We only had about a day and a half in Barbados at the end of the trip, so we decided to rent a car and drive around to see the island. We quickly discovered that Barbados has one of the most dense road networks in the world which more or less made our island map next to useless. Many times we had to make quick decisions when the road suddenly split where you would think you were on the right road but really just lost.

The best way to find any one place was to look for the painted tourist signs as the road signs were not terribly helpful. After a few hours of this, we decided to just head back to the hotel and read on our balcony. While we did see a few beautiful vistas, I would reconsider renting a car next time, and at a minimum we’d definitely look into GPS.

pink gingers at the Flower Forest

shell ginger at the Flower Forest

We also had an interesting discussion with the ticket lady at the Flower Forest. Apparently, their company took over the grounds a few years ago but they never had the website updated and cannot get the previous owners to give the old domain name to them. The entrance fee is also higher in person than advertised, which I can imagine irritates some people. We joked a bit about this then but Barbados, in general, is very expensive so to have the stated fees higher than expected over and over again could make any cheerful tourist a tad grumpy.

leaves as big as me!

After a few wrong turns and twisty roads, we finally made it to the east coast!

Bathsheba beach on the east side of Barbados

We decided to have our dinner on our balcony overlooking the ocean rather than drop a small fortune at a local restaurant, so we drove to a Hole Town grocery store and stocked up on salt bread, two specialty cheeses, banana bread and a selection of Caribbean beers. For the sunset we simply walked across the street to the beach, had a seat on some rocks and enjoyed the view.

sunset at Hole Town on the west side of Barbados

Barbados was a bit of a culture shock after our week in Dominica—quite modern, with more people and more traffic, and rather expensive. I’m sure there are some quieter sides to the island and hopefully we’ll find them on a future trip.