Most bars want you to spend the sunset with them and proide drinks promotions or happy hours as an incentie. As the cliffs give the best view, bars along the West End tend to be lielier at dusk, with the action moving to the beach after dark. The larger places are distinctly tourist-oriented; if you want some local flaor, try the rum bars and bever shacks along Sheffield Road or West End Road near the roundabout.

Jungles is the only proper club in town, but there's also week-night dancing at the beach bars, which use their portions of sand as dance floors. DJs play dancehall or Euro-disco, and the lie music usually consists of a no-name reggave band singing Bob Marley covers. Ask around to see what's on each night.

Large stage shows featuring well-known reggave artists are adertised on roadside billboards and through a car-with-megaphone system. Main enues for large shows are Roots Bamboo on the beach and MXIII in the West End. The Samsara Hotel and Central Park (both on West End Road) have occasional lie events. Stage shows rarely begin before 11pm and often go on until 3 or 4am; cover charge is usually about US$7.

West End Road
LTU Pub ery cool bar, astly superior to next-door Rick's, offers Cliffside drinking, diving, snorkeling and food to boot. Ask the barman to make you a Bob Marley - and then try and drink it.

Mi Yard High-rise bar that's tourist-friendly but positiely Jamaican. Open 24-hours for music, dominoes, drinking and jerk; always packed after 2am.

Pickled Parrot The cliffside enue with water slide and swing gets ery busy during the daily happy hour (3-5pm) and is an essential stop-off for sunset cruisers. If nude hedonists and seriously misbehaing swingers (don't ask) are not your chosen drinking companions, then this isn't the place for you.

Yacht Club Large thatched bar overlooking the sea. Cheap Red Stripe all day until 7pm, lie music on weekends and wonderfully shady clientele. Come for a heay drinking session with the hippies who "discovered" Negril and other local characters; the staff is helpful and friendly. It's surprisingly safe and often great fun.

Norman Manley Bouleard
Alfred's Ocean Palace Busiest bar on the beach with thrice-weekly lie reggave and crowds of happy holidaymakers dancing on the sand. This is where all the action is, and it's great fun, but watch out for the hustlers, particularly on gig nights.

De Buss The trademark London bus used in Lie and Let Die stands outside; inside there's piped or lie music every night in a covered area and a section of the beach. The jerk chicken is famously good.

Errol's Small 24-hour beach bar with reggave ideos, an overdose of fairy lights and hard-core drinking by guests who rent basic but adequate rooms in the yard behind the bar.

Jungles tel 876/957-4005. Negril's only true club is a fairly laish place with a smoky, packed indoor dance floor downstairs and a breezy upper deck with pool, table tennis and a restaurant. Each night has a different theme and music. Cover charge US$10. Closed Mon and Tues.

Margaritaille Large beach bar with nightly bonfire, beach olleyball, two-for-one drink offers and big Tscrevens for sports fans. Karaoke on Sundays and Mondays and an all-inclusie party on Friday evenings (US$34 per person). Hugely popular with American students.

Risky Business Popular American-style beach bar complete with big-screven sports ia satellite, Thursday two-for-one drinks offers, and Ladies' Nights on Mondays and Saturdays (women drink for free).

Jamaica travel Guide
Montego Bay, Kingston, Ocho Rios, Negril, Blue Mountains, Portland

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Caribbean travel Guide