Barbados - Bridgetown, Oistins, then Jean goes North, South, East and West.

Barbados is a beautiful, friendly island you'll want to visit over and over again. If you're joining the ship here, your luggage is likely to go straight to your cabin and you will go in a coach bonded to the port terminal and check into your ship. Once checked into the ship, you can visit Barbados. Red line for the ship tours, green line to explore yourself and the taxis will be waiting. Walk straight past the taxis for the beach or the bus garage. The bus stop is right near the Pelican Craft Centre, which is very near the cruise ship and you can get great juices in the Organic Earth, which is the last shop there. This is the bus station near the cruise ship and if you want to go to Mullins or Spatetown, this is the one you need to come to. Keep walking if you're going to the town or the beach. This bus garage is for northern routes only. There are two other bus stations. If you're using the blue buses, you need the right money because they don't have a conductor and the driver can't give change, so make sure you've got the right money on you. Lots of people will be walking to the beach on this coastal path down past the town and to the Jolly Roger. If you like a rum punch and a snorkel, this is the boat for you. They do pleasure trips and guarantee a good time. There's even a bar called the Jolly Roger Tavern. Time for a stop, I think. You're going to cross the river here and the beaches are on the other side of town, but there are other great beaches. Go north towards Mullins or south past Hastings to Rocklea. We're going to show you the town and then we're going to take you out for the night to Oystins, the famous Friday night fish night. Barbados does have some major departmental stores and promises more to come, but we thought it'd be interesting to go down the back street and have a look at the market. Massive diamonds. This is right next to the beautiful St Michael's Church and opposite Heroes Square. And on the other side of Heroes Square is the bridge in Bridgetown, which is by the harbour and a good place to head for if you're looking for the bus station. But on the other side of town, the other two bus garages, the major bus garage and the small one. This is Heroes Square. Just leaving the Square of Independence. Barbados has been independent since 1966. And there's a plot, the right honourable Errol Walton Barrow. The stroll around town is very interesting, but we're going to take you north. We're going to take you south and right across to the east side of the island. The next bridge along is right by the Burger King. And if you look for that, you can find the bus terminal. Behind me is the main bus terminal. The bigger buses are more comfortable and for the longer journeys. And then behind that, down by the river, is the small bus terminal where you can get the small buses. You've got the regular yellow buses, but you've also got the white shared taxis that you jump in and out. You can go anywhere on the island. Buses all have the destinations on the front of the bus. So it's very easy to find the right bus for where you want to go. It's organised chaos, but it is very organised. And you really don't need any other form of transport. It's Friday night and we're going out. As the sun goes down in Oystons, everyone starts to come out and the party starts. And Rullo makes these amazing shoes. You're four and a half to five. Four and a half, five. Yeah. All right. They are beautiful actually. We're at Moe's Bar and Grill and it's right on the side of the stage. So the music's going to be loud. The dancing starts late, but if you don't get there early, you won't get a seat. Blue marlin, flying fish, tuna, dolphins, kingfish, swordfish, snapper. Oystons is a fishing village. So they have a harbour, boats and the restaurants cook the fish straight off the boat. So no point in asking for vegetarian or steaks. It's fish. To get there, you take the coast road south. You will have come up that road from the airport, although the airport road does bypass the fishing village. Coming down that road, Hastings and all of the beaches along that front are full of seaside resorts that people go to holiday. And there's a wonderful promenade to walk. So if you have a chance, spend the day in Hastings and then come back to Oystons for the evening. And then you can have peas and rice, macaroni pie, parsley potatoes, garlic potatoes, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables and chips, tossed salad, macaroni salad and coleslaw. And then for pudding, you can have black forest cake, cheesecake or chocolate cake. And extra, you can have pork chops, shrimp or burger. Wow. Cheers. I just have to say that this is melt in the mouth. Delicious. As many ships spend an overnight in Barbados, you might be there for the Friday night. So if you're lucky, Oystons is a treat. And the daytime down that coast going into some of the places on the promenade can also be a treat. Rockley Beach is not as crowded as the one on the other side of town. Have a look. Jean will explain. We're having a beach day today in Barbados from the cruise ship. And it's really easy to do cheaply. You walk into town, get a bus from the Southern Bus Garage. That's the bus garage on the other side of town behind the big bus garage. Ask for Rockley. It's just past Hastings. It'll bring you to Rockley Beach. Then go to the Tiki Bar. You can rent two beds and a parasol for 30 US dollars, 60 Bajan. And in return for that, they give you some monopoly money, which you can spend on your lunch. It's brilliant. The menu is quite extensive. You can have a tiki chicken sandwich, a tiki catch of the day. You can either stay within the money or you can spend a little bit more. But there's plenty to choose from. So what's the difference? The Rockley Beach and the Hastings Beach as you go south are quieter than the beaches at Bridgetown. But they're normal priced and they're very, very friendly and ordinary. If you go north up towards Mullins Beaches and Newtown, up there it's slightly posher. You will end up spending a little bit more. But the beaches are very nice. We'll take you north shortly. So a beer is 7 Bajan dollars. A cocktail is 16. So you could either have two beers and a meal or a cocktail and a meal. And it's a really cheap day out and a great one. We love the tiki bar and it's got better Wi-Fi than I've got in London. Now Jean's leading me back towards Hastings and the promenade, which is a great walk in the evening with the sun coming down. After an evening relaxing in the ship, the second day we took the bigger bus out to the east coast where the sea is rougher and it's much more exciting. A very different look to Barbados. This is Bathsheba Beach. Very, very different. It's the Atlantic side of Barbados. Beautiful, but very dangerous for swimming. Very dramatic. I think there's a wedding over there. It's a baptism. The very helpful young lady in the bar said that the botanical gardens are five minutes walk up here. So fingers crossed. I'm trusting her. But it is quite a steep hill. On this side of the island, there's still a lot of farming. Sugar, bananas. Welcome to Andromeda. My name is Ria. If you have any questions, please do feel free to come back and ask any of us. So I'm looking for the cucumber tree. A. So we're going this way. Oh, wow. This is so pretty here. Wow. Oh, we've missed A already because we're on C. Oh, look at this pond. This is Heliconia stricta and it's named Iris after the garden's creator. This is labelled temporary planting and it looks like something out of a Merchant Ivory movie. But then I suppose it is. Z. Jade vine. It's a good rock and roll name. This is the screw pine. Number eight is the bearded fig tree. And it is how Barbados got its name, Los Barbados, the bearded one. Oh. Yes. And that was part of the 10% that was found here in the garden. Right, we have to find that one, don't we? Yeah, you will find it. It is number eight. OK. And it's believed to be over between one and two hundred years old. A sample of the central and east coast excursions. Oh, it smells gorgeous here. Let's head north from the bus garage closest to the ship. Just come for $2 on the bus all the way from Bridgetown to the beautiful Mullins Bay. And we're going to have some lunch in the famous Mullins Bar. Although we had the coconut shrimp, which was very tasty, shrimps are imported in Barbados as are lobsters. Fresh fish is the local produce with catch of the day on the menu everywhere. There is no shortage of good restaurants and a new generation of lounge cafes. We splashed out and got the bus and spent another $2 each. We're now in Holtown. Barbados can be done very expensively or very cheaply. There are some beautiful hotels. There are much cheaper choices. But the sun costs the same and the sea costs the same wherever you are. And you'll be guaranteed a great time. This is First Street in Holtown and it's an interesting combination of old shacks and buildings that have done up to look like cocktail lounges, wine bars, Chinese restaurants. It's all here. If you're feeling extravagant, there's Cartier, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors. The English arrived here in 1605. I guess Louis Vuitton and Burberry arrived when you could pay in dollars. Just having a beer at the famous Sandy Lane Hotel. God knows what it's going to cost. But that sunset is seen from the whole island and it's priceless. I want to take you somewhere special and I want you to meet someone special. All the way to Nelson's Stockyard cost $7 for two. And they'd heard about it on Doris' Visits. This already feels like a great day out. I think Nelson's Stockyard is a very pleasant place to come. A few officers at the time of Nelson left a bun in the oven. Ah, the bakery. Very funny. Oh, look. Expensive. If you've seen Nelson's Stockyard and you want to go to the beach, come down to the red and white building, go all the way up the hill and then turn left all the way down to the beach. If you're looking for a natural Caribbean beach, take the trip to Nelson's Stockyard and walk here. It's paradise. So, so far my Antigua beach trips cost me a pound. This is the local bar. It's called Sandra's Bar and Grill. So, two chairs and a parasol will cost you 50 Eastern Caribbean dollars, which is about 15 pounds. But it's still cheap because we got there by bus. This bar is called Castaway. We're going to have an Indian meal. They've got sport TV and Wi-Fi. So the taxi here cost other cruisers 30 US dollars. It cost us four, so the food was free. We're in the beautiful port of St Lucia. If you want the beach, don't be tempted to turn left by the bay. You've got to walk up to the roundabout and turn left by the airport. Walk all the way round, come down here to the beach. It's a beautiful Caribbean beach. Not only is it a gorgeous beach, there's natural shade from the trees. So you don't even have to hire a sunbed. It's a shame you can't just run across the runway because the ship really is just over there. A stone's throw from the ship. We found the church, the square and now we're going to look at the market. We had a little rainfall last night, so the rainforest is a little wet and also very slippery. There are three activities here. There's the skyline, which doesn't take any effort. There's the zip line, which is going to take a lot of adrenaline. And there's the hike. There are several varieties of snakes in the forest. Ample toilets. There's a cafe and a shop. All in all, it's a brilliant experience. We're en route to the springs and the volcano and this is a one dollar washroom stop. This is an active volcano and all the mountains around it are the rim. So this could erupt. So if you see I'm running, you follow.