1. Dover Beach – Dover beach is situated in St Lawrence Gap. A well known area for its tourism, pushy beach sellers and sometimes reckless night life. Its surprised me how beautiful and untainted parts of this beach were considering the overflow of tourists invading the beaches from their freshly docked cruise ships.

It’s also the home of Barry’s surf school. Unknown to a lot of Island newbies, Barbados is also known for its great surf and also its windy weather. We booked a surf lesson and for 3 days it was so windy the lessons were carried out on the western side in beautiful salty aquamarine turtle infested waters. Who’s complaining right?

2.Bathsheba – We booked a Williams island tour with a guide called Rooster which included a meal on a sugar cane plantation. The western coast is starting to be overrun with high rises and 5 star hotels and gated residences for the very rich and Simon Cowell famous. The locals have been battling against offers to buy there humble wooden slatted beach side houses with the response, ‘you could pay me half a million, but where would I wake up to a view like this every day’

It was quiet sad to see high rise Louis Vuitton stores and not forgetting our friend Dolce towering up from the once banyan tree lined beach promenades so we escaped. We continued our drive through sugar cane fields until we came upon St Thomas, the home to Rhianna’s Grandmother no less and also the oldest woman in the world. Also the gateway to some of the most astoundingly beautiful, wildly rugged and seaweed laden beaches of Bathsheba.

Make a trip here before Burger King does.

3.Aerial Trek Zip wiring – I’m scared of heights….. so it was highly amusing after being strapped in and helmeted up that my friend that had been ribbing me about it was too petrified at first to make the first run. And it was around 10 meters long : )
This starts you off slowly on very short runs with so much foliage and rain forest below you that you can’t actually see the ground for it to be petrifying.

The stand outs had to be hurtling over the gully concealing Harrison caves. Rainforest and monkeys below you and then just air and the most jaw dropping valley strewn with tropical flowers, lush green grasses tropical birds flying below. I actually shrieked… with delight! Also the stand out was the Indiana Jones run as I called it. A huge banyan tree with vines suffocating all other lifeforms, tentacles creeping and embedding themselves in the forest floor. US31 USD

4.Rum bars – St Lawrence Gap – Ok, so the really really local places were a bit more rough and ready with metal bars covering the bar area. But this was where we had our BEST night. Playing pool, stereotypical Bob Marley playing in the background and drinking rum with the locals. This is the side the tourists DON’T see and it was so small, it was like walking into somebody’s home and we were welcomed like long lost family.

5.Harrisons cave. Discovered in the 1700s by Thomas Harrison ( Hence the name – Doh) Harrisons is in fact a massive cave system of 2.3 Kilometers and a very humid 27 degrees. The whole trip is taken through a Jurassic Parkesque guided tour bus so you only step out to see the most scenic areas and there are plenty of them …along with a lot of water dripping from the ceiling. For anyone claustrophobic, the route itself is big enough to drive a truck through so no crawling on your hands and knees through this one : ) The great hall is 15 meters high and some of the most beautiful jelly fish shaped stalagmites formations I have ever seen. Entry is US $25 for adults and US $12 for children.