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Language: English
Currency: Barbados dollar
Temperature: Average 75-85°F year-round
Square Miles: 166
Approx. Population: 265,000
Barbados has a rich colonial past, when early sugar plantations led to the first Caribbean rum distilleries, including the oldest, Mount Gay. The capital city of Bridgetown features the Garrison Historical Area, the Barbados Museum, the Barbados Gallery of Art, and shopping on Broad Street. Other noteworthy historical buildings are St. John's Church, St. Jame's Church, and Codrington College.
Natural attractions in Barbados include the Welchman Hall Gully, Harrison's Cave, Grenade Hall Forest, and the Barbados Wildlife Preserve, where you'll find Barbados green monkeys, red-footed Barbados tortoises, toucans, and parrots.
Barbados beaches are all public, drawing people from the large hotels and elsewhere. One beach, Bathsheba, is treacherous for swimming, but loved by experienced surfers. Scuba divers can enjoy reefs and shipwrecks around the island.
In the food department, make sure you try the local specialty, fried flying fish, on your next visit to Barbados!
Barbados is the 'Little England' of the Caribbean, but not so much so that the locals have given up rotis for kidney pies, or rum for bitter ale. Bajans, as the islanders call themselves, are as West Indian as any of their Caribbean neighbours, and have tended to selectively borrow rather than assume English customs.
Barbados sits almost a hundred miles east of its closest neighbour, so when the Spaniards, Danes, French and others were busy fighting over the rest of the Caribbean, Barbados sat back with its Pimm's on ice, remaining solidly British.
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