Barbados Winter Sunshine Break

On the 12th of February we took a wonderful “family trip” to Barbados for a week.

We flew on a direct light form Manchester and flying time was great at around 8hrs 30 minutes. It had been sone 27 years since my husband (then boyfriend and I) had been to Barbados and us definitely won’t be leaving it so long next time!

We had a wonderful 4-night stay at the 4* Waves Resort and pa in St James on the “infamous” West Coast of Barbados. We were allocated a beautiful split-level room, with the downstairs having the king size bed and bathroom and the upstairs having a double sofa bed, extra singe bed, dressing area, tea, coffee area with a fridge and balcony which overlooked the coastal road at the front of the hotel.

The Waves is part of the Elegant hotels group, now owned by Marriott, the service, standards, and cuisine (we ate at Seascape, Shiso and Kyma) were second to none, the staff could not do enough for us to make our stay pleasurable. With the hotel being part of the Elegant hotels chain, you can take the water taxi from the beach to the Crystal Cove, Tamarind and Colony Club hotels, BOTH the Crystal Cove and Tamarind are all-inclusive basis, and we were able to make reservations for dinner at the Tamarind and lunch at the Crystal Cove too.

We also took the bus up another day form outside the Waves into Holetown where we had a mooch around the shops and the hotel and then walked up to the Colony Club hotel, to spend some time on the beach, before taking the water taxi back to the Waves.

Our girls and my husband loved the fact that we had motorised, and non-motorised water sports included in our all-inclusive package at the Waves. My husband water-skied and the girls did daily water activities on the discs, paddleboarding, snorkelling etc and there were also Hobie Cats arable too that the water sports staff would take you out on.

We were able to experience some fabulous sunsets from the raised deck at the Waves hotel overlooking the ocean for sundowner drinks. We also enjoyed a lovely fusion inspired meal at their Shiso restaurant, which is across the road where the adult pool/spa rooms and adult only pool are homed.

Despite this being a smaller boutique all-inclusive hotel with just 70 rooms, we were always able to get a sunbed on the beach even though it was the kids February half term week!

After a wonderful 4-night stay at The Waves, we moved to to the South of the Island to the Sea Breeze Beach House hotel, on Maxwell Beach, where we stayed in a huge two-bedroom family suite on all-inclusive basis.

We had some lovely meals and enjoyed great entertainment here, plus the numerous bars and restaurants offered good choices.

Due to the hotels location, within a 10 minute ride to Oistins, we were able to take the free courtesy bus to Oistins on the Friday evening or the famous “Oistins Fish fry Friday!”, my top tip is take the really busy or arrive around 6pm onwards, we took the 7pm courtesy bus and it was extremely difficult to get a table to eat and we had to queue for a while at one of the many eateries to order our food.

Oistins is a fabulous eclectic mix of people, with food and drink stalls and a huge stage with local performers, singers and dancers, what a truly wonderful experience it was.

On our next trip back to Barbados we will be sure to stay or longer AND to also pre-book a daytime or sunset catamaran cruise which takes you to see the Turtles, some swimming and snorkelling time with a trip up the West coast of the island.

We absolutely love the locals, who whilst being laid back, were also extremely friendly too.

We cannot wait to be able to return to Barbados, but we will definitely stay for longer next time we go!