What should a first-time traveler see in Jamaica beyond the obvious highlights?

Jamaica divides into 14 parishes, and the tourist map concentrates almost entirely on three of them along the north and west coasts. The island is 4,244 square miles, which is small enough that the unvisited parts are genuinely close: the eastern parish of Portland and the southern parish of St Elizabeth are both within a half-day's drive of Kingston, and both feel like different countries from Montego Bay.

The strongest single reason to go inland is the 2015 World Heritage inscription of the Blue and John Crow Mountains, listed under criteria (iii), (vi) and (x). Criterion (x) covers biodiversity; (iii) and (vi) cover the Windward Maroons, communities of self-liberated Africans who held this terrain against colonial forces. The park is managed under Jamaican regulation with a published fee schedule — US$10 for a non-resident adult single entry, or US$30 for a year — and its recreation areas sit on the Kingston side, reachable on a day trip from the capital.

Maroon heritage continues as living community rather than exhibit. Accompong, in the hills of St Elizabeth, marks its founding treaty with the British each January 6, and the surrounding Cockpit Country is a landscape of limestone sinkholes and conical hills whose difficulty was precisely the Maroons' advantage. Moore Town in Portland is the eastern counterpart.

Across the harbor from Kingston, Port Royal is the other great overlooked site. The town was the busiest English port in the Caribbean until an earthquake on June 7, 1692 dropped much of it into the sea, and the submerged remains are the reason archaeologists still work there.

Cockpit Country reads from the road as a field of steep green cones separated by sinkholes, with no flat ground anywhere in view — the rock is limestone riddled with caves, and rivers in this part of the island run underground for long stretches before surfacing again.

The World Heritage inscription covers two ranges, not one: the Blue Mountains to the west and the John Crow Mountains to the east, running on the island's eastern end. Most visitors reach only the Blue Mountain side, because that is where the access road from Kingston goes. The John Crow side, on the windward flank above Portland, is wetter, steeper and far less developed for visitors — which is why a trip that wants the whole property needs two bases rather than one.

• Two days east — Portland parish for the John Crow flank, Reach Falls and the coast around Port Antonio, which takes the full force of the northeast trade winds.
• Two days south — St Elizabeth and the Treasure Beach coast, the driest corner of the island and the one with the least resort development.
• One day on the harbor — Port Royal and the Palisadoes spit, a short run from Kingston and a complete change of subject.

Driving is on the left and the interior roads are narrow, steep and poorly lit at night; the inland routes across the mountains take far longer than the distances suggest. US citizens travel visa-free for tourist stays of up to 90 days with a valid passport and proof of onward travel, but must not bring firearms, ammunition, mace, pepper spray or knives without authorization from Jamaica's Firearms Licensing Authority — the State Department warns that doing so can lead to arrest. The FCDO notes that medical standards vary and that doctors and hospitals expect immediate cash payment, with 110 the number for an ambulance.

The Jamaica trip-planning question in this group sets out how to sequence east, south and the mountains without backtracking, and the Blue Mountains timing question explains which months actually give you a view from the ridge.