Colin & Joan’s last-minute escape to Barbados

Colin and Joan travelled to Barbados and stayed at The SoCo Hotel for a last-minute holiday. Here's what they had to say...

After the cold wet winter months we decided it was time to take a snap break and get some warm sunshine in to our bones. We had been to the Caribbean (St Lucia) before so we knew the temperatures and sunshine would be good. We had always wanted to visit Barbados as we had heard the beaches were great and the people were very friendly and we were not disappointed!

I went on-line and up came the Tropical Sky site showing us The SoCo Hotel on the South Coast of Barbados. We liked the fact that this hotel was exclusive to Tropical Sky and that it had great customer reviews so we booked immediately. Our Tropical Sky contact throughout the booking process was a really friendly, helpful and knowledgeable guy, Callum Watson. Callum was on-hand to answer all of our queries and gave us some excellent pointers on Barbados. So we were now ready to go in to the sunshine for what turned out to be a very happy and memorable holiday.

The SoCo Hotel itself turned out to be one of our biggest highlights for us both! It is a beautiful hotel, right on the beach, not too big (24 beautifully furnished rooms all with fantastic sea views) and with an on-site team of the friendliest people you would wish to meet. From Christine the General Manager to Cynthia our room maid everyone was an absolutely a delight.

The food at The SoCo is of an extremely high standard and every meal is cooked freshly to order. We simply fell in love with the fresh fish meals served daily and in particular those cooked and spiced Bajan style by Chef Deborah were to die for!

We made some great friends during our stay. Two of the hotel ladies who will live long in our memories and hearts, Tina and Melissa, were great fun, always smiling and happy which was an infectious delight for all of the guests staying here. The bar at The SoCo is another great place to meet and socialise at with the other guests, whether it’s during the hot days on a sunbed or around the pool, or during the evening, Shelton and the bar team will serve you just about any drink or cocktail you desire.

The hotel kindly arranged for us to have a private tour of this beautiful Island. Rodney our driver gave us a great tour and pointed out many of the points of interest and interesting facts about Barbados during a 3 hour tour. One thing I personally wanted to see was the Kensington Oval Cricket ground which featured in the Cricket World Cup held in the West Indies. This quickly turned into a dream tour as we were given a VIP tour and insight into every part of the ground by a very knowledgeable tour guide! I even got to tread the very steps from the Pavillion that Sir Garfied Sobers trod, fantastic! Not sure this was quite what my wife wanted to see but that was soon overcome for her with the remainder of the tour and the sights of Bridgetown (great for duty free shopping!), Cherry Tree Hill (panoramic views of Barbados), Bethsheba on the East Coast (where the World Surfing Championships were held), One Sandy Lane on the West Coast where the rich and famous all live (Simon Cowell, Rihanna, Tiger Woods etc), Harrison’s Caves and the Mount Gay Rum distillery (Oldest Rum producer in the West Indies, hic!).

Friday night a real ‘must do’ is to visit the town of Oistins (about 20 minutes by local bus from The SoCo). This is an active fishing town on the south coast. On Friday night in particularly, the big thing to do is go to the ‘fish fry’ at Oistins Bay Gardens. The food is the main draw - excellent fish, (tuna, swordfish, marlin, mahi mahi, flying fish), lobster, chicken etc., served in an extremely informal setting. You can get your fish grilled or fried depending on which vendor you choose from. It's all cooked on the spot in front of you. A plate of fish (and there’s plenty fish on it) and a beer will cost you around about Bds $30 - $35 (US$ 15 - 17.50).

This is truly a beautiful Island but we had the spoils right on our own doorstep at The SoCo. Every day something new happened from Turtle watching to Kite Surfing. Walks along the boardwalk every day to Rockley Beach never went without a visit to the Tikki Bar for one or two of their fantastic cocktails!

We would like to thank Colin & Joan for sharing their story with us and hope to welcome you on another holiday soon.

If you would like to provide us with your own holiday story please contact [email protected]