Attractions

Where can you combine history, architecture, a beautiful setting, and delicious rum all in one setting? The St. Nicholas Abbey, a historic great house in Barbados offers all this and more.

History

St. Nicholas Abbey is a beautiful great house and plantation that is evocative of the era in which it was built more than 350 years ago by Colonel Benjamin Berringer. Although the name would make you think that it was once a religious institution, the current name is a combination of the original historical names of the plantation and places connected to the past owners. The ornamental detailing and classical elements of the great house exemplifies the Jacobean architecture from that period. St. Nicholas Abbey is only one of three remaining mansions that are examples of Jacobean architecture in the Americas. The mansion contains antiques and furnishings that date back to the early 1800s.

Barbados first opened its doors to the Harrisons Cave in early 1980s. Today, the tickets are $25 USD (or $50 Barbados) for adults, and $12.50 USD (or $25 Barbados) for children. The price includes a narrated tour on a tramway that goes down below, through the Boyce Tunnel. There, you will find the most gorgeous calcite columns, curtains, and natural water streams in the Caribbean. The tour guide does a delicate job of explaining how the cave was founded, how the limestone forms into the spectacular stalactites and stalagmites that you see.

Outlying South America's northern tip of Venezuela, and just southeast of Puerto Rico, Barbados cools in the temperate ocean breezes inviting tourists and romantics from around the world to its lush and languid shores.

A destination retreat, the island of Barbados attracts beach lovers, scuba divers, surfers and other assorted marine-loving life. Having attracted international travelers since the first English settled in 1627, Barbados has transformed from a robust producer of sugarcane and molasses, to a producer of rum and resort luxury.

The Barbados Wildlife Reserve is a four acre stretch of mahogany forest located near the Saint Peter's Parish in Barbados, close to the Farley Hill Park along the East Coast. The site was originally established in 1982 as a sanctuary to preserve and protect a specific species of monkeys known as Green Monkeys. In 1985 it was expanded and is now one of the largest wildlife reserves in Barbados.