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(food) sarah reiss, (hotel) hilton hotels & resorts, (sidebar) andre donawa W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 | g o i n g p l a c e s 33 my liking. "look me up" is one of those empty things you say back home, never expecting to see a person again, but Browne underlines how laidback and inti- mate Barbados really is by handing me his number. when i ring him up a few days later, he sets up a tour of the distillery for me. He then suggests i join him for another tasting at st. nicholas abbey, a 17th- century sugar plantation in the north of Barbados that has been transformed into a rum distillery. He regales me with more island stories and snifters of mount gay 1703 old Cask selection – served neat, and as smooth as fine cognac. with my head rum-clouded, i make my way to Queen's Park, a grassy fairground in the centre of Bridgetown that's host to a festival event of local street food. e street names and places i encounter – tweedside road, st. michael's row – and the flour- white colonial facades are a jarring disconnect from the steamy heat, wild tropical flowers and blazing sunshine. at the field, vendors in tents prepare steaming trays of food while onlookers sit in the shade of tamarind trees and listen to a band blast out lilting reggae. it might sound cliché, but Barbadians (Bajans in local jargon) move slower than a sailboat on a wind- less day. i stop at a booth to ask about a dish, and the old woman in a hairnet behind the counter barely moves her mouth to croak out "macaroni pie." it's a Beaches and Beyond situated at the southern end of the lesser antilles – where the crashing atlantic meets the bathtub-warm waters of the Caribbean – Barbados is a beach lovers paradise. e soft sands of this relatively small (430-square-kilometre) teardrop-shaped island have long beckoned snowbound northerners, and with good reason. its unique location, a little east of its island neighbours, makes for remarkable coastal diversity, meaning no two beaches are the same. T ake, for example, Bathsheba Beach on Barbados' wild and woolly east coast along the Atlantic. Home to the famous Soup Bowl surf mecca, this sandy stretch boasts the best waves in Barbados, playing host to the top Barba- dian (a.k.a. Bajan) surfers, as well as annual international surfing competitions. Not so far away on the west, or Platinum, coast, lies Mullins Bay – a quintessentially laidback Caribbean sweep of aquamarine, where the drinks flow all day from the beach bar and sunbathers outnumber snorkellers. But Barbados offers plenty of options for those looking for more than a good tan. Locals joke this sunbaked spot, sometimes called "Little Britain" or "England in the Tropics," is more English than the British Isles. Take in the island's civilized side with daily afternoon tea (such as at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion), a polo match or one of the many cricket games that spread across the island's community pitches every Sunday. You can also get active, opting for deep-sea fishing, ziplining, horseback rid- ing, hiking, mountain biking on the island's many trails or golfing its tropical links (the Tom Fazio-designed Green Monkey at Sandy Lane is considered one of the best in the region). Or view the island from below at Harrison's Cave, where visitors descend into a cavern almost five km long and half a kilometre deep. But even here, well beneath the earth's crust, things remain civilized – all the exploration, through forests of rock formations and giant subterranean chambers, is done aboard a comfortable air-conditioned tram. –Tim Johnson Bathsheba Beach and its iconic Mushroom Rock. Hit the beach and more at the Almond Beach Resort in Barbados. Contact CAA Travel to book this four-star all-inclusive today.