Westmoreland / Hanover (West Coast)
Rick's Café
How to visit Rick's Café in Negril: getting there by catamaran cruise versus taxi, the cliff-diving show, what the sunset crush is really like, and whether it's worth the trip.
Where
Negril, Jamaica
Opening hours
Roughly noon until around 22:00 daily, but it only comes alive from about 16:00; aim to be there an hour before sunset (sunset is around 17:30 in winter and closer to 19:00 in midsummer). The kitchen and bar run all afternoon and evening.
Tickets
Entry is free — there's no ticket or cover charge. You pay for what you drink and eat: a Red Stripe runs about US$5–7 (£4–5.50), cocktails around US$10–14 (£8–11), and mains roughly US$15–30 (£12–24). Most people instead reach it on a booked catamaran sunset cruise from Seven Mile Beach, typically US$55–85 (£44–68) per person including open-bar drinks and a stop at the cliff; a return taxi from the beach is the cheaper alternative at around US$15–25 (£12–20) for the car each way.
Time needed
1.5–2 hours around sunset. A catamaran cruise that stops here usually runs 2.5–3 hours door to door.
In short
Visiting Rick's Café
Rick's Café is the West End cliff bar everyone in Negril ends up at for sunset: locals and a few brave tourists leap from ledges of about 10ft, 25ft and a 35ft platform into deep water below, a live band plays, and the whole crowd faces west for the sun going down. Entry is free, but it's a buy-your-drinks-and-food venue priced for tourists, and most visitors arrive on a booked catamaran sunset cruise rather than making their own way. Come for the divers and the sunset spectacle, not a quiet evening drink — it's at its most packed when the cruise boats and tour buses all land around 17:00.
How to get there, and what you’re actually seeing
Rick’s Café sits on the West End cliffs on Lighthouse Road, about 10–15 minutes from Seven Mile Beach, and most people reach it one of two ways. The done thing is a booked catamaran sunset cruise from the beach (roughly US$55–85 / £44–68 a head with an open bar), which sails the coast and moors below the cliffs so you watch the divers from the water as the sun drops. The cheaper route is a taxi — agree the fare first, expect around US$15–25 (£12–20) for the car each way, and use a licensed driver rather than flagging one down. Entry itself is free; this is a bar, so you pay for drinks and food, and they’re priced well above town.
The draw is the cliff: local divers leap from ledges of about 10ft and 25ft and a 35ft platform into the water below, often for tips, and there’s usually a live band. You can jump from the lower ledges yourself, but the depth shifts with the tide, there’s no lifeguard, and people do get hurt — if you do it, do it sober, start low, and watch where the locals go in first.
Timing the sunset, and is it worth the scrum?
Aim to arrive about an hour before sunset — roughly 17:30 in winter, nearer 19:00 in midsummer — because the place only comes alive from late afternoon and is dead in the heat of the day. The honest catch is the crowd: when the cruise boats and tour buses all land around 17:00, it’s shoulder-to-shoulder, and the drinks are tourist-priced. Where people go wrong is expecting a relaxed cliff-top bar; that’s not what this is.
Our verdict: for one sunset, it’s worth it — the diving show, the band and the west-facing sun are a proper Negril moment. But treat it as a one-off spectacle, not somewhere to settle in. If you’d rather have the sunset without the scrum, a string of smaller West End cliff bars nearby do a quieter version of the same view.
Planning the rest of your trip? See the Negril city guide.
