Working Together in Prosperity

Article by Ross Pays

Well that’s not strictly true there were a few less than perfect moments – but let’s start at the beginning. Living in Cyprus one of the biggest worries for British Expats is the exchange rate to the € so when one day we were channel hopping and came across a Sky ‘advertorial’ - £1399 each for a   7 day all inclusive stay in Barbados and a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean, including flights from the UK, that translated as just about €1500 each and suddenly the exchange rate was in our favour!

It seemed even more of a bargain when a reasonable local hotel wants € 1-150 a night for two people bed and breakfast in a sea view room and a local seven day cruise will cost €8-900 per person for an outside cabin. Of course there is the extra expense of flying to the UK but if, like us, you want to stop over there anyway to visit relatives, then that is not an extra cost.

In the end it wasn’t through Sky we booked but direct with Virgin Cruises, http://www.virgin-cruises.com/ is the main website if you want to look at the offers available. Once you have an idea when and where you want to go, the best idea is to call the Virgin office and talk to one of their representatives who will guide you through the options that are available.  So we did!

A few weeks later having made the family visits in UK, we were off to Gatwick for our Virgin Atlantic flight to Bridgetown Barbados, because of the time difference a very civilised 10.30 am departure gets you to Barbados, after an 8 hour flight, at around 3.30 in the afternoon local time and an equally civilised 6.30 pm return flight gets you back to London at 6.30 am which is great if like us you can sleep happily on a plane. If you can afford the upgrade to Premium Economy (pretty much business class on other airlines) it makes the flight much more comfortable but Virgin give a more generous personal space in economy anyway, in our opinion definitely not worth the huge increase to travel “upper class” on an 8 hour flight there is hardly time to take advantage of chance to change into the provided pyjamas and lay on the almost flat seats –especially if you want to have the meal. Very good service and food in all classes though.

Another non advantage is the new Virgin ‘Vroom’ lounge, entry included in Premium economy or you can pay extra if travelling economy. Very cafeteria like without the ambience and calm of a business lounge and apart from basic refreshments most food and drink still have to be paid for – actually there is better value in the normal airport outlets. On the return flight from Barbados the lounge is only available to Upper Class passengers or again you can pay for entry into what is a very basic lounge.

As part of the package, transport is included to your hotel by air-conditioned coach, but be aware that there are no baggage trolleys at Bridgetown airport and porter service will cost 1 US$ per bag. Our greeting courier was very helpful although it must be said the bus was a bit past its sell by date! We did wonder if it was going to make it up some of the hills and the driver seemed to want to preserve us by keeping the air conditioner up so high we had to put on the overcoats we had carried from London. Weather is Barbados is of course sub tropical between 20 and 30 deg C 24/7 and 365 days a year but there is a variable rainfall and a hurricane season so June to October is not to be recommended! The day we arrived it was raining hard and the combination of that and the artic temperature in the bus did dampen our spirits a little.

The bus wheezed its way through the sugar cane fields and the outskirts of Bridgetown, which were more down at heel and shanty town than we expected, and we arrived at the Escape Spa Hotel in the Prospect St James district just a few kilometres from Bridgetown. By then it was early evening the skies had cleared and the terrace of the hotel faced a magnificent sunset a glorious blue sea dappled with the last rays of the setting sun and framed by the coconut trees along the beach the first of many Rum Punches to come in the next week was the final touch – we were in Barbados and our dampened spirits soared.

The hotel is having a full refurbishment this summer and all the rooms will be brought up to standard but unfortunately at this time, the first room we were shown to was small without a balcony and facing the road – to the credit of the hotel however a call to reception had us transferred very quickly to a sea view room of much better standard and the next day the Virgin representative had us transferred again to a room of good international standard, a lesson there to remember when travelling –a reasonable polite complaint will nearly always get results, there is no point complaining when you get back home if your holiday has already been spoiled.

The main hotel is right on the beach, some water sports including Hobie Cats are available free as are beach sun loungers and a really nice touch is that when taking the sun every hour or so one of the waiters comes along with complementary fruit juice or water. Pay by use internet, free garden chess, table tennis and a children’s playroom are also available.  There is a spa section just across the road with a separate pool and restaurant and of course a health spa with beauty salon.

A new experience for us though was that this is an all inclusive hotel, as well as the included facilities already mentioned all food and drinks are included, a full breakfast, buffet lunch and a four course table d’hote dinner – even afternoon tea! Hot drinks, cold drinks and alcoholic drinks (including cocktails branded imported drinks and even champagne) are freely available from 8am until 2am. It all makes your holiday spending money go a lot further and actually at € 1500 per person including the flights it is good value for money even without considering that there is a seven day cruise still to come! More about that later.

So what’s to do in Barbados? Laying on a sun kissed tropical beach in the shade of a coconut tree sipping a Rum Punch or a Banana Daiquiri  has to be pretty high on a lot of visitors agenda (but do be careful of falling coconuts! They say 150 people a year are killed by them and Keith Richard will tell you that climbing them is not recommended! ). There is a lot more to Barbados than sun bathing opportunities though. It is certainly worth hiring a car at least for a few days at 50 US$ a day two people soon save on the deal compared to taking a few of the tours – being an ex British colony they drive on the left all the signs are in English and best of all Barbadian drivers are polite drivers and seem very non aggressive as well as being tolerant of lost tourists. Not that it is easy to get lost the island is only just over 30km long  and 16km wide at the most so it is easy to drive all round in a day – and if you do get lost just go in one direction and normally within 15 minutes but at worst and hour go will come to the sea!

Barbados is a coral island, pushed out of sea by volcanic eons ago. On west coast which faces the Caribbean there are coral shore beaches of fine white sand and a blue-green sea. Coral reefs fringe the shoreline giving excellent snorkeling and Scuba Diving. Along the east Atlantic coast none but the brave and very foolhardy go swimming on this coast. Although it looks as if it would be superb surfing huge breakers roll in with waves pounding against a rocky shore with makes that coast very dangerous and the advice is if you do not see locals swimming don’t even think about it.

Although mostly flat with excellent beaches, there are rolling hills and many deep ridges and gullies, with an interesting distribution of flora and fauna nothing much in the way of larger mammals, unless you count the cats and dogs, but you will often come across a mongoose crossing the road. Within the Barbados coral core there are caves and underground lakes which provide an excellent supply of drinking water that is amongst the purest in the world because of that bottled water is relatively expensive and the only beverage you have to pay for in the hotel!

With high-quality, tax-free merchandise, excellent service by friendly and knowledgeable sales staff, and comfortable, air-conditioned stores, shopping in Barbados is a must. Duty free shopping is especially popular, with prices typically being 30 to 50% less than in Europe and North America! When making duty free purchases be sure to have your passport or airline ticket with you. Bigger purchases can be delivered to the airport or sea port for your convenience.

The heart and soul of shopping in Barbados is Broad Street in the capital city, Bridgetown. There you will find several large department stores and duty free shops. In addition to the specialty stores, there are several shopping malls offering a wide variety of products and services. Pelican Village, on the outskirts of Bridgetown, is the place to get local handicrafts including straw bags, wall hangings, batik, paintings, rum cakes, and much more!
There is also a central local market which should not be missed full of local colour, to add to the sensory experience there are many spice stalls with literally hundreds of different spices giving off marvelous aromas.  The ambience of colour extends to a riot of visual colour on the stalls brimming over with bread fruit and other local fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers some familiar and some very unfamiliar. The local population is on show as well and the friendly ebullient character of the Bajans is very much in evidence – for the photographer the digital camera is essential, the old style 35mm would use up a dozen rolls. 

There are several smaller towns like Holetown in St.James and Speightstown in St.Peter that feature craft shops and gift shops. Several shopping malls and plazas are also located outside of Bridgetown. Chattel Village shopping areas are becoming increasingly popular in Barbados. These feature shops built in traditional chattel house style and selling souvenirs, gift items, clothing and local arts and crafts. The Chattel House was originally the design of the plantation workers home. They were modest wooden buildings set on blocks so that they could be easily moved from one lease holding to another. In early settlement days, home owners were not necessarily landowners, but part of a tenant system of the plantations.
The houses were constructed to be transportable in the event of landlord and tenant disputes. The name chattel referred to the fact that they were movable property. You can find these chattel villages at Holetown, St.James and St. Lawrence Gap, Christ Church.

Barbadians, called Bajans, are warm and friendly souls, always ready to greet you with a sincere smile and our first trip was to Bajan Roots & Rhythms Show at the Plantation the venue is under cover in case of rain but outdoors perfect on a balmy tropical evening, a sumptuous Bajan Buffet, Spectacular Show, and drinks included for 20 US$ each.  Steel band, amazing stilt dancers and a great party atmosphere definitely not to be missed and what better recommendation than to say a good third of the audience were local Barbadians enjoying a night out and it certainly puts you in Caribbean mood.

On the subject of music the strains of reggae are everywhere Bob Marley was of course Jamaican but Barbados has adopted him “No Woman No Cry’ with its chorus of ‘everytings gonna be alright’ or ‘Exodus’ seem to be on every playlist  and ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ by the American Rastafarian singer Bobby McFerrin could – perhaps should- be the National Anthem. Of course Steel bands and Calypso are also in many bars and on many street corners.

Restaurants range from elegant international (and relatively expensive) restaurants to casual beach bars... and everything in between! If you want to you can find Chinese, Japanese, American, French and Italian and pretty much anything else but many restaurants offer a varied menu of local and other Caribbean dishes so why have the food you can easily get at home. We were a bit surprised to find that local food is pretty mild and not the hot and spicy style we expected, especially after visiting the local markets and enjoying the smells of a myriad of fresh spices on sale there. If there is a national dish it is  flying fish and cou cou, a yam dish.
 
Daytime dress in Barbados is very casual in most hotels and resorts, but if you’re having lunch at any restaurant – other than a beach bar or poolside, you must be dressed appropriately.  Bathing suits and bare feet or bare chests are not appreciated and on the subject of beachwear Barbados is still conservative and the European attitude to minimalist or non existent swimwear is a definite no no. One other small idiosyncrasy is that any form of camouflage wear is banned anywhere in Barbados.

Evening dress can be more formal.  Even in casual restaurants, shorts and T-shirts are not generally acceptable for dining out.  Ladies will feel most accepted in slacks, sundresses or skirts.  It is worth checking with the restaurant before you go what their dress code is-some more upscale venues even require a jacket for gentlemen after 6:00PM.

Food, drink and beaches may be all many tourists want from Barbados but there are also many natural and man made places to visit. At the northern end of the island in the parish of St. Lucy you will find the Animal Flower Cave. The name "Animal Flower Cave" comes from the sea anemones found in the pools of the cave. Some of these pools are deep enough for you to swim in! There are also several openings looking out to sea, offering some spectacular views and standing in the cave as 10 metre high Atlantic waves roll in towards you can be a little worrying the cave has found fame by being featured in singer Billy Ocean's music videos and in the soap opera "Bold and Beautiful".

On the cliffs above the cave there is a small bar which says it has a place in the Guinness Book of Records for having the biggest collection of business cards papering the walls. There are also some superb viewing spots around the promontory where you can watch the huge rollers hitting the cliffs and occasionally soaking the unwary up to 30 metres above the base of the cliff. If you have the inclination and the patience, there is also a Whale watching point, but of course only useful at the right times of year.

After the Animal Flower Cave a short drive brings you to the Flower Forest the humidity and smell of damp soil rises up and gives a real tropical jungle feel a spectacular cluster of Heliconia (bird of paradise). Brilliant in colour with a waxy, almost plastic feel to them, you will come across Begonias, three feet high with huge leaves. As with much of the island flora plants towering above you are very familiar you may have them as house plants if you live in Europe. For those who are interested, most plants are labelled with botanical and common names.

Another 15 minute drive will bring you to St.Nicholas Abbey, located in the parish of St.Peter, it was built in 1660 and is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. This magnificent, well-preserved mansion features curved Dutch gables, chimney stacks and coral stone finials, a Chinese Chippendale staircase and fine antiques and china. A rare 1930s film of sugar plantation life is also shown at regular intervals. There is a very good snack bar with the inevitable flying fish dishes and of course mustn’t forget this is a working rum distillery! Why not buy your own blend of liqueur rum in an especially labeled and etched bottle? 

A unique phenomenon of nature, Harrison's Cave is an amazing gallery of stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, and stalagmites that emerge from the ground, with streams of crystal-clear running water that drop from breathtaking waterfalls to form deep emerald pools. The stalactites and stalagmites were formed over thousands of years and in some places the stalactites have reached down to the stalagmites and a spectacular pillar has been formed (easy to remember which is which stalactites hang down so the have to hang on tight!).

The visit is available to anyone and there is full disabled access. Visitors are driven in electrically operated trams, with a full commentary by tour guides, down through the extensive system of caves and at the lowest level point in the cave, visitors are invited to leave the tram and walk alongside a waterfall which plunges into a deep pool below. Harrison’s Cave is a massive stream cave system at least 2.3 kilometres long and its largest cavern, the Great Hall measures 15 metres high..

The attractive Visitor's Centre, which was designed to fit in with the natural limestone bedrock, provides a refreshment area and handicraft shops, along with an exhibit of Amerindian artifacts that have been excavated from various sites around the island.

If your taste extends to more active pleasures there are many attractions quad biking, horse riding, a submarine trip, fantastic scuba dives, many sailing and boating opportunities including a very strange looking craft straight out of a Bond film, it looks like a car and skims the waves on four hydrofoils where the wheels would be.  Not least of course if you are a fishing fan big game fishing is available as well as other sea fishing and either can be done by private charter or by joining a group of other tourists.

There is so much to see and do in Barbados and we have really only scratched the surface a small island with a big heart and a top recommended destination for shoppers, sunbathers, sightseers and sensation seekers. But this is only the first part of the trip now it is time to head for Bridgetown port and join the Carnival Victory for seven days cruising the Eastern Caribbean.  

Caribbean Continued (Part 2 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Caribbean Continued (Part 3 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Caribbean Continued (Part 4 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Ross Pays is the Chairman of The FAA based in Cyprus. FAA offer advice on wills, tax registration services, home, health and car insurance, investment services and tax planning, including Inheritance Tax Planning, together with full accounting services.

Visit Ross Pays website at www.rosspays.com, Telephone 00 357 25 82 58 76, Fax 00 357 25 33 35 93 or e-mail ross@rosspays.com
Initial consultations are free and no obligation and fee quotations will be provided in advance for all services.