Non Member Travel - Barbados

Barbados Resorts

Barbados Resorts

Introduction

The Caribbean’s favourite choice for British visitors. The West coast has the best palm fringed beaches, luxury hotels, championship golf courses, superb restaurants and bars catering for every taste and mood, smart or barefoot. In contrast, the rugged east coast has dramatic cliffs and wild pounding waves; it’s excellent for surf. We recommend you hire a car and explore the island and its plantation houses.

Barbados is safe and you’ll find the locals are friendly and relaxed. The atmosphere is just wonderful.

Barbados has an excellent range of luxury and standard accommodation, from small and inexpensive guest houses on the south coast to some of the smartest and best-known luxury spa hotels and villas in the Caribbean on the West Coast. There are villas worth tens of millions of dollars on this island. It is famous as the winter home of a crowd of millionaires, media types and horse-racing moguls. Barbados is not cheap, but you can find reliably good accommodation.

WHEN TO GO

Weather

During the dry season from December-June, although even the ‘wet’ season sees an average of eight hours of sunshine per day.

Festivals

The island’s top event is the Crop-Over Festival, which originated in colonial times as a celebration of the sugar cane harvest. Festivities stretch over a three-week period beginning in mid-July. There are spirited calypso competitions and fairs around the island. The festival culminates with a Carnival-like costume parade on Kadooment Day.

In February, the Holetown Festival celebrates the 1627 arrival of the first English settlers on Barbados. The week-long festivities include street fairs, a music festival at the historic parish church and a road race.

There are also a handful of international sporting events, including the Barbados Windsurfing World Cup, held at Silver Sands in January, and the Caribbean

Surfing Championship, held in early November at Bathsheba.

Highlights

Christchurch, Barbados

The parish of Christ Church is home to Barbados’ capital, Bridgetown, one of the Caribbean's major duty-free ports. Bridgetown holds reminders of the island’s British legacy, with sights including Nelson’s Column. The south coast, around Christ Church, is lined with white sandy beaches, providing watersports, boat trips, beachfront cafes, souvenir shops, fast food outlets and local restaurants. St Lawrence Gap has the best nightlife and, at the fishing port of Oistins, you can watch the fishermen landing their daily catch.

St James, Barbados

The ritziest part of Barbados, the parish of St James is where you will find many of the top luxury hotels Resorts and finest restaurants, alongside polo grounds and luxury golf courses. It is a clean, sophisticated slice of Barbados, dubbed the 'Platinum Coast' and 'Millionaire's Row'. The west coast beaches face the Caribbean Sea and are delightfully sheltered, with all sorts of watersports, and there's a good choice of bars and restaurants. Holetown is nearby and offers a selection of shops, many selling Mount Gay®Rum, Bajan art, pottery and batiks, while the capital, Bridgetown, is easily reached by local bus. Further along the coast is stunning North Point, where the sea crashes thunderously onto the rocks.

St Lawrence

One of a cluster of low-key towns on the southwest coast of the island, noted for powdery white sand, interesting local crafts and places to eat and drink.

Barbados Wildlife Reserve

A walk-through zoo featuring an array of green monkeys, red-footed turtles, caimans, brocket deer, iguanas and agoutis. Animals roam freely through the lush mahogany forest.

Watersports

The island’s splendid coral reefs offer excellent scuba diving and snorkelling. Sea-

horses, frogfish and hawksbill turtles can be spotted. Carlisle Bay, near Bridgetown, has 200 wrecks to explore. Windsurfing and surfing are also popular activities.