Guide Ratings

THE ROUGH GUIDE - JAMAICA
by Polly Thomas and Adam Vaitilingam - Third Edition Nov. 2003 page 130

Highlights

Port Antonio Small historic town with lots of character set around two pretty bays. Jamaica Heights, right above the town, is one of the best guesthouses on the island. see page 161

Jamaica Heights Resort Spring Bank Rd. tel. 993 3305 website www.jamaicaheights.net
Mellow guesthouse in great location, high up in the hills. It's easily the best in Port Antonio. Beautiful and spacious rooms are excellent value, and views over the town are staggering. Facilities include it's own "private" river and waterfall, as well as a pool and Ping - Pong table.

Frommer's Caribbean 2001 and Frommer's Jamaica, 2000 edition.
By Danforth Prince, co-author.

If you're not particularly adventurous, and if a bland, mass-produced motel beside an interstate highway is your idea of a great vacation, this is definitely not the hotel for you. But if you're looking for a hyper-sophisticated retreat where you might run into a band of holidaymaking rock stars from Düsseldorf, a team of avant-garde filmmakers cranking out tomorrow's cult film, or a place where your artistic hopes and dreams might actually be encouraged and nurtured, this might be the place for you.

It's set at the top of a rutted and very steep series of roads, the best of which were privately built by the very worldly and attractively jaded owner, Helmut Steiner, former professor of philosophy and literature in Berlin, who built the place between 1984 and 1996 after skippering his own sailboat around the world. (He awoke one morning after a circumnavigation of Cuba and a nighttime entrance into Port Antonio, and became entranced with his view of the surrounding hills). Today, with his wife Charmaine and their two children, he maintains the funkiest, most amusing, and most hyper-hip guesthouse in town. Scattered amid the wedge-shaped eight-acre property are a half-dozen buildings, each white-walled with blue shutters, artfully scattered gazebos, masses of climbing vines, and a Moghul-inspired pavilion that was specifically designed for meditating over views of the forested terrain that cascades down to Port Antonio's harbor. Amid sturdy retaining walls that might remind you of a postmodern version of a castello in Italy, you'll find a garden of exotic palms, a gurgling stream with its own waterfalls, the most elegant ping-pong pavilion in the world, and dozens of botanical oddities imported from around the world.

Accommodations are spotlessly clean, evoking feelings that are both nautical and minimalist-the kind of place where you might improve both your yoga skills and interpersonal friendships. Each has a four-poster bed and unusual lighting fixtures whose rays filter through soldered-together computer circuit boards. Doors can be opened or closed within this scattered hotel to create suites with between two and four bedrooms. Don't overlook the possibility of renting the entire compound for a worldly, and ultra-private retreat at a place that's much, much more iconoclastic than what you might have found at a typical hotel or guesthouse.

Dining/Entertainment: There's an in-house restaurant that's open only to residents of the hotel and their guests, a swimming pool, a riverfront gazebo for swimming, and the possibility, through Helmut, of arranging any of the land- or watersports available in the surrounding region.

Lonely Planet - Jamaica
by Christopher P Parker, 3rd edition - Jan.2003 page 195

Jamaica Heights Hotel tel. 993 2156... Spring Bank Rd.... southwest of Boundbrook Crescent, is a splendid option. The exquisite hilltop plantation home is set amid lush gardens with a spectacular setting and incredible views. Columned verandas, whitewashed walls, aged brick, dark hardwood floors, louvered windows, French doors, and a cool white - and - blue color scheme combine to provide a gracious environment. The six rooms and two studios are tastefully furnished with white wicker and antiques, plus four - poster beds with romantic netting. A two - bedroom cottage was being added. A spa offers massage and treatments, and there's a beautiful plunge pool plus a nature trail.

THE ROUGH GUIDE - CARIBBEAN
First Edition - Oct. 2002 page 259

Jamaica Heights Spring Bank Road (off Boundbrook Road) Tel. 993 2156
By far the prettiest place to stay in town, this mellow guesthouse offers a grand view of the twin harbours. The spacious rooms have four - poster beds and big balconies. There's a pool and meals are available, as are walks to nearby waterfalls.