grenada help

[sistermidnight835]

hi all,

cruising grenada in just a week or so, want to explore the island on our own , looking to get to the Water falls , the sulphur pond etc. any suggetions? should we rent a car get a guide? we are into swimming & snorkling, is this an easy island to drive? we are on the island from 12-7pm on sunday.

 

thanx

[NoNoNanette]

hi all,

cruising grenada in just a week or so, want to explore the island on our own , looking to get to the Water falls , the sulphur pond etc. any suggetions? should we rent a car get a guide? we are into swimming & snorkling, is this an easy island to drive? we are on the island from 12-7pm on sunday.

 

thanx

 

We just had a BLAST in Grenada with a guide by the name of Bentley Skeete! The guy was out of this world. We originally had planned to spend the day at La Sagesse....much to our delight, he gave us quite more than we expected. :)

 

He can be reached at:

 

insightplanning@spiceisle.com

 

I highly recommend Bentley. Here's an excerpt from my AMSTERDAM travel journal. (Link in sig, as well as SNAPFISH link for photos):

 

*Sunday, December 16- GRENADA

 

 

Spent the day with Bentley Skeete from Insight Travel.

 

 

This was one of our best excursions EVER. It was truly the perfect day.

 

 

We awoke to a bit of rain, which produced a gorgeous rainbow. This was a sign of things to come on this lovely island!

 

 

We had breakfast delivered to our room, packed up the beach stuff, and met up with Cindy and Fred. The four of us ventured into the relatively new (4 years old) terminal and waited for “our driver”.

 

 

We were immediately surrounded by guys trying to sell us tours. When I mentioned that we were waiting for Bentley Skeete, they smiled, nodded their heads and backed off.

 

 

As we learned throughout the day, this guy knows everyone on the island. He's the “Go To Guy” for anything. During the course of our day, his Blackberry was ringing constantly. Hotel reservations, airport pick ups and drop offs, tour planning, diving excursions, group arrangements etc.

 

 

Bentley showed up a few minutes later. From our many email exchanges, I knew the man to be both friendly and articulate. He's all that and more. It turns out that he was born in Barbados, then served many years in the British Royal Air Force. Now he runs this destination planning agency.

 

 

He put us in a cab along with a cooler full of beer and ice and promised to catch up with us very soon.

 

 

Our cab driver gave us a wild ½ hour ride to LaSagesse Beach.

 

 

Upon our arrival, the four of us gasped. We knew that our research had paid off. We picked a winner of a beach!

 

 

We basically had the whole place to ourselves. Palm trees, almond trees, mountains, and waves. The place looked like something out of a post card.

 

 

Bentley showed up about an hour later and the guys swapped stories of serving in the military. (Army, Marines and Royal Airforce). We learned the history of the island, the circumstances of the '83 invasion, executions, coups, everything there was to know of the island.

 

 

We had brought along a king-size beach sheet, so the 5 of us just stretched out and had a relaxing day.

 

 

We repeatedly heard the phrase, “God Bless America. God Bless Your Wonderful President Reagen”. What a warm feeling to be loved by another people!

 

 

Originally our driver had taken us pretty much in an Eastern direction to LaSagesse.

 

 

When we were ready to leave, Bentley drove us South and around to St. Georges. Passing the rum distillery, we drove through the island's premier “gated community”, overlooking Westerfall Bay. Million dollar homes with landscaping to die for! Incredible views. Quite the neighborhood!

 

 

We then ventured along the Southern Coast through the Marian area and up to a hilltop overlooking Morne Rouge Beach. Snapped a few photos, then spent about an hour at the Grenada Grand Beach Resort (soon to be a Crowne Plaza property).

 

 

This is where Bentley's office is located.

 

 

Nice, nice 4-star (soon to be 5, I think) resort sitting directly on Grand Anse Beach.

 

 

He took us to the waterfalled (is that a word??) pool where he bought us his favorite drink- Mount Gay Rum (from his area of Barbados) and Coke.

 

 

I'll tell you what, gang- Dom and I are considering having Bentley set up a week at this place. 300 foot swimming pool, waterfalls, swim up bar, all sitting next to Grand Anse. Wow!

 

 

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to our new, yet dear, friend. He dropped us off at our ship with hugs and kisses.

 

 

I wouldn't HESITATE to contact this guy for anything. insightplanning@spiceisle.com If we don't plan a land-based vacation, we'll definitely visit him on another cruise stop.

[EXPO FAN]

Do you remember the price of your day with him? I am interrested in that kind of day tour. Thanks

[xke_uk]

Hi

We have just been quoted by Bentley $25 per hour.

 

Regards

 

[denboy]

Hi

We have just been quoted by Bentley $25 per hour.

 

Regards

 

 

 

mmm expensive

[EileenN]

$25. per hour for four or per person?

[NoNoNanette]

Bentley charged the FOUR of us a TOTAL of $60 :)

[denboy]

Bentley charged the FOUR of us a TOTAL of $60 :)

 

So yes does charge more.

[islandgrandma]

:( Hi there- we were just in Grenada a week ago. We rented a car in Barbados and in Curacao but we were oh so thankful we had not done that in Grenada- the roads are just extremely narrow and hair-pin turns and just not something easy to do. We live in the islands and are accustomed to potholes and animals in the roads but Grenada wins the prize for raods that are narrow! We did A&E tours and that was fine. Hope this helps-

[NoNoNanette]

So yes does charge more.

 

More than WHAT? :confused:

[del88]

Hi.

 

I've read your cruise review and it sounds like you had a terrific cruise. We're cruising in a couple weeks (Celebrity) and are visiting some of the same islands as you did.

 

Based on your info, I've actually sent an email to Spencer regarding a St Lucia tour to Jalousie for our group of 10.

 

If you don't mind could you please answer a couple of questions about some of the other places for me?

 

Grenada....did LaSagesse have any facilities? (restrooms? food?) Could you snorkel from shore here?

 

Barbados....did you have to swim out far at Brandon's Beach in order to snorkel? I've read that you could actually walk to Brandon's (skipping the taxi chaos)...do you think it's too far?

 

 

Thanks so much for any additional info you can provide.

Diane.:)

[NoNoNanette]

Hi.

 

I've read your cruise review and it sounds like you had a terrific cruise. We're cruising in a couple weeks (Celebrity) and are visiting some of the same islands as you did.

 

Based on your info, I've actually sent an email to Spencer regarding a St Lucia tour to Jalousie for our group of 10.

 

If you don't mind could you please answer a couple of questions about some of the other places for me?

 

Grenada....did LaSagesse have any facilities? (restrooms? food?) Could you snorkel from shore here?

 

Barbados....did you have to swim out far at Brandon's Beach in order to snorkel? I've read that you could actually walk to Brandon's (skipping the taxi chaos)...do you think it's too far?

 

 

Thanks so much for any additional info you can provide.

Diane.:)

 

Hi Diane. :)

 

LaSagesse was really neat. It was a very SMALL "resort". I want to say they only had like 12 rooms. We were told that we could have the run of the place, but Dom and I chose not to.

 

The couple that we were beaching with had lunch at their restaurant.

 

There was a father and son there with "boogie boards" who told us that they had a rental area.

 

There is NO snorkeling at LaSagesse. SERIOUS wave action! (Which I adore.... spent a few hours body-surfing without boards) ;) At this point, let me say that I'm a "beach snob". If you're looking for typical Caribbean crystal clear water, this ain't the place. Alot of waves and little visibility. It's a very small beach, but we had a BLAST. We wanted to get away from the "tourists", and found this to be heavenly. (The drive there was a HOOT...white knuckle!) :) If you're not into waves, I'd suggest fighting the crowds at Grand Anse....looked very pretty.

 

Barbados: We also had been told that we could walk there. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! The roads were a madhouse. It was cheap to get there, although difficult to get into one of the thousand cabs waiting at the port. *grinning*

 

Snorkeling there was NOT FAR at all, kiddo! It was GREAT. If you were to walk out from the lifeguard tower, you'll see the coral. As you got deeper, the coral would drop off into 20+ft ledges. Great stuff!

 

Finally.... Snorkeling at Jalousie is going to KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF.

 

Have a blast. Hope this was of some help to you. :D

[NoNoNanette]

Diane:

 

Forgot to mention something.... if a resort on Grand Anse is more to your liking, Bentley should be able to arrange for you and your gang to use the pool at his resort..... it's right on the beach. (see pics) :)

[del88]

Thanks so much for the info Nanette! :)

[CarolRick]

Diane:

 

Forgot to mention something.... if a resort on Grand Anse is more to your liking, Bentley should be able to arrange for you and your gang to use the pool at his resort..... it's right on the beach. (see pics) :)

 

We were quoted $180 for four of us by Bentley. Not sure what this includes so will try to get more details....

[Perky1]

Me too, he quoted me $180 for 4 persons for 4 hours. Maybe I will rethink this.

[MMDown Under]

We are considering a cruise, which will visit St John's Antigua on 28th November, from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.

 

What would you recommend an independent retired couple do during such a brief visit, to receive a taste of Antigua?

 

We appeciate your comments re Grenada, as we often hire cars.

[jillybabes]

We are considering a cruise, which will visit St John's Antigua on 28th November, from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.

 

What would you recommend an independent retired couple do during such a brief visit, to receive a taste of Antigua?

 

We appeciate your comments re Grenada, as we often hire cars.

 

 

We were in Antigua this past November & did the Lawrence of Antigua tour...

Here is the website www.lawrenceofantigua.com ... It was and he was one of the best tours/tour guides we had @ only 40 pp plus the fee to enter the national park...Later, Jill:cool:

[MMDown Under]

Thanks so much for recommendation and link, Jill. I have saved it to my favourites.

[Perky1]

Bentley Skeete - we just returned from Grenada and has a tour booked with Bentley for 8 of us. We were quoted $45pp but if we got 10 people he would take $90 off. We only wanted the 8 of us but when Bentley picked us up he wanted to add 4 more people to our tour and I told him that I would prefer the private tour we thought we had booked so he assigned them to another driver. We didn't have Bentley either.. he had Desmond take us. Desmond was an excellent driver and tour guide. He is very knowledgeable about his Grenada and speaks English very well. I thought (Based on Naneete's review) that beer, water etc. would be included. His tour didn't include anything except the tour. Because of the misunderstanding about the refreshments when we returned to pay him he only charged us $35. I suggest that if anyone books they make sure they have all they want included in the emails. It was a good tour but even at $35pp I think was a bit high because it included no drinks and it was only a 4 hour tour. Desmond was excellent and stopped at roadside store when we needed a drink.