Sun N' Sea Apartments
This was a budget apartment one block back from the strip, right at the entrance to Dover Beach. I had the top floor suite and it was exactly what I expected for the budget price. There was no AC but had a fairly good cross breeze. There was only one night club in hearing range and they seemed to only go until midnight or so. They were also a block away so ear plugs blocked the noise just fine. Roosters started around 5 am but quieted down around 7 am.
Rostrevor (I give it a big thumbs up)
This hotel on the strip was right on the ocean with a "private" beach about a 5 minute walk up from Dover Beach. The ocean side rooms had very little noise from the night clubs but the street facing rooms were unbearably loud until 3+ am. Steve had a two bedroom suite with full kitchen, AC in every room and an en suite bathroom in each room. Sharing that suite would have been a great, economical way to stay right in the centre of everything and cheaper than my apartment. The "private" beach was decent and the snorkeling was better than at Dover Beach. We saw turtles from the room balcony several times. The hotel pool side bar was awesome.
The Strip
The strip is basically just a road with one sidewalk that moves from one side of the road to the other at random. It's not a proper boardwalk or promenade. There is a typical island mix of street vendors with tables, food trucks and boutique hotel shops. The restaurants all charged Banff or Lake Louise prices. The big name, gated resorts were at the far south end of the strip and around the corner so it was a bit of a hike to the party if you stayed there.
Average Prices:
truck food 30 BBD ($20 CAD)
restaurant food 50 BBD ($33 CAD)
bottle of local beer $7-$10 BBD ($5-$6.50 CAD)
glass of wine $14-18 BBD ($9.50 - $12 CAD)
Dover Beach
Large beach, nice sand, chairs and sun umbrellas (for rent?). There is a very small collection of shops/stalls for souvenirs, food stands and water craft rentals (surf boards, catamarans). The waves inshore were great for body surfing and the break was mild enough for learning surfing although it was pretty far out. The snorkeling was mediocre and you had to swim pretty far out. There was a slight current to the north which I heard could sometimes be fairly strong. getting pulled north would probably not be a problem as there are multiple beaches and hotels to the north.
Renting a Car
Driving on the left hand side of the road is easy. Shifting with your left hand is somewhat tricky. Remembering that the wipers and turn signal levers are switched on a right hand drive car is near impossible. A 35L? tank of gas was about $100 CAD which let us do one full day of land touring, a few runs to the local market which was just down the street and a trip to the airport (12 min drive). Splitting a cab would have been much, much cheaper. Provided your dive operator offers free pickup and drop off (and the two I used did) then getting a car for a dive vacation is not worth the cost.
Barbados Blue - $411 CAD for 6 dives
A dive outfit in Bridgetown located at Carlisle Bay. They run two boats: a big 40' pontoon cattle boat that holds 20 people and is the normal dive boat and a 20' typical power boat used mostly for snorkelers. The dives were the typical race around the reef diving. The staff were excellent as was the service but that's actually completely unremarkable from any other dive operator that grinds out the volume they do. Also they were too used to baby sitting donkey divers because they kept touching my rig and undoing things while I was in it which freaked me out. On the first dive the dive master was even undoing my fins in the water at the ladder, I nearly kicked him. Don't touch my rig! Fortunately we had the same boat crew every day so after the first dive and a frank discussion they backed off and focused on the new divers. We were able to leave our gear at the shop each night which was very convenient as was the fresh water rinse station at the shop. Average dive time was over 45 min so it definitely felt like we were keeping a schedule. The boat held 20 people but we only ever had 11 or less divers so there was tons of room and space for the two side mount divers in our group. March seems to be a shoulder season, definitely not peak. Water temp was 81F down to at least 100 ft. I dove a 2mm shorty and that was fine for the first few days but after I got acclimatized to the humidity and air temps I started to get cold on the dives. Some people were using 5mm full suits and I think that would have worked for me too.
Eco Dive - $398 CAD for 6 dives
This small shop, also in Bridgetown, was run by Andrew, an ex USMC (based on his tattoo) but he was extremely chill and low key. We met each morning in the shop for a good long dive briefing, discussing options for sites and then listing site details and setting expectations. Each dive was very slow paced, I was able to spend minutes at a time on any piece of coral or rock looking at macro life. Average dive time was over an hour. Tiny boat, 5 back mount divers fit OK, the boat holds 6 and that would have been tight (at least in comparison to Barbados Blue). They never touched your gear while you were in it but had a protocol for loading and unloading the boat. We were not allowed to carry anything on or off the boat. This was equal parts safety and CYA since the boat was tiny and the method of boarding/deboarding was precarious for anyone not used to small boats. The potential to fall or drop something important into the water was high if you tried to do it on your own.
This was a budget apartment one block back from the strip, right at the entrance to Dover Beach. I had the top floor suite and it was exactly what I expected for the budget price. There was no AC but had a fairly good cross breeze. There was only one night club in hearing range and they seemed to only go until midnight or so. They were also a block away so ear plugs blocked the noise just fine. Roosters started around 5 am but quieted down around 7 am.
Rostrevor (I give it a big thumbs up)
This hotel on the strip was right on the ocean with a "private" beach about a 5 minute walk up from Dover Beach. The ocean side rooms had very little noise from the night clubs but the street facing rooms were unbearably loud until 3+ am. Steve had a two bedroom suite with full kitchen, AC in every room and an en suite bathroom in each room. Sharing that suite would have been a great, economical way to stay right in the centre of everything and cheaper than my apartment. The "private" beach was decent and the snorkeling was better than at Dover Beach. We saw turtles from the room balcony several times. The hotel pool side bar was awesome.
The Strip
The strip is basically just a road with one sidewalk that moves from one side of the road to the other at random. It's not a proper boardwalk or promenade. There is a typical island mix of street vendors with tables, food trucks and boutique hotel shops. The restaurants all charged Banff or Lake Louise prices. The big name, gated resorts were at the far south end of the strip and around the corner so it was a bit of a hike to the party if you stayed there.
Average Prices:
truck food 30 BBD ($20 CAD)
restaurant food 50 BBD ($33 CAD)
bottle of local beer $7-$10 BBD ($5-$6.50 CAD)
glass of wine $14-18 BBD ($9.50 - $12 CAD)
Dover Beach
Large beach, nice sand, chairs and sun umbrellas (for rent?). There is a very small collection of shops/stalls for souvenirs, food stands and water craft rentals (surf boards, catamarans). The waves inshore were great for body surfing and the break was mild enough for learning surfing although it was pretty far out. The snorkeling was mediocre and you had to swim pretty far out. There was a slight current to the north which I heard could sometimes be fairly strong. getting pulled north would probably not be a problem as there are multiple beaches and hotels to the north.
Renting a Car
Driving on the left hand side of the road is easy. Shifting with your left hand is somewhat tricky. Remembering that the wipers and turn signal levers are switched on a right hand drive car is near impossible. A 35L? tank of gas was about $100 CAD which let us do one full day of land touring, a few runs to the local market which was just down the street and a trip to the airport (12 min drive). Splitting a cab would have been much, much cheaper. Provided your dive operator offers free pickup and drop off (and the two I used did) then getting a car for a dive vacation is not worth the cost.
Barbados Blue - $411 CAD for 6 dives
A dive outfit in Bridgetown located at Carlisle Bay. They run two boats: a big 40' pontoon cattle boat that holds 20 people and is the normal dive boat and a 20' typical power boat used mostly for snorkelers. The dives were the typical race around the reef diving. The staff were excellent as was the service but that's actually completely unremarkable from any other dive operator that grinds out the volume they do. Also they were too used to baby sitting donkey divers because they kept touching my rig and undoing things while I was in it which freaked me out. On the first dive the dive master was even undoing my fins in the water at the ladder, I nearly kicked him. Don't touch my rig! Fortunately we had the same boat crew every day so after the first dive and a frank discussion they backed off and focused on the new divers. We were able to leave our gear at the shop each night which was very convenient as was the fresh water rinse station at the shop. Average dive time was over 45 min so it definitely felt like we were keeping a schedule. The boat held 20 people but we only ever had 11 or less divers so there was tons of room and space for the two side mount divers in our group. March seems to be a shoulder season, definitely not peak. Water temp was 81F down to at least 100 ft. I dove a 2mm shorty and that was fine for the first few days but after I got acclimatized to the humidity and air temps I started to get cold on the dives. Some people were using 5mm full suits and I think that would have worked for me too.
Eco Dive - $398 CAD for 6 dives
This small shop, also in Bridgetown, was run by Andrew, an ex USMC (based on his tattoo) but he was extremely chill and low key. We met each morning in the shop for a good long dive briefing, discussing options for sites and then listing site details and setting expectations. Each dive was very slow paced, I was able to spend minutes at a time on any piece of coral or rock looking at macro life. Average dive time was over an hour. Tiny boat, 5 back mount divers fit OK, the boat holds 6 and that would have been tight (at least in comparison to Barbados Blue). They never touched your gear while you were in it but had a protocol for loading and unloading the boat. We were not allowed to carry anything on or off the boat. This was equal parts safety and CYA since the boat was tiny and the method of boarding/deboarding was precarious for anyone not used to small boats. The potential to fall or drop something important into the water was high if you tried to do it on your own.