- Currency: Bajan Dollar
- Capital city: Bridgetown
- Language: English
- Key phrase to learn: “Leh we fire one” (Let’s have a fire drink)
- Time difference: GMT -4 hours
- Average flight time: Around eight hours and 50 minutes from London
- Emergency services number: Fire: 311, Police: 211, Ambulance: 511
- Public holidays: New Year’s Day (January 1), Errol Barrow Day (January 21), Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Whitmonday (seventh Monday after Easter), Kadooment Day (August 1), Emancipation Day (August 2), Independence Day (November 30), Christmas Day, Boxing Day and a public holiday on December 27.
- FCO travel advice and entry requirements: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/barbados
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Why go to Barbados?
A cocktail of swaying coconut palms, sugar-soft sands and calm turquoise waters, holidays to Barbados are the stuff of glossy mags and smug holiday postcards.
Think colourful sunsets, barefoot beach strolls, vivid coral reefs and generous helpings of rum punch. Sink your toes into the sand, grab an ice-cold local Banks Beer and soak up your slice of the good life.
Think colourful sunsets, barefoot beach strolls, vivid coral reefs and generous helpings of rum punch. Sink your toes into the sand, grab an ice-cold local Banks Beer and soak up your slice of the good life.
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Barbados holiday deals
From high-glamour to surfer-chic
High glamour rules the Caribbean west coast, where swanky Barbados all-inclusive resorts and private villas ooze sophistication next to dreamy white sands and gentle seas. If you’re after some serious pampering, it’s the place to be.
The wind-battered Atlantic east coast is a different story, with steeps cliffs and roaring waves that draw flocks of surfers, boogie boarders and water-sporters from all across the globe.
A paradise with proper tea
What’s more, holidays in Barbados are almost like visiting a tropical home-from-home. A former British colony, afternoon tea and village cricket are island institutions from days of old. There’s even a Kensington Oval, where locals cheer on their team with an ear-pounding mixture cymbals, conch shells and tin cans.
Once dubbed Little England, it’s paradise with proper tea - what could possibly be better?
Head inland for a different view of the island
If you’re up to wrenching yourself off the beach for an hour or two, there’s far more to Barbados holidays than sun, sea and sand. The edges are undeniably gorgeous, but heading inland you’ll get a totally different take on Bajan scenery.
Here you’ll find a staggeringly beautiful patchwork of sugar cane plantations, lush gullies and underground caves complete with tumbling waterfalls. The island is just 21 miles long and 14 miles wide, making it a breeze to get out and explore.
Larger-than-life locals
Bajan culture is lively, colourful and Caribbean through and through. With big smiles, warm hearts and high spirits, the locals are larger than life. Tap your feet to the kettle drums and penny whistles of a traditional tuk band, feast on a mind-boggling assortment of seafood fresh off the fishing boat and visit the local rum distilleries for a tipsy tour of island history.
There are all kinds of things to get up to on a Barbados holiday. Dive straight in.
Discover the best attractions on the island on our “What to do in Barbados page”.
When to go
For sun-soaked day after sun-soaked day, the best months to book your Barbados holidays are December to April, when rainfall dwindles and the humidity eases off.
Hurricane season begins in June and runs until November, although the island rarely gets hit by damaging storms. Prices plummet over this period, and if you don’t mind a few soggy days then it can be a great time to catch a deal.
A sneaky hack when booking holidays to Barbados is going in either May or early December. These months represent the book-ends of high season, and you can find top deals without sacrificing on sun. The weather in Barbados in December tends to be a little cooler than previous months, and a lot drier.
An event for your diary
If you’re in the market for a local knees-up, plan your Barbados holidays in 2017 over the Crop Over Festival, the island’s most popular event. Dating all the way back to 1780, Crop Over originally celebrated the end of the sugar cane harvest.
Today, sugar production has stopped but the party goes on, including a quirky carnival-style spectacle Cohobblopot, all kinds of calypso dancing and concerts around every corner.