I have recently returned from a trip to beautiful Barbados, it’s such a special island which I have been fortunate to visit a number of times. I know the island well but that doesn’t mean there isn’t always something new to discover as well as visiting some of my old favourites. For this post, I am sharing my Barbados Travel Diary linking to what I saw and did on this latest visit.
This time in Barbados was a little bit different as I was recovering from a broken ankle. This meant I still had limited mobility in my ankle and was struggling to get my heel onto the floor so was using a mixture of crutches, a knee scooter and even a wheelchair sometimes. This meant I had to plan ahead as to what places would be accessible for me to get into and unfortunately meant some of our favourites had to be missed this year but fingers crossed I will be back soon when I am fully recovered!
RELATED POST: Barbados Travel Guide
Flying to Barbados
For the first time, we flew with Aer Lingus who have a new route from Manchester to Barbados. I had assistance at both airports and the crew were amazing. The outward journey was great. Coming home wasn’t quite as good, there were no headphones and my reading light didn’t work! They are worth considering if the price is right, you do have to pay for alcohol but other than that they were very similar to Virgin who we usually fly to Barbados with.
Barbados Accommodation
We love to stay on the South Coast when visiting Barbados which is where all the action happens! We enjoy visiting the West Coast too which is where many of the high-end hotels and restaurants are located but there feels like there’s more happening in the south. Our hotel was South Beach which offers a studio with some kitchen facilities. The open plan was so helpful for me as I was manoeuvring around. Over the road is Accra Beach Hotel which is where my mum stayed on this trip (she got married there) and this is another great hotel if you want a beachfront location – Both hotels have fabulous happy hours!
Barbados Restaurants
There is no shortage of good food in Barbados and there really is something for every budget. On this trip, we visited 3 high-end restaurants on the West Coast which were The Fish Pot (north of Speightstown), Paul Owens at The Beach House and The Tides. We had amazing meals at all of these and would highly recommend visiting them all if you can. Over on the East Coast at Bathsheba, we went to Round House which had delicious food and great views but it was a little bit slow to get our food.
Back down on the South Coast, there are so many great places to eat, especially over at St Lawrence Gap. On this trip, I didn’t go to The Gap because I don’t think any of them would have been very accessible but I did go to 2 fabulous restaurants near the hotel which were Champers and Tapas. These both had excellent food, great service & lovely views during the daytime. Other restaurants we enjoyed were Salt and Naru plus our favourite Just Grillin’ which on this occasion we had takeaways and took it up to the toom but you can eat in too. Their catch of the day sandwiches with a side of macaroni pie and Caesar salad are the best! For drinks, we enjoyed happy hour at our hotel as well as over at Accra Beach. My favourite cocktail is a rum punch which is an island favourite. Baby Doll on the boardwalk also does great cocktails with a fabulous sea view.
Exploring the Island
This is the first time we hired a car to explore the island as it gave me chance to get out & about. The hotel coordinated this for us and we had a lovely little car to drive. We didn’t have phone data so did have to use a physical map and many of the roads aren’t marked but we still found it ok to follow road signs!
We had the car for a couple of days. On the first day, we went towards the West Coast, stopping at various beach stops on the way and Rihanna Drive which is where Rihanna lived as a child. We went for lunch at The Fish Pot before continuing to North Point. Here you can visit the Animal Flower Cave but we didn’t on this occasion as they weren’t accessible but did take some nice photos and it was nice to see a different part of the island.
On the second day, we headed east and some of the “main” roads were almost like off-roading at times! It was a great experience and we arrived at Bathseba where there are a few places to stop. On this occasion, there was lots of sargassum seaweed around which isn’t ideal but that’s mother nature for you! We had lunch at The Round House and then carried on driving. My map skills weren’t as good and we ended up going in the wrong direction but it was fine and that’s part of the fun of exploring!
Barbados Travel Diary
Although this trip was a little bit hindered by my injury and I didn’t get to as many places as I would have liked, I still had a brilliant time. I even managed a day at the cricket to see England playing the West Indies on their tour of the Caribbean islands. In Barbados, they play at the Kensington Oval and watching cricket there is something I have always wanted to do.
Everyone was friendly and extra helpful when I was on my little scooter, especially the taxi drivers who were happy to take us on at times, extra short journeys. If you’re considering a trip to visit Barbados then I would say go for it! It’s one of my favourite places thanks to the weather, the people and the food!
Find out more at Visit Barbados
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