Stellar Sunsets and Thrilling Cliff Diving at Jamaica’s Rick’s Café

Jamaica’s Rick’s Café. Photo courtesy of katedubya via Flickr.

As an essential Jamaican experience, sunset at Rick’s Café is not to be missed. Not only can you sample some of the best local cuisine, sip the tastiest daiquiris and soak up live reggae rhythms; but you can also watch a spectacular, blazing orange sunset from the top off of a cliff that plunges 35 feet (10 meters) into the sparkling blue Caribbean. This view is unrivaled. To top it off you can witness professional divers soar into the ocean from the top of the cliff. The daredevil in you can experience a thrill of a lifetime and take the dive yourself!

Dining and Drinking

The food here is truly to die for. With a zesty blend of Caribbean and international cuisine, the menu includes Jerk Chicken Skewers, the World Famous Rick’s Café Surf N’ Turf (broiled lobster served with a juicy filet, bathed in a mouthwatering sautéed mushroom cream sauce), the West Trio (a spicy Jamaican combination that gives you grilled steak, jerk chicken breast and Escoveitch Snapper), Jamaican Shrimp Alfredo, Banana Flambe and more. For cocktails, try one of the tasty rum drinks or an ice-cold bottle of the local Red Stripe beer. Come hungry!

The Cliff Diving Spectacular

Sure the food is good and the sunsets even better, but while the sun is still high in the sky you can watch professional cliff divers soar from a 35 foot-high platform down into the shimmering water below. Just watching them is an adrenalin rush. If you’re feeling it, you can even take the dive yourself. Be warned that if you choose to jump it’s entirely at your own risk. Only jump if you are a strong swimmer, in good health and have not been drinking alcohol. Should you make the dive, you’ll be rewarded with a swim through one of the most astonishing coves in Jamaica. Then climb back to the top for sunset.

Cliff Diving at Rick’s Café. Photo courtesy of runkalicious via Flickr.

Sunset Fever

About two hours before sundown, the café begins to swell with visitors for the main event. Drinks in hand, visitors watch the sky fade to a bright orange that is mirrored against the blue waters below. And this is only the beginning. After sunset, the café comes alive as visitors dine on the cliffs under a romantic moonlit sky, grooving to the lazy reggae rhythms well into the night. Do yourself a favor and take a tour of Negril that includes sunset at Rick’s Café.

- William Travis