Beautiful Barbados

From http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/travel/2009/05/23/caribbean-rum-reggae-and-sun-in-barbados-115875-21381724/

Ryan Parry checks in and chills out on one of the Caribbean’s most laid-back islands

Dazzling white beach, crystal clear water and a rum punch within reach – heaven on earth.

Most Caribbean islands evoke the usual cliches about “paradise”. But in Barbados the cliche becomes reality.

With its endless palm-lined beaches, luxury resorts and laid-back locals, it’s the dream destination for millions of Brits.

It’s also a firm favourite with celebrities such as Simon Cowell, Wayne Rooney and Sir Cliff Richard who has a house there.

It’s my fifth time on the island and I’m desperate to get back.

We stayed at the Almond Casuarina Beach resort on Dover Beach on the south coast.

This 10-acre all-inclusive gem in its elegant but natural setting is as relaxing as it gets.

There are three pools to lounge by and a stunning section of beach feet away.

The only brief interruption to my tanning came when a handful of pesky kids ignored the “No Under 16s” notice by the pool and plunged in. Ah well.

Just four miles from the capital Bridgetown, and five miles from the airport, the resort is a  four-star, 267-room hotel offering snorkelling, windsurfing, sailing, kayaking, a gym and tennis.

It also has three fantastic gourmet restaurants serving an a la carte menu.

One day we popped over to the adults-only Almond Beach Club  – literally a stone’s throw from the celeb haunt of Sandy Lane.

It’s also just spitting distance from St Lawrence Gap, a mile-long street teeming with clubs pumping out calypso, reggae, jazz and R&B.

Here you’ll find McBrides Pub which offers the perfect way to cool off after a hard day baking in the sun. With happy hour from 11pm to 1am every night and live reggae music, it’s a great way to unwind.

A short walk away you’ll find The Ship Inn, another favourite with Brits. Both are rammed at weekends so go midweek.

And after a few drinks you can’t miss Barnacle Bill’s BBQ which starts at 10.30pm for late-night munchies.

Food is a real treat in Barbados. With plenty of local fresh fish, shellfish and tropical fruit, it’s also good value for money.

But if you fancy a special treat, try the open-air Cliff restaurant in St James. It’s situated on top of a high coral cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea and has the food and service to match the scenery.

At night the tiny beach below is illuminated to add to the romance of the setting. But you’ll have to book early during peak season.

There’s more to Barbados than beaches and booze though.

This former British colony is obsessed with horse racing, polo and of course cricket. Then there are the plantation houses, botanical gardens and military forts.

The capital, Bridgetown, is one of the oldest cities in the Caribbean and offers decent restaurants and nightlife.

You can even combine culture with booze.

We stopped by the 250-year-old Four Square Rum Factory which sits amid fields of sugar cane.

Our guided tour was followed by a tasting session – although the owner’s son was less than impressed when we necked six test tubes of his finest rum and then stumbled around making inappropriate jokes.

Luckily, for shaking off a hangover, a visit to Silver Rock on the east coast is ideal. Here you will meet windsurfing legend Brian “Action Man” Talma.

He will teach you to surf, windsurf, kite-surf and just about anything else in the water. Always smiling, he bounces around his beach using the word “action” more times than strictly necessary, but he cooks a mean BBQ on the porch of his De Action Shop.

The east coast beaches have the biggest waves and are popular with surfies. But they also have dangerous currents, so swim at your peril.

Barbados is also known for its snorkelling and dive sites. I went out to Carlisle Bay with the guys from Dive Barbados Blue. There are four shipwrecks here teeming with aquatic life and near by sea turtles hang out looking for food.

Because the east coast is less built up, it’s easy to find a secluded beach.

A day out I’d definitely recommend here is Sunday Gospel Brunch at The Crane. You help yourself from a fantastic buffet while being serenaded by gospel singers.

After that you can stroll down to the stunning beach – voted one of the top five in the world.

On Friday or Saturday nights you have to get over to Oistins, a tiny fishing village in the parish of Christ Church. Hundreds of locals and visitors flock here for Fish-Fry. A ramshackle gathering of sidewalk stalls combine to make up dozens of tiny restaurants . Local arts and craftsmen display their wares while a reggae band keeps the party going into the night.

Our evening was interrupted when a power-cut swept across the island leaving Oistins in darkness except for the glow of the barbecues. Time to hit the generator-powered hotel bar. Mine’s a pina colada – with a sparkler please.

My top five..

1 Oistins fishing village – Fish-Fry Friday and Saturday night when every kind of fish is BBQd, fried or grilled.

2 The Crane hotel beach –  breathtaking must-visit spot on the east coast.

3 The Ship Inn – guaranteed good night out in the St Lawrence Gap, pick a night with live reggae music.

4 Four Square Rum Factory – interesting distillery tour with rum tasting session at the end.

5 The Cliff – expensive special treat but worth every penny.

GETTING THERE

Seven nights at the four-star premium Almond Casuarina Beach starts from £1,059pp all-inclusive. Price includes return flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick direct to Barbados and return transfers. Price also includes taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on two adults sharing a standard room.

To book visit www.virginholidays.com/almond or call 0844 5573 859.

For more information about the hotel visit www.almondresorts.co.uk or call 0871 871 2828.

For more information on Barbados visit the Tourism Authority at www.visitbarbados.org.

Virgin Atlantic flies from London Gatwick to Barbados daily. Fares start from £449 inclusive of taxes and can be booked at www.virginatlantic.com or by calling 08705 747 747. Premium economy fares start from £759.

For kiting, windsurfing, surfing, fishing or just learning how to blow the conch shell visit De Action Beach Shop at Silver Sands. www.briantalma.com.

For diving visit www.divebarbadosblue.com or call (246) 434 5764

Websites for walking tours: www.hfholidays.co.uk/guidedwalking/barbados (020 8732 1220), www.ramblersholidays.co.uk

(01707 331133) or www.peachandquiet.com

Seven nights at the four-star premium Almond Casuarina Beach starts from £1,059pp all-inclusive. Price includes return flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick direct to Barbados and return transfers. Price also includes taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on two adults sharing a standard room.

Saturday, August 23 (the day we arrived) was supposed to be a race day but it was rained out.  So, we got lucky this year when the race was postponed to August 30, instead.  We've always known that they had horse racing at the Garrison Savannah but it never had happened while we were here.  So, we decided to go.

I found out very late Friday night that one of my sites had been hacked. I had contacted Tech Support for my hosting company and got nowhere, being the Friday night/Saturday morning of a 3-day weekend.  So, Tom called them before we went.  At $2.00 a minute, I didn't want to stay on the line while they restored a database so I trusted them to do this and we left for the races.

We got to the Garrison Savannah in plenty of time and parked about 1/3 of the way around the oval, trying for a place in the "shade".  HA.

The Garrison area, just south of Bridgetown, is also home to the Barbados Museum & Historical Society as well as the newly opened George Washington House and Museum.  We have been to the Barbados Museum a few times but not (yet) this year.  It's set on the grounds of a 19th century military prison and has several galleries such as:

• Amerindian Culture
• Barbadian social and military history
• Antique maps, prints and paintings
• New African Gallery
• Interactive children's gallery
• Natural history
• A research library of Barbadian and Caribbean history
• and, of course, a gift store

The George Washington House and Museum is just opened this year so we haven't been there yet.  Neither that nor the Barbados Museum was open on race day.  We did walk past both on the way to  the grandstand for the race. 

I was amazed that we could get in so cheaply - it was only $10BDS each ($1BDS equals $1.98US) and $5BDS for the program.  $12.50 US for both of us.

I have never been to any kind of race so this was all new to me.  We were very close to the track and we sat by the finish line.  There was a grass track and an inner sand track.  We had been told that the sand track was used sometimes but it wasn't while we were there.

We were kind of confused at first because they were describing a race but no one was running.  It turned out that they were broadcasting another race from Sarasota in between the individual races here.

There were 10 races in all and we stayed for 4.  In the second, I picked a horse that I liked while it was walking around the track before the race.  When I found out it had a musical name - Bold Ballard - I was hooked.  Too bad I didn't bet.  Bold Ballard, number 8, won.

 

 

The 4th race was all horses from the US and UK.  I chose one from Ocala, FL because I thought that one could best deal with the heat.  Guess which won?  The jockey was 19 year old Chris Husbands.  He'd just won something like 4 out of 5 races in Trinidad in July.  And he did very well on Saturday.

After the 4th race we decided to leave and walk the other 2/3 of the way around the track (well, going that way was Tom's idea).  He kept looking back, thinking we could catch one more race.  I was hot and wanted to get something to eat.

While we were walking, they move the start gate halfway around the track.  When we got there, the horses were right in front of us.  Tom got a great picture of Chris Husbands.  He said he was having a "good day".  Guess so - he won that race, too!

Finally, back to our car and off to Bubba's for lunch.  Not my favorite but it's a sports bar with big screen TVs and American-style burgers and fries. The food is good but it's just a little too much USA and not enough Barbados.

Then back home for a dip in the pool, a bit of reading and a nap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday mornings Tom always has a meeting here and today was no different.  Actually, Sundays are pretty slow here since the stores, museums and activities are mostly closed. 

The Crane has a nice Gospel Brunch followed by a lunch buffet with steel pan drums.  We used to go the the Brunch but the format has changed.  It used to be a drop in thing up until about 11:30-12:00.  Now it's 2 seatings.  One at 9, one at 10 and we can't make either of those.  We have never been to the lunch buffet.

Someone at the meeting asked Tom to go to another one at night.  It was up in St John parish and we've always gotten lost there.  Luckily, the guy agreed to meet Tom and lead him to the meeting - and back again, since it would be dark.

In the meantime, we talked to MIchael and wished him luck with his upcoming move on Monday and new job starting Tuesday.

The website is not fixed.  In fact, 2 others are now not working.  They had been fine, not hacked, before the database restore.  So, there are 3 with 500 Internal Server Errors.  I guess it's better than having that hacker stuff but I hope these can be restored.  So much work was put into them and I hate to have to redo everything.

Then, Tom went to his meeting...and ran into someone from his childhood hometown.  Small world!  He always seems to run into people he knows, no matter where he is. 

He brought back Chefette roti for dinner.  Yum!

Of course yesterday didn't go as planned. After much haggling with his wi-fi in the lobby, Tom got a network cable from the front desk. The rest of the afternoon he was online or making phone calls.

I spent the time dipping in the pool, reading, napping. I did something I have never done here - I got a sunburn! The weather was so breezy and cool and I was out in my bathing suit. It never occurred to me I might get a burn.

Since Tom got online there was now no need to go shopping...so we didn't.

At night Tom started a schedule with 33 slots so we could fill them in with things we wanted to do. AACCKK!

At night, we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, had dinner and I was off to bed. I tossed and turned a lot - the sheet was uncomfortable on my sunburned feet.

Today looks like another lazy day. I went to see Theresa (concierge) to set up the various trips and stuff we wanted to add to that schedule.

We were going to go on the Tiami but are going to try Cool Runnings this year instead. We're going to the Plantation Bajan Roots & Rhythms show again and on the Island Safari again.

New to us will be the helicopter around the island plus the Barbados Concorde Experience. We had planned on doing the Concorde anyway. We were here the day of their final flight out of Barbados before they stopped service.

I found out that one of our favorite lunch places, Cocomos, has gone out of business and has been reopened as another restaurant. This is sad on several levels, one being that this was where Sue (SuziQ) took us for lunch when she was here with us before she died. So many places here have memories of Sue. The year she died she'd been planning to come back with us again but never made it. Seeing Cocomos gone is like another part of Sue's memory destroyed. I miss Sue so much as a special friend and as a Cushing's advocate.

This afternoon we got our schedule all squared away. We found that the Garrison Savannah Horse Races were rained out last Saturday so they're rescheduled for this week. They've never run while we were here before so we changed out Cool Runnings to Friday and will go to the races on Saturday.

We went to lunch at Cutters. Cutter is the Bajan word for sandwich. After that, back to Emerald City for stuff we forgot Saturday and more milk.

Now, pool and naptime! I can never get enough of either.