Barbados

I have to say that ever since I read Meet Me in Paradise’s post about the beautiful pink sand beaches on Barbados, I couldn’t wait to go and see the beauty for myself. I knew that while we were in Barbados we wanted to lounge on the beach and just relax. The taxi driver was shocked that we had come all the way to Barbados just to hang out on the beach–hey, sometimes you need that “relaxation” kind of vacation. Well we knew that we wanted to stay somewhat close to the port so we chose Carlisle Bay for our beach adventure that day.

This photo of Carlisle Bay is courtesy of TripAdvisor

As always, I do research online long before the vacation ever begins in order to make sure that the location is really what we are looking for. TripAdvisor is a site that I visit often when I am in the planning process; the followers ranked Carlisle Bay #13 out of 114 attractions in Barbados. According to the reviews, many visitors liked the beach itself, however, they didn’t feel like they could completely relax because of the beach vendors.

It was with this knowledge that we went to Carlisle Bay expecting beautiful views, pink sand, and the occasional beach vendor. Our taxi driver dropped us off at Harbor Lights, located right on Carlisle Bay. This location has free restrooms, dressing rooms, a couple of restaurants, and an option to rent two beach chairs and an umbrella for $15 for the entire day (sounds great to me!).

15 minutes after we arrived we noticed dark clouds coming up from the southeastern side of the island. We took cover at one of the restaurants in Harbor Lights hoping that the storm would quickly pass over. Luckily for us, we didn’t have to wait long, because about ten minutes later the sun came out to play and we went back on the beach to enjoy our day.

From my experience, the beach vendors were plenty and after a while they did get slightly annoying. I can’t count how many times we heard “Jet-skis or Turtles” (the vendors asking us if we wanted to rent jet-skis or go on turtle tours), and every time we would shake our heads and they would move on. I think my husband heard this more than I did because I was out playing in the ocean a lot. 😉

Renting beach chairs and an umbrella that day was a life saver. In fact, on every beach we went to throughout the Southern Caribbean we rented beach chairs and umbrellas–the sun seemed extremely strong in the Caribbean, so to us our only option was to rent some shade. Did I mention that we went through two and a half bottles of sunscreen on our week-long vacation? Yes, we did. 🙂

The pink sand didn’t disappoint. Nestled in-between the bright blue Sea as well as the many shades of green tropical plants and palm trees, the beach was a beautiful sight to behold. When you first arrive, the beach looks like a white sand beach, however, upon closer observation you are able to see the pink grains of sand.

I spent our day in Barbados swimming in the ocean, listening to the sounds of the waves, watching my fellow beach go-ers, and walking up and down the beach with our camera in order to capture some photos of our location. I love trying to capture the breaking of the waves. Here are some of my attempts: