Nestled up on a hill with cool breezes overlooking Montego Bay, this delightful Topaz Dream Palace offers a cozy quiet, convenient retreat for guests. The Hummingbird is a charming bedroom on the 2nd floor featuring a comfortable queen bed, sofa, en-suite bathroom, fans, AC, hot water, and WiFi. You have access to a kitchen, living/dining area, and spacious veranda with table, chairs, fans and hammock. Also access to great views on the roof deck with a Sky Lounge...and a washing machine on the first floor. As live-in hosts, (Jah B and Cheri) we're available to answer any questions and help you have the best experience possible. There are 7 other bedrooms in our guest home for individual or group rentals (Including the Cloud 9 suite with a Jacuzzi (waiting for a part)on the rooftop, the Blue Mahoe also on the 2nd floor, the Jamaica Apple and Jamaica Flower in the first floor suite, and the Mango Island apartment also on the ground/1st floor. A convenient business area is a short 1/2 block away with taxis (just $1USD pp), cook shops, grocery stores, small markets, ice cream, and a gas station. Extras available for a fee: airport transport, tours (including to our small farm with 15 goats in Jah B's nearby hometown of Lottery), his Jamaican Homestyle meals, cooking lessons, in home massage, hair braiding, and detox program. Conversations are welcome about Jamaican and Rastafari history and culture, healing from cancer diagnoses and other imbalances, and manifesting life desires.
Topaz Dream Palace Jamaican Homestyle Sample Menu Meals prepared by Chef Jah B with TLC (tender, loving, care) Ital (Rastafari) meals are available as well. Order meals in advance (the night before).
Healthy coconut oil is used for fried foods and when oil is called for in other heated dishes. Our tap water is filtered. Items are subject to availability (in season).
Morning
Gratis tea (i.e., ginger, mint, green tea, Noni, Moringa Mint, garlic, and nutritious sour-sop leaves from our yard.).
$2USD/$400JMD: In juice glass: i.e., mango carrot, guava pineapple, orange, lime in coconut water.
$10USD/$1800JMD or US$5.00 choice of:
A. Green or fruit smoothie with a selection of the following: i.e., kale/callaloo, pak choi (bok choy), lettuce, mango, pineapple, banana, paupau (papaya), melon, chia, flax seed, ginger.
B. Steamed callaloo and/or cabbage, fried plantain, and dumplings or festival (breadfruit in season).
C. Fresh fruit plate banana, paupau, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, mango
D. Ackee and saltfish (national breakfast), yam, green banana, festival sweet bread
E. Pancakes/butter/syrup, scrambled eggs (with tomato, onion, green pepper), and turkey sausage.
Mid-day or Evening
$10.00USD/$1,800JMD:
Green Smoothie (above) or Tossed Fresh Salad: selection of dark green lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green pepper, carrot, tomato, onion, almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, (avocado, in season), and dressing.
Soup: pumpkin, chicken, fish tea.
$14USD/$2,000JMD: Chicken: curried, brown-stewed, fried, or jerk.
$18USD/:$2,400JMD: Fish: Red Snapper/trout: steamed, fried, brown-stewed, or escovitch.
$18USD/$2,400JMD Beef: brown-stewed.
Entries served with: Rice and peas (red beans) or stewed peas (red beans); or yam (renter, yellow), dasheen (taro or coco), and/or pumpkin; callaloo, cooked cabbage or tossed fresh salad.
Guest access
You can enjoy the views and breezes on your floor and the roof deck. The two suites, one on each floor below, plus the attached apartment have separate entrances but can be joined together for larger groups. All are welcome to the 2nd-floor veranda and roof deck.
Grocery store and take-out food is a block down the street. We have meal service/cooking lessons, health coaching, transport, tours, local culture/stories, music; roof deck with great views and breezes; we’re near the airport, bus station, and the 'Hip Strip,' for shopping, dancing, casino, and beaches.
Other suites in our home:
1st fl. One Love Suite, 2 bedrooms, sleeps 7: Jamaican Apple: one double + one single with ensuite bath; Jamaica Flower: 2 double beds & adjacent bath; both share living room/dining room/kitchen, with cable TV, private screened veranda entrance.
'Mango Island' suite on the first floor: sleeps 3: queen bedroom, full bathroom, kitchen, dining area in living room (with single bed), cable TV, and private veranda entrance.
2nd fl. One Heart Suite: sleeps 4: Hummingbird: one queen bed, ensuite bath, sofa, mirror doors closet. Blue Mahoe: one queen bed, mirror doors closet, with adjacent full bath; both share living room/dining room/kitchen; large screened-in veranda with hammock, EZ recliner chair's, tables/chairs, plants.
Total Home accommodates: 13 (plus possible apt 3)
Our guest home is built on top of Mount Salem, so there’s always a cool breeze and views from our roof deck and verandas, overlooking Montego Bay, the sea, and mountains. Reggae music is usually wafting through the air from the nearby corner of indoor markets, takeout food, and other local neighborhood services. It’s just a short drive from the airport, the “hip strip” for dancing, shopping, and beaches, the straw market for local crafts, carvings, and clothing, the experience of downtown and suburban health food stores, pharmacies, bookstores, and supermarkets.
You can enjoy the living room, kitchen, and verandas on your floor.
All are welcome to the roof deck and verandas. Grocery store and take-out food is a block down the street.
Interaction with guests
We enjoy interacting with our guests and are also fine with you keeping private. . . whatever you desire. We are here to help you have the best vacation possible. Jah B (Toney) is an excellent chef for meals and juices prepared with fresh fruits, spices, herbs, vegetables fish, and chicken from the nearby farmers’ market. If you wish, he’ll guide you through the market, and provide cooking lessons. He’s also a great ‘selector’ of CD love songs, soul, and reggae music.
Cheri, a certified health education coach, enjoys sharing her miracle recovery from a grim Stage 4 cancer diagnosis using natural healing methods.
She was Deputy Director of Mental Health, in Philadelphia, then the co-founder Director and trainer of a university-based multicultural training institute, and then the editor of FunTimes celebrating the African and Caribbean Diaspora.
We both love to introduce our guests to welcoming family and friends, the beautiful beaches and countryside, cultural history, folktales, and the variety of attractions.
Montego Bay is the second largest city in Jamaica and the preferred destination for most tourists. It's an hour from Negril, and two to Ocho Rios. We'll pick you up and take you back to the airport ($25 each way).
Cheri met Toney (Jah B) in 1994 when she came to Jamaica to find a guest house she had ‘dreamed’ she was to have in retirement. Instead, she met Toney; they instantly fell in love and were married in 1996, raising two sons in Philadelphia. In 2005, Toney, with a contractor friend and family expertise, built our guest home. The name combines our November birthstones—topaz, plus my dream, plus it looks like a palace, doesn’t it!? Be ready to be treated like the Queens and Kings you are!
Other things to note
MoBay Sumfest is mid-July (a week of all-night reggae artists); Emancipation Day Aug 1; Independence Day Aug 6; much more. The Maroon Festival high in the Mountains (celebrates the peace treaty that successful runaway enslaved Africans signed with British in 1739), Jan. 6; Rebel Salute (a two all-night reggae stage show around Jan 16 nearer Ocho Rios; the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in January, TBA in Ocho Rios; Bob Marley celebrations (Feb. 1-6 mostly in Kingston), Climb Dunns River Falls, and go to the Little Dunns River falls too, go zip-lining and bobsledding at Mystic Mountain, swim with the dolphins at Dolphins Cove, drive through Fern Gully and Bamboo Avenue near Treasure Beach, express ahhh as you visit with the artists at Rasnatango Gardens and Gallery, feed hummingbirds close-up, experience cliff jumping at the famous Rick's Cafe, go rafting on the Martha Brae, and snorkeling with Captain Poly's glass bottom boat, add 10 years to your life by swimming in the rare sparkling Luminous Lagoon, tour the Green Grotto Cave, go horseback riding in the mountains and along the ocean, bike ride through the Blue Mountains, enjoy the 7-levels of YS Falls, tour the Appleton Rum Estate and factory, dine in the Houseboat Grill, Pier 1 and the Pelican Grill, dance at Margaritaville, Pier 1, and 2727 at Island Strains; hang out at Mackie's, Powers, the Brewery, and Rehab Sports Bars, and go to services in the St. James Anglican church, built in 1775. There's a live reggae band on Thursday nights at Pineapple Beach.
Other Listings:
1689149- Whole House max. of 16 people
1689727- Cloud 9/ Roof deck max. of people
1689747- Mango Island max. of 4 people
1689782- One Love Suite max. of 6 people
1689812- One Heart Suite max. of people
