Trinity

We think of Gibbs Beach on the west coast as our hometown in Barbados. We've tried staying elsewhere—one year in Fitts Village, St James, and one year in Bathsheba. Nevertheless, nice as those places were, we always felt a little displaced and dissatisfied.

But we are budget travellers, and Gibbs is an expensive, exclusive neighbourhood. There are vacation rentals here that cost thousands of US dollars per night. Even the Gibbs Bay Inn, which is in just the right spot and looks fine (though just short of five-star), starts at about USD200 per night.

For a few years, we rented a little apartment up on Gibbs Hill. It was lovely, but to get down to the coast we would have to walk through a dark, steep-sided gully that wound around a couple of blind corners—not the kind of place you want to share with cars, especially not at night. The gully became a kind of psychological hurdle for us. Watching for a green flash at sunset on the beach was out of the question, because then we'd have to walk back up through the gully in darkness. We ate all our dinners in.

So it was with great relief that we found the lovely "Trinity", just a few minutes' north of Gibbs Beach, along the West Coast highway. It is a self-contained studio apartment on the ground floor of a house. As you can see, it opens out onto a spacious, breezy patio that faces away from the main road and onto a well-looked-after garden much frequented by green monkeys, Zenaida doves, bananaquits, grassquits, and hummingbirds. We really had a nice time here—I can't think of a single thing that could have been done to make our stay more comfortable.

The owner, Barbara Anne Rodriguez (who told me about the cow's nostril), is as sunny and warm as her native island. She tells me she has plans to add a two-bedroom apartment in time for next winter. You can read more about Trinity here and get in touch with Barbara Anne here.

Tropical Winds Hotel

So the Sam Lord's Castle bus actually goes a little beyond Sam Lord's Castle, but we asked to be let off at the Castle and fetched up at the Tropical Winds Apartment Hotel.

It was a welcome sight to a hot and hungry tourist. But even though the hotel was very clean and attractively appointed, we seemed to be the only people there apart from the staff.

The restaurant was completely empty. If it had been anywhere in Southeast Asia (Mersing, say), this would have been a thoroughly lugubrious experience. But our waiter's cheeriness more than made up for the lonely situation, and we had a very respectable dolphin sandwich.

The waiter thought our plan of walking all the way to Bottom Bay seemed ambitious, but we assured him that we were good walkers. So we are, but as it turned out, we would have been better off staying on the bus to the very end of the route.

What of Sam Lord's Castle itself? It is closed, after a spell as a hotel in the Marriott chain.

Sea-U Guesthouse

The Sea-U Guesthouse in Bathsheba is a great place to stay if you can get a room. It's actually about a five-minute walk uphill from the rest of the town, but its elevated position affords great views of the ocean and a stiff, constant breeze.

Breakfast is provided, as is dinner, if you add your name to a list before 11 am. The food is very good (though I usually require more fibre at breakfast)--one night we had an eggplant appetizer, flying fish and macaroni pie.

There are two cats on the premises. They are both very sweet and not at all shy about begging. One has a perpetual grimace on its face, as if to say, "Come on ... but why not?" From the dining area, which overlooks a thick tangle of mangroves, you can see them picking their way over vines and gnarled, adventitious roots. I'm glad our cat Eddie doesn't come with us on holiday or he would think his indoor life very ignominious.

We also had daily visits from a pair of sparrow-like birds called grassquits. The female was quite bold--she would hop her way into our room while her husband watched anxiously from the doorway.

The long verandah with its Muskoka chairs (or Adirondack, depending on where you're from) and the common dining arrangement makes this a rather social place to stay. This is good or bad, depending on what you think of the other guests. Luckily, we liked most of the people we met and came away feeling we had made a few friends.