The area has a sparkling 10-mile (16km) shoreline, fronted by coral reefs and aquamarine blue lagoons, backed by green hills shrouded in sugar cane, banana palms and lush tropical vegetation. Christopher Columbus was the first European tourist to step ashore at Montego Bay in 1494. Now the Spanish settlement that was founded in 1510 has grown into Jamaica’s second city, but it is first choice for holidaymakers. The beaches in the area are picture-postcard perfect and visitors can choose from a variety of recreations, from bird watching to music festivals; golfing to riding a river on a bamboo raft. The MoBay area also has some fascinating historical perspectives, not all of them pleasant, that live on preserved in the legends and a stories surrounding the few remaining great plantation houses belonging to dynastic families that grew rich from slave labour in past centuries. Several of these are open to the public.