BARBADOS FOR 1 0 -YEAR- OLDS
Getting up close to sea turtles and visiting a magical botanical world were just a couple of the highlights for Fred Mawer’s sons on a family holiday to the island
On a number of lovely west-coast beaches, we were spying parrot fish and blue tang
That initial blast of tropical heat walking down the steps off the plane... The bathtub-warm sea with multicoloured fish flitting round your ankles... The cacophony of tree frogs filling the air each night...
Children of almost any age will delight in those thrillingly exotic sensory experiences you get when visiting Barbados. But based on a family trip we made to the island a couple of summers ago – when Edward was nine and Arthur 11 – I’d say that 10 is a perfect age for a child to appreciate all that Barbados has to offer.
Why so? Well, for one thing, Barbados is brilliant for family-friendly watery activities, particularly off the west coast where the sea is usually millpond-calm. But to enjoy them, children need to be old enough to have learnt to swim properly.
Our hotel, like most on the island, included lots of free water sports in its rates. So we pootled around on kayaks and tried our hand at paddle boarding (it’s amusing when the wake of passing boats rocks you off the board), and Arthur even had his first go at waterskiing. On the sixth attempt he made it upright, and stayed that way for a full minute – with big respect from the instructor and me.
And we snorkelled every day. On a number of lovely west-coast beaches such as Paynes Bay and Gibbes, a reef starts just off the shore, so within seconds of being in the water we were spying parrot fish and blue tang through our masks. Snorkelling aside, I highly recommend visiting little- known Gibbes Beach. It is hidden from the road by gorgeous villas, and apart from scuttling land crabs we had its shaded golden sands virtually all to ourselves.
Paynes Bay offers the chance for a close-up encounter with very special marine life. Every morning, green turtles gather in a spot several hundred yards out from the beach. Most visitors stop off to see them as part of a day-long catamaran excursion, but we decided to pop out from the beach on a small private craft.
It was the best hundred bucks I have ever spent on a family outing. Roddy, our genial boatman, provided us with masks, fins and lifejackets, and we clambered down a ladder off the side of the boat into the clear and deep blue sea. Within a few minutes, Roddy’s titbits had enticed four juvenile turtles. They glided effortlessly among us for around 45 minutes, coming up so close it was possible to touch their tawny shells. The boys absolutely loved the whole experience, which proved to be a great confidence-building exercise in their swimming – Edward even took off his floatation jacket so he could plunge underneath the surface to see the turtles better.
If that all sounds a little too challenging for your offspring, take a trip on Atlantis Submarines. You get to ride in a real (48-seater) sub down 150ft to the ocean bed, and peer out through portholes at delicate fan coral, giant barrel sponges and large shoals of yellowtail snapper and chromis. If you’re lucky (as we were), a nosy turtle or two might swim by.
Not all of Barbados’ entertainment lies out at sea. One of the island’s USPs for families is that there is plenty to see and do on land too. And since Barbados is little larger than the Isle of Wight, few journeys in a hire car last more than half an hour, so you can bank on there being few “Are we nearly there yet?” moans from the back seat.
The Barbados Wildlife Reserve, set in woodland up in the island’s rural highlands, was a hit with the family. Its brick paths are covered with hundreds of native red-footed tortoises, and we made our first sighting of one of Barbados’ wild and cheeky-looking green monkeys here. Originally brought over from West Africa during the slave trade, the monkeys can be spotted in many parts of the island: I’ve even been entertained by a troop of them over breakfast on the terrace of a B&B.
On another trip into the island’s interior, we took a tour on an electric tram through Harrison’s Cave, a set of impressive caverns rich in stalactites and stalagmites, and visited nearby Hunte’s Gardens. While the prospect of visiting gardens is unlikely to set the pulses of 10-yearolds racing, Arthur and Edward found this magical botanical world enchanting. It occupies a vast sink hole, with quirky statuary dotted around the soaring palms, and the engaging owner, Anthony Hunte, took the boys to see a hummingbird nest.
It would be remiss to take school-age children to Barbados and not provide them with a history lesson. Go to the excellent Arlington House Museum in Speightstown, a languid town on the north-west coast that was once known as Little Bristol because of its close trading links with the English port. Our boys found the displays covering slavery the most thought-provoking, particularly how much a child slave was worth to a Barbados plantation owner.
On a lighter note, any visit to Barbados should include splashing out on a meal or two in its many fine restaurants. And having children in tow should not put you off doing that – the restaurants here are much more casual than high-end places to eat back in the UK.
Arthur and Edward reckon the meal we had at The Cliff was their most memorable ever. They loved the James Bond-like setting (you dine on torch-lit decks above a floodlit cove full of giant tarpon and stingrays), the eye-popping puds (ice cream in a white chocolate sphere, a tropical knickerbocker glory topped with popping sweets), and chatting with the waiters about which of their Man United heroes had recently eaten there. We also had a great meal at Daphne’s, an upmarket Italian backing directly on to Paynes Bay beach – the children mucked around out on the sand between courses.
One Friday night we headed over to the southcoast fishing village of Oistins for its weekly Fish Fry. It’s very family-friendly earlier in the evening, with visitors from seven to 70 sitting at communal tables chowing down on bargain-priced platters of tuna and swordfish, with classic Bajan dishes of macaroni pie and rice and peas on the side. Even if your children are, like ours, somewhat faddy, the rumbustious party atmosphere will keep them entertained – a Michael Jackson impersonator strutting his stuff on the main stage made a big impression on our boys.
Talking of big impressions, our visit to Barbados in early August coincided with the culmination of Crop Over, Barbados’ annual carnival. So one morning we got a taxi over to the outskirts of Bridgetown to watch the Grand Kadooment parade.
Given Arthur and Edward’s ages, we were in two minds about whether to go. Would it be too hot and full-on for them? The heat was sapping and the music and crowds were intense, but there were lots of local families lining the route, and the boys coped well. It was a real cultural revelation for them to watch: the let-it-all-hang-out revellers – many of the women were wearing just bikinis and feathered headdresses – as they danced provocatively along the street behind floats blaring out deafening calypso sounds.
For us, taking in the parade was yet another example of a thoroughly rewarding experience you can have in Barbados with children around 10 years old.