Barbados Travel Guide

Discover Barbados Beaches

Barbados is a flat island shaped like an upside down leg of ham. There are beaches everywhere. Along the east coast they are wide and wind-blown, pounded by the Atlantic, a love of surfers the world over. The south and west coasts are much calmer featuring miles and miles of unbroken white sand beaches. Perfect for that sunset stroll.

Barbados beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world. Because Barbados is a coral island, its beaches are made from finely groud coral forming a clean fine grain.

Of course, not all of Barbados' coast is sand; for the nature lover there are mangrove swamps, cliffs, tide pools and areas where beds of low lying coral rock, sandstone, clay or shale reach out to the sea.

Barbados' swamps are to be found in Chancery Lane, Inch Marlow and Graeme Hall in the South and South West of the Island. They are the major wetlands of Barbados providing an assemblage of plants and animals forming an important link in the food chain of offshore fish and birds.

Low lying rock formations are particularly prevalent along the North East and South Easter points; periwinkles, sea anemones, crabs and snails make their home along these rocks.

Tidal flats and wave ridges occur mostly off the East coast within eroded limestone plateaus and other low lying rock formations.

On the South and South West Coasts you will find many tide pools, an important ecological resource, acting as nurseries for juvenile fish and other permanent residents like the ghost crab and sea roaches as well as marine plants like sea moss which is made into a health drink.

Cliffs of coral and sandstone overlook calm bays and rugged coastlines and sometimes small, cozy soft sand beaches nestle between heads of coral sculptured by the sea. Most of the larger cliffs are in the North, in the parish of St. Lucy.

The first inhabitants of Barbados were the Arawak Indians. They were driven off the island in 1200 AD by the invading Carib Indians from Venezuela. The Caribs abandoned Barbados by the time the first European sailed in to the region.

 In 1536 Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos discovered the island en route to Brazil. He named the island Los Barbados, meaning the 'Bearded One' after the islands Fig Tree's whose long hanging aerial roots have a beard like resemblance.

In 1625 Captain John Powell landed and claimed the uninhabited island for England. Two years later his brother Captain Henry Powell landed with a party of 80 settlers and 10 slaves. More settlers followed in their wake and by the end of 1628 the population was around 2000.

The colonists originally planted the fields with tobacco and cotton, but by 1640 they had discovered the potential of Sugar Cane. To meet the labor demands of the new crop they began to import large amounts of African Slaves. The first large sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean became immensely profitable. In 1663 Barbados was made into a British Crown Possession, by the mid 17th century the planters and merchants were thriving.

In 1816, due to the poor living conditions and treatment, the slaves staged a revolt. In 1834 Slavery was abolished. This unfortunately failed to solve the dire conditions as the land remained in the hands of the large estates and most of the slaves had no alternative other than to stay and work on the land. Those who left ended up in Shanty Towns.

An economic Depression hit in the 1930's, which led to street riots. As a consequence the British Colonial Welfare was established providing large amounts of cash to improve living conditions and quality of life. To counter political unrest, the British reluctantly gave black reformers political roles. One of the key reformers, Grantley Adams became the first Prime minister and was knighted by the queen.

Barbados gained internal self government in 1961 and in 1966 gained full independence and retained its status as a Commonwealth country. Independence Day is celebrated annually on the 30th November. In 1967 Barbados joined the United Nations

After World War Two the sugar Cane industry went into decline and the tourism industry started to take off to supplement the islands economy.

Barbados is now a peaceful democratic society without major incident. The current Prime Minister, David Thompson representing the DLP (Democratic Labour Party) came in to power in 2008. The previous government (BLP) was led by Owen Arthur who had been in power since 1994.