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With a week to spare, it’s well worth dragging yourself away from your sunbed to explore inland and put Barbados’ history as a British colony into perspective. Hop on a bus one day and have a morning’s sightseeing and shopping in Bridgetown. Hire a car for part of your holiday and tour the island. You can drive all round Barbados in four to five hours, but temptation will get in your way and you’ll stop frequently. You’ll also probably get lost, as road signs are not a big feature and the island is criss-crossed with hundreds of little twisty roads through sugar plantations and villages. A northern tour could take in Speightstown, the Animal Flower Cave, Farley Hill, the Barbados Wildlife Reserve and Grenade Hall Signal Station, St Nicholas Abbey and the Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill. A day in the middle of the island could encompass the Sir Frank Hutson Sugar Museum, Harrison’s Cave, the Flower Forest, Orchid World, Gun Hill Signal Station and Francia Plantation House. Another day could be spent at Bathsheba, hiking along the old railway on the coast, strolling around Andromeda Gardens or lolling about in rock pools among the boulders. At night, you can really hit the town, with Harbour Lights beach party on Mondays, Fisherman’s Pub on Wednesdays when there is a steel band, Oistins fish fry on Fridays with calypso, soca and lots of live music, and a club at weekends. If you’re a real night owl and still have energy for more, Baxters Road rumshops are open all night every night for the adventurous and the first bus home starts at 0500. If you have the luxury of two weeks on Barbados why not move around a bit? Spend a few days on the west coast first, to wind down and enjoy the beach. Take a boat trip, go snorkelling with the turtles or dive one of the many wrecks from the colonial era littering the seabed. Then, when the jet lag is behind you, move to an apartment on the south coast for the nightlife around St Lawrence Gap. Finally, stay in a guesthouse on the east coast for a different view of paradise, go walking, beachcombing, take a good book and find a hammock.
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