Here is the first part of my trip report--more to come over the weekend.
Flew from Dulles to St. Vincent with connections in Miami and Barbados. They are doing construction in Miami, so once off the plane it was a 20 minute walk from our arrival gate to our departing gate. Arrival on Barbados slightly delayed to air traffic. Everyone at the Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados were super friendly and helpful. AA at Dulles told me we did not have to pickup our checked luggage in Barbados. I did not think that was correct and sure enough it wasn’t. The wonderful lady at the Caribbean Star had one of the baggage guys escort me thru the airport to retrieve my one checked bag. This airport is also under going construction and it was a maze trying to figure out where to go--thanks to the guy who helped me. I had read that there was a St. Vincent and Grenadines Tourist desk at this airport, but it was in the arrival section and since we were connecting to another flight we moved on to the departure area. They would not let me go back, they said I could ask for info at their airport info desk and they would answer any questions I had. I could not get them to understand the I wanted specific info for SV & G. Maybe they understood, but did not want to promote another tourist destination. We were checked in so fast thru the E.T. Joshua airport on St. Vincent, I didn’t get a chance to really see it. Quickly got a cab and off to the Mariner’s. By this time, we were pretty beat. Check in was a breeze and the bartender came to the reception area and brought us three fruit punches and poured the shots of rum in the adults. The rum punch was much needed, but after not eating all day, I figured if I drank it, I’d never make it to dinner anywhere. They escorted us to our room which was not quite a nice as the brochure looked. The tile floors looked pretty new and there were bright tropical drapes and matching bedspreads. The walls were pretty dirty looking-a fresh coat of paint could have made a difference. The room was spacious with a king bed and twin bed. It had nice white washed wicker furniture. The a/c was definitely super cold and there was a decent selection of tv channels. The pool area looked nice, but was being chemically treated the day we arrived so we were unable to use it. They have a nice internet café, free to hotel guests, that was a great perk. We never dined in the restaurant there, though it always seemed to have a dinner crowd and looked nice. The beach area at the Mariner’s if that’s what you could call it was nasty. Trash and dog poo on the shore and a bit smelly. I did not go there planning to be on the beach, so we were prepared. We arrived a bit too early for dinner, most places start dinner around 630-700pm. We walked the road hoping to find a spot to eat. We walked down to the Beachcombers, but they were having a buffet . Walked a bit further to the Sunset Shores. We were a bit early, but they told us they would serve us early. They served us a delicious bread basket before the meal, which could have been my meal, as I love bread. We tried the Surf and Turf (Shrimp and Beef w/ Mushroom Sauce), Blackened Mahi-Mahi and my daughter got a cheeseburger. She wouldn’t eat the burger , as we found out on both Bequia and St. Vincent a burger is not just ground beef. All burgers we experienced were mushy with fillers-more like a meatloaf. My daughter is an extremely picky eater, so she had fries and bread for dinner that night. My fish was excellent, great blackened flavor. The service here was great and very friendly.. Spent $75 on dinner here. They had live island music starting as we were leaving. We took a cab back, too dangerous to walk it at night.
The next day we slept in a little later and headed out at 1030am by cab to see Fort Charlotte and the Botanical Gardens. This is where we met Elvis Miles, our cab driver for the rest of the St.Vincent stay.
We had a very nice guide for the Fort Charlotte tour. A young guy who paid special attention to my ten year old offering lots of history and information. The views from here were awesome and it was so windy I thought we may blow over into the sea below. I would say the fort was worth the trip. I am not sure what it should have cost us, but when I asked him how much we owed him for the fine tour he said $20. I questioned whether that was 20EC or US and he said US. We then worked our way over to the Botanical Gardens. I mainly wanted to snap a few photos and spend a very short visit here. The guide came over right away and said we would need at least 45 minutes there. He seemed to be very knowledgeable, but no real expression while giving his tour, he sounded like a recording. At the end of the tour, I once again asked how much we owed for the fine tour we were given. He said that most people give $20 US, but we could give more or less. Well, if that doesn’t put you on the spot. I gave him the $20. I was not that impressed with the Botanical Gardens. By this time, we were running a bit late. I had planned to go to Young Island for lunch and a swim. We went back to the room after paying our cab driver $80 and changed into our swimwear. We were seated and quickly greeted and served. We got the Crab Pizza, Chicken Wings and a Turkey Sandwich, 2 beers, a soda and Pina Colada for $49US. The service was good, but we sort of felt uncomfortable not actually being resort guests. The beach there was okay. The sand dropped off quickly and you sunk about six inches down into the sand underwater. The sand was tan with some black flecks. We ran into a couple later into our trip who stayed here and said the pretty much spent their room time underneath the ceiling fan. They also made the comment of literally having no walls, which I have heard that you can here sounds from other rooms easily. After returning to the dock we checked out the Lime ‘n Pub menu. I had originally planned on going here, but had read so many negative comments recently, that I decided I would skip it. Limited on dining choices for my daughter decided to go there anyhow. How bad could it really be? We were quickly greeted, seated, placed our order at 720pm and were on our way out by 830pm. We ordered the deep fried shrimp (yucky Tempura batter--that seems to be the choice of batter in the Caribbean), conch fritters (had a lime taste, but also tasted like Stove Top stuffing mix) and the Volcano Chicken with Red Pepper Sauce. The sauce for the chicken was more of a Creole and not very hot (spicy). The service here was very good, very attentive for beer replenishment. The waitress came over and lit a mosquito coil, put it under our table and asked if we’d like some bug spray as well. This was the only place that offered that. They served some excellent hot sauce as a condiment, which we ended up buying a rum bottle full for $13US. Dinner was $102, the service was great, but the food was so-so.
Our 2nd full day on St. Vincent we were booked with Hal Daize of SeaBreeze Nature Tours to do a trip to the Falls of Baleine. We headed out along the coast with Hal giving all the town names, history and St. Vincent facts. We stopped at Wallilabou to place our lunch order which would be ready upon our return from the falls. We also went further off shore to find some dolphins which we did for about a half hour of play and some great video and pictures. We headed further up the coast --the scenery stunning, beautiful--I was in heaven. After a bit of a windy, choppy ride we arrived at the dock to the falls. We hade to take a wooden walkway, some steps up and down, back on a wooden walkway, over some fairly large boulders and into some muck (water with leaves and branches thigh deep) and over more rocks to the falls. Beautiful sight, loud with lots of spray. The rocks were quite slippery entering the pool and water pretty cool. I thought it was well worth it, but my other two family members were ready to shoot me. I did think the walking up and over the steep boulders was a bit challenging and dangerous for my ten year old. We headed back to Wallilabou for lunch. Choices were fish/chicken/spareribs. My fish was very fishy, rest of the choices edible. All choices came served in what looked like watered down buffalo wing sauce. The lady who served us moved extremely slow and there definitely was difficulty in her understanding us and us her. Even though we put our orders in advance, it took a long time for the food and no drinks came or water. We were all dying of thirst, and finally after almost finished with the meal got drinks--mango juice or sour sop. When we asked for our bill everyone on the trip was all on one bill. We asked to separate and that took a long time again. Due to lunch taking so long, we missed our swim on Mt. Wynne beach. Instead, on our return we got a quick snorkel stop there. Visibility was a bit murky. Headed back to Young Island dock. Hal was a terrific guy. He was very eager to please. He asked us off and on if we were having a good time, was there anything else we would like to do and he was extremely knowledgeable. We learned a lot that day. Why is it you find out about the best place to dine near the end of your stay? We ate our last dinner on St. Vincent at the Ocean Allegro. Everyone said it was the place to dine. I once again was concerned about what my picky daughter was going to eat. The wonderful hostess offered many things she could make for her. She chose the Penne Alfredo (which my daughter loved and said was the best meal of the trip). We also ordered the Asian Stir fry (w/ shrimp, chicken, cashews and vegs on rice) and a blackened chicken/mushroom pizza which was excellent. It was too much for me to eat. I had wished that the Mariner’s had a fridge to take it back to for leftovers. I have to say that was my best meal as well. This place was an excellent value, great service, presentation. All of the above plus 3 Hairouns, soda and one pina colada came to a grand total of $58--what a deal!!!
