Memorial Day Weekend = Rum Distillery Visits At some point during the pandemi (pandemic) I became enthralled with the rums from Four Squre in Barbados. For the last 10 or so years, rum had been this 'itch' and Four Square was the rum that finally made it into a full-fledged rum-fever. And the only prescription is more.. Rum.
Let's Go: Barbados! Getting to Barbados is pretty easy. We had a direct flight from NYC to Bridgetown that took 4.5 hours. We rented a little Suzuki Jimny which is a super adorable and very capable mini-4x4 (look up fun videos on YouTube). We didn't need a 4x4, but I had wanted to drive a Jimny.
Oh, as a former English colony they drive on the other side. Always fun.
Like many Carribean islands, the Atlantic-facing side is a bit wilder and rougher and will often have issues with the stinky Sargassum seaweed-y type of stuff that washes up on the beaches. BTW, that is the technical term for it: "seaweed-y type of stuff".
Lodging We found a nice two-floor three-bedroom place on VRBO in Speightstown. If you are wanting a great tourist experience with shopping and souvenirs you may want to stay further south in one of the resorts. This is basically a town. Where people live. Nary an influencer was seen.
Eats Across the street from our apartment was our first dinner: Baia Barbados. Super friendly and welcoming + tasty food + rum cocktails + oceanfront. Down the street from us was Local & Co (which is swanky-ish) and Happyness. Other spots we loved... La Cabane: On the beach. Pretty perfect. Lunch at Oistins Fish Market which was insanely tasty. The Caboose, a few hundred feet from our apartment, made a life-changing fish sandwich (aka cutter) and rum punch.
On a drive in the interior of the island we came across the Cottage Bar & Grill that served a stellar breadfruit bowl (my very late introduction to breadfruit).
Beach There was a small sandy beach in front of our apartment, but a 10 minute stroll north got us to Heywoods Beach. Pretty insane. There was an old beach resort there. There's a whole resort ghost town behind a fence, but the beach is still open. Wonderful beach with protected coves. That said, there are those trees that drop stinging poison sap so you kind of avoid those.
Rum! We drove first up to Four Square. There was a great tour (lots of great info) and we did a tasting of all their current rums and maybe bought a few bottles. It was a great experience and was basically the pilgrimage I had hoped it would be.
When we arrived, we were sitting in the car getting all our stuff in order and a huge monkey ran past our car and jumped on the fence. Paused. Looked at us. Then hopped over and ran off into the field.
Our second rum stop was at Mount Gay. Possibly one of the most handsome tasting rooms/welcome centers I've seen. Do note that they have a tasting room in Bridgetown for the cruise ship tourists, but we went to the distillery that is up in the hills in Saint Lucy. We had a great tour guide who answered all my dorky questions. Grand time!
There is another rum distillery St. Nicholas and from their online presence seemed very themepark-like. So, that was a skip.
Hey. Its crazy that I can't link to a hashtag on Instagram with our Barbados hashtag and be able to see ALL of the photos. Super buggy billion dollar company. instagram.com/tags/RxRDrinkRuminBarbados2023
Also, I'm happy to share our Google Map we made for this trip. Hit me up on the instagrams.
