Trip Report: Barbados
Visited in May 2022
This trip report is part of a five-part series. This is the fourth part and for a better understanding it is worth starting with the first article and going through all trip reports in chronological order.
On my trip through the Lesser Antilles, Barbados was the shortest stop. Our plane from Antigua landed at 3:00 p.m. and left at 5:45 p.m. the next day. So, we had only a little bit more than 24 hours.
There were two reasons why I chose to keep our visit to Barbados rather short. First, Barbados is probably the best hub within the Lesser Antilles. The country has direct flights to almost every UN country in this region. Therefore, I thought, it may be possible that I will have to return anyway someday when I visit the remaining four countries of the Lesser Antilles.
The second reason was that I also had a bit of a feeling that the activities you can do on Barbados are not as interesting as on other islands. When I was checking out before the trip what places I would like to see on the island, there was not much that made me think “wow”. Barbados obviously has beaches, but when you’ve already spent a week in the Caribbean, that’s no longer a winning argument. Besides, Barbados is another island that can be circumnavigated within three hours. Therefore, I felt that a little more than 24 hours would be enough.
In Barbados, Kati and I originally didn’t want to rent a car but hire a driver after we already had to drive ourselves in Sint Maarten and Antigua and Barbuda. However, our opinion changed quickly when we received the rates of the drivers. I contacted about four to five drivers and received the exact same quote from all of them: $40 per hour. Including the driver’s waiting time, a 6 to 8-hour island tour would have cost us easily $240-320. That’s why we picked up a car right at the airport, which cost us $90 for 24 hours.
After spending our first afternoon in the capital Bridgetown and at the famous St. Lawrence Gap, we drove once around the island the next day. The highways of Barbados allow you to drive with 80 kph. That makes it faster to drive once around the island than in Antigua, although Barbados is much larger.
Coming to Barbados from Antigua and Barbuda feels as if you are entering a completely different world. Barbados is much more developed. The roads are in perfect condition and the island is generally more urban than Antigua. Even the capital Bridgetown, which we visited briefly in the late afternoon after our arrival, seemed this time like a real city and not like a village, as was the case with St. John’s and Basseterre.
Barbados is rather flat compared to the other islands in the Caribbean, as the island has no volcanic origin. The island is also definitely more industrialized than Antigua or St. Kitts. In general, you can say that the west coast is rather the more developed and touristy side of the island. On the other hand, the east coast is more rugged and less beautiful in my opinion.
Still, Barbados is a gorgeous island, perhaps the most beautiful of all the islands we saw on this trip. The island is probably pretty much exactly what most people imagine a Caribbean island to be: white, sandy beaches, turquoise water, palm trees, sun over the azure sky, rum punch as well as freshly grilled fish.
After more than a week on other Caribbean islands, swimming in the ocean was no longer our highest priority in Barbados. And since we had only one day, we wanted to see the island and its attractions in this time. The sights we visited during our island tour were the house where Barbados’ biggest celebrity, Rihanna, grew up, Cherry Tree Hill in the interior of the island, St. Nicholas Abbey and the Steam Railway, Bathsheba Beach on the east coast, plus Bottom Bay and Crane Beach on the south coast.
What we had to skip was the Animal Flower Cave in the north of the island. The reason for this was that we could not start our tour until shortly before 9 a.m. because we still needed an antigen test to enter Trinidad and Tobago. Unfortunately, the lab didn’t open before 8:30am. Plus, we also lost another 20 minutes filling out the Travel Passport that it requires for T&T. Therefore, we did not want to risk missing the late afternoon flight because of the cave.
About 24 hours after our arrival we returned our car at the airport. The short stay in Barbados was already over and I would have liked to stay longer. In retrospect, it would probably have been the better decision to shorten Antigua and Barbuda by one day and stay one day longer in Barbados. But as I said before, if I want to visit the remaining four countries in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados would be a good starting and ending point.
Perhaps it was also a mistake to take the sights of the country as the main argument when I decided to stay in Barbados for only one day. Sightseeing is one thing, but there are other aspects that make a country great or not. In Barbados, I liked the relaxed atmosphere. Whether it was tourists or the locals, everyone seemed to be in a good mood and having a good time.
Also great was the culinary offerings on the island. Both in St. Kitts and Nevis plus Antigua and Barbuda, I found that the islands did not have a particularly large offer of good restaurants. In Barbados, however, there is no need to worry about this. I highly recommend the St Lawrence Gap, a kind of nightlife area about fifteen minutes by car from Bridgetown. There you will find a variety of excellent restaurants and bars.
Unfortunately, Barbados is anything but a cheap destination. I have already mentioned the high cab fares. The food and the entrance fees to the sights are hefty, too. Only because there are fortunately good accommodations that are reasonably priced, I would rank Barbados as the second most expensive of the islands we saw on this trip (after St. Kitts and Nevis). Despite this, Barbados is still one of the ten most expensive countries I’ve ever been to.
Of the five countries we saw on this trip, I would still put Barbados in one of the top spots. The country offers a little bit of everything. It has heavenly beaches and other natural sights, good food, nice people and even though the country is more industrialized than the others, this should not hide the fact that Barbados is an island paradise. Therefore, if someone told me they wanted to go to the Caribbean and only had time for one island, I would recommend Barbados (or St. Martin).
How many days do you need in Barbados? As we proved, one day is enough to see practically the whole island. I have also found 7-day itineraries on other travel blogs. While I’d find that a bit excessive, if you’re not pushing the pace and also want that one other beach day, I’d find three to four full days an optimal amount of time for the country.
We then left the island for Trinidad and Tobago, my 135th country and definitely the most special place I have seen in the Caribbean so far. Click here to read the trip report.
