Ocho Rios Shopping

Malls

If you're coming to Ocho Rios aboard a cruise, one of the first shopping areas you'll reach is Island Village, an open-air compendium of stores that includes everything from cigar stores to clothing and crafts. You'll also find an excellent music store here (right beside Reggae Xplosion).

One of the top shopping areas is Soni’s Plaza, on Main Street, filled with duty-free shops offering good buys on jewelry, watches, perfumes, liquor and more. Many of the hotel personnel we talked with in the downtown area shopped regularly at Soni’s for clothing and jewelry. Top shops here include Chulani Jewelers (fine gold and gemstone jewelry, watches and perfumes), Casa De Oro (sells everything from Tiffany watches to Mikimoto pearls), The Gold Mine (features Krieger, Bulova, Swiss Military watches and fine jewelry) and others.

Another top shopping area is the Taj Mahal Shopping Centre. This open-air mall is home to Bijoux Jewelers (Breitling watches, Raymond Weil watches, Swarovski crystal, Baccarat crystal, Hummel figurines, Fendi leather), Casa De Oro (Mikimoto pearls, Fendi leather, Cartier leather, Tag Heuer watches, Tiffany watches and jewelry, Rado watches, and an extensive perfume center) and Mohan’s Duty Free Shop (crystal, perfumes, cigars, Cross and Parker pens and Swiss Army knives).
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Crafts Parks

Ocho Rios has several craft parks. The Ocho Rios Craft Park, opposite the Ocean Village Shopping Centre, is open 8-6, Monday through Saturday. It has 154 vendors selling everything from sandals to woodcarvings to straw goods. The Olde Market Craft Shoppes is nearby and also has plenty of handmade goods.

As you leave Dunn's River Falls, you'll find a huge crafts market with similar items to those in town; vendors are pretty high pressure so be prepared. Other crafts markets include Fern Gully Craft Centre and our favorite, the Pineapple Craft Market, a small market east of Ocho Rios.

Our Tip: Expect to bargain for the best price at crafts markets, but do it in good fun and you’ll find that the vendors are not as high-pressure as they seem.

Stores of Interest

Another interesting stop is Wassi Art Pottery Works, on Back Street in the community of Great Pond (on the east side of Ocho Rios).This shop offers a tour of its factory. Visitors learn that the pottery is made of clay from Castleton, a small town in the mountains of northeast Jamaica. The clay is worked into a variety of objects – tiles, sculptures, plates, candlesticks – and sold at the store and at fine boutiques island-wide.
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Art lovers will also enjoy a stop at Harmony Hall. This excellent art gallery is one of Jamaica's best and a good place for original works of art. Don't miss the Annabella boxes, souvenir boxes decorated with Jamaican art reproductions. Harmony Hall sponsors several art shows annually.