Barbados

2023

Trip length: 6 nights (but I definitely could have done more – 9/10 nights would be ideal)
Cost: ££
Rating: 8/10
Trip video: click here

Enjoyed an amazing week in Barbados just before Christmas this year. The place is beautiful, the people are so friendly, and there is plenty to do if relaxing on the beach for a week isn’t your vibe.

Flights
We booked the most reasonable flights we could find on SkyScanner. Booking directly with Norse cost £618 to fly directly from Gatwick to Barbados (with bags) – you’ll probably find cheaper flights outside of school holidays. With Norse, be aware that nothing is included apart from your seat on the original price, so you’ll need to add bags, meals, etc. as required.

Accommodation
There are many hotels in the South / West of the island which have a range of prices (East is on the Atlantic so water not great for tourists to swim in but good for surfing). To be perfectly honest, we didn’t do a ton of research and just booked a reasonably(ish) priced hotel on the beach. We paid £1,340 each for 6 nights all-inclusive at the 4* Sugar Bay (£223.34 p/n) which is towards the South of the island.

We visited the West (more on that in a bit) and it’s definitely more up-market than the area we were staying in. I liked our hotel as the beach felt private, whereas there are hotels one after the next on the West coast so you’re sharing a strip of beach with loads more people. Also, generally speaking, eating / drinking out is much more expensive on the West. Also, really loved the team at Sugar Bay and the vibe of the area – felt a little more authentic.

Food at Sugar Bay was buffet style for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but as part of the all-inclusive, you do get 2 nights are the proper hotel restaurants. Food was decent although nothing ground-breaking – standard all-inclusive stuff but did the job (maybe my expectations are too high after the Maldives).

Umi restaurant was great (although we were probably too drunk on this day to properly enjoy it). Sizzle Steakhouse was also good so try both.

To be perfectly honest, the main event were the drinks! Great cocktails which we would enjoy one after the other from about 10am!.

Currency
BBD (Bajan Dollar) is preferred currency, but they accepted USD wherever we went. The BBD conversion they do is usually 2 BBD to 1 USD.

Transport around the island
You can easily book taxis via the hotel but it can get expensive to exclusively travel this way (we liked Aal – +1 (246) 259-0943). There are buses which apparently run regularly too. However, our most common mode of transport were the white vans / Z cars I think they’re called – a bit of an experience, but they swing by bus stops regularly, bundle you in, and drop you pretty much outside of wherever you want to go. Cost BBD 3.50 (USD 1.75) per person for each trip. Be prepared for noise as they usually have the radio up high!

What we did…

Morning run… definitely suggest starting your day early with a run / long walk. We could run about 2.25k one way on the beach front which was perfect for a 4.5k daily run. When you’re spending the rest of the day focused on eating / drinking, it does make you feel a bit better about yourself.

Nothing better than running into the water after to cool down.

We enjoyed a very special couple of hours swimming with turtles, sting-ray and tons of fish! We were about to book an expensive 5 hour catamaran cruise via the hotel when one of the guests told us about Hayden – + (246) 265-7107. You can book a 2 hour trip with him for $60 per person from Holetown (you will need to get a 30 min taxi there). Apparently the best time to go is at the 12.20 slot – you’re taken not far from the shore to swim with turtles first, then over a shipwreck / reef. Hayden gets loads of photos on his GoPro and WhatsApps them over to you before the end of the day which is great. He feeds them which is why the photos are so incredible.

Holetown is very up-market – Rihanna owns a condo at 1 Sandy Lane, and they have the Sandy Lane hotel which looks so beautiful. We even saw Simon Cowell there (photo above)! We walked a couple of kilometres up the beach and saw gorgeous hotel after gorgeous hotel. People that we know who holiday in Barbados every year, usually stay in Holetown but in an apartment. The great thing is that there are public beaches too so if you are in apartment you still have access to beaches / you can rent a lounger outside one of the restaurants.

We were hungry so stopped at the Fairmont to watch the sunset and grab some food / wine. That stop-off cost us £200 and we only got a chicken Caesar salad and some chips each (+ 2 bottles of wine), so costs do definitely add up if you’re always eating in these sorts of places. Nice thing about drinking at an all-inclusive is you don’t even need to think about the cost.

On Tuesday mornings, you can get in the water with the race horses who are being trained. This was in the South, on the beach next to our hotel, so only a short walk there at 6am, opposite the race course. Horses swim for lower impact training than galloping round and round. We also saw horse-riding in Holetown so there will be horse related options for activities island-wide.

We nipped into Bridgetown as it was raining one day. Not a massive amount to see, but was nice to walk around for an hour.

As we were only there for 6 nights, we unfortunately missed Oistins Fish Fry on Friday night which apparently is the place to be for good food, drinks and vibes. We nipped in on Friday morning but there wasn’t much going on.

Other food…

The Seafood Shack at the end of Worthing Beach was recommended to us and was so good we went twice. It is literally a shack so good for chilled lunch / dinner, rather than anything fancy. The seafood boil was amazing, but they go quickly so you have to order in advance. We got posted on their Instagram after trying to walk back from there to Sugar Bay in the pouring rain at night and, as the account is well followed, kept on getting referred to as the ‘Seafood Shack girls’ by the team at our hotel. There is also a bar / shack on the beach so you can eat there – say hi to Dave if you see him!

Lobster Alive also came highly recommended – a slightly more upmarket setting between our hotel and Bridgetown. You can eat with your feet in the sand whilst enjoying live music. Lovely evening.

Other than that, we sunbathed, swam, drank, ate, and played lots of cards. Oh, and if you haven’t been on a jet ski, I would recommend – I LOVED it. USD 40 for 15 mins from the hotel (you don’t really need more than 15 mins) – went so fast and it gave me such an adrenaline rush!

Overall, the place is gorgeous, the people are all so lovely and friendly, and there’s so much to do. Would go back.

In total, we spend £2.5k each inc. flights, accommodation & extras for 6 nights. Not cheap but not horrific.

Other recommendations from friends who go there regularly:

– Rum Distillery – Mount Gay is the most popular
– Tides (south near to Sugar Bay) – chill restaurant
– The Cliff (West near to Sandy Lane) – fancy restaurant / bar with live music, nice setting
– Lone Star (West) – beach bar
– Local & Co (West)
– La Cabane (West) – restaurant for sunset
– Cala Roca – early sunset dinner
– Fish Pot (north) – restaurant
– Sea Shed (West)
– St Lawrence Gap (South) – party place with bars / restaurants – we walked through here during the day but didn’t make it out in the evening, gets very lively
– We were recommended the following places by locals for going out: Red Door, Halo, Zouks