The Good and Bad of Barbados Buses

[hahnfld]

My girlfriend and I just got back from Barbados on the QM2. When I travel, I usually like to get out of the tourist areas, do something a bit adventurous, and use public transportation when it is available. I am always polite to people I meet, and usually get the same in return.

 

Barbados has three different kinds of buses. The first kind are large, blue with yellow stripes, and run by the Transport Board. They look like the buses you would see in any American city, and others on our cruise said they were an excellent way to travel. Despite some reviews to the contrary on cruisecritic, our cruisemates said it was no problem paying with US dollars. The transport board buses run on a schedule, and seem to run less frequently than the other types of buses.

 

The second type of bus are mini buses. They're yellow with a blue stripe, privately run, and are all over the roads surrounding Bridgetown. We took three of these buses on our trip, and they were excellent! The destination is clearly posted (we were going between bridgetown and speightstown), they play good music, and the conductors and drivers on our buses were friendly. They compete for business, so most have loud funky horns and try to lure people onto their buses from the side of the road.

 

The third kind of bus are "ZR Vans", which are normally white with a maroon stripe. These run smaller neighborhood routes, and are similar to the privately-run buses you might find on other Caribbean islands (ie. Grenada).

 

If you're in the cruise port and want to catch a northbound bus, all you need to do is exit the port, walk on the sidewalk a few blocks through a nice park towards the city, and keep an eye to your left. You'll see the main northbound bus terminal right across the street behind a couple of small beer stands.

 

All buses had posted rates, and were supposed to be $.75 US or $1.50 BDS per person, no matter what the destination.

 

Unfortunately, after a good experience catching a yellow/blue minibus from the Bridgetown Pricess Alice terminal to Speightstown, we told the driver that we wanted to go to the wildlife reserve. He said we should catch a different bus, and pointed to a maroon and white ZR van parked next to us at the terminal. We asked the driver of the ZR van if he was going to the wildlife reserve, and he said "yes". We got into the back of the van with about a dozen others, and headed in the direction of the wildlife reserve. After we left Speightstown, the conductor (who opens the door and collects money) started collecting money from others in the van. When I handed up my $2 US, he motioned for us not to give him any money yet. Strange, I thought...

 

Anyway, we drive around the country for about 20 minutes, dropping people off at various houses. We passed a number of signs pointing to the wildlife reserve, but never seemed to follow them. Finally, the last person was dropped off, and we were the only ones left in the van. The conductor came back to us and said that we would need to pay him an additional fee of $50 US. I responded quickly: "No, this is a ZR van, and the fare is $1.50 BDS". We got into a bit of an argument, with him demanding money and me refusing. Eventually, I told him to take us back to where he picked us up. He grabbed my $2, gave me back $1 BDS, and went back to the front of the van. Obviously, being the only ones in the van, and being tourists miles away from the city, we weren't really in a position to do much.

 

For the next 30 minutes or so, we circled around the same neighborhoods, picking people up to go back to Speightstown. Again, we passed signs for the wildlife reserve, but the driver did not take us there. Thankfully, we made it back to Speightstown, where my girlfriend and I got off the van and shared some "choice" words with the conductor. Shook up after the whole experience, we walked into town and got lunch.

 

In hindsight, I wish I had gotten the license plate number of the van. All I know is that it was called the "bling dawg", and had airpainted diamonds on the backs of the seats. Talking with other locals after the experience, we were told that we should have reported the driver, but in the heat of the moment we didn't really think to do so. I'm not sure whether the wildlife reserve was on the bus route or not, but we must have been fairly close based on the signage (I know we also passed the entrance to Animal Flower Cave at some point in the trip).

 

It's too bad that with such a convenient transportation system in Barbados, something like this would happen. Moral of the story -- if you're in Speightstown and thinking about taking a ZR van, make sure it isn't the "bling dawg".

 

Hey, looking at the bright side -- at least we got a tour of northern Barbados for only $.75 US a person.

[Aplmac]

Now why would aplmac keep recommending that you guys take a taxi?

-certainly to Wildlife Reserve ..which is in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

 

If you went past the entrance to Animal Flower Cave

you were miles away from Wildlife Reserve..

but like you said, at least you got the Northern tour in addition to the runaround..:D

 

 

Not all locals are Friendly Natives, OK?