Barbados Beaches and Nature: Crane Beach, Platinum Coast, Bathsheba Surf, Speightstown, and the Green Monkey Reserve
The beaches and natural attractions of Barbados span the 1887 Crane Beach Hotel and its pink coral sand, the luxury Platinum Coast calm water, the dramatic Atlantic surf at Bathsheba, the colonial north coast town of Speightstown, and the free-roaming Green Monkey Wildlife Reserve.
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Crane Beach: The Oldest Resort Hotel
Crane Beach on the southeast Atlantic coast of Barbados, where the Crane Beach Hotel has operated since 1887 and claims to be the oldest resort hotel in the Caribbean, has one of the most photographed beach environments in the Eastern Caribbean, with the pink-tinged coral sand and the Atlantic swell breaking on the natural rock pools creating a beach of visual drama quite different from the calm western Caribbean beaches.
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West Coast: The Platinum Coast
The west coast of Barbados, known as the Platinum Coast for the concentration of luxury villas, boutique hotels, and the beach clubs of Holetown and Speightstown where the wealthiest Caribbean visitors stay, has some of the calmest and most beautiful Caribbean beach water accessible from a major international destination, with the turquoise sea and the white sand creating the ideal Caribbean beach environment enhanced by the sophisticated hospitality infrastructure of the luxury villa rental market.
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Bathsheba: The Surfers Coast
Bathsheba on the Atlantic east coast of Barbados, where the Soup Bowl break provides one of the finest right-hand reef waves in the Caribbean and the Bathsheba rock pools are the most photographed natural feature on the island, is the destination that shows a completely different Barbados from the calm western tourist infrastructure, with the raw Atlantic energy and the dramatic natural landscape of the east coast providing the counterpoint to the manicured luxury of the Platinum Coast.
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Speightstown: The North Coast Town
Speightstown on the north coast of Barbados, the second largest town on the island and the historic port of the northern plantation districts, has a colonial townscape of 17th and 18th century buildings preserved in a setting more intimate and less tourist-managed than Bridgetown, with the Arlington House Museum providing the finest interpretation of the plantation history and the informal fish market providing the authentic community encounter.
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Flower Forest and Gardens: The Highland Interior
The Flower Forest botanical garden in the Scotland District highlands of central Barbados, planted in 1983 on a former sugar estate at 850 feet elevation, provides the panoramic view over the Atlantic coast and the plantation landscape in a setting of tropical flowering plants and palm trees that offers the cool highland contrast to the beach and rum shop culture of the coastal lowlands.
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Barbados Wildlife Reserve: The Green Monkeys
The Barbados Wildlife Reserve in the north of the island, established to protect the Green Monkey population that arrived from West Africa on slave ships in the 17th century and has since established itself as the dominant primate of Barbados, allows visitors to walk freely among the free-roaming monkey population alongside the red-footed tortoises, agouti, and the Barbados deer in a naturalistic setting.