Although some Jamaican food is hot and fiery, a surprising number of dishes use subtle spicing and are free of chilli peppers. Local dishes include meat, poultry, seafood, fruit and vegetables and range from spicy and pickled to plain and deep fried. Restaurants are generally good quality, especially around Montego Bay.

Things to know: Bars can open and close when they choose. They are no licensing hours, alcohol can be bought all day and most have table and/or counter service.

National specialities:
• Salt fish (dried cod) and ackee (the cooked fruit of the ackee tree).
• ‘Rice and peas' actually consists of kidney beans mixed with white rice, coconut milk, scallions (spring onions) and coconut oil.
• Pepperpot soup contains chunks of salt pork and salt beef with okra and Indian kale (known as callaloo).
• ‘Rundown' is a delicious reduced creamy coconut milk stew with chicken, meat, fish or vegetables.
• Jerk chicken is marinated overnight in rich spices (cayenne pepper, garlic, chilli, limejuice and all spice) for a full flavour before being wood-smoked in strips.

National drinks:
• Jamaican rum is delicious and potent, especially Appleton at 40%.
• Coffee from Jamaica's Blue Mountains is among the finest on the planet.
• Ting is a zesty carbonated soft drink made from Jamaican grapefruit.
• Red Stripe beer is sweet, nutty and smooth.
• Rum cocktails blend lime juice and sugar with dark rum.

Legal drinking age: 18.

Tipping: Hotels and restaurants tend to add 10% as standard; otherwise 10 to 15% is expected. Tipping is banned in many all-inclusive resorts.

After-dark Jamaican entertainment ranges from the sophisticated to hedonistic. As the home of Bob Marley, live reggae music can be found throughout the island. There are also regular street dances and steel bands in most towns and villages. Torch-lit limbo dancers and fire-eaters often form a part of frequent folkloric parades. Calypso, jazz, rock, soca, reggae and many other styles of music can be found in a host of neon-lit nightclubs. The Jamaica Tourist Board's ‘Meet the People' evenings offer a chance to interact with the locals throughout the island. Contact the tourist office in Kingston, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios or Port Antonio.

Local produce, handicrafts and duty-free bargains are just some of the reasons to hit the shops. Jamaica is renowned for its fine hand-loomed fabrics, embroidery, silk screening, woodcarvings, oil paintings, sandal-making and woven raffia. There is also a popular Quaker-run workshop specialising in wicker furniture, floor mats and other tropical furnishings at Highgate Village in the mountains. At the In-Craft centre, it is also possible to buy custom-made rugs and reproductions of pewter and china from the 17th-century ruins of the ancient submerged city of Port Royal.

Jamaican specialities include rum and rum-related products, such as Ian Sangsters Rum Cream. The island's most famous produce market is Coronation Market, Kingston. Other markets: Linstead Market, St Catherine; Brownstown Market, St Anne; the Savanna-la-mar Market, Westmoreland; and the Albert George Market, Falmouth. Also locally made and sold are Pepper Jellies, jams, Blue Mountain coffee, hot sauces and spices. 

So-called ‘in-bond' shopping allows tourists to purchase international goods free of tax or duty. Goods are sealed (hence the ‘bond') until away from Jamaican waters and must be paid for in Jamaican Dollars.

Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1600; Sat 0800-1300. Some shops close half day Wednesday in Kingston, and Thursday on the rest of the island.