Sunday 1 April 2012

Montego Bay

 Montego Bay is the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the fourth by population (after Kingston, Spanish Town and Portmore).
It is a tourist destination with duty free shopping, cruise line terminal and the beaches. The city is backed by picturesque low mountains.


Roads
Montego Bay is on the main A1 (Kingston to Lucea) road and the B15 (Montego Bay to Falmouth) road. It is well served by buses, mini buses and taxis, which operate from the Montego Bay Transport Centre.


Rail
The now disused Montego Bay railway station served the Kingston to Montego Bay main line. The station opened c1894 and closed in October 1992 when all passenger traffic on Jamaica's railways abruptly ceased.


Air
Montego Bay is served by Jamaica's largest airport, the Sir Donald Sangster International Airport.
Air Jamaica and several North American and European airlines run their Caribbean hub in "MoBay" (Sangster International Airport) connecting the island with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada. The southern U.S. city of Miami can be reached within 70 minutes. The southern U.S. cities of Charlotte, Houston, Atlanta, and Tampa can be reached by nonstop flights in less than three hours. Other locations like Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., and Chicago can be reached in under four hours.


Port
There is a free port and cruise line terminal on a man-made peninsula jutting into the bay.


In popular culture


The city was the subject of the namesake song by Bobby Bloom in 1970, later covered by Jon Stevens ten years later, and was revived by Amazulu to became a minor hit in the U.S. in September 1986.
Several scenes from the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die (in which Roger Moore appeared as Bond for the first time) were filmed around Montego Bay.

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