IF YOU’RE after an exciting holiday with the kids, the sunshine isle of Barbados is hard to beat.
First, it’s easy to reach – there are direct flights from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham.
Second, the sun and sparkling Caribbean Sea come with plenty of outdoor adventure, heritage and culture. It can be snorkelling or surfing one day, 4x4 thrills, cave tours and historic sites the next.
With gorgeous resorts, beaches kids will love, fabulous food, fine rum, partying and dancing, Barbados knows how to have a good time – and offers affordable luxury.
‘Take story-packed tours
in the historic capital’
3 to see
Book your Barbados escape now at visitbarbados.org/uk
golden
getaway
beautiful barbados is
A great value luxury
break for families
In the centre of the island, Harrison’s Cave Eco-Adventure Park is a magical underground world of limestone crystals.
The cave is so big you can take a tram ride past the stalagmites and stalactites before tackling the zipline course outside.
If you’d prefer to be underwater rather than underground, El Tigre is among several companies offering snorkelling cruises. Its catamaran will take you to shipwrecks off the west coast as well as popular turtle hangouts.
To snorkel under your own steam, you can hire gear at the Folkestone Marine Park which is full of aquatic life.
Just float there with the kids as you all watch the shoals of colourful tropical fish glide over the shallow reefs, and fall in love with the hawksbill turtles.
Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, is filled with fascinating history. Story-packed walking tours head through the heart of the city, which is a Unesco world heritage site.
The sugar warehouses, Parliament Buildings and St Ann’s Fort transport visitors back in time to the height of the British Empire.
The Kensington Oval in Bridgetown is one of the world’s great cricket grounds. Daily guided tours take you around the home turf of star players like Sir Garfield Sobers (statue above), Desmond Haynes,
Joel Garner and the late, great Malcolm Marshall.
Discover the 17th-century plantation house at St Nicholas Abbey – in the grounds, you can visit a rum distillery and take a steam train ride.
The free-roaming green monkeys are the stars of the Barbados Wildlife Reserve – but you’ll also see parrots, macaws and iguanas. The reserve is in a mahogany wood in the north of the island, next to Farley Hill National Park.
Barbados has more than 80 beaches for the whole family to enjoy – with a variety of qualities and attractions to keep everyone happy.
On the west coast you’ll find white sand and calm seas, so the shores are nice and safe for little ones.
Near Bridgetown, Accra Beach has a shaded park and rockpools to explore. Add rentable sunbeds and parasols, plus snack shacks, and you have a firm family favourite for a day outdoors.
Miami Beach is especially fun for younger children, as a breakwater keeps the crystal-clear shallows ultra gentle.
‘Enjoy spotting the odd monkey or mongoose’
Brilliant beaches
Waves of happiness …
from surf central
to child-safe there’s a stretch
of sand for all
Pebbles Beach, just to the south of the capital, is watersports central. Kayaks, paddleboards and surfboards are available from the Barbados Cruising Club.
In the south and east, the coast offers something very different. In the south, Crane Beach offers a real spectacle: pink-tinged sands and waving coconut trees backed by towering 80ft cliffs.
Meanwhile, the barrelling Atlantic waves make Bathsheba Beach on the east coast one of the world’s great surf spots.
Eleven Oh Seven puts a Caribbean twist on vegan food, while Dipper’s Beach Bar keeps it casual with a cocktail or two.
The classic Barbados food experience, however, is the Oistins Fish Fry. Every Friday and Saturday night, Oistins Bay Gardens on the south coast becomes party central.
Between tucking into the fish – including tuna, swordfish and marlin – and browsing the craft stalls, visitors dance to the booming reggae and calypso music. It’s a chance to wear your loudest shirt and show off your moves.
‘Wear your loudest shirt and show off your moves’
The taste of the tropics extends to the dinner plate in Barbados. It’s an island where visitors eat very well.
The Tides at Holetown on the west coast is a great example, with a glorious open-air terrace and excellent Asian-inspired seafood.
For setting, it’s not easy to beat Champers overlooking Accra Beach. It offers indulgent fine dining with feast-sized portions of oven-roasted barracuda and spice-rubbed pork tenderloin.
Around Bridgetown, you’re spoilt for choice for beachside banquets along Carlisle Bay.
Good fry day … Oistins is the
place to party
at weekends
Fish fries and feasts
One stop is Gun Hill, an old colonial outpost where there’s a lion statue carved from coral limestone by British troops in 1868.
If you prefer two wheels, hire from eBike Island Adventures to discover the interior along roads lined with casuarina trees.
Tours head along the soaring Hackleton’s Cliff escarpment, which offers views of the island’s entire east coast. Nearby is Cotton Tower, a former colonial signal station.
Barbados also has several fantastic hiking routes. The four-and-a-half mile Bathsheba Coastal Walk celebrates the seascape, while the trails of Turner’s Hall Wood are all about the tropical forest.
‘The fantastic Bathsheba trail celebrates the seascape’
The waves at Bathsheba are best left to more experienced surfers, but around the island there are schools that teach beginners the basics.
Ride the Tide at Freights Bay and Barry’s Surf School in Dover aim to have you catching a wave by the end of the first lesson.
On the east coast, adventures come on horseback. Ocean Echo Stables offers easygoing rides through the tropical bushland that emerge on to Bath Beach. Wildlife lovers will enjoy spotting the odd monkey or mongoose along the way.
Away from the shore, Island Safari runs 4x4 expeditions over dramatic terrain, to a series of lookouts with glorious views and a brace of rock formations.
So much to sea … diving, surfing
and shoreline horse rides are part of the fun
Surfboards, saddles and sensational sights
Cocktail-making experiences are also available, at the distillery itself and at the visitor centre in Bridgetown.
The rum keeps flowing during the island’s many festivals – October’s Food and Rum Festival, for example, mixes music with cocktails.
The Crop Over festival once marked the end of the sugarcane harvest in the 18th century, but it’s now a carnival-like event, from June to the first Monday in August, demonstrating Barbadian culture.
Calypso and soca music, and local arts and crafts stalls make up the heady mix that is Crop Over. It ends with Grand Kadoomeent, a parade of bands and revellers in colourful costumes adorned with sequins and feathers.
‘Calypso and a colourful
parade are a heady mix’
A lot of the dancing at Oistins is accompanied by rum punch. It’s the cocktail you’ll always find in the beach bars, too, and it’s almost irresistible after a day in the sun.
Barbados bills itself as the birthplace of rum and the Mount Gay distillery, in operation since 1703, is the oldest in the world.
Set on a hilltop in the north of the island, the distillery offers views out over fields of sugarcane.
Tours take in the centuries-old buildings and end with tasting sessions that reveal how ageing in barrels helps create distinct flavours.
Vat’s the spirit … sampling the island’s signature drink in the distillery at St Nicholas Abbey
Rum with a view
Below you away … the crystal wonder
of Harrison’s Cave
always amazes
Cave new world
1
2
3
Book your Barbados escape now at visitbarbados.org/uk
The Kensington Oval in Bridgetown is one of the world’s great cricket grounds. Daily guided tours take you around the home turf of star players like Sir Gareth Sobers (above), Desmond Haynes, Joel Garner and the late, great Malcolm Marshall.
Discover the 17th-century plantation house at St Nicholas Abbey – in the grounds, you can visit a rum distillery and take a steam train ride.
The free-roaming green monkeys are the stars of the Barbados Wildlife Reserve – but you’ll also see parrots, macaws and iguanas. The reserve is in a mahogany wood in the north of the island, next to Farley Hill National Park.
3 to see
Just float there with the kids as you all watch the shoals of colourful tropical fish glide over the shallow reefs and fall in love with the hawksbill turtles.
Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, is filled with fascinating history. Story-packed walking tours head through the heart of the city, which is a Unesco world heritage site.
The sugar warehouses, Parliament Buildings and St Ann’s Fort transport visitors back in time to the height of the British Empire.
‘Take story-packed tours
in the historic capital’
In the centre of the island, Harrison’s Cave Eco-Adventure Park is a magical underground world of limestone crystals.
The cave is so big you can take a tram ride past the stalagmites and stalactites before tackling the zipline course outside.
If you’d prefer to be underwater rather than underground, El Tigre is among several companies offering snorkelling cruises. Its catamaran will take you to shipwrecks off the west coast as well as popular turtle hangouts.
To snorkel under your own steam, you can hire gear at the Folkestone Marine Park which is full of aquatic life.
IF YOU’RE after an exciting holiday with the kids, the sunshine isle of Barbados is hard to beat.
First, it’s easy to reach – there are direct flights from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham.
Second, the sun and sparkling Caribbean Sea come with plenty of outdoor adventure, heritage and culture. It can be snorkelling or surfing one day, 4x4 thrills, cave tours and historic sites the next.
With gorgeous resorts, beaches kids will love, fabulous food, fine rum, partying and dancing, Barbados knows how to have a good time – and offers affordable luxury.
beautiful barbados is
A great value luxury
break for families
golden
getaway