We just returned from our honeymoon in Port Antonio, and our stay at Fern Hill. Overall, the hotel was pleasant. The front desk helped us with money exchange and international calls, and our waiter most nights in the restaurant always had a good tip of places to visit. Our room was spacious and cleaned well everyday. I highly recommend paying for the safe key $3.00 a day so you know that your valuables are locked away, including any cash you don't want to carry.
My only complaint was that when we asked the front desk about tourist locations, such as Somerset Falls, Nonsuch caves, and the Blue Lagoon. We were told that all of these locations were closed. As you can imagine, we were quite upset thinking we'd travelled all this way not to see these places.
However, one of the girls approached me seeing that I was upset and mumbled something about us visiting the Blue Lagoon, but they wouldn't be liable if anything happened and they wouldn't advise it.
That made us suspicious, so while we were in the town of PA we asked if these places were closed and were told no, so we were able to do the things we wanted to do after all, and all of these places were beautiful, safe and we recommend PA for anyone who wants to get away from the city, see beautiful sites and relax!

The views from this hotel are exceptional. We could see the mountains and sea from our room. The balcony was huge and so was the suite, which includes a sitting area the size of a small living room. The water pressure was very low in the shower, so plan to spend a few more minutes showering than usual, but the water was clean and drinkable.

If you want to get away from everything, this is the place to go. There are no phones or clocks in the rooms to remind you of the "real world" that you are trying to escape. There was a TV with basic cable, but why go to paradise to watch TV? You can make phone calls in the lobby.

All the rooms are on a mountainside, so there is a lot of walking up and down stairs to go from your room to the lobby/restaurant. This is not a handicap-friendly facility.

The only complaint I have is with the restaurant. They seemed to be out of many of the foods on the menu. We figured this out after a few meals there and started finding other places to eat, but the restaurant does have good food. Try the chicken curry or cajun chicken.

Downtown Port Antonio is about 10-15 minutes drive from the hotel. It is a busy small town with lots of locally grown fruits and vegetables at low prices. The pineapple is awesome. It reminds me of the fresh pineapple I have eaten in Hawaii. There are many fruit stands and stores that sell all the basic necessities.

Most people who visit the tourist towns in Jamaica such as Montego Bay or Ocho Rios do not enjoy their trip because those are not the "real" Jamaica, plus they are constantly bugged by pushy merchants. Port Antonio is nothing like that. It is a small town in the jungle-covered mountains that is unspoiled by comercialism. All the people were very nice to us. They would ocassionally come up to us and ask us if we needed anything. We would tell them what we needed and give them some money. They would disappear and then come back with whatever we asked for. Many people there make their living this way because the unemployment rate is high, but it is nice for tourists because these people are willing to buy you anything, take you on tours, etc. for a small fee. That is a nice thing for foreigners visiting Jamaica.

The places we visited on our trip were Boston Beach (great jerk chicken and a beautiful beach with rolling waves), Sommerset Falls (take the boat trip that goes under the falls, it is awesome), Frenchman's Cove, and the Blue Lagoon. Please be advised that the Blue Lagoon restaurant is permanently closed. We paid $60 total to ride a bamboo raft through the Blue Lagoon (where we swam). The ride also took us over to San San Beach where we ate lunch and then continued the ride back. The raft ride was very pleasant and relaxing and worth twice what we paid.

There are many beautiful beaches in Jamaica that you will not hear about online, so there is a lot more to explore than what you might think. There isn't a lot of information and photos about the Port Antonio area online, so we were really impressed with what we experienced once we got there.

We enjoyed the stay with the exception of what seemed to be bed bugs. Each morning I awoke with more small misquito-like bites (all over) than the morning before. Management thought it might be misquitos but there were very few misquitos in our room and I slept under the sheets throughout the night. My husband had some of the same kind of bites but not nearly as many as me. I would not stay in that room (#1) again. Otherwise the place was nice.

We have had two wonderful vacations at the Fern Hill Club and dream of going back some day. We were there in the days when Bill Brennan of Toronto owned the resort and took great pride in the place. As a travel writer who always paid his own way, I found the Fern Hill Club was outstanding value for my hard-earned money. The people of Port Antonio were a delight. Gracious and friendly, warm and welcoming. We experienced none of the hassles you get in Ocho Rios or Mobay from people trying to sell you something at every turn. My big regret is that I can't find a Canadian travel company selling packages to Fern Hill from Toronto. Try it, you'll love it.