If you are looking for nice beaches, great night life, friendly people, and
you have plenty of money to spend, then go to Barbados.
It is a relatively small, kidney-shaped island in the eastern Caribbean. It’s nearest neighbours are St. Vincent and
St. Lucia to the the west. Barbados has
remained an English colony since the beginning of colonization and has retained much of
the English feel. Of course, this could also
be because the place is full of British tourists.
The People
Yes, they speak English, but a strange sort of English that can be almost impossible to
understand at times. Most people will tone
down their accent when speaking to non-Bajans (short form of “Barbadians”),
though some seem to be unable. Generally, the
people are very friendly and helpful and seem to be extremely honest. We lived there for two months and were not ripped
off by a taxi driver once.
Things to Know
The currency used is the Barbados
dollar. The exchange rate is two to one
American dollar. Due to exchange control
laws, it is not possible to sell Barbados dollars at the banks. The only place where this can be done is at the
airport on your way out.
Items in shops will normally be
tagged with two prices; one regular price and the other duty-free price. In order to get the duty-free price you must
present your passport and outbound airline ticket when purchasing the item. They will then give you a yellow form which you
are supposed to deposit in some sort of bin at the airport.
I haven’t actually noticed the bin at the airport and they don’t
ask for your yellow papers so I really don’t know the purpose of this system. It is probably better to save them just in case.
There are two bus systems in
Barbados. The blue government buses run on
relatively fixed schedules on fixed routes and cost about $1.50. The other ones are the privately owned minibuses
which are generally regarded as faster but more dangerous as they often crash. So if you are feeling brave and are in a rush,
flag one down. They all have small signs in
the lower corner of the windshield displaying where that particular bus is going. I think the fare is about the same as the
government buses.
The main tourist hotels are on the
west coast of the island. The east coast is
much more rugged, as that is the Atlantic side so you will not find the beaches to be the
same quality as those on the west coast.
Things to Do
As Barbados is extremely
tourist-oriented, you will not run out of things to do.
If you like sailing, you can crew the Jolly Roger pirate ship, you can take
an afternoon catamaran ride, or you can rent windsurfers and sailboats at many places
along the beaches.
There is some sort of walking club in
Barbados which meets on Sunday mornings and does three hour walks in different places
around the island. We didn’t actually go
on one but heard they are quite good. In
fact, between work and our weekends away, we didn’t have that many free days to do
things in Barbados. So some of this
information is not first hand.
On the north west part of the island
is a place called Animal Flower Cave. We didn’t
get to see the cave part as it was closed, but the scenery from the cliff is absolutely
stunning! It is worth the drive.
Harrison’s Caves is a popular
tourist attraction. It is quite an
interesting cave but the way they run the tour is ultra-mega-super cheesy. You are driven through in this electric train and
you have to wear these yellow hardhats with napkins stuffed in them to protect you from
the last guy’s germs. And it’s
quite expensive too.
Bars and Restaurants
The restaurants in Barbados are
expensive, but the food is usually pretty good. Our
favorite restaurant was probably the Mexican place in St. Lawrence Gap. The Gap is a mile long strip of bars,
restaurants, hotels and nightclubs. It seems
to be the most popular place to go. The
Mexican place is located at the northern end of the gap Gap and serves great food at
reasonable prices. But this might be the only
Mexican bar in the world that doesn’t sell Corona!
You’ll have to drink Banks, which isn't a
bad substitute.
Another place in St. Lawrence Gap is
B4Blues, located just up the street from the Mexican joint.
The food is fantastic and slightly more expensive than average. There is live music on the weekends, usually folk,
jazz or blues. B4Blues is located right
across from The Ship, which seems to have a reputation for being a great place. The only time I went there was some banshee
karaoke going on and the whole place smelled of spew.
So I wouldn’t recommend it.
Champers restaurant probably has the
nicest nighttime view than any other restaurant in Barbados. The food is great, prices slightly higher, and the
staff is most competent. Champers is very
popular with the ex-pat crowd in Barbados as well as the locals.
The most expensive restaurant is
called The Cliff. The food is very nice and
the setting is exceptional. Service is okay
but I didn’t think it was up to the same
standard as the food. If you are feeling
wealthy and want to splurge, try this place out. There
is a bottle of wine on the menu which costs $5,000! We
didn’t get that one.
The coolest bar on the island is
Mojos – Music for the People. It is
located on the west coast near the Vista Cinema. It
is sort of like Hammerheads in Nassau Bahamas but has an
even better ambiance. The music is great, the
staff is hilarious, the crowd is a total mix of everything you can imagine, and the beers
are quite cheap. You will be able to identify
the staff members by the nicknames we have given them - Hockey Hair, Stoner, Hootie, E.T.,
and The Token Chick. Most nights the staff
are drinking more than the patrons so I’m not sure how they make any profits. Maybe it’s a charity? Don’t miss this place.
If you are in Barbados on a Friday
make sure you check out The Boatyard, which is a bar/restaurant near downtown. They are located right on the beach and have two
happy hours where you get two for one beers. The
place is heaving with working schmuks, as well as plenty of tourists.
The only nightclub we checked out was
Harbour Lights. It is cheap – you pay 25
Barbados dollars and can drink free all night until 3:00 am! So as you can imagine the clientele is mainly
young British punks getting pissed for cheap. The
time we went there were young skirt-wearing English lassies doing cartwheels on the stage
much to the delight of the male onlookers! Harbour
Lights is located near Bridgetown.
Conclusion
Barbados was a wonderful place for us
to finish up the project. It is an easy place
to hang out, there is plenty to do, and the weather is great – even in the off
season. You can’t go wrong with this
place!
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