Tr avel report BARBADOS
guests next year as part of the hotel’s all-inclusive wellbeing offering.
The benefits of singing are welldocumented: it’s proven to boost feel-good chemicals endorphins and oxytocin, and studies have found it to help with everything from lung problems to dementia.
I don’t know if it’s the sun, the sea or the songs but I’m certainly feeling uplifted as we wrap things up for the day.
The sessions take up only two hours every morning, leaving plenty of time to relax around the hotel, perhaps enjoy an indulgent spa treatment, and explore the island.
Situated in the parish of St James, the resort occupies an enviable position on the sheltered west coast of Barbados, brushing up against the beach just a few hundred metres away from the famous Sandy Lane Bay.
Guests stay in a cluster of whitewashed wooden buildings surrounding a central pool area with bars and restaurants dotted in amongst them. The Atlantic is practically lapping at my bedroom door beneath my suite’s spacious balcony-cum-living area, and the gentle toss of the waves lulls me into a peaceful sleep in my grand mahogany king-size bed. Jet lag? What jet lag?
If morning choir practice wasn’t enough to set you up for the day, you can also wake up to a spot of morning beach yoga down on the sand before helping yourself to the generous breakfast buffet in the Sunset restaurant (don’t miss award-winning chef Heather’s omelettes - there’s a reason people are queuing for them).
It’s one of two restaurants at the intimate, adults-only resort, serving a fresh and varied lunch buffet in the afternoon and an a la carte menu featuring steak and lobster dishes by night.
For a true flavour of Barbados, be sure to book into Enid’s to try island specialities such as flying fish and other Caribbean favourites like ackee and saltfish, washed down with colourful cocktails shaken up in the rum shack next door.
One of the island’s best restaurants, Lonestar, is also nearby and well worth a visit to enjoy fish dishes such as coconut-crusted chilli prawns and soy and miringlazed barracuda as crabs scuttle in the sand close by.
We also enjoy lunch at the historic Round House restaurant, which clings to the Bathsheba hillside with a breathtaking view of the rugged, palm-fringed eastern coast, on one of the island discovery tours guests can book through the hotel.
The ocean is much rougher here, crashing against dramatic rock formations washed away from the ancient coral reef. There’s no swimming allowed on this side of the island and it’s largely unspoilt as a result.
The tour also takes us to a clifftop lookout above Animal Flower Cave, on the northern tip of the island, past colourful chattel houses, sugar cane plantations and and trees groaning with green, bulbous breadfruit, as we learn more about the country around us.
Barbados recently celebrated 50 years of independence from British colonial rule, although it remains part of the commonwealth and English is the official language.
It’s got one of the highest literacy rates in the world, has more places of worship per square metre than any other country and has one of the highest rates of life expectancy anywhere on earth - only Japan has more centenarians.
We’re visiting in June, in the rainy season, but the downpours are mostly short and sharp with plenty of sunshine in between. And no weather could put me off a boat trip to swim with turtles a few miles off the coast.
A tropical shower spills down on us as we snorkel around the boat - a surprisingly invigorating experience - and we soon get a glimpse of one of these majestic creatures, his barnacled beak bobbing up for air every few minutes before plunging back down and gliding gracefully beneath us.
As we sail back, we pass the secluded Gibbes Beach, one of the island’s best-kept secrets. There are no private beaches on Barbados; every single one is public and beckoning to be explored.
Chief among the island’s many treasures are its people; they’re among the friendliest folk I’ve ever met. We’re welcomed warmly by