UtahGetMe2
Registered
So the barbados trip came and went faster than I would've liked. I was down there from 2/26 to 3/7 and here are some details of the trip
Accommodations:
We stayed at Accra Beach Hotel in Christ Church located on Rockley Beach. I was with my girlfriend and 2 other couples. The hotel was about a 8.5 out of 10 on my own scale as I've been spoiled in the past regarding other hotels and resorts I've stayed in. If you were planning on staying here I would tell them that you would not like to be in the new wing island view because there is an unsightly rundown building that you open your curtains up and its 25 feet from your window staring you in the face and it also does not have a balcony. We got our room moved to the island view facing the street which was quite entertaining all day and night and it had a balcony. Overall it was a great hotel and I would recommend it.
Diving:
I only got to do 1 day of diving with 2 dives because we were climbing around the cliffs near Riverbay and I strained a muscle in my quad the day before the second day of diving.
The day of diving was great though. I dove with Dive Barbados Ltd, located in Carlisle Bay and had no issues with them and an overall positive experience. I was a little concerned when John picked me up and said that I was going to be diving the Stav (~150' to the deepest point) because I was only expecting to go to 60 as I had just gotten certified. John told me, "You'll be alright mate" and figured I'd be in the good hands of his instructor so I went for it. We wound up diving only to the deck while the others went to the bottom and the deepest I went was 100'. The bottom time was only about 30 minutes but I was not complaining as it was my most enjoyable dive to date.
The second dive was at the Friars Craig wreck which had a reef next to it that they called Lobster reef and I think it may be the same as Asta, but I could be wrong. The dive was good, but after being blown away by the Stav I felt spoiled haha. The reef was great and was teeming with life of all forms.
I would recommend Dive Barbados Ltd and would definitely be interested in diving with them the next time I get down there. They were a small dive operation and had recently had their bigger boat split in half due to a storm so the boat that was used was small but definitely did the trick.
Food
I had been told to go to this Greek restaurant call OPA! by RICHinNC and the first day I got there I went to buy some beers at the 99cent store and sure enough there was an OPA! gyro shop in that shopping center across the street from my hotel. I had the mahi mahi gyro 2 days for lunch and the regular gyro another time and it was really good. After the first time we went there for lunch we walked down their newly constructed boardwalk on the beach and saw that there was an OPA! restaurant so I made it a point to try that too one night. I come from a Greek family and have eaten lots of Greek food in my day and the food and wine I had that night was great. OPA! also has the name Black Pearl for some reason and the menu is split, but we all ordered stuff off the OPA! side.
There was a restaurant called Tapas that was right near OPA! and also on the boardwalk. The food and wine was the best I had all trip and the top floor where we ate has a great view of the water.
Other places we ate at for dinner were the Ship INN, St. Lawrence Gap Pizza Hut and Berts and Bubbas. We ate at the Ship INN twice as the food was good, cheap and in a good location for walking around the St. Lawrence Gap. The SLG Pizza Hut had surprisingly good pizza ( i had pineapple and garlic). Berts is s sports bar with a hockey focus, the owner is the brother of the Ottawa Senators. Bubbas, I was really drunk before I got there so I can't give any opinion on it other than there was too much Pittsburg Steelers and Dallas Cowboys memorabilia.
Lunch we ate OPA! 3 times and there was also this little Curry stand right next to it that had these awesome chicken, potatoe curry taco type things that were really good and at $4.50 Barbados ($2.25 USD) you can't go wrong. Also in that shopping center was a place called Just Grillin that we ate at 2 times and the food was good. The other days we had just bought stuff to make cheese cutters and made them in the morning and went down to the beach with them.
Activities:
Other than the day of scuba some things that we did were:
Tour of the island- We negotiated with the taxi drivers at the taxi company next to the hotel and got to a price of $30 USD per person (7 people) for a tour of the island that lasted from 9am to about 3pm. It was just a local taxi guy but he knew everything about the island that we wanted to know. The two best stops of that tour was the place called Riverbay located in the north east tip of the island. It is on the tourist maps as a little camera signifying it is a place to take pictures, but you would never expect it to be as amazing as it really is going by that. You drive up and it is this little building that is near lagoon with a tall bluff and cliffs surrounding it. Go up the bluff and you are on top of the cliffs and the views are amazing. Intense waves breaking against the cliffs, tidal pools with small fish and crabs living in them, natural sea salt deposits. The second stop was Bathsheba which I had gone to the first time I visited Barbados 10 years ago and wanted to check it out again. Great views again here.
Banks Brewery Tour- We were going to go to the Mount Gay Rum factory for a tour, but the others in the group wanted to go to the Banks tour instead because they would rather drink beers during the day than straight rum. It was pretty cool and consisted of about 20 minutes of touring and then 30 minutes of drinking as many free beers as you can and getting to try all the different types.
Snorkeling- There is a jetty out to the left of Rockley Beach which is what the hotel was on and I went out there 2 times for snorkeling and saw some cool stuff. Both times I saw a sea turtle which was pretty cool and was not expecting it.
Walked on the new boardwalk- They constructed a boardwalk/jetty system about 2 years ago which was pretty cool to walk along. It was decently long and started at out hotel and went almost to the Hilton. It was a cool thing to see as it was an engineering project and doubled as a functional structure.
Drove to the place I stayed at last time and checked out all the new construction and also watched kite surfers at a beach that I can't think of the name. It was in the Dover beach, Miami Beach area and was situated just around the tip of South Point.
Oistin's Fish Fry- Lots of locals with music and tons of food to eat. It was fun and would recommend checking it out for the experience.
Sand Phil Collins- Sussudio Karaoke after having a few too many rum and tonics at the pool bar.
Overall the trip was great. PM me if you are thinking about heading down there and need some info!
Accommodations:
We stayed at Accra Beach Hotel in Christ Church located on Rockley Beach. I was with my girlfriend and 2 other couples. The hotel was about a 8.5 out of 10 on my own scale as I've been spoiled in the past regarding other hotels and resorts I've stayed in. If you were planning on staying here I would tell them that you would not like to be in the new wing island view because there is an unsightly rundown building that you open your curtains up and its 25 feet from your window staring you in the face and it also does not have a balcony. We got our room moved to the island view facing the street which was quite entertaining all day and night and it had a balcony. Overall it was a great hotel and I would recommend it.
Diving:
I only got to do 1 day of diving with 2 dives because we were climbing around the cliffs near Riverbay and I strained a muscle in my quad the day before the second day of diving.
The day of diving was great though. I dove with Dive Barbados Ltd, located in Carlisle Bay and had no issues with them and an overall positive experience. I was a little concerned when John picked me up and said that I was going to be diving the Stav (~150' to the deepest point) because I was only expecting to go to 60 as I had just gotten certified. John told me, "You'll be alright mate" and figured I'd be in the good hands of his instructor so I went for it. We wound up diving only to the deck while the others went to the bottom and the deepest I went was 100'. The bottom time was only about 30 minutes but I was not complaining as it was my most enjoyable dive to date.
The second dive was at the Friars Craig wreck which had a reef next to it that they called Lobster reef and I think it may be the same as Asta, but I could be wrong. The dive was good, but after being blown away by the Stav I felt spoiled haha. The reef was great and was teeming with life of all forms.
I would recommend Dive Barbados Ltd and would definitely be interested in diving with them the next time I get down there. They were a small dive operation and had recently had their bigger boat split in half due to a storm so the boat that was used was small but definitely did the trick.
Food
I had been told to go to this Greek restaurant call OPA! by RICHinNC and the first day I got there I went to buy some beers at the 99cent store and sure enough there was an OPA! gyro shop in that shopping center across the street from my hotel. I had the mahi mahi gyro 2 days for lunch and the regular gyro another time and it was really good. After the first time we went there for lunch we walked down their newly constructed boardwalk on the beach and saw that there was an OPA! restaurant so I made it a point to try that too one night. I come from a Greek family and have eaten lots of Greek food in my day and the food and wine I had that night was great. OPA! also has the name Black Pearl for some reason and the menu is split, but we all ordered stuff off the OPA! side.
There was a restaurant called Tapas that was right near OPA! and also on the boardwalk. The food and wine was the best I had all trip and the top floor where we ate has a great view of the water.
Other places we ate at for dinner were the Ship INN, St. Lawrence Gap Pizza Hut and Berts and Bubbas. We ate at the Ship INN twice as the food was good, cheap and in a good location for walking around the St. Lawrence Gap. The SLG Pizza Hut had surprisingly good pizza ( i had pineapple and garlic). Berts is s sports bar with a hockey focus, the owner is the brother of the Ottawa Senators. Bubbas, I was really drunk before I got there so I can't give any opinion on it other than there was too much Pittsburg Steelers and Dallas Cowboys memorabilia.
Lunch we ate OPA! 3 times and there was also this little Curry stand right next to it that had these awesome chicken, potatoe curry taco type things that were really good and at $4.50 Barbados ($2.25 USD) you can't go wrong. Also in that shopping center was a place called Just Grillin that we ate at 2 times and the food was good. The other days we had just bought stuff to make cheese cutters and made them in the morning and went down to the beach with them.
Activities:
Other than the day of scuba some things that we did were:
Tour of the island- We negotiated with the taxi drivers at the taxi company next to the hotel and got to a price of $30 USD per person (7 people) for a tour of the island that lasted from 9am to about 3pm. It was just a local taxi guy but he knew everything about the island that we wanted to know. The two best stops of that tour was the place called Riverbay located in the north east tip of the island. It is on the tourist maps as a little camera signifying it is a place to take pictures, but you would never expect it to be as amazing as it really is going by that. You drive up and it is this little building that is near lagoon with a tall bluff and cliffs surrounding it. Go up the bluff and you are on top of the cliffs and the views are amazing. Intense waves breaking against the cliffs, tidal pools with small fish and crabs living in them, natural sea salt deposits. The second stop was Bathsheba which I had gone to the first time I visited Barbados 10 years ago and wanted to check it out again. Great views again here.
Banks Brewery Tour- We were going to go to the Mount Gay Rum factory for a tour, but the others in the group wanted to go to the Banks tour instead because they would rather drink beers during the day than straight rum. It was pretty cool and consisted of about 20 minutes of touring and then 30 minutes of drinking as many free beers as you can and getting to try all the different types.
Snorkeling- There is a jetty out to the left of Rockley Beach which is what the hotel was on and I went out there 2 times for snorkeling and saw some cool stuff. Both times I saw a sea turtle which was pretty cool and was not expecting it.
Walked on the new boardwalk- They constructed a boardwalk/jetty system about 2 years ago which was pretty cool to walk along. It was decently long and started at out hotel and went almost to the Hilton. It was a cool thing to see as it was an engineering project and doubled as a functional structure.
Drove to the place I stayed at last time and checked out all the new construction and also watched kite surfers at a beach that I can't think of the name. It was in the Dover beach, Miami Beach area and was situated just around the tip of South Point.
Oistin's Fish Fry- Lots of locals with music and tons of food to eat. It was fun and would recommend checking it out for the experience.
Sand Phil Collins- Sussudio Karaoke after having a few too many rum and tonics at the pool bar.
Overall the trip was great. PM me if you are thinking about heading down there and need some info!
