Grenada and the Caribbean

Grenada, or the ‘ Spice Island ’, is the largest of the beautiful Grenadines in the West Indies. After a 10 hour flight via Antigua on British Airways we arrived in Grenada, jumped in a cab from the airport and it was immediately clear I was going to love the place.

Grenada has a distinctly African feel to it and doesn’t have an abundance of resorts like many other Caribbean islands. On the main beach of Grand Anse you’ll find 4 or 5 hotels and a few places to eat. The local planning laws mean you can’t build higher than the tallest coconut tree, so for a main resort it’s pretty low key. On the beach there’s a happy mix of hotel guests and locals either out fishing, selling a few souvenirs or playing a bit of beach cricket. If this is where you choose to stay on the island the beach is lovely, a great place to sip a local Carib beer or a spicy rum punch. At Grand Anse we were also lucky enough to catch a brilliant steel drum band from a local school. If you get the opportunity I’d also recommend some food at Rosie’s Kitchen and definitely buy something from the Grenada Chocolate Company in the local supermarket, yum!

Aside from the main resort of Grand Anse, the rest of the island has heaps to offer. We hired a jeep for a couple of days and drove all the way around and across it, exploring colourful towns such as Grenville, Sauters and Gouyave. The centre of the island is incredibly lush and green with walking trails leading to impressive waterfalls and stunning views. We stumbled across a few great little places to eat and sampled the local ‘Roti’, a delicious Caribbean meal of a crepe-like bread stuffed with either chicken (go for the boneless option!) , fish or beef (usually curried) with veg and potatoes. This soon became a favourite daily meal, as popular with our 2 year old son as with us.

The capital St Georges is also well worth a day exploring with all it’s history, views, new cricket stadium, markets and restaurants around the harbour. You can jump in one of the cheap local mini-buses to get there from anywhere on the island - they just beep as they drive past and you squeeze in. Something really noticeable about Grenada is the devastation caused by Hurricane Ivan back in 2004 which pummelled the island and left barely a rooftop unscathed, many of which have never been repaired. It also wiped out the most of the nutmeg plantations which was their major industry. Today you can see they’re well on the road to recovery with the nutmeg gradually growing back, although it’s clear that tourism will need to play a major role in the future of the island.

This visit to Grenada really opened my eyes to the Caribbean as a stopover destination and makes me want to see a lot more of it. It’s easy to access neighbouring islands in the Grenadines such as the laid back Petit Martin ique, St Vincent and Carriacou which is great for diving. The whole Caribbean region encompasses around 5000 islands so there’s plenty more places to explore!

Major airlines such as British Airways, American Airlines, Air Canada, Iberia and Virgin Atlantic now cover many islands such as Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad, St Lucia, Antigua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas and more. This means it’s possible for us to include a Caribbean stopover on your Round the World ticket, connecting to or from the UK and onwards to the Americas . In my opinion it’s nice to pick somewhere relaxing to get things started on your trip or to round things off before heading home. If you’re looking for this kind of destination the Caribbean fits the bill perfectly and is an interesting alternative to beach stops in Asia or the South Pacific. If you are travelling on a budget, 2 people traveling together could comfortably get by on £30 a day each for food and basic accommodation.

To give you an idea of what we can offer at Travel Nation, here are a few examples of routes we’ve booked recently:

London – Antigua – Grenada – Tobago – Port of Spain – San Juan – Bridgetown – Quito // Rio – Santiago - Easter Island – Auckland – Hanoi // Bangkok – London starts from £2495 per person including pre-payable taxes and fuel surcharges.

London – Delhi // Kathmandu – Tokyo – Vancouver – Mexico City – Havana – Grand Cayman – London starts from £1795 per person including pre-payable taxes and fuel surcharges.

London – Antigua – St Maarten – Los Angeles – Rarotonga – Auckland – Noumea – Singapore – London starts from £1595 per person including pre-payable taxes and fuel surcharges.