Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica, and is more widely referred to as Ochi by locals.

[13] The North Coast Highway from Sangster International Airport at Montego Bay to Ocho Rios has been improved since 2007 and the journey has dropped to an hour and 45 minutes drive.

After Christopher Columbus landed in 1494 and claimed the island for Spain, Ocho Rios was named Las Chorreras, meaning rapid rivers.

The English misunderstood, misinterpreted, and mispronounced the Spanish name Chorreras and called the town Ocho Rios, which sounded close enough.

[citation needed] When slavery was officially abolished on Jamaica in the year of 1834, the town entered a period of poverty and rebirth.

With colonial interests removed, the history of Ocho Rios was crafted by the newly-freed slaves, who embraced their new-found freedom and slowly turned the town into a stable and peaceful fishing village.

An overhead conveyor belt exists 10 km from the Reynolds open-cast mines at Lydford, in the hills south of town.

[21] In January and February 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. stayed in Ocho Rios, with wife Coretta and two employees, to draft his fourth and final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?.

The Sans Souci hotel was used as the exterior of the Blue Mountain cottage, the home of Bond villain Miss Taro.