Share Your Experience, Please!

[hensghan]

When you're only in Barbados for 9 hours (8 AM to 5 PM on a Saturday) what is the one island excursion that a first time visitor should absolutely not miss? I realize this is a very general question but, when you haven't yet been to a place, you have to start gathering information somewhere. So ... if you're one of those folks who've 'been there and done that', please share your recommendations. Thank you. We are an active couple in our mid 60's and 50's.

[Lsimon]

I think it really depends on where your interests lie. We're not all that much into sightseeing on most of the islands. We love seeing the beautiful shoreline, sailing, swimming and snorkeling. Because of we'd much prefer water activities then a land tour on the island. If you feel the same as us then read on, if not then I'm sure someone else can recommend a driver who can show you the sights of the island.

 

Barbados has a couple of excursion operators that run catamaran day sails that are a cut above what we've experienced on other islands as far as the quality of the boats, service, and food & drink. They offer outstanding day sails which include swimming with sea turtles and snorkeling but unlike some tours which make the same stops these are as much, or more, about the overall day sail experiance than just those stops. They offer a relaxed laid back atmousphere that is a bit more upscale than other day sail excursions we've been on and do it on very comfortable boats which are not at all crowded.

 

We've been to Barbados about 8 times on cruise stops over the years and were not thrilled with the island until we discovered Silver Moon who is one of these operators. You can google them and find their web site. If you search through this forum you'll find many reviews of them along with other operators. Another one I've heard good things about is Calabaza, but we have no desire to try someone other than Silver Moon since we enjoy it so much. We've sailed with Silver Moon 6 times and have our seventh trip with them booked for 2012. I have lots of photos of out trips, many with short reviews, on our photo site. Just click on one of the links to see them:

February 2007

March 2007

March 2008

March 2009 - Not in separate gallery so look at captions

March 2010

March 2011

[cruiseapril]

If you are seeking a relaxing beach day- some of the resorts on Carlisle Bay are good. Boatyard, Hilton etc.

[cruisinnewfy]

We hired a taxi for an all day tour. It was about $180 U.S. for about 6 hours for the two of us. We went to the orchids, a distillery, stopped for flying fish lunch, went to the north shore off the Atlantic and then stopped at a beach before going back to the ship. We went inland into mountains, I think it is called Cherry Hill where you can see half the island. I mapped out the most efficient route on Google maps and gave it to the driver and asked if we could cover it in 6-7 hours. He said if we wanted beach time we could not do it all.