Montego Bay is Jamaica's second city in size and importance, but it is the island's tourism capital. It boasts the most hotel accommodation, the most transport facilities and is, in fact, a cosmopolitan holiday centre, offering a wide choice of amenities.

Montego Bay is divided into Three fairly distinct parts. There is the city itself with its crowded streets. There is the "hotel area" which is the mile - and-a-half strip running from the town, past the celebrated Doctor's Cave Beach and out to the Dead End Bar. Thirdly, there are the outlying hotels and villas on beach or hillside.

City streets are crowded, colourful and lively. Country folk flock in to visit markets, shops and banks. Guests from hotels and cruise ships make their way to in-bond shops and Crafts Markets. Housewives, office girls and market higglers promenade round bar-front discussion groups and sidewalk domino games.

Compared to Palm Beach, it is not exactly an elegant town. Ergo, don't compare it to anywhere. Enjoy its noisy, untidy, lively Caribbean charm.

Architecture is a mixture of last century "gingerbread" wooden houses interspersed with modem buildings, many of which harmonize because Georgian facades never really went out of fashion.

Sam Sharpe Square, a pleasant cobblestoned hub of activity, is roughly the centre of the town where stands the Cage, formerly a jail for runaway slaves, and the ruins of the Courthouse, built in 1804 and destroyed by fire some 20 years ago.

It is only now in the process of being rebuilt.

City Centre, in true Jamaican tradition, is not the centre of the city but it is the centre of in-bond shopping where all the major in-bond stores are situated.

The main Crafts Market is on Harbour Street close to Sam Sharpe Square, but there are two smaller ones in the hotel area, one next to Fantasy Hotel and another on Fort Street on the site of a 17th century fort,

There are a number of other shopping arcades in Montego Bay where the visitor can shop for souvenirs: St. James and Fantasy Plazas are situat ed in the hotel area and Montego Bay Plaza and Bay West Plaza are on the waterfront in town. Further afield lies the Montego Freeport Shopping Centre to the west of town and the Blue Diamond Plaza to the east.

Holiday Village, also to the east, in front of Holiday Inn, is the largest shopping centre in Montego Bay, with an extensive selection of in-bon~ stores, souvenir and craft stores, all within easy walking distance. It also boasts an art gallery.

Half Moon Shopping Village, is a very luxurious shopping area, attached to the Half Moon Hotel.

On the western side of the harbour, Montego Freeport has been developed on what was once the man grove swamps of the Bogue Islands. Here are the deep water piers where cruise boat passengers and freight are unloaded. Here too is the site of the Montego Bay Free Zone, which em ploys a great number of Montegonians in the manufacture of such things as T-shirts and sportswear, all for export. Jamaica Digiport Interna tional, a hi-tech telecommunications centre, is also at Montego Freeport.

The name Montego Bay derives from the Spanish name Manteca Bahia or Bay of Lard, so called because of the lard-making industry made possible by the hunting of wild boars which abounded in the sur rounding hills.

Montego Bay was a sugar and banana town but the sugar factories have closed down and bananas are now shipped out from Kingston and Port Antonio so the picturesque sight of women carrying bananas on their heads and singing the TallyMan song while carrying out their back-breaking work, is a thing of the past.

Montego Bay's original claim to resort fame was the fabulous Doctor's Cave Beach which attracted celebri ties and socialites from all over the world. The Beach is said to be fed by mineral springs and it certainly rejoices in the most uncommonly clear and sparkling water.

In recent years, other beach clubs have been developed in the area, each with its own special character. Walter Fletcher Beach is closest to town on Gloucester Avenue. Cornwall Bead is just a little beyond Doctor's Cave Tropical Beach and Rose Hall Bead lie further out of town.

Montego Bay boasts a wide selection of accommodation, from the older, well-established luxury hotels and the newer all-inclusives to the many small and much more intimate places. Villas await those who want to get away and do their own thing.