Sandals Barbados and Sandals Royal Barbados - Part 2

Wednesday

Wednesday was the day for our Story of Rum Tour with Glory Tours. Our tour guide, Stephen, met us in the lobby at 8:30 and then we drove to Bridgetown to pick up four more passengers. As we went along, Stephen pointed out the Parliament Building and the Garrison Savannah Racetrack where we saw some of the horses back from their daily swim in the ocean. But once we got to the other passengers’ hotel, we found out that they had rescheduled, so we ended up having the tour to ourselves. :-)

Our first stop was St Nicholas Abbey, which was not an abbey at all but a 400-acre sugarcane plantation and rum distillery. The plantation operated from the 1600s until it closed in 1947. Then in 2006, it was purchased by architect Larry Warren and his family, who restored the Great House and began producing sugar and rum again. In 2018, they also added the St Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway, a train track that looped around the plantation, designed to recreate the experience of the original train service that ran from Bridgetown to the east coast between 1881 and 1937.

It was a 45-minute drive up the west coast and across the island to the plantation. Once we got there, we boarded a restored steam engine train for a ride on the railway. The train took us to the top of Cherry Tree Hill, where the engine was detached from the cars, turned around on a turntable and reattached to the other end of the cars for the return ride. The engineer asked for volunteers to help turn the engine and let us blow the steam whistle. The view of the coastline from Cherry Tree Hill was amazing! We could see almost all the way to the Rugged Point Lighthouse on the easternmost point of the island. It reminded me of the view from our Waihe’e Ridge Trail hike in Maui except I didn’t have to hike to see it. The disadvantage of it being easier to get to was that there were vendors at the top of the hill trying to sell us souvenirs. :-)

After the train ride, we toured the plantation’s Great House, where we were greeted by Rosa, the friendly house cat. The house was built in 1658 in Jacobean architectural style and furnished with pieces from the 1800s and early 1900s. We also visited the distillery where the rum was made using traditional methods. We got to see sugarcane being hand-fed into a steam mill and the specially designed combination pot and column still, affectionately named “Annabelle”. There was a lot more to see at the plantation, but we needed to move on to the rest of the tour, so we quickly sampled a glass of the 5-year rum and then rejoined Stephen.

blowing the steam whistle

Cherry Tree Hill

Rosa, the house cat

Annabelle

We drove down the east coast, stopping for a photo op at the Morgan-Lewis windmill, one of only two intact windmills left in the Caribbean. Then it was on to lunch at the Sand Dunes Bar and Restaurant. Lunch was included with the tour, a traditional Bajan meal of flying fish, peas and rice, and macaroni pie. Even with all the restaurants at Sandals, this was one of my favorite meals of the trip. When we were done eating, we continued down the east coast to Bathsheba, a rugged beach littered with giant boulders. Stephen explained that Barbados was formed by the collision of tectonic plates. As the plates pushed upwards and rose out of the sea, large boulders broke off and rolled down to the shore. Years of erosion then gave them their strange mushroom shapes. It was really a beautiful area, even with the sargassum seaweed that had washed onto the beach.

Morgan-Lewis Windmill

Bathsheba

Our last stop was the Mount Gay Rum Distillery Visitor Center in Bridgetown. Mount Gay has been in operation since 1703, making it the world’s oldest rum distillery. We had half an hour before the next rum tasting, which gave us time to drink our complimentary rum punch. At the rum tasting, our guide Zareah let us sample four different rums – Silver, Eclipse, Black Barrel and XO. Ron and I agreed that the Black Barrel was the best. We didn’t buy any rum because we’d be getting a bottle from Sandals and we only had so much room in our suitcases, but I did purchase a jar of Barbados raw sugar to use for making mojitos.

We didn’t get back to the resort until late afternoon. The rum and long car ride had made me sleepy, so we wanted something casual and simple for dinner. We went to the Merry Monkey, the British pub in the courtyard. That night there was a chocolate buffet and silent disco, but I just couldn’t stay awake for it. We were in our room and in bed by 8:30. It was a long day, but I really enjoyed seeing so much of the island. Barbados is a beautiful country, colorful and lush. If we go back, I hope we can spend more time on the east coast and visit some of the lighthouses.

The Merry Monkey

Thursday

We didn’t have any plans for the day except to relax. We set up camp on our usual chairs by the main pool, occasionally popping into the water to sun on a floatie or get a drink from the swim up bar. It was very windy that day, and the Hobie Cats were zipping across the water. I wanted to go sailing but Ron thought it would be too rough. He was probably right. The people coming off the catamarans looked pretty drenched. This was the one disadvantage of Sandals Barbados. The beach was beautiful with soft sand and turquoise water but because of the resort’s location on the south coast, the waves were too rough for most watersports or an onsite snorkel boat. Sandals Negril was one of my favorite resorts because of the watersports - wakeboarding, tubing, paddleboards and snorkeling. On the other hand, it was hard to beat the Sandals Barbados pools.

Before heading to dinner, we had our pictures taken in the courtyard beside the lobby. We had reservations for Butch’s Chophouse, which turned out to be our favorite restaurant. I had Oysters Rockefeller and a veal chop with cabernet sauce, and we shared a side of lobster mac and cheese. For dessert, we both ordered the Oreo crusted cheesecake which was topped with a bruléed marshmallow. Everything was delicious.

photo by Sandals photographer

photo by Sandals photographer

Butch's Chophouse

When we finished dinner, we went to Lover’s Lanes to watch the Lightning play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Lover’s Lanes was Sandals’ only bowling alley and a sports bar with large-screen TVs, ping pong tables and a menu of international beers. We found a spot to watch the game on one of the outdoor TVs, but unfortunately, we were far outnumbered by the Canadian fans who gave us dirty looks whenever we cheered. Go Lightning! :-)  We left and wandered down to the main pool to listen to the saxophonist playing outside Schooners.

Lover's Lanes

Friday

Our last full day. I was awake early again, so I decided to look for the monkeys one more time. I snuck out of the room and walked back to the service road where I’d found them before. I was scanning the trees when suddenly I saw a monkey walking along the top of the fence straight towards me. There were four more monkeys behind him, a smaller one leapfrogging over the others. One of the monkeys looked a bit strange and then I realized it was because she had a little baby clinging to her belly as she walked. At one point she turned towards me, and I could see the baby monkey’s tiny head wrapped protectively in her paw. It was an amazing sight. This time I didn’t break the monkey-spotting rule because there were a few other people out and about. We watched quietly as the monkeys headed into the resort and towards the South Seas pool. They didn’t seem bothered by people and just went on their way.

Ron and I spent the rest of the morning taking care of last-day business. First, we had to get our COVID tests for the return trip. I went to the photo shop and sorted through the pictures the photographers had taken of us over the week. And we visited the Loyalty Center to book our next trip and pick up our bottle of rum. The rum turned out to be Mount Gay’s Black Barrel, our favorite of the ones we’d tried on the Story of Rum Tour. Yay!

We had lunch at the Jerk Shack and relaxed in the main pool. The winds were even stronger that day, so water sports was shut down and we didn’t get to go sailing. But I didn’t want to go home without getting into the ocean again, so we jumped and played in the big waves.

That night we had dinner at La Parisienne, the rooftop French restaurant. I had escargot and tiger prawns and Ron ordered French onion soup and beef medallions. We shared the chocolate opera cake and berry pastry for dessert. After dinner Ron was sleepy, so we went to Lover’s Lanes and played ping pong to perk ourselves up. We were really out of practice! After chasing the ping pong ball around for a while, we were awake but sweaty. :-)  To cool off, we went to the Oyster Bar for one last chocolate martini. At 10 o’clock, the piano bar entertainer, Dale, started playing, and the lobby quickly filled up with people. I wished we’d made it to the piano bar sooner. Why do we always find the fun stuff on the last night? We sang along until the karaoke started and then headed back to the room where we sat on the balcony listening to the tree frogs and the waves crashing on the beach.

roof-top pool and Sky Bar

Saturday

The next day as we boarded the shuttle bus to the airport, some of the staff sang a goodbye song and waved as we pulled away. It’s always hard to leave, but it helped to know that we already have our next trip planned for Sandals Montego Bay in November. It will only be goodbye for a little while!

Where we ate:
Schooners Seafood Grill
Chi Asian Fusion
Portofino’s Italian Restaurant
The Merry Monkey Pub
Butch’s Chophouse
La Parisienne
Dino’s Pizzeria
Neptune’s
Jerk Shack
Café de Paris
Sweet n’ Salty’s Donuts
Plus the breakfast buffets at Spices and American Tavern