Barbados
Offers a touch of everything you could ask for in a destination wedding.
Endless pink and white sand beaches may have put Barbados on the map, but this tiny island has more to offer than just swimming and sunning. When you’ve had time to relax and rejuvenate after the wedding, put your walking shoes on and get ready to explore! Visit botanical gardens, wildlife reserves and caves with bubbling streams and cascading waterfalls. Shop in the duty free capital of Bridgetown, looking for treasures to take back home. You can watch a game of cricket, the national passion of the island, and partake in an afternoon tea.
Don’t think the island of Barbados is just for honeymooning. With its romantic atmosphere and gorgeous ceremony locations, Barbados is the perfect place to get married or hold an event. The terrain looks like a postcard, with picturesque rolling hills, the Atlantic surf pounding against dramatic cliffs, and small inland villages surrounded by sugar plantations. This easternmost Caribbean island is waiting for you to arrive, with your family and friends, to celebrate the biggest day of your life.
Barbados is an eastern Caribbean island and an independent British Commonwealth nation. Bridgetown, the capital, is a cruise-ship port with colonial buildings and Nidhe Israel, a synagogue founded in 1654. Around the island are beaches, botanical gardens, the Harrison’s Cave formation, and 17th-century plantation houses like St. Nicholas Abbey. Local traditions include afternoon tea and cricket, the national sport.
1. Culture & Rum
Barbados is a blend of West African and British cultures; this Caribbean island is home to people who are larger than life. With their colorful speech, warmth, casual charm, and sophistication, anyone can be inspired by the Bajan energy and love of life. Every year the island holds the Crop Over Festival celebrating the ending of the local Sugar Cane harvest. It is a distinctly unique Carnival compared to other Caribbean countries. Music, food, drinks and Bajan people dressed in colorful costumes fill the streets of Barbados to celebrate this annual event. The island is also the birthplace of rum. You can visit the island’s distilleries, including Mount Gay Rum and St. Nicholas Abbey, to take guided rum tours to learn the historic origins, take rum samplings with the locals and to have a taste of the unique culture that surrounds you.
2. Weddings & Honeymoons
Live your dream wedding amidst the tropical flora and fauna of this island paradise. In a place that celebrates living, there is no better place than Barbados to join the lives of people in love. Have you ever dreamt of a wedding where warm waters kiss your sand-buried toes? Do you envision an enchanting courtyard ceremony? Each Elegant Hotels Barbados property offers garden and beachfront venues for your wedding ceremony and/or reception. We have the experience and amenities to make your day memorable, from church weddings to non-traditional venues.
3. Shopping & Nightlife
For great duty-free shopping nearby the Elegant Hotels, the nearly upscale Limegrove Lifestyle Center is an amazing shopping location with a wide selection of the world’s leading luxury brands, craft stores, and gift shops. Enjoy jazz, reggae, or calypso music while being entertained by fire-eaters, stilt-men, and acrobatic animals. For the best in Caribbean shopping, fine restaurants, and lively nightlife, the St. Lawrence Gap is where various cultures meet and merge.
4. Water Sports & Soft Adventures
The range of adventures and water sports offered in Barbados is seemingly endless. Perfect for all ages, glass bottom boats and Atlantis submarines give you the opportunity to admire the underwater world and all of its creatures. Swim with turtles in a catamaran cruise or go surfing, kayaking, kite surfing, and scuba diving in the “shipwreck capital” of the Caribbean. There are also horseback trail rides, adrenaline-inducing zip line tours, off-road biking trails, peaceful Segway tours, and beginner’s polo lessons.
5. Natural Beauty
Endowed with more than 70 miles of white powder sand, translucent tropical waters, and year-round warm weather, Barbados beaches do not disappoint. Bathsheba Beach located on the east coast is a beautiful yet rugged breathtaking stretch of wide white sands with many coral sculptures carved by Atlantic winds and waters, making it one of the best surfing spots on the globe. Known as the “Platinum Coast,” the beaches on the western coast have calm waters and soft white shorelines; the southern coasts have reef-protected waters and ideal conditions for snorkeling or swimming. For those who seek adventure or romance, the southeast coast is excellent for windsurfers and provides a beautiful backdrop of cliffs and fine pink sand.
6. Historic Sites
The historic Bridgetown is an authentic example of British colonial architecture. Now named a UNESCO World Heritage site, Bridgetown is one of the earliest established towns with a fortified port in the Caribbean. Some of the best places to explore in Barbados are the towns and villages scattered throughout the island, still full of secrets to this day. It was recently revealed that Barbados has the world’s rarest collection of 17th century English iron cannon. Now there is a National Ordnance Collection of all the old guns on the island, with more than 400 revealed in the Garrison Area. Other notable historic sites are the Nidhe Israel Synagogue, the Barbados Parliament House, Kensington Oval, George Washington House, and more.
