Fern Gully
Fern Gully is a three-mile stretch of road running inland from Ocho Rios where around 300 varieties of fern arch over the carriageway and close into a green tunnel overhead. Blue mahoe and banana grow along it too, and botanists rate the diversity.
The road exists because of an earthquake. In 1907 one of the rivers that gave Ocho Rios its name was destroyed, and the dry riverbed was later paved — so you're driving up what used to be a river.
There's no gate, no ticket and nothing to book: it's a public road you drive through. Vendors set up along parts of it selling wood carvings, some with life-sized sculptures you can photograph for a small fee. Best folded into a day already heading to or from Ocho Rios.
Good to know
- No admission and no hours — it's a road, open whenever you drive it.
- Narrow, shaded and winding, with vendors pulled onto the verge. Take it slowly.
- Worth combining with something else in Ocho Rios rather than driving out for its own sake.