Denver just got a direct flight to this Caribbean island known for music history and vegetarian cooking

Just as Colorado cools off for winter’s second act, Jamaica is heating up to a consistent 85 degrees, with clear skies and little to no precipitation in the forecast.

Sound tempting? On Feb. 24, Frontier introduced its first direct route from Denver to Montego Bay, cutting down to around five hours a trip that used to take all day, with a stopover.

The flight lands 500 miles south of Miami on Jamaica’s northwest coast and tourist capital. And as you make your way across the coasts and inland to the cultural center of Kingston, the island builds in intrigue, its golden sand beaches giving way to lush and misty mountains and to an increasingly cool capital city.

Not quite the size of Connecticut, the whole country is divided into 14 parishes established during the 300-year British rule, and each has maintained its own community and identity. In 1962, a year before The Wailers got together in Trench Town, Jamaica gained independence as a nation.

Today, you’ll notice artists and musicians, actors and models, writers and activists still flocking to Jamrock. It is a place to lose yourself at sound-system dance parties and to find yourself surrounded by unbridled nature.

And it is one of the few tourism destinations I’ve visited where hospitality feels like a way of life, rather than an industry. Here are a handful of spots to stay, eat and play in order to experience some of the singular Jamaican spirit, or as the Rastafarians call it, that ever-living “livity.”

Stay

From Montego Bay circling the island, there are boutique hotels, resorts and villas that offer a mix of family-run charm and five-star views. Best of all, many have a story to tell.

On Treasure Beach, in the southwest’s St. Elizabeth Parish, the Henzell family is celebrating Jakes Hotel’s 30-year anniversary.

“Our mother, Sally Henzell, was born in 1941, and that year her parents bought a piece of seaside property in Treasure Beach,” explained Justine Henzell, Jake’s second-generation co-owner. “Fast-forward 50 years, and Sally buys herself a small house down the beach from her childhood home, and two years later, in 1993, Jakes welcomes its first guests.”

Fast-forward another 30 years and Jakes has become a staple of this once sleepy fishing community on the south coast. The hotel now encompasses its own village of rooms, cottages, bungalows and villas, all decorated in a bohemian style that the Henzells lovingly call “Jimi Hendrix meets Antoni Gaudí.” And aside from the bedrooms, the property’s Jack Sprat restaurant and Dougies bar are always buzzing with locals and tourists.

On Thursday nights, travelers can stop by for dinner and a movie screening of Jamaican classics, including “The Harder They Come,” which was directed by Perry Henzell and art directed by his wife and Jake’s founder, Sally.

Where else to stay

– Jamaica Inn, a 65-year gem in Ocho Rios on the island’s north coast, has one palatial suite that previously hosted esteemed guests like Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe and still books up to two years in advance.