Montego Bay is a city in Jamaica that contains Jamaica's largest airport, the Sir Donald Sangster International Airport.
Montego Bay is known for its duty free shopping and cruise line terminal at its Free Port on a beautiful peninsula jutting into the bay. Its sheltered Doctor's Cave Beach with clear turquoise waters is one of the most famous beaches on the island. The bay is surrounded by picturesque low mountains.
Montego Bay is fourth in population to Kingston, Portmore and Spanish Town with about 120,000 people and lies in St. James Parish on the northwest coast of the island. Air Jamaica and several American and British airlines run their Caribbean hub in "MoBay" (Sangster International Airport) connecting the island with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and recently Canada with flights to Toronto. The southern U.S. cities of Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami are reached by nonstop flights in less than three hours.
The name "Montego Bay" is believed to have originated as a corruption of the Spanish word manteca ("lard"), allegedly because during the Spanish period it was the port where lard, leather, and beef were exported. Jamaica was a colony of Spain from 1511 until 1655 when Oliver Cromwell's Caribbean expedition, the Western Design, drove the Spanish from the island. Christopher Columbus, when he first visited the island in 1494, named the bay Golfo de Buen Tiempo ('Fair Weather Gulf')