Barbados: Living on Island Time

The Bougainvillea Beach Resort sits on the southern coastline of Barbados, featuring its own beach (though there are no private beaches in Barbados) with water that is generally conducive to swimming.

During my one-week stay in Barbados, I went on several trips where we had to pick up people from other hotels. I can say without hesitation that the Bougainvillea is one of the best on the southern coast – the only way you’re going to get better is if you pony up the cash and stay in a ritzy resort on the Caribbean side, where the water is as calm as bath water and Tiger Woods dropped $10 million on his wedding.

Upon arrival, the staff greeted us in their British/Caribbean accent, with a friendly smile despite the late hour. The bellman escorted us to our room on the fourth floor of one of the buildings. The only bad thing to say is that there was no elevator, but the walk to the top of the building was worth it. We had our own private deck with a table and chairs and a two loungers. The room featured a bamboo king bed draped with curtains set up so we could easily see the flat-screen TV, a kitchenette and a huge bathroom. The next morning we discovered that we also had a fantastic view of both the pool and the ocean below.

The room was kept clean our entire stay, and the housekeeper even washed our dishes (which were provided with the room.)

There are two restaurants at the hotel. Lanterns is the casual one, with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the Waterfront Café is open only for dinner and is more of a "fine-dining" restaurant. The food at Lanterns is acceptable, though nothing to write home about. However, it’ll do in a pinch – though it’ll also pinch your wallet. However, all the other restaurants will, too.

That’s what makes it so great that there is a small grocery within a 2- or 3-minute walk from the hotel. It’s not a Whole Foods or anything, but you can get bread, peanut butter, milk, soda, etc. so you can eat a snack for lunch instead of dolling out more money.

Our stay included breakfast, which we learned to maximize each morning. You have a choice of fruit, eggs or hashbrowns, bacon or sausage. For $5 US you could order from the a la carte menu, or for $10, you could have the buffet. Both are unnecessary unless you just have a hankering for pancakes or something.

We didn’t make use of the pool bar except to use our one free drink card, because we didn’t want to spend the money, and we bought water and juice for the room.

The beach was nice and the waves weren’t overwhelming. There were a few pools, and if you look, you’ll find the "adult" pool which has a deep end and hardly anyone else there.

I would recommend a stay here in a heartbeat.

To be honest, there’s only so much chicken and flying fish a girl can eat before she starts to grow feathers or scales, so when I heard about the one and only Mexican restaurant in St. Lawrence Gap, about a 5-minute cab ride from the Bougainvillea Beach Resort, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to get out of the resort and grab a bite of something different.

It’s location in St. Lawrence Gap is one of the bonus highlights. The bay there is beautiful, especially at sunset. "The Gap" is also where the majority of the island’s nightlife takes place, though we were there during "off" season, and there wasn’t much "life" to have any nightlife be obvious.

Café Sol is a fairly small establishment, decorated with Mexican sun sculptures and colorful chili-pepper lights. They’re famous for their margaritas, which come in a plethora of flavors, including banana and mango. I went for the traditional strawberry, and it was good, but I can’t say that it was world-famous or anything.

The chips and salsa weren’t free, as standard in U.S. Mexican restaurants, but were nice and warm and toasty with fairly spicy salsa (though were they worth the $8 U.S. is a whole other question.) What is odd is that I chose nachos as my main meal, as if I couldn’t get enough chips into my system, but the cheese and beef made them even tastier. The portions were big, and I couldn’t even make a dent in my food. The good thing about having a kitchenette is that you can get a to-go box and warm up the leftovers the next day, though we never actually followed through on that particular idea.

The staff was friendly, but not overly attentive, which I think is a Barbados thing and not a portent of bad service. They just all move on island time.

The total bill for two people with a margarita each was about $50 U.S. I thought that was pretty expensive for Mexican food, which by its nature is supposed to be inexpensive. However, that’s any food in Barbados that’s not chicken or fish.

I’d recommend that people give it a try, knowing what they should expect.

At the end of a 7-day stay in Barbados, I was really, really tired of traditional Bajan meals. These meals consisted of fish and chicken, and more fish and chicken, so the opportunity to have some Italian food was very attractive to me. Plus, it was the chance to head back into St. Lawrence Gap to see another fabulous sunset.

We hopped into a cab and five minutes later we were in front of the restaurant. The hotel had called in advance to make a reservation for us, though why it was needed I’ll never know, because we were the only people who showed up at 6 p.m. for dinner (it filled up later, though.) Our table looked out on the bay, giving us a lovely view of both the sunset and the nighttime lights of the Gap. We also got to watch the sandpipers and the crabs scan the sand for their own dinners.

Ironically, my boyfriend ordered fish, some barracuda to be exact. I went for the lasagna. Both dishes came with acclaim from each of us. However, the highlight of the night was our chocolate cake that we ordered to go. When we got back to the hotel room, we opened the Styrofoam container to find a mousse cake drenched in a rainbow sauce. We admired it long enough to take a photo and then gobbled it down.

The service again wasn’t stellar, but it’s hard for the go, go, go Americans to get used to island time. In fact, I got used to the slow pace just in time to go home, sigh.

The total bill came to around $50, without drinks. As I’ve said in my other restaurant reviews, that’s about standard for a dinner out on the island, so it wasn’t shocking in any way.

I’d recommend Bellini’s for some good Italian food. In fact, it’s been recommended by a lot of online sources. It’s hard to be right all the time. Ha!

Our hotel, the Bougainvillea Beach Resort, offered a free, twice-daily shuttle to the capital of Barbados, Bridgetown. The 20-minute ride is air-conditioning-free, and you’re dropped off for four hours to shop and eat to your heart’s content.

The biggest draw of Bridgetown is the duty-free shopping. Make sure to keep a lookout, either at your hotel activities desk or in the tourist brochures, for coupons that offer additional discounts. There is a catch, however. You have to fill out all the paperwork and drop it off in the airport before you leave.

As far as shopping goes, there are your standard souvenir shops, but there are also department stores, pharmacies, and most importantly, jewelry stores. Barbados is known for its emeralds, and while I didn’t compare prices in the US before I traveled, I thought that the costs were still prohibitive – for me, anyway.

If you go to Bridgetown for sightseeing only, you might be a bit disappointed. However, if you’re already there, you’ll definitely want to take a walk along the pier, or the Careenage, to see the brightly colored Caribbean buildings and the boats in the water. Freedom Square, in the center of the town, offers a nice place to sit and watch people go by. There is a water fountain there, and during the weekends, there are often events held in the "park."

If you’re wondering to yourself if you should rent a car and go on your own, consider that they drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. (Something to consider if you’re from the U.S., but probably used to if you’re from the U.K.) The other big problem is the TRAFFIC. The rules are a little sketchy, there’s a lot of horn honking (which is used mostly to let bigger cars know you’re there so they don’t run over you) and during "rush-hour" is horrible into Bridgetown.

If you have a long stay in Barbados, a day in Bridgetown is a way to while away the time and get your shopping fix. That’s what all the cruise ship passengers do.

The Roots and Rhythms Show, also known as the Plantation Theater, is a dinner-theater-type attraction that is pitched as the alternate to the party-themed Harbor Lights Show. Both offer dancing, fire-eating and stilt walking along with dinner. However, The Roots and Rhythms show touts itself as more of a cultural experience in opposition to the Harbor Lights Show, which claims to be a show and a party.

The tickets are pretty expensive, but do include dinner. We paid about $100 per person. As you stand in line, you’re offered rum punch (more on this in a moment) or fruit punch. After you enter, you’re pitched to take the obligatory tourist photo (which will cost you $14 U.S. if you buy it) with the dancers in costume.

The buffet dinner was decent, better than some other buffets I’ve attended, but not gourmet by any stretch. It featured "traditional" Bajan fare – things like chicken, flying fish, potatoes, macaroni pie, etc. The big drink is the rum punch. It’s called "punch" because that’s what it does to you. It tastes so good, and you’re so hot that you drink it – a lot of it. Then it knocks you on your kiester. It’s made with Barbados’s famous Mount Gay Rum – good stuff!

The show was what I’d call decent as well. The performers did a good job, but it was fairly clear that it was a small-town production, and not professionally executed. It was mildly entertaining, but I thought for what it was, it was overpriced and underwhelming.

If you’ve got a long stay in Barbados, and you’re in need of entertainment (which is not out of the realm of possibilities, it’s a small island, and there isn’t a lot to do outside of beach activities) take in the show for the heck of it. Just go in expecting a mediocre time (unless you drink enough rum punch, in which case you may have a blast, you just may not remember it the next morning.)

We definitely wanted to experience more of Barbados than just the beach in front of our hotel, but we weren’t prepared to tackle the traffic-heavy roads and iffy driving rules.

We had a sit-down at the activities desk and we had two options, a 4x4 tour of the island, or the more-tame 80-mile tour. The 4x4 tour went off-road, to places vans and buses could not go. However, it was a bumpy ride, and on the back of an open-air vehicle, which meant no air conditioning. The 80-mile tour was in an air-conditioned van and not-so-rough. (Now, before you go and judge how lazy and spoiled I am, Barbados is very warm, very humid, and the tours were an all-day thing. Plus, I had surgery earlier this year, so bumpy wasn’t the best idea.)

For about $80 U.S., we were picked up at our hotel at 8:30 and whisked around the island, stopping at a range of hotels to gather more tourists. We drove through Bridgetown and past all the fru-fru Caribbean-side hotels. We rode along for about an hour and a half before our first stop at a place called the Animal Flower Cave, which has nothing to do with animals or flowers. An "animal flower" is a sea anemone, so the cave has tide pools inside with sea anemones, along with some great views across the ocean. The cave sits at the northern tip of the island, and the cliffs at the cave entrance’s lookout point make for pretty stunning photography, with the waves pounding the rocks.

We stayed at the caves for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then drove to our next stop, which was a scenic view of the western coastline through a sugar cane field. It was also another prime opportunity for some Mount Gay rum-infused punch, and some banana bread. Then it was off to stop at a lookout point at Bathsheba Beach, where all the surfers (and no one else) are in the water.

We also stopped at St. John’s Parish Church, which was atop a steep hill – and it was noted that a lot of people walk there. I’d have to be really sinful to do that each Sunday! Then it was a few hours for lunch at the Sunbury Great House, which is an old sugar plantation/museum, unique in that every room is open to the public. The lunch was "traditional Bajan fare," as are all the tour lunches, and consisted again of chicken, flying fish, potatoes, etc. It was decent, not spectacular.

The best part of the tour was our guide, who gave us a lot of information about Barbados in a humorous-and-not-boring way. For example, he told a story of how McDonald’s only lasted 6 months on the island because they didn’t serve chicken with a bone in it. He also told us how much a new Honda costs on the island ($60,000 US). He was animated and jovial, and made the trip.

I don’t know if I’d put the tour as a MUST DO on my list or anything, but it was a nice way to get around the island a bit. I did think I would’ve preferred less driving and more stopping – especially at a Caribbean-side beach or something, but it was a nice day.

The snorkel tour we booked through Cool Runnings was by far my favorite excursion of our Barbados trip. There were about 20-30 people on board the catamaran, which included 5 staff members – and they really made the trip special. The staff was part sailors, part servers, part tour guides, part instructors and part friends. Everyone left there feeling like they were a part of the Cool Runnings family, and I think that was a really special bonus.

The tour cost us about $80 U.S. each, and included transportation from our hotel and lunch, along with an open bar (and rum punch. No Barbados excursion is complete without it.) The transport took us to the Cool Runnings offices in Bridgetown, where we paid in full and got our instructions. (Make a note, if you even think you want a t-shirt or hat or souvenir, get them when you pay. The office closes after they get everyone on board, and the staff has limited sizes/selection on board.)

As soon as we stepped foot on the catamaran, the staff set out to make everything special. Even though at the start of the trip there was a bit of "liquid sunshine," as they call it, it didn’t dampen the spirit of the crew, which was contagious for the rest of us.

The first stop was an opportunity to swim with some turtles and snorkel at a shipwreck. Even though they had to feed the turtles to get them to come over, which is probably a bad idea from an ecosystem standpoint but a good idea from a tourism angle, it was awesome. I even got to reach down and touch a turtle’s shell, and he was about the size of a large 8-year-old child. The staff snorkeled with us, and kept us all in a little "school" of our own, keeping an eye on us to make sure we were all together and all okay. Then, they fed the fish, making them swarm around us like a fish tornado. It was fabulous!

The next stop was on a reef, and while the snorkeling wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen, there were a lot of colorful fish, and the water was warm and calm.

The third stop was in front of Sandy Lane resort, where Tiger Woods dropped millions of dollars into the Barbados economy for his wedding. Here we enjoyed the buffet lunch, with the Bajan standards: chicken, flying fish, potatoes, etc. The food was pretty good, but it was the company and the scenery that made it. If you chose to ignore the "don’t swim after eating" rule, there was more snorkeling if you wanted. I chose to just marvel at the colorful water and snuggle with my hunny.

The ride back was a bit choppier, as we ditched the engine and went solely on sails. However, the wind was blowing in my hair (try to detangle THAT mess) and the air tasted salty and I was free to be, well, free. We even saw some flying fish actually fly – something I’d never seen before. I thought they were birds until I pondered the fact that they’d flown into a wave and not emerged again. There was also a good view of the Bridgetown pier and Careenage as we docked at the end of the day.

It was an 8 a.m.-3 p.m. adventure that I will remember fondly. Perhaps I’ll quit my job and become a part of their crew.

On any given Friday night, you’ll find Bajans and tourists alike gathered in the small town of Oistens at the traditional fish fry. There was a $10 shuttle to Oistens from the Bougainvillea Beach Resort that we booked to take us there.

There are stalls and stalls, one right after the other, offering up all manner of fish and chicken dishes caught fresh and grilled up for your tasting pleasure. Our driver recommended his buddy’s hut, but we had a coupon from our Best of Barbados deal that we had booked, so we had to go on the hunt for the one stall that took our coupon.

That stall happened to be called Angel’s, and it’s a good thing we got there early and sought it out first thing, because everyone else with coupons ended up standing in line all night.

Our coupon ended up allowing us to each chose $25 U.S. of food, which essentially equaled a plate with meat and a side, along with a drink. My boyfriend was brave to try the grilled blue marlin, and I, being less inclined to eat a fish with its head still attached, went with the barbeque chicken. Both of us enjoyed our meal, which is less than I can say for the British couple we befriended, who had followed the suggestion of our driver and found the food to be not-so-great.

After eating, we walked around to look at some of the vendors selling their wares, many of which were a little more aggressive in their sales pitch than I’d prefer. However, we did buy a pair of very cool bowls that were made from fish scales, and negotiated our way to a good deal, mostly because we think the salesman was quite fond of the marijuana he was smoking.

The night was an interesting look into the local flavor – both in food and in culture. I think it’d be a good opportunity for anyone visiting the island – just chose the right place to eat.