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| This is actually a picture of the Royal Clipper from our trip--not a postcard |
We have sailed on Star Clipper ships (including the Royal Clipper, Star Flyer, and Star Clipper) several times before. Brenda is an inveterate star-gazer, and the Star Clipper fleet is perfect for looking at the night sky as the deck is almost completely dark after nightfall. More details and pictures of the ship are coming in the next post.
We booked a 7-night cruise, starting in and returning to Barbados. Islands we visited (in order) were:
- St. Lucia (Rodney Bay)
- Dominica
- Antigua
- St. Kitts (but not Nevis)
- Iles de Saintes (part of Guadeloupe)
- Martinique
We decided to go down to Barbados a couple of days early, to make sure that we didn't miss the boat and to work on our tans. Flying time from RDU to Barbados is 6 hours--1 hour to Atlanta, and about 5 hours from Atlanta to Barbados. Since Barbados is at the southern end of the Caribbean, it takes longer to get there than to most Caribbean destinations.
Thursday, March 12, and Friday, March 13--Barbados
We booked two nights at Infinity on the Beach in the St. Lawrence Gap area of Barbados, about 5 miles south of Bridgetown, the main town in Barbados. The southern coast of Barbados tends to have more moderately priced hotels than the west coast, where the high-end resorts are. St. Lawrence Gap is one of the more popular areas, with lots of hotels, shopping and restaurants.
Barbados is a former British Colony, so most of the tourists in the area were British and/or Canadian.
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| The front of the hotel |
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| View from the hotel |
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| View of the hotel and surrounding area |
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| The hotel bar |
The beach (Dover Beach) was one of the best (for a resort area) that I have ever been on. Soft, white sand, and almost no seaweed. In addition the dropoff was very gradual.
The area around the hotel was pretty low key, with a lot of smaller hotels and condo buildings, in addition to the shops and restaurants mentioned above. The Mariotts, Hiltons, etc. are on the west coast of the island.
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| Condos along the main road in St. Lawrence Gap |
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| A little shopping village across the street from our hotel |
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| One of the entertainment options in St. Lawrence Gap |
We spent all of our pre-cruise time in St. Lawrence Gap, so I don't have any pictures (so far) of the rest of Barbados. However, we did take an island tour after the cruise ended, so the rest of the island pictures will be in that post.
