"Kingston is the largest English-speaking city south of Miami, rich with historic and cultural attractions, world-class shopping, gourmet restaurants and sizzling night spots."

The city’s rich colonial heritage is hallmarked as well at Kingston Parish Church, where tombstones date to 1699. And at the crowded square known as the Parade, you can almost envision the British soldiers who once drilled here. In nearby Port Royal, relics at the Museum of Historical Archaeology remind you of the swaggering pirates who roamed the western Caribbean in the 17th century. With permission, divers can explore sunken pirate treasures at the end of the Palisadoes Peninsula that hugs Kingston Harbor.

And at Spanish Town, a short drive from Kingston, visitors can learn what island life was like in 1523, when conquistadors built the Cathedral Church of St. James, the cornerstone of their colonial capital. Kingston’s natural attractions are as breathtaking as its historic venues. Hiking is sublime in the towering Blue Mountains, where you can tour plantations that produce coffee prized the world over. Or you can stroll through the 200-acre Hope Gardens near the University of West Indies campus. Dating from 1881, the park features an orchid house and small amusement park for children. Year-round balmy weather brings golfers to Caymanas and Constant Spring courses. Visitors as well can take in a polo match at Caymanas Park, or savor the sport of kings as thoroughbreds round the bend at Caymanas Race Track.

Just as many treasures await off shore. In the beautiful Caribbean surrounding Kingston are canyons and crevices full of shimmering fish, as well as star, rose and giant pillar corals. If culture is your cup of tea, catch a show at the Little Theatre, thrill to the music of the Philharmonic Symphony, enjoy a performance by the National Dance Theatre Company or peruse the National Gallery’s impressive collection of Jamaican art. Shoppers can take home artful wood carvings and other crafts, as well as a full line of duty-free goods. And you’ll love Kingston’s many restaurants, which serve up local and international specialties with Jamaican flair. After dinner, dance a starry night away at Asylum or another of the clubs and discos that line Knutsford Boulevard.

It is the heart of Jamaica, this thriving capital city on the island’s south coast. Home to 850,000, Kingston is the largest English-speaking city south of Miami, rich with historic and cultural attractions, world-class shopping, gourmet restaurants and sizzling night spots. But there comparisons end, for Kingston is like no other city. Listen. On any corner you can hear those lilting, infectious rhythms that make you want to get up and dance. If Kingston is Jamaica’s heart, reggae is the blood that keeps it pumping, and it was in Kingston’s back streets that the music was born.

Smell. From family-owned restaurants waft the aromas of I-tal, the vegetarian cuisine of the Rastafarians, whose complex, cherished devotions took root here before radiating throughout the world. Look. The majestic Blue Mountains soar more than 7,000 feet and the Caribbean Sea shimmers like a net full of jewels.

Overlooking the world’s seventh-largest harbor, Kingston is the center of Jamaica’s government and commerce, a beguiling city whose cosmopolitan ambiance contrasts with the laid-back atmosphere that pervades the rest of the island. Kingston once was the administrative hub of Britain’s Caribbean colonies. Step back to those days when you visit Devon House. A portico rimmed by stately columns welcomes visitors to this sprawling mansion, one of the finest surviving examples of Georgian architecture. Inside, sparkling chandeliers and ornate rosettes on ceilings bespeak the elegance of a bygone era.