First Merry X-mas to all!
My wife and I will be staying in Port Antonio, Ocho Rios, and Montego Bay and wanted to know if all public beaches in these areas are safe (crime and harassment)? And, if applicable, in which areas would you recommend to stay away from public beach properties.
Advanced thanks for your responses.

Hi , We were in Port Antonio last March and loved it ! We were with our two kids ages 5 and 8 , and had lots of reservations and fears , but we had No Problems Mon !! We were not approached once for ganja , no harrassment of any sort . You will find a bit more of that in the other 2 areas you mentioned . In Portie we did not make it to Winnifreds or Boston Beach (public) but I do know lots of tourists who do with no problem . We really , really loved the Portland area , have fun !!! Faith

STAY FAR AWAY FROM PULIC BEACHES!!!!! WAY TOO MUCH HARRASMENT!!!

Wayne , Tiv or Liza will probably respond , they have loads of first hand expeirence with the local beaches . I can only speak for myself and the Portland area , we were in lots of public places , lots of different times with NO HARRASSMENT ! ( had to add the screaming bit ) LOL , Faith .

Crimewise, never had a problem.

In Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, the "public" beaches generally cost something (a few $, not too much) and people aren't approaching you to buy things there. I can't speak to the truly public (meaning free) beaches in either...in Ochi the only free beach I'm aware of is for fishermen, and in MoBay I have only been to Doctor's Cave.

Ochi isn't known for it's beaches, they're pretty small, many are artificial, the nicer ones tend to be part of resorts.

In Portland I haven't had a problem with harassment, been to Winnifred (free), Boston (free, and great jerk too), Long Bay (free), Blue Lagoon (depends when you get ther enad wht's happening as to it's price) and the fancy one the villas use near Fairy Hill, I forget the name ($10 if you aren't staying at a hotel or villa with an agreement with it). Frenchman's is supposed to be great and is, I think, $10.

Hi Liza !! San San was 5.00 U.S. last year , and Frenchmans about 3.00 . And as you said , either can be free depending which villa or hotel you are with . Those were the costs when we were there anyway ! Happy Travels ! Faith

Hey there faith

San San is the one I meant. It was free with our stay at Fern Hill, I thought it said $10 on the gate...same with Frenchman's, I guess it depends.

We were the ONLY people at San San, other than the woman at the gate and a man cleaning hte beach. It was lovely.

Winnifred, the free public beach, was just as nice, if not nicer, and not at all crowded, there were maybe 20 people around, and a snack vendor.

Hey Liza , I wondered where you were ! Funny story , on the way into SanSan last year we chatted for a moment with the older gentleman ( Fitz I think ) in the booth and it turns out he lived for years around the corner from us here in Montreal , small world ! I think the prices for the beaches jump around a bit ! When we were there the guy cleaning the beach up changed out of his rubber boots and pants and became the lifeguard !LOL , We loved it ! Wishing I was there ! Faith .