A Taste of Barbados: The Best of the Best

Welcome to Barbados, home of the world’s oldest rum.

As you guessed, our next port on our Southern Caribbean Cruise was Barbados.  And even though we didn’t get to taste this infamous rum (unfortunately), we did get a great tour of the entire island.  The company we went with made many different stops; some beaches, an old church, through the city streets to see how the local people live, and into the country to see the cattle farm (say what?!)

Unfortunately, I do remember the exact route our tour took us on, so I will do my best!  Bare with me!  It’s hard to remember travels from a few years ago before I started truly documenting them!  If all else fails, hopefully you enjoy the photos!

We began our journey in Bridgetown, the Capitol City of Barbados.  During our drive around the island, our tour guide informed us that Barbados is actually quite different than many of the Caribbean islands.  Most islands are formed by past volcanos, with huge jagged peaks, while Barbados has developed from rising coral deposits, maintaining a much more flat profile.  Unlike most of the other islands, Barbados even has open grassland across the island, which was evident during our island tour.

The van continued to drive north? until we reached the Highland Adventure Centre scenic lookout.  At more than 1000 feet above sea level, we were provided with great views of a large portion of the Barbados coastline.  We took advantage of this quiet rest stop, with picnic benches and a spoiled little monkey eating some local fruit.  The lookout was beautiful- be sure to have your camera charged, obviously!  So  lush and so green! So beautiful!

We passed the Andrew’s Sugar Factory near Bathsheba.  I would have loved to get my hands on some of that sugar, being that it is produces some of the highest quality sugar in the world!

The tour also stopped at St. James Parish Church in you guessed it, St. James, which is one of Barbados’ truly wonderful historic buildings.  Being the island’s first church (originally constructed in the 1600’s), it gives visitors a glimpse into Barbados’ rich history.  Although the church has been renovated several times (due to destruction by a hurricane in the late 1700’s), the original church bell can still be seen here.  It’s crazy that St. James Parish church still holds regular services for those on the island.

We passed some cows grazing in the country.  Actually a lot of cows.  A ton of them.

And stopped by a collection of shells and brain coral.  Which by the way, we got yelled at for taking pictures of.

Then we got to the beach, finally!  Not just one beach, but a quite a few!  We finally decided to spend the rest of our time on Coconut Court Beach on the south coast of the island for some much needed relaxation.