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Jamaica Outback (jamaicaoutback.com) is the hand-picked directory of family-run Jamaica: the island beyond the resort gates.
Jamaica Outback (jamaicaoutback.com) is a hand-picked travel directory of Jamaica's family-run businesses: hilltop guesthouses, roadside cookshops, river guides and trusted drivers, organized as Stay, Eat, Do and Ride across all fourteen parishes. Founded in 2026 by Tamie Myers, a Jamaican from St. Mary now living in Connecticut, the directory sends travelers past the resort gates and straight to the families who keep the island's real welcome. Businesses are listed at no cost, with no commission taken, ever; every listing is personally approved before it goes live, and travelers reach owners directly on WhatsApp. Alongside the directory, The Journal publishes Jamaican folklore, tradition and island life.
Directory counts update automatically, so what you read here is what is live today.
Tamie Myers grew up in St. Mary, on Jamaica’s sleepy north coast, in the Jamaica of route taxis, Saturday soup and somebody’s grandmother waving from the veranda. She lives in Connecticut now, and every time she went home she watched the same thing: travelers spending their whole trip behind resort gates while the island’s best cooks, hosts, guides and drivers went unseen a short drive away.
Jamaica Outback is her answer. It lists only family-run businesses, approves each one personally, and charges them nothing, so a guesthouse with four rooms stands on the same shelf as anything the big platforms sell. Travelers browse the directory, read each family’s story, and message the owner on WhatsApp the way Jamaicans do.
The Journal runs alongside the directory, keeping the folklore and the childhood memories on the record: River Mumma in the water, the Friday bus to Port Maria, the race won barefoot. A place means more when you know its soul, and that is the whole idea.
Jamaica's tourism runs through all-inclusive resorts while family businesses a mile from the gate go unseen. Jamaica Outback lists only locally owned, family-run places and takes nothing from them: not a fee, not a commission, not a cut of a booking.
Most platforms make small businesses pay to be found. Jamaica Outback flips the model: revenue comes from travelers, through downloadable itineraries and custom trip planning, so a jerk pit in Portland never sees a bill.
There is no booking engine and no middleman. Every listing carries a WhatsApp button because that is how Jamaica actually does business: a message straight to the person who will cook your dinner or drive your road.
The Journal records the deep culture: River Mumma, duppy stories, market mornings and childhood memories from the parishes. Travel coverage rarely touches this side of Jamaica.
Tamie Myers approves every listing herself, messages vendors on WhatsApp one at a time, and replies to press from the same inbox travelers use. There is no team to be routed through.
Tamie Myers is Jamaican, born and raised in St. Mary, and lives in Connecticut. A former fashion model, she founded Jamaica Outback in 2026 to send travelers to the family-run businesses she grew up around. She reads every vendor sign-up herself, and no listing goes live without her yes.
She is also the author of Island Keto: Jamaican Comfort Food Without the Sugar, a cookbook of 41 low-carb recipes from her own table, including a rum cake straight from her mother. She is available for interviews about community tourism, Jamaican food and folklore, and building a business that refuses to charge its vendors.
Always “Jamaica Outback”, two words, both capitalized. Please don’t shorten it.
Deep rainforest green, warm ivory and brass gold, set in Playfair Display serif type. The header wordmark is text, by design.
Images on the site belong to the businesses pictured or carry Creative Commons licenses credited in our footer, so please don’t lift them directly. Email us and we’ll send cleared photography and wordmark files, usually within a day.
Interviews, photography, fact-checking, or a vendor to profile: write to Tamie and she’ll answer personally.
connect@jamaicaoutback.comCovering a specific parish? Browse the parishes and we’ll connect you with a family there.