Barbados Travel Forum

We are visting Barbados for the first time in December. We have a hotel on the West side of the island and are looking for suggestions for 1) great beaches to visit, secluded or not (any topless?) 2)Fine dining, love great food and wine (also love to go where the locals go)and 3)Night life, we love to go dancing but we are not in our 20's (or 30's for that matter). We have 10 days booked for some sun and fun and want to make the most of it!! What else should we do .. we are not the orgainized tour types.

Most of the answers to your questions are already on this site, it's just a mater of perusing the tips pages of those of us who have posted for Barbados.

Before I even start, please note that there are no topless beaches on Barbados - it is illegal. However, some women do it anyhow but are discreet and put their top on to go into the sea, etc and just remove the top while lying on the beach.
The entire west coast of the island is one beach after another, so you won't have any difficulty finding a nice one - from Paynes Bay to Holetown in particular. Brighton Beach just outside of Bridgetown is also a very nice beach.
For the southern side of the island, the entire beach in Carlisle Bay is fabulous and you can walk to one end of it from Bridgetown - the Boatyard is a beachside restaurant and bar, open daily, with chairs and water activities, etc. Accra, Worthing Beach and Enterprise Beach (also called Miami Beach) are also nice south coast beaches, but there are many along the entire coast. The beach at the Crane is also well worth a visit for good swimmers, and Cattlewash is a must to blow the cobwebs out, but NOT for swimming, great for walking.
In all cases, secluded is not a good idea! Don't mean to deflate but not adviseable.
West coast restaurants - The Mews, Olives and The Tides in Holetown. South coast - Champers, Restaurant at SouthSea, La Luna located at the Little Arches Hotel. For great food and a very local flavour, check out the Oistins Fish Fry particularly on a Friday night when the entire place becomes one big party. Fabulous grilled fish at the best prices and beer or whatever from a rum shop - definitely a must, casual.
St Lawrence Gap is the nightlife capital of the island, and all the hotels generally will have some sort of live entertainment/dancing on.
There are many many other restaurants that are supposed to be good but don't want to recommend without personal experience.
Hope that helps. You might find some more useful info here:
http://www.destinationcaribbean.net/index.php?option=com_dcpublishedcountries&task=view_country&id=3&Itemid=35

Hi, you lucky things, Barbados is wonderful!

for fine dining i recommend SouthSea Restaurant in St Lawrence Gap. it's truely fabulous, the only restaurant i've been to in the world that i'd give 10 out of 10. http://therestaurantatsouthsea.com/about.html and it's expensive, but not extortionate, you have to try it!

for 'where the locals eat' there's a place called Brown Sugar by The Hilton which is meant to be great, but i haven't been there yet.

for evenings i recommend one night going to Harbour Lights. you can pay for transfers, bbq, free drinks and entertainment, do it! also, don't go home when the bus takes you back, stay later and get a cab when you've drunk enough! it' goes on late, and you can party party party!

Go to Oustins Fish Market on a Friday night, it's great fun.

The Gap (st lawrence) is good for night life, for all ages. The Ship on a Thurs night has live music etc. Also the Boatyard (as suggested up there) on a tuesday night is brilliant too.

The Cliff is a fine dining restaurant, but i've never been.

do the Tiami evening catamaran tour, it's wonderful!

enjoy!

Check out the Plantation on Sat nights they are supposed to have dancing. My H and I are way out of our 30's so no concern.. the music is supposed to be 70's 80's ect,.. I get the feeling its all ages. They also have a local show and dinner night but the dancing night is different.
You should try Baxter road for Friday night fish fry and fun.. or Ostins .. that is really where the locals go. My H's family lives on the island and so I have been twice before and we are going back this week so I will report back on anything we do that might be of interest. We are going to check out the dancing so I will let you know.