Best Caribbean vacation # 9 is Barbados

photo by meglet127	via PhotoRee

Now I am going to take a look at Barbados to see if it truly is the best Caribbean vacation.

Barbados is one of the furthest Caribbean islands from the U.S. mainland. 100 miles East of the Grenadines and St. Lucia a 3 hour and 40 minute flight from Miami, which explains why it cost so much more to fly there than say the Virgin Islands. Along with Aruba, Barbados is about as far as you can get in the Caribbean. It is a good size island 21 miles long by 14 miles wide.  The principal city is Bridgetown which contains about 80,000 of the islands 285,000 residents.  Barbados was once owned by the Spanish then the Portugese before becoming a British colony.  Since 1966 has been a Commonwealth Nation of the United Kingdom.  There's that driving on the wrong side of the road again.

photo by ben.ramirez	via PhotoRee

Barbados is the birthplace of rum 370 years ago which the rest of the Caribbean is not doubt thankful for.
Those into scuba diving will be glad to know that Barbados is the shipwreck capital of the world.  Deep sea fishing and surfing are popular sports on Barbados also.

Barbados is no slouch when it comes to beautiful beaches.  In case you haven't noticed, beaches are my main concern when planning my best Caribbean vacations.  I just love lounging on a beach and soaking up the sun with a good book and a cold beverage.  With high temperatures between 84-88 degrees year round and 3000 hours of sunshine Barbados is equal to any other Caribbean island for beach bums like me at least.  They claim Barbados is outside the hurricane belt, which seems odd to me because almost every hurricane I see heading into the Caribbean goes right through this area.  I would think it would be a high risk island for hurricanes.

photo by ben.ramirez	via PhotoRee

In 2005 Barbados was voted number one by travel agents as the Caribbean's leading destination.  Apparently the goal of the government is to make Barbados the #1 place in the world to live, work, play and invest.  Sounds to me like Barbados certainly deserves its place in the top 10 best Caribbean vacations. You'll find the best deals there on Book It and you can also Find Last Minute Deals at hotels.com!

If you are interested, I have ranked the top 10 best hotels on Barbados and the best Barbados all inclusive resorts in floridas based on reviews.

Please feel free to post a comment about your experience in Barbados. Thanks!