Dunn's falls without climbing??

[Joie]

We will be in Ocho Rios is a few weeks.....can we tour the falls without climbing....would like to see them and a beach close by, but not into climbing....bad knees !!! How is the walk down and back up....stairs, or what?

[tackleupboss]

Easy way to see the falls is to take a boat from Ocho Rios. That puts you on the beach where you can view. There is a mid point access from the road but you either take steps or walk a sharp slope to gain access to viewing platforms. Its quite a sharp drop from about 600 ft so there is not much in the way of gradual slopes. Check out the boat tours but avoid the cat boat as its full of rowdies and it will stop for Snorkling in murky water.

[DavidsNana]

Joie, We have done the falls twice but a long time ago. The 1st time, we went with a regular operator by land and walked down and climbed back up. It was steep both directions. The 2nd time was 1997 and we went by catamaran directly from the ship's pier. They took us to the base of the falls and there was a dock and we got off and those that wanted to climb did so and those that wanted to do the stairs could do that or you did not have to climb at all. I just checked our pictures from the bottom and at least then, you had a pretty good view of the lower part of the falls and the people climbing. If I remember correctly, the 1st viewing platform using the stairs was not that bad but it has been a long time. The catamaran that we took was just to the falls and back and had no snorkeling involved so no rowdy people. The beach at the base of the falls was not that nice of a beach at that time, maybe changed now. Hope this helps even though the info is old. Have a good time whatever you do. DavidsNana/Barbara

[Joie]

thank you.........we want to do the dolphin cove excursion, but it doesn't come by itself.....got to do the falls also, so we thought we would just walk down and see it to take pics. Hope it's not too hard of a walk down and back up.