Kingston is Jamaica's capital and by far its largest city — home to about a third of the island's population. It's the cultural engine of the country: reggae and dancehall were born here, the national museums are here, and the city's creative energy is unlike anywhere else in the Caribbean. Most package tourists never come, which means those who do have the major sights largely to themselves.
The city divides into Downtown (old, crowded, historically significant) and Uptown (the New Kingston commercial district and the residential suburbs rolling up into the hills). The Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road is essential — a well-curated tour through the house where Marley lived and worked, including the room where an assassin's bullet passed through the wall in 1976. The National Gallery on Orange Street has the best collection of Jamaican art in the world. Devon House, a 19th-century mansion in New Kingston, has good ice cream and a pleasant courtyard café.
Downtown Kingston is rougher and requires more alertness, but the places worth visiting — the Ward Theatre, the waterfront, the ferry to Port Royal — are manageable in daylight. The Coronation Market on Saturday morning is one of the great people-watching experiences in Jamaica.
Port Royal is a short ferry ride from the Ocean Boulevard terminal and makes for an excellent half-day trip. Spanish Town, 20 km west, is easy by route taxi and worth it for the colonial square.