Barbados: Our Trip Itinerary 🇧🇧

We have spent two full days in Barbados. We have arrived on an evening, spent the next two days on the island and left in the morning on our last day. I wish we could have stayed longer, but this was part of our two weeks Caribbean island hopping trip and two days was the only time we can spare. I would like to return in the future and definitely spend more time.

I know most people who visit Barbados, do so on a cruise, and spend only one day on the island. In that aspect, our two days trip was actually longer than how long most travelers spend on this island. Though I still envy people who is either retired or working remotely so they can stay longer.

Let us start from the beginning. Why did we pick Barbados as one of our hops in our Caribbean island hopping trip? I will probably have a separate post on this whole island hopping trip, but in short, I specifically wanted to visit Southern Caribbean. The reason being I wanted to go to the islands that I haven't been before, and islands that are much different than the islands I have been so far. At this point, I have already been to Puerto Rico and the Bahamas in the Caribbean, so I start looking into Southern Caribbean to have a different experience. The other reason is that I wanted to be able to fly or ferry in between the islands I will be visiting. Barbados, Saint Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago all seem to fit in this requirement. One more reason was that we were traveling in late November and we did not want our trip to get impacted from hurricanes. Anyways, all these little things shaped our decision to pick Southern Caribbean islands as our destination.

We picked Barbados as one of our stops. We allocated two full days to explore this beautiful island.

Carlisle Bay, Barbados

Day Zero

We flew from Tobago to Barbados with a stop over at Port of Spain, Trinidad. It was already dark when we landed. We headed to our AirBnB with our rental car. Our first challenge was the driving itself. Up until this trip, neither one of us drove on a left hand traffic. Right before this trip, we were at Tobago and my partner drove the rental car there which also has the left hand side driving. So he had some experience. He volunteered to be our chauffeur for the Barbados trip as well. I don't think I remember any other country with as many roundabouts as Barbados. On a right hand traffic, it could have not bothered. But, us being already confused with the traffic flow, and it being dark, every time we hit a roundabout, we both had to loudly say "keep to the left" so we prevent what could have been a silly mistake on a right hand traffic. Anyways, at some point roundabouts were over, when we hit to the inner roads in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Our second challenge of the evening was to finding our AirBnB. Luckily I did my homework ahead but you could never be sure. Before the trip, I noticed the Google directions I get based on AirBnB address was actually wrong. I kept playing with the house number and the Maps keep pointing to the same location. I later realized this happens when you enter an address that does not exists on Maps, it simply gives you an approximation. Let's say you entered "Rose Street No:10", but there is no such street recorded on Maps. So, it will point you to "Rose Road" in the same town, which can be completely different location.

I asked for verbal directions from our host before the trip. I followed our host's verbal directions on Maps satellite view and was able to match some third house on the right on an unnamed road on Maps to their verbal directions. Until that night, I wasn't sure if it is going to work, but it worked. We found the place. The only problem was that the house was actually a 4-unit building. So I did not know what door to knock. I had trouble calling our host with my phone for another 5-10 minutes. At the end I was able to send a text message and we got into our lovely unit in Bridgetown. Our unit was lovely, but don't get me wrong, it was not an ocean-view condo on the beach. It was on a residential area in Bridgetown which I liked because you can see locals walking on the street. I probably picked one of the most affordable AirBnBs in Bridgetown and I do not regret. Given that it is a beautiful island, I do not see a reason to spend lot of time inside the building. Both days we were in Barbados, we left early in the morning, and we came to bed only to sleep. So I am glad we picked our AirBnB based on affordability.

Day One

We spent the morning in Bridgetown downtown. There are several historical buildings or monuments to explore. Parliament Buildings, National Heroes Square, Chamberlain Bridge, and Independence Arch are to name a few. All of these landmarks are walking distance from each other. We also stopped by one of the bakeries and got local pastries and coffee.

Parliament Buildings, Bridgetown

After exploring the downtown, we went to Carlisle Bay. I was stunned with the beach and the water. This beach was 15 minutes walk from the downtown. I was not expecting a clean white sand beach with blue waters. Having seen many highly accessible beaches in other countries, I always thought the more easily accessible a beach is the less pretty or clean it is. This beach proved me wrong. Now after seeing this beach, it made sense for cruise passenger to spend their whole day on this beautiful beach.

Carlisle Bay, Barbados

Of course no matter how relaxing or extraordinary the place I am at, I always on the look for seeing new places. So, for us that meant we will explore the other beaches around the island.

In the afternoon, we headed to south. Our first stop was Dover Beach and the second stop was Rockley Beach. Then we followed the famous boardwalk and watched the sun setting over Caribbean. This day was our get the most of the beach day. We enjoyed the white sand beaches, the sun, the warm water and the waves.

Day Two

The second day we got up early as we plan to drive around the island. Our first two stops were to some secluded beaches on the south east: Crane Beach and Bottom Bay. If you are willing to drive, both of these beaches are a must-visit in Barbados as they are completely away from the crowds. At Crane Beach, we were literally the first people arrived on the beach. A handful of people showed up by the time we were leaving but not enough to disturb our privacy. Compared to previous day's beaches, the water was rougher but the environment was more peaceful.

Bottom Bay, Barbados

Our next stop was BathshebaBeach on the east coast. This beach is not ideal for swimming but it presents great opportunities for photographers. I am not a skilled photographer but was able to get some dramatic shots of Atlantic Ocean with my phone with minimal effort, thanks to the nature.

Bathsheba Beach and Atlantic Ocean, Barbados

After Bathsheba beach, we headed to Barbados Wildlife Reserve. We like animals and when we get a chance to see animals in their natural habitat or at least without cages, we would like to take advantage. This wildlife reserve is home to many animals including green monkeys, tortoises, crocodiles, parrots, deers, iguanas, snakes and the mara. What we enjoyed the most was observing the animals during their feeding time. If you have kids this is the number one attraction in Barbados beside beaches.

Animals in harmony, Barbados Wildlife Preserve

We ended our day at Mullins Beach on the west coast of the island, which is perfect for catching the sunset.

On our third and last day, we did not have time for anything else but to return the rental car and catch our next flight to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Please see my Saint Vincent post about our next adventure.

Next Time

Next time I visit Barbados, these places will be on my list:

• Animal Flower Cave: Natural rock pools at the north tip of the island
• Harrison's Cave: Underground cave stream system
• Mount Gay Rum: Rum tasting close to Bridgetown
• St. Nicholas Abbey: Distillery and historic plantation
• Sunbury Plantation House: Historic plantation

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and got some tips where to visit in Barbados.

[End notes: Traveled in 2019 and posted in 2020.]