Each remeberance on this island draws out a smile on my face! Just as I write this, I have Jackson’s song "Working day and night" (1979) in my head. On this very island entire all-day’s work would be forgotten in only few minutes. Ha… it’s getting interesting? ... take it easy, we’ll come to that…

My dear reader and chance traveller, follow me and enjoy. This beauutiful Caribbean island is the easternmost. Its inhabitants love to say the following: ..."When God made the Caribbean, he decided to repose, but none of the islands he made by that time wasn’t exactly his favourite, so he decided to create Barbados and distance it from the others, for him to repose in paradise alone." Very good! If you drop a glance on the map you’ll see that Barbados really is apart from this group of islands. Island is 21 mile long and "wide as a smile", or 14 miles... I call that marketing... It has 266.800 inhabitants, and the capital is Bridgetown. Not even this island could avoid British curiosity and their will to conquer, so they arrived here in 1627. and they turn local people, betime Ameroindians into slavery. Barbados becomes independent in 1966. But British heritage had left the constitution based on British style and parlamentary democracy. I don’t wan to fill your heads with too many details,… watch this… temperature here never drops under 25° Celsius! Gorgeous!

This island is definitely different than any of those described by now. Don’t expect mountains, hills here... Everything is plain, no jungles, backwoods, volcanoes. But there are miraculously beautiful sand beaches, decorated with palm trees, beautiful fancy hotels, villas next to the sea. Well, that is Caribbean side of the island, while Atlantic one is completely different. Steap underwater cliffs and large waves have made this side of the coast last port to many ships in the past. Naturally, showbusiness stars have their villas and private properties here, thoroughly hidden from curios eyes with high walls. Oprah found here her place under the sun, and just at the time I was here, Tiger Woods got married. No buzz without me :-)

My first encounter with Barbados was, despite all the thrill, a bit dissapointing. I’ve chosen to come by sea, came off the ship, and did not enjoy the view that much. Besides it being a port for touristic and freight ships, it is also a merchandise terminal. However, as soon as you move off that site and go through the shopping center, where you must pass to exit the terminal (another marketing trick), you forgather outside on the road that takes you to the center itself.

In this 10 minutes’ walk, as much as you need to come to the center, you can really get into the lifestyle and philosophy of living in Barbados. The same as in documentaries I used to watch on TV, thus the adventure of everything seen was much stronger. Simplicity and typically Caribbean attitude towards life, slowliness and inattention. Take a look at the photo with the Ministry sign and you’ll know what am I talking about. Not to leave the wrong impression, I point out that this is not Dominica or a third world country. After short introduction to the island, you realize you have all accomodation as if you were at home, even though it’s not visible at first sight.

While you walk, a milion taxis will blare and offer a ride, what turns irritating after a short while. And there you come in the Bridgetown center. Cars on the left and on the right sound or wave to let you know you are in the way, and then you realize they drive the wrong side, right to them, left side of the road. That’s something one must get used to, that’s for sure, especially when you are a bit more drunk and taxi drives you by night. Main street is full of shops, banks, jewelleries, what is a sort of a tradition on most of the islands. Lots of people on streets pull you for the sleeve wanting to ask you something. Either beggars or pot sellers. Light footstep and amazement with the new world brings you to the third oldest parliament in the world that is Bajan’s pride and glory. Bajan is the name for a Barbados inhabitant (read: Beid??n). To an average tourist who came to Barbados with the ship and has alltogether 10 hours available for introduction to entire island, there ceases the interest for wider city kernel and he goes to the nearest beach. Don’t wonder around like a headless fly, dear reader, chance traveller, let me ease your trouble. Finally, this is the purpose of this page…

Tourism is one of the most important activities in the economy of this island. We all witness the "buzz" present for centuries now worldwide when one mentiones Barbados. This is the most idealized island when talking about total ease, on a sand beach near the sea. Admit that this is the first name you connect with the idea… Is it incredibly marketing move thorough planned centuries ago or casualness, I cannot say. Everything related to tourism is precisely organized, it is determined who does what, when and where. It is no wonder then that all excursions or toure offered by several agencies are brought to perfection. You can experience this island in several ways. You may decide to take standard sightseeing of the island with the bus or a rented car. There are few ferries in the offer to give you a ride around the island, to the best spots to dive or just sailing, swimming in the warm sea, drink original Mount gay rum and embrace your sweetheart… or somebody’s...

My personal and high recommendation is Five Star catamaran, with excellent crew and delicious lunch. If you are more an underground type, with excess of adrenaline, just take the underground caves’ seeing or you may even jump in a small train to take you down there, of course accompanied by an expert guide and explanations. It’s something like a day schedule. And night one…. Weeeeelll… this is the culmination of this entire scribble! :-)

If you know the right place, you can have hell of a tim here … but I mean woe of a time! I talk about the nights when you feel that sexy vibre in the air, no matter where you are. If you want to spend a romantic evening with your better half, no matter who that is in your relationship, there are so many smart restaurants and cosy places near the sea or beach, where you’ll feel that your love torrents and romance fulfilled with positive energy elevated to a higher level. As everywhere, every pleasure has its price, this too, which is actually normal. I just warn you, take your money with you… and you won’t regret it!!! BUT, if you are a party animal, this is THE place you’ll go crazy and remember it for the rest of your life! There is an important thing for you to know. In general, people in this part of the world, and Caribbean too, is soo open and approachable than European, even Croatian people. They are very straight, no round-abouts, they just say what they think or want. When the party starts rollin’, not ime to sleep! Believe my word! Half-naked beauties walk around, you just start up the talking, get to know them, dance… DJ is sweating in its cabin and plays all kinds of music, and when you drink a little, you start to dance on everything, just start shakin’ your bum in latino rhythm or let’s say Sean Paul. Sometimes it happens that everyone dance like in a trance, everyone love, kiss, touch one another … amazing feeeling! And after a while when all of them throw their clothes away and run naked into the warm sea … woeeeee!!! As if time stopped, you suddenly don’t care what happens next! My dear reader, chance traveller, mythes and stories on such ‘festivals’ are truue. If written word isn’t trustworthy, pictures speak thousand words and more… One of the most famous this type party places in Barbados, and most of them say it is the only one, is called the Boatyard. All generations come here. Many tourists come for a day, there’s the ship’s crew…

This is a place you cannot avoid or not visit, at least once. And I have promised to my excellent friend Sean that I’ll describe all the unforgettable nights spent here. Hey buddy, this is for you!!! I shall speak no more… you must discover all the enchantment. My dear reader, this is Barbados, and now you understand the smile on my face I told you about in the introduction. Open up the photos and emerge in the feeling…!