Taste the Bajan culture
Dive into the rich colonial past of Barbados and visit the old plantations where sugar is cultivated, which has been the island's main export for centuries. Visit the plantations Drax Hall and Sunburry House or go for lunch on Sunday at Villa Nova , one of the most famous former plantation that today serves as a five-star hotel. Get carried away with the annual Crop Over Festival, a huge sugar harvest celebration that can be thought of as the Carnival of Barbados.
Learn about the by-product of sugar cane production, rum , the other delight for your senses that Barbados is known for. To obtain the sugar from the cane, the cane is finely ground, creating a syrupy juice from which rum is distilled. Drive to Bridgetown where you will take a tour of the famous Mount Gay Rum Distillery , one of the oldest rum makers in the world. This rum is served in more than 1,200 rum bars in Barbados. Mingle with the locals and visit this important place in Bajan culture. It is a meeting place where people come to have conversations and discussions to the swinging sounds of Caribbean calypso music or the legendary Bob Marley. If pure rum is too strong for you, there is the rum punch consisting of one part lime juice, two parts sugar, three parts rum and four parts water. Be sure to taste the oldest rum punch in the world, the Bajan Rum Punch. No visit to Barbados is complete without an authentic rum tasting.
