If you are looking for something different…. a touch of adventure, a journey into the underground or the nostalgia of history…. You will want to experience the Green Grotto Caves….
Explorers of the Green Grotto Caves taking a drink of water before the tour. That’s me to the right with friends, Michelle from Trinidad and Paul from Jamaica. The tour was great! We saw the beautiful glowing rocks for ourselves. It was quite fascinating. IT’S A MUST SEE!
Ideally located on Jamaica’s scenic North Coast, Green Grotto Caves are linked to the island’s history and area major natural attraction for both local visitors and tourists who crave adventure. Previously known as the Runaway, dairy, Rum, Hopewell and Dry Harbour Caves, Green Grotto Caves are said to have provided shelter for Jamaica’s first inhabitants, the Tainos.
The Caves are located just off the main North Coast road some 3.2km east of Discovery Bay or 4km west of Runaway Bay are just over 3 km from the spot which Christopher Columbus landed in 1494.
We walked on this bridge over a ravine deep in the caves.
They were first opened to the public as a ‘show caves’ in December 1959, are said to have been a haven for ‘runaway slaves’ in the 18th Century and were sought after as a hideout by the Spanish during the takeover of the island by the English in 1655. Between the two World Wars, the caves were used by smugglers running arms to Cuba and in more recent times, sections of the Caves were used as a rum storehouse.
A section of the path we traveled as we toured the caves.
A tour of the Green Grotto Caves will take you out of this world journey into the very heart of Jamaica’s “inner world”. In just under an hour, your guide will take you through a maze of sturdy, majestic stalactites and stalagmites, and other exquisite drip-stone formations.
Continue through the interconnected passageways and chambers, some 37 meters down to the cave’s innermost cavern, where you will come upon the grotto – with water as translucent as nothing you have seen before. On your outward journey of this enchanting tour, stop at the “Wishing Well” and throw a coin – for luck, for love or all your heart desires …..
Come. Explore with Us!
OUR FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION
The Green Grotto Caves is the first natural attraction in Jamaica and worldwide to receive Green Globe 21 Certification in February 2003. It has maintained this bench-marking and certification exercises annually. Additionally, the Attraction was again first, in being awarded Earth Check Gold Certification in 2009, indicating successful bench-marking and certification for up to 10 years.
Green Grotto Caves and Attractions, has now received Platinum Certification from Earth Check in 2012, for successfully bench-marking and certifying annually for over 10 years. Earth Check certification is the world’s leading program, used by the travel and tourism industry. Widely regarded as the largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism businesses, Earth Check is one of the world’s most recognized environmental bench-marking and certification programs.
The achievement of this prestigious certification ranks Green Grotto Caves and Attractions as a leader and a part of the unique worldwide group of sustainable tourism operators that adheres to the highest science-based standards. The environmental efforts of Green Grotto Caves and Attractions have exceeded best practice standards and have once again enabled us to secure platinum certification for the attraction. Green Grotto Caves and Attractions continually measures, monitors and manages the environmental, social and economic impacts of the facility to ensure sustainable development.
