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Harrison's Cave
The underground world here, the number-one tourist attraction of Barbados, is viewed from aboard an electric tram and trailer.
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In this limestone cavern, you'll see bubbling streams, tumbling cascades, and subtly lit deep pools, while all around stalactites hang overhead like icicles, and stalagmites rise from the floor. Visitors may disembark and get a closer look at this natural phenomenon at the Rotunda Room and the Cascade Pool. Hard hats are required and provided, but all that may fall on you is a little dripping water. COST: $13. OPEN: Daily 9-6; last tour at 4. |
Address: Hwy. 2, Welchman Hall, St. Thomas, Barbados
Phone: 246/438-6640
Sunbury Plantation House
If you have time to visit only one plantation or great house in Barbados, make it this one. It's the only great house on Barbados where all the rooms are open for viewing. Lovingly rebuilt after a 1995 fire destroyed everything but the thick flint-and-stone walls, Sunbury offers an elegant glimpse of the 18th and 19th centuries on a Barbadian sugar estate. The 300-year-old plantation house is steeped in history, featuring mahogany antiques, old prints, and a unique collection of horse-drawn carriages. Take the informative tour, then stop in the Courtyard Restaurant and Bar for a meal or drinks; there's also a gift shop. A candlelight dinner is offered at least once a week; this five-course meal, served at a 200-year-old mahogany table, costs BD$188 (US$94) per person. COST: $7.50. OPEN: Daily 10-5.
Address: Off Hwy. 5, Six Cross Roads, St. Philip, Barbados
Phone: 246/423-6270
Flower Forest
It's a treat to meander among fragrant flowering bushes, canna and ginger lilies, puffball trees, and more than 100 other species of tropical flora in a cool, tranquil forest of flowers and other plants. A ½-mi-long (1-km-long) path winds through the 50 acres of grounds, a former sugar plantation; it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to follow the path, or you can wander freely for as long as you wish. Benches located throughout the forest give you a place to pause, sit down for a bit, and reflect. There's also a snack bar, a gift shop, and a beautiful view of Mt. Hillaby. COST: $7. OPEN: Daily 9-5.
Address: Hwy. 2, Richmond Plantation, St. Joseph, Barbados
Phone: 246/433-8152
Francia Plantation
Built of large coral-stone blocks in 1913, this greathouse blends French, Brazilian, and Caribbean architectural influences. You can tour the house (descendents of the original owner still live here) and gardens. Most of the antique furniture was made in Barbados of local mahogany; 17th- and 18th-century maps, watercolors, and prints grace the walls. COST: $5. OPEN: Weekdays 10-4.
Address: Gun Hill, St. George, Barbados
Phone: 246/429-0474
Welchman Hall Gully
The Barbados National Trust owns this lush tropical garden, which contains specimens of plants -- many of them labeled -- that were here before the English settlers landed in 1627, and later imports that include cocoa bushes, and trees from which both cloves and nutmeg are produced. Occasionally you'll spot a wild monkey amidst the flora. You can also see breadfruit trees that are supposedly descendants of the seedlings brought ashore by Captain Bligh, of Bounty fame. COST: $5.75. OPEN: Daily 9-5.
Address: Welchman Hall, St. Thomas, Barbados
Phone: 246/438-6671
Andromeda Botanic Gardens
Beautiful and unusual plant specimens from around the world are cultivated in 6 acres of gardens that are nestled among streams, ponds, and rocky outcroppings overlooking the sea above the Bathsheba coastline. Thousands of orchids, hundreds of hibiscus and heliconia, and many varieties of ferns, begonias, palms, and other species grow here in splendid profusion. You'll occasionally see toads, frogs, herons, lizards, hummingbirds, and sometimes a mongoose or a monkey. COST: $6. OPEN: Daily 9-5.
Address: Bathsheba, St. Joseph, Barbados
Phone: 246/433-9261