Hurricane Melissa, One Year On: What’s Back and What Isn’t

Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope in Westmoreland on October 28, 2025, as a Category 5 with winds of about 185 mph, the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica. Its core crossed the western half of the island. The US National Hurricane Center counts 45 deaths in Jamaica, and much of the southwest was left badly damaged.

For travelers, the bottom line is this: Jamaica is open, and most of it is running normally. Both international airports reopened within three days of the storm, and cruise ships are calling at Falmouth, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay again. Every resort this site covers in Negril and Kingston is open, and most in Ocho Rios are. The big gap is Montego Bay, where about half the resorts I cover are still closed for rebuilding, most of them reopening between December and mid-2027. This page tracks what’s back and what isn’t, and it’s updated every month.

What’s back

The counts below come from the status of every resort and attraction guide on this site, taken on October 16, 2026. For the live list, which changes the moment a guide is updated, see which Jamaica resorts are open now.

Airports and cruise ports

Norman Manley International in Kingston resumed commercial flights on October 30, 2025, and Sangster International in Montego Bay, which took heavier damage, on October 31. Falmouth’s cruise pier reopened on December 2, 2025, and ships are calling at Ocho Rios and Montego Bay too: both piers handled more cruise passengers in the first five months of 2026 than a year earlier. If you’re flying into Montego Bay, my Montego Bay airport guide covers getting from the terminal to your resort.

Resorts by area

Of the 75 resorts and hotels this site covers, 52 are open and 2 are partly open.

• Negril: all 18 are open, from big all-inclusives such as Couples Swept Away, Sandals Negril and Royalton Negril to the cliff hotels of the West End like Rockhouse and The Caves. See the Negril guide.
• Kingston: all 9 are open, including Strawberry Hill in the Blue Mountains. See the Kingston guide.
• Ocho Rios and Runaway Bay: 11 of 17 are open, among them Jamaica Inn, Couples Sans Souci, Moon Palace Jamaica and Sandals Dunn’s River. See the Ocho Rios guide.
• Montego Bay: 14 of 30 are open and 2 partly open. Open choices include Round Hill, Iberostar Selection Rose Hall Suites, Excellence Oyster Bay and Royalton Blue Waters. Half Moon is reopening in phases, and Coyaba Beach Resort is open on a bed-and-breakfast basis for now. See the Montego Bay guide.

Attractions

Of the 78 attractions this site covers, 49 are open and 4 are partly open. The big names are running: Dunn’s River Falls, Mystic Mountain, Martha Brae rafting, Rose Hall Great House, Rick’s Café and the Blue Lagoon in Portland. On the south coast, the area that took the worst of it, every attraction I cover is open or partly open: YS Falls and the Appleton Estate rum experience are running, the Black River Safari is operating with fewer boats, and Little Ochie is serving while it rebuilds. See the South Coast guide.

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What isn’t back yet

Resorts still closed

Twenty-one resorts on this site aren’t open yet. Sixteen are existing resorts closed for rebuilding, renovation or a change of owner, four are new resorts still being built or converted, and one closed before the storm. Most of the closures are on the Rose Hall strip east of Montego Bay. Announced reopenings, in date order:

• November 18, 2026: Sandals South Coast, the only resort this site covers on the south coast. Sandals says it’s taking bookings for stays from that date.
• December 1, 2026: JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar in Montego Bay and Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica in Runaway Bay.
• December 2026: Riu Palace Jamaica, which Riu lists as under renovation until December, and Muthu Diamond Lagoon, the former Grand Decameron Montego Beach.
• December 18, 2026: Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Caribbean Cay, according to Sandals.
• First quarter of 2027: Grand Muthu Runaway Bay, no exact date yet.
• First half of 2027: the six Hyatt resorts on the Rose Hall strip: Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Secrets Montego Bay, Breathless, Dreams Rose Hall and Jewel Grande. That’s the timing JIS reported in September; Hyatt hasn’t announced exact dates.
• No date announced: Beaches Runaway Bay, the former Jewel Runaway Bay, and Club Ambiance, which new owners plan to reopen as an adults-only all-inclusive.

The four new resorts are UNICO 18°77° Montego Bay (due March 1, 2027), Royalton CHIC Jamaica Paradise Cove in Runaway Bay (summer 2027), and two in Montego Bay without a firm date: the Marriott all-inclusive in the former Catalonia Montego Bay and Moon Palace The Grand. Beaches Ocho Rios has been closed since May 2025, before the storm, with no reopening announced.

Attractions closed or unconfirmed

Four attractions on this site are closed: Greenwood Great House near Montego Bay and Holywell in the Blue Mountains, both for repairs; Aquasol Beach Park in Montego Bay; and Kool Runnings Water Park in Negril, which has closed for good. Another 21 are unconfirmed, meaning I couldn’t confirm from an official source that they’re operating. They’re mostly smaller places around Negril (Mayfield Falls, Booby Cay boat trips, the Royal Palm Reserve), Ocho Rios (Shaw Park Gardens, Firefly, Cranbrook Flower Forest) and Kingston (Lime Cay, the Peter Tosh Museum, the Blue Mountain Peak trail). If one of them is the reason for your trip, contact the operator before you book anything around it.

The areas hit hardest

The National Hurricane Center’s report on Melissa names St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, Trelawny, Hanover and Manchester as the parishes under the storm’s core, where damage was extreme and widespread, and the coastal towns of New Hope, Crawford and Black River as the worst hit. Floods submerged entire communities in the south and west, with the worst in St. Elizabeth and Manchester. Rebuilding there is still going on. Growing up in Jamaica, we learned that after a storm the best help a visitor gives is the ordinary kind: stay somewhere open, hire local drivers and guides, eat at the cookshops. What people in those districts don’t need is sightseeing in their damaged communities.

Numbers that show the recovery

• Visitors: Jamaica welcomed 2.34 million visitors and earned US$2.5 billion from tourism from January to August 2026. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said that’s 17% fewer arrivals and 18% less revenue than the same period of 2025.
• Hotel rooms: about 70% of the island’s room stock was available in early September, with 30% still out of service, the minister said. He expects those rooms back between the end of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027.
• Montego Bay airport: Sangster handled 344,600 passengers in August 2026, 23% fewer than in August 2025, and 2.63 million from January to August, down 26%, according to its operator, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico. The monthly shortfall has narrowed from 38% in January to between 23% and 27% since June.
• Kingston airport: Norman Manley handled 205,100 passengers in August, 3% more than a year earlier, and year-to-date traffic is down only 1.5%.
• Flights: the minister said in September that airlines aren’t yet flying the capacity they did before Melissa, though planes are flying full. The airport operator’s chief executive told investors that the airlines’ winter schedules show seat capacity into Jamaica fully back for November, December and the winter season.
• Cruise: 632,000 cruise passengers arrived from January to May 2026, about 3% fewer than a year earlier. Falmouth’s share dropped while Ocho Rios and Montego Bay both handled more passengers than in 2025.

Planning a trip now

If you want an area that’s fully running, pick Negril or Ocho Rios. Every Negril resort on this site is open, and so is Seven Mile Beach; Ocho Rios has most of its resorts and its best-known attractions. Montego Bay works too, as long as you choose one of the open resorts, and it has the island’s main airport. If you’re coming home to see family in Kingston or the south, Kingston’s airport has been close to normal all year.

Before you book:

• Check the resort’s own website for its status, not only a booking site or a tour company’s list. Where the two disagree, this site goes with the operator.
• Book flights early for the winter. Seats have been tighter than before the storm, and the tourism minister has acknowledged that airfares are high this year.
• If a resort is reopening after a rebuild, book after its announced date with some margin. Opening dates can slip, and a resort that has just reopened may still be finishing some areas.
• Hurricane season runs until November 30. My Jamaica hurricane season guide explains resort hurricane policies and what travel insurance covers.