The Bajans have made their island a charming and lively destination, replete with historic sites, music, fine hotels and restaurants, and outdoor recreation.
The main street of Bridgetown is Broad Street, a commercial artery whose shops include numerous duty-free stores. Broad Street leads to National Heroes Square, dominated by a statue of a young Lord Horatio Nelson, considered a protector of the island. Facing the square, the Parliament Buildings house the nation’s Senate and House of Assembly. A little further on, on St. Michael’s Row, stands the Cathedral of St. Michael and All Angels. The first 17th-century wooden church, twice destroyed by hurricanes, gave way to the present 19th-century coral stone structure. The Nidhe Israel Synagogue is one of the oldest in the western hemisphere; its cemetery is the resting place of Barbados’s first Jewish settlers. A few minutes’ drive south of the capital, in the parish of St. Michael, a former prison called St. Ann’s Garrison houses the Barbados Museum, whose collections trace the island’s history and way of life.
The island’s interior holds numerous natural wonders. Perched at 250 m above sea level in the parish of St. Joseph, the former Richmond plantation has been converted into the Flower Forest botanical garden, one of the most beautiful spots on the island. Near Welchman Hall in the parish of St. Thomas, Harrison’s Cave attracts numerous visitors to explore its geological phenomena deep in the bowels of the earth. Orchid World, at Groves in the parish of St. George, is a pilgrimage site for any botanist as it hosts the largest collection of orchids in the Antilles. Not far from Welchman Hall, a tropical garden run by the Barbados National Trust, Welchman Hall Gully, protects specimens of the island’s indigenous plant species.
As early as 1655, Barbados was already producing thousands of litres of rum. Mount Gay Rum Tour & Gift Shop, in Brandons, St. Michael parish, just north of Bridgetown, reveals the secrets of this celebrated liquor, displaying old and modern rum-making equipment and screening a documentary on the production process; the gift shop sells rum and other souvenirs. The factory itself, which can be visited by appointment, is in St. Lucy parish in the north.
In the southeast, at Sunbury in St. Philip parish, the historic 17th-century Sunbury Plantation House displays antiques, archival documents, and a collection of horse-drawn carriages; it also houses a fine restaurant. Bathsheba, in the northeastern parish of St. Joseph, is home to the beautiful Andromeda Botanic Gardens and their equally beautiful surroundings. Also in the northeast, in the parish of St. Peter, Cherry Tree Hill is home to St. Nicholas Abbey, actually a Jacobean-style former plantation house still surrounded by sugar cane.
Popular beaches on the calm western side of the island include Brighton Beach, Brandon’s Beach, Paradise Beach, Paynes Bay, and Mullins Beach north of Bridgetown, and Casuarina Beach, Silver Sands Beach, and Sandy Beach south of the capital on the island’s southern coast. On the southeastern coast, Crane Beach is one of Barbados’s most beautiful, along with Bottom Bay a bit further along the shore. Surfers prefer the Atlantic coast, with Morgan Lewis Beach to the northeast and Silver Sands Beach near the southern tip.
The Barbadian government has set up numerous protected natural areas, such as Folkestone Marine Park, the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, and Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station. The northern parish of St. Peter is home to Farley Hill National Park, named for a 19th-century mansion now in ruins.