A PERFECT PAIRING
DISCOVER BARBADOS WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS
Britain’s flagship airline has had a special relationship with this Caribbean gem for 50 years, says Rob Crossan
As far as retirement homes go, there are worse places for a certain legendary aircraft to see out its days. With the cerulean skies and cotton-bud clouds scudding over the tree-smothered peaks and the spumy ocean rolling beyond, Barbados and its international airport, are the final resting place for one of the world’s most famous planes.
Still looking as sleek and majestic as ever, the Concorde Experience at Grantley Adams International Airport is truly symbolic of the relationship that British Airways has long enjoyed with this, one of the most beautiful and luxurious islands in the Caribbean.
It was way back in the Coronation year that British Airways (then known as BOAC) first began flights to Barbados from the UK. And, more than half a century on, this island still enchants.
Oistins may just be the most spectacularly-situated fish market on Earth. Beyond the small covered shacks where locals expertly fillet local flying fish at breakneck speed lie the demure western shores of this bijou island.
Sand the colour of unsalted butter leads down to turquoise waters of a hue that looks as if it’s been drawn with a child’s crayon.
Three upturned wooden fishing boats, the bellies of which gleam in the insistent afternoon sun, are the only barriers between an impromptu picnic of grilled fish and a sybaritic afternoon swim.
On an island still so closely tied to its British colonial heritage, you can’t go for more than five minutes’ driving time here without encountering a limestone Anglican church or a red post box – it’s hardly surprising that the dozens of food shacks that make up Oistins are all in the shape of old-fashioned British beach chalets, painted various tones of red, yellow and blue.
Although Barbados became independent from the UK half a century ago, there’s still a touch of the Cotswolds about the more rural parts of the island, with colonial-era cottages, sturdy Anglican churches, windmills, horse racing tracks and cricket clubs all adding to a land where the age-old habits of reclining with a stiff gin and tonic on a scorching mid-afternoon are still alive and well.
Difficult as it can be to leave the soporific oasis of the coastline, with its array of boutique luxury hotels and perfect sunset moments, it’s worth venturing into the interior of Barbados for some insight into the history of this proud land.
The Sunbury Plantation House is a 300-year-old sugar estate with quoined corners, sash windows, colonial antiques, sundries and curiosities (including a fascinating selection of Edwardian copies of Vanity
Fair on a mahogany writing desk) and landscaped gardens scattered with old carts and machinery used to cultivate the land.
In the back of the house there lies a delightful selection of Bajan delicacies to make up a mouthwatering buffet lunch. Moving along the line you can fill your plate with all manner of local dishes such as macaroni pie, baked chicken, cou-cou and, best of all, a portion of sea cat, the Bajan term for a small octopus, pickled and cooked with breadfruit, onion and peppers.
It may be the ultra-luxe resorts such as Sandy Lane which have attracted the likes of Pavarotti, George Michael, Mick Jagger and the Beckhams to Barbados over the decades, but that’s not to say that the island is a retreat for the uber- wealthy alone.
British Airways now flies here from the UK up to a dozen times a week and offers a huge array of holiday packages to suit a variety of budgets all over this Lilliputian land, from the lively beaches and latenight bars of St Lawrence Gap in the south of the island to the idyllic beaches, hidden coves and top-level golf courses of the west coast and the craggy cliffs of the east side.
It’s over in the east that locals claim the “real” Barbados lies. Less visited than other parts of the island, this is an area where the bellicose Atlantic Ocean hurls itself at the coastline,