In this July 4, 1980 file photo, Jamaican Reggae singer Bob Marley performs at a reggae festival concert in Paris. (AP Photo/file)

(USA Today) – There are only a handful of musical performers who have achieved authentic icon status. One of these is Jamaican musician Bob Marley, who can be credited with making reggae a worldwide musical phenomenon. Marley’s music and life have come to embody the magic of Jamaica and visitors to the island will hear his songs virtually everywhere they go. Just as many travelers make the pilgrimage to Memphis to visit Elvis’ Graceland, so too will many visitors to Jamaica want to walk in the footsteps of Bob Marley and retrace his life.

Marley’s Kingston

The best place to start is the Bob Marley Museum in Jamaica’s capital city of Kingston. Most visitors to the island stay in resorts on the north coast, so visiting Kingston, located on the island’s south coast, will take some effort. A visit to Kingston can be rewarding, since it supplies a gritty street-level view of Jamaican culture impossible to access anywhere else on the island. One option is to first fly into Kingston, see the sights and then travel north to the major resort areas, and fly home out of Montego Bay airport on the north coast.

The Bob Marley Museum was the artist’s home until his death in 1981. The red, yellow and green Rasta-painted property also functioned as the original Tuff Gong music studio, where Marley laid down some of his most famous tracks, including the tune some consider his masterpiece, “Redemption Song.”

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