Island Routes taking tours to Good Hope!

Island Routes’ Hope Evans and members of the press brave the canopy zipline, one of many Good Hope Estates tours now offered under Island Routes’ extensive tour register.

The award-winning Island Routes Caribbean Adventure Tours will soon spotlight another glorious Jamaica expanse, Trelawny Parish, best known today as the birthplace of Usain ‘Lightning’ Bolt. This will be their seventh outpost in Jamaica, all showcasing the best-of-the-best adventures and all that is unique in the Land of Wood and Water.

The lush, 2000-acre Good Hope Estate, once the country’s largest collection of sugar plantations, is the hub of this new outpost. Today the jewel of the estate, the Good Hope Great House, overlooks the Queen of Spain Valley, the Martha Brae River and the Cockpit Mountains.

Two new horse and buggy tours transport visitors in style into the rich history of the parish. Visitors will be enveloped in history on a Horse & Buggy Ride Through Historic Falmouth. Trelawny’s capital, Falmouth, a National Heritage Site, is considered one of the Caribbean’s best-preserved towns from the Georgian era.  Unique gingerbread fretwork and jalousie windows adorn small houses that sit side-by-side with grand, brick Georgian mansions while colonnaded commercial buildings line Market Street. Guests can sit back and enjoy a leisurely ride as their knowledgeable tour guide skillfully conducts the horse-drawn buggy through town.

The second, Good Hope Estate By Horse & Carriage, arrives at the valley after a drive through Falmouth. Guests will see ruins of a sugar estate where a water wheel and kiln still stand today. The meandering Martha Brae River is the setting for a stroll and an opportunity to really take in the beautiful setting. The final stop is the Great House itself. Built in 1755 it has been restored to its original Georgian architecture and is filled with antiques and artwork.

 The horse and buggy give way to more modern transportation and high-spirited excursions. Adventurers can take the driver’s seat of an ATV or dune buggy in the rugged countryside, or can float along the legendary Martha Brae River on a river tube or kayak. Finally, they can choose to traverse over the river’s pristine waters by soaring through the trees on a zipline canopy.