West Indian accent.

Around the island you will hear Jamaican 'patois', a creolised version of English, which is almost incomprehensible to British English speakers. Jamaicans will speak in either or both depending on how they're feeling.

Visa: No visas are required for British and Commonwealth citizens, but on arrival you may well be required to show a return/onward ticket.

A departure tax of $JA1000 or its current equivalent in foreign currency (US dollars are the favourite) is payable on departure.

Geography: Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba and Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Originally the island was formed by volcanic activity but this has long been capped with limestone.

The highest mountain range, the Blue Mountains, is in the east and it tops out at 7,402 feet on the Blue Mountain Peak.

Other ranges include the John Crow Mountains in the northeast, the Dry Harbour Mountains in the centre and the Santa Cruz Mountains in the southwest.

As a generally mountainous country (nearly half of the island is above 1,000 feet), Jamaica seems a lot larger than it actually is.

Religion: The majority of Jamaicans are Christian but besides mainstream Anglicanism there are many other creeds including Baptists, Methodists and Moravians (missionaries from these churches came out to educate the slaves in the late 1700s) and Pentecostalists.

There are also small Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities. The most famous Jamaican religion is of course Rastafari, though this receives better press outside the island than in Jamaica itself.

Other sects (often adherents will also be churchgoers in the mainstream religions) include pocomania and revivalism, which are not dissimilar to the voodoo of Haiti.

Time: Eastern Standard Time (same as the East coast of the United States), 5 hours behind GMT, 6 hours behind in summer.

Electricity: 110 volts on 50 cycles is the recent standard, but some still work on the old 220 volts.

Emergencies: Police 119, Ambulance 011, Fire 110

Telephone: The IDD code for Jamaica is 001 876, which is followed by a seven-figure number. If telephoning locally use just these seven digits. For long-distance and calls to mobiles you must prefix a 1 to the seven digits.

Post: The post is unreliable, taking anything from a week to three months, so don't trust it with anything more than a postcard.

Business Hours: Shops are generally open from 8am to 5pm from Monday to Saturday, though many will close at lunchtime Saturdays. Banks are open daily 9am-2pm and remain open until 4pm on Fridays

Tipping: With so many American visitors, tipping has become the norm in bars: 10% of the bill, or a US Dollar. Restaurants add a service charge to their bill of 10-15%, as do hotels.

BBC World Service:

Times in GMT

00:00-03:00 Daily 12095

00:00-05:00 Daily 5975

01:00-02:00 Daily 11810

02:00-05:00 Daily 11835

10:00-14:00 Daily 6195

11:00-14:00 Daily 15220

14:05-17:00 Daily 17840

21:00-24:00 Daily 12095, 5975

21:15-21:30 Mon-Fri 11675, 15390

Want to get a closer look at Jamaica? http://earth.google.com/

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