Hours into my Barbados vacation, at Chill Café Bar & Grill, an open-air beach bar on the South Coast Hastings Boardwalk in southwestern Barbados, I'm calming my nerves with a club soda. My bar mates, all locals, assure me that I'm not the first visitor to fall prey to a pothole. The local mechanic, I'm told, cruises around bailing out Americans unaccustomed to left-side driving. Navigational challenges aside, Barbados's landscape, ranging from secluded beaches to jungles to mountain villages, is best explored by car. It's small (about 170 square miles) and manageable, and the curvy, narrow back roads force you to slow down and admire the scenery. Many travelers associate Barbados with the wide beaches, opulent retreats like the Colony Club, and polo games of its Caribbean-facing coast, but its less-visited Atlantic side has a wild, bohemian flavor that is equally appealing, and the contrast between the two makes the little island feel a lot bigger.
Barbados is one of the only Caribbean islands where you can surf, so I kick off the trip with my first-ever lesson. Out on Freights Bay, on the south coast, the swells are gentle and the water is as soft as suede. Zac, my instructor from the surf school Ride the Tide, shouts encouraging mantras at me. Hungry, I head down Highway 7 to Cuz's Fish Stand, a Brownes Beach stalwart that serves flying-fish sandwiches two ways: “Cheese or no cheese.” (Correct order: cheese.) In the village of Oistins, I make a sharp turn onto a side street after glimpsing the bright blue water of Welches Beach, a blink-and-you-miss-it sliver where I have the sands almost all to myself. As the sky starts to darken, I walk to Pat's Place, next to Oistins Fish Market, for dinner: grilled marlin with a garlicky marinade and macaroni pie. Given that it's shoulder season, there isn't much happening aside from the dancehall tunes by local legend Demarco wafting from a nearby bar. Soon after sunset I return to my laid-back hotel, the 10-room Little Arches, and fall asleep to the sound of whistling frogs.
Few smells are better to wake up to than fresh-baked banana bread. I try a slice, watching the tiny yellow birds going for my crumbs, then head 20 minutes eastward to the funky Bajan café Cutters, which I was rightly told has an omelet to die for. Just north is Shark Hole, where today there are massive waves thundering over the coral reefs, flooding the beach. Even though I can't lie out, it's a spectacular photo op. Fifteen minutes farther north, past colorful chattel houses and churches, I arrive at a dead end and take the slippery footpath to Bottom Bay, which is serenely calm. Tempting though it is to stay on the beaches all day, I can't miss the dense jungles and hilly farmlands of the interior. Highway 5 starts the 45-minute journey to Hunte's Gardens, an otherworldly botanical garden in a large sinkhole on a former sugar plantation. The road turns bumpy for the last 10 minutes before PEG Farm, a biodynamic farm and nature reserve. I stop at their café for star fruit-basil juice and lemon cake, both freshly made. As I veer north through the jungle and back toward the coast, the route gets twisty and mountainous. Rain-slicked waist-high grasses whoosh against the car doors. Finally I see my destination: Bathsheba, a world-famous surf break that lies just beyond the coral.
My home base on the west coast—often called the Platinum Coast for its monied reputation—is the House, a 34-room beach hotel. From there, it's a short drive through farmland to Earthworks Pottery, where artists mold clay vases and fire them in huge kilns. Continuing on Highway 2A, I reach the quiet shoreline of Six Men's Bay. A friendly guy named Omar offers me island tips before inviting me to “chill and drink rum,” but I need to press on toward Speightstown, Barbados's first major port (and sister city to Charleston, South Carolina). Once there I'm surrounded by peachy-toned colonial architecture. I stop at the Orange Street Grocer for swordfish and greens in a bright space that could have been imported from Malibu, then visit the small but impressive Gallery of Caribbean Art. On the way back to the House, I grab a mango smoothie at Adrian's Corner, on Mullins Beach. With that day's list of Barbados vacation adventures done—and my left-side driving skills a little more polished—it's finally time to chill and drink that rum.
