I think we just about proved both those statements can be wrong, and here's how we did it.
Getting there
Air Lingus Manchester to Barbados direct have a deal on, much cheaper than Virgin or BA. I was impressed at the quality of service, would definitely use these again. Alcohol wasn't free but not extortionate. Both ways the plane was at best half full giving us space for my wife and child to stretch out fully and sleep whilst I could relax watching movies drinking G&T everyone was happy.
We booked fairly last minute so got a good deal on the special price. Note the basic price didn't include luggage, but we had a hand luggage allowance of 10kg each plus we purchased 1 25kg suitcase. Strangely despite paying for 25kg in the way back at check in they tried to charge us because we were over 23kg. Luckily (perhaps for the lady) she didn't have a credit card machine so she let us off paying again for something we had already paid for! Watch out for this.
From the airport you can walk outside and get a bus along the south coast. I did that last time with my trusty duffle bag. This time with a large wheelie suitcase plus wife and child I thought we should get a taxi. It is fixed priced well advertised so there is no rip off element to it, but doesn't mean the prices aren't eye watering.
Sleeping
Instead of booking £100- 200 per night hotels, we opted for highly rated budget apartments first staying 6 nights in Worthing, them 3 nights in Oistins, both places were around £60 per night. Both places, like most of Barbados, were modern in 1960, but they were clean, had AC, kitchen and were well located. Plenty for beer money saved on accommodation.
Eating
Breakfast at bars and restaurants isn't cheap, neither is food from local supermarkets. So we came prepared, we brought 4 packets of Aldi Pita breads, jam, cereal for the little one, some tea and coffee etc and all this plus some overpriced milk (I'm going to say it was £4 or £5 for a litre but can't quite remember) sorted us for breakfast. It helped having a kitchen in both places we stayed.
Lunch and dinner, there are plenty of top notch high end restaurants in Barbados, which come with a high end price tag. We gave them the swerve in the main and dined at food courts where a collection on catering vans would park up serving delicious local and international food. Worthing Square just across the road from where we were staying was on of our favourites.
Food at the food courts had three plus points, delicious, plentiful and didn't cost a small fortune. When I say plentiful, the portions were MASSIVE. Worthing Square had 'entertainment' on most nights with a stage where our 2.5 year old would race around chasing the local Bajan boys, who in turn treated her to some break-dancing moves. All great safe fun.
We did eat out at mid range places a few times but chose them for their location. 3 places that we really enjoyed were Zaccios in Hometown, Mimosas St Lawrence Gap and Surfers Cafe Oistins. All 3 were overlooking the ocean, from Mimosas we were treated to turtles bobbing there heads out the water frequently - our daughter loved that (so did mum and dad).
When we moved to Oistins we had 3 nights at Oistins Fish fry, Thursday was quiet but we had some great fish. Friday - the main night - was packed Sienna loved it dancing along to the acts. Saturday was a happy balance between the 2 previous nights, it wasn't so busy, but had a great atmosphere.
Drinking
Happy hours are your friend in Barbados, do some research, plan a route, makes drinking beers and local rum inexpensive. Lucky for me after each long day, around 4pm my wife and little one would retreat to the apartment for a 2 hour power nap, this conveniently coincided which the start of happy hours, which I thoroughly enjoyed the half price value on offer.
To be honest, even at full price if you choose your venues wisely, local beer Banks or a Rum Punch we're good value.
Getting around
Taxis are not cheap. A day tour costs $50 USD per hour (£40) so a 5 hour day trip sets you back £200. Hiring a car is not cheap £100 per day (if like us you are leaving it until last minute when budget options were sold out).
Getting around by local public/private transport is cheap. $3.50 BDS (around £1.40) for each journey, if you need to change bus you pay again. 3 options that all charge the same fair, blue bus - government run buses similar to what we get back home. Yellow bus, smaller buses, ZR vans these were our favourite, they pack passengers in, drive at break neck speeds listening to thumping Bajan music - our daughter loved what she named Boogie buses. ZR vans are cheap, frequent and fast plus they cover much of the island.
Having ruled out taxi or car rental, I needed to sort public transport to a few Sienna friendly activities. We fancied Barbados wildlife reserve, Harrison's caves and the horse racing. The first 2 I'd read were possible by public transport but very difficult, a definite no no with children.
Getting to the Harrison Caves. We set off this day to view Bridgetown for the day but the weather was pouring down so we headed to Harrison caves. From Worthing we got the 'Boogie bus' to Bridgetown across town to the other bus station and boarded another ZR. We had to wait 15 mins for the bus to be sufficiently full before starting the journey. The driver took us all the way to the visitor centre (off the normal route) but told us we'd need to walk about 1 mile back to the main road when we want to go back. After visiting the caves (more in this later) we visited the bird area, got speaking with the keeper, he took us out the back gate of the park and got us a ZR straight away.
Getting to the wildlife reserve was a similar story, don't go with kids by public transport etc. We got the long distance bus to Speightstown from there we picked up a ZR which again went off route to drop us at the attraction. There was a bus stop opposite but it was for the bus or yellow buses that pass infrequently (2 hourly). However a 30 minute walk down hill got us to the ZR route and took us back to Speightstown.
Getting to the horse racing was a breeze any bus or ZR on the south coast goes by here.
Toddler friendly activities
Barbados wildlife reserve
Sienna loved it here. We arrived just in time for monkey feeding at 11am. Around 50 surprisingly well behaved monkeys ran, played and feasted among us. After this we went into the reserve, it was quite good, Sienna was very happy to see the animals.
Harrison caves
This was good to do on a rainy day (it hammered it down so much the roads in the hills had turned to rivers). This is not a budget friendly activity, but is kid friendly so just about makes the cut for this blog. Had it been a nicer day we could have enjoyed more of the activities outside the caves which you ticket included to make it better value for money
Holetown 'aquarium'
Very much budget friendly this small museum and even smaller aquarium at Folkstone Marine Park was a huge hit with Sienna. There is no signage, it is upstairs from the shop in the car park. To be honest it wasnt great, but our little one liked it, which is what it's all about. The aquarium element of it was about half a dozen tanks of fish. The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.
Beach
The best free activity is on many of the fabulous picture postcard beaches. The seas on the south coast are a little rough so take care. West coast is best. We went to Rickley beach (south coast) on day 1, 5 minutes in the seas a large wave hit us (I was carrying Sienna) and that was that , she wouldn't go near sand or water after that.
We did try again and went to Savvy by the Bay near the famous Boatyard. The sea was much calmer here, but the damage was done on day one, and Sienna wasn't a big fan.
We went on a snorkeling tour, which was great. The first stop my snorkeling skills were rusty, but by the second stop over a ship wreck was amazing. Thuy (my wife, stayed on the boat with Sienna).
Horse Racing at Garrison Savannah
Sienna loves animals, so we took her to the races. My wife loved it as she has beginners luck picking winner after winner. Sienna sleep through most of the races. Tip put your bet on early, the staff are very slow at taking bets so the queues take time to go down.
Horses taking early morning dip
Another horse related (free) activity was to go down to Carlisle Bay to watch the race horses take a very early morning dip in the sea. It was 'ok', maybe it was the very early start that left us all underwhelmed.
Turtle watching from Oistins pier
Both budget and child friendly, for a couple of Barbados dollars fishermen will throw fish scraps into the water to attract turtles to you. Kid and adult friendly really worth it.
The many fabulous sunsets
One for the grown ups but is there anything better than a sundowner?
