Re: Winter 2014/15 | Page 68

“ “ Visiting a shipwreck, swimming with turtles and snorkelling in shawls of fish is breathtaking and is usually a couple of degrees centigrade cooler than other times of year. However, my research found that late December is the most expensive time to go for UK tourists. The hurricane season for Barbados runs from June to November, with most major storms occurring August to October. You can fly to Barbados from Gatwick and Manchester. At Gatwick both Virgin and British Airways fly to and from once a day all year round. The flight time is eight and a half hours from London, and eight hours to London. We were lucky enough to stay at Stanford House Villa in St James where we hosted our wedding breakfast. We 68 boarded our private reggae buses from Foul Bay and danced our way back to the villa. At Stanford House we were looked after by Winston and his staff and to say nothing was too much for them is an understatement. They were happy for us to host our wedding guests and taught us how to make the classic rum punch with the locally manufactured Mount Gay Rum. A visit to the Mount Gay Rum distillery is also a worthwhile experience to see how it is made. Our favourite restaurant has to be The Cliff, where we first enjoyed the sevencourse a la carte taster menu. The scenery is breathtaking with stingrays swimming below under the moonlight, great spears of flames creating an ambience to die for and the waves crashing against a large rock sitting centrally in the sea. It is truly magical. There is so much to see and do in Barbados. We still have Harrison’s Cave, The Lone Star restaurant and the wildlife reserve to tick off our list, so naturally we will be paying Barbados another visit in April 2015 to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and reminisce on what was the best day and holiday of our lives. By Zoë Summers