Unlike most of our travels where we spend months planning, this trip happened quickly and unexpectedly. It started with a phone call. How did we feel about staying in Golden Grove, a historic sugar plantation house in Barbados?

Our friend Jaq said she needed a holiday somewhere warm and she had a plan. (Jaq is the proprietress of Redheart England, a spectacular specialized knitwear manufacturer.)

Friends of hers own Golden Grove, a Barbados “great house” that was once part of a massive sugar cane plantation. Much of the land had been sold off years ago, but the house still sits on three acres which is like having your own park. The three of us could rent the house for a couple of weeks at a very reasonable price and they’d arrange for a car too.

Well, here in Toronto it was the usual January deep freeze. Daily temps in Barbados were about 27°C (81°F). We had airline points which made the direct flights cheap. And on top of that, it was my birthday!

There! Decision made.

Having our accommodation already chosen for us was so much easier than reviewing dozens of Airbnb listings or hotels. We just went with the flow and trusted everything would turn out to be wonderful. And so it did.

Since we would be staying in one place, and it was only two weeks, I didn’t do as much research as usual. A few hours on Pinterest led me to lots of travellers’ sites packed with information. Beaches were nearby, towns and villages were handy, so I assumed we’d figure out the rest.

After coordinating the schedules, it looked like Jaq’s flight from London would touch down about an hour after ours. It was obviously meant to be.

Our driver was waiting at the airport. On the way to Golden Grove, about a 20-minute ride, he took us to a grocery store so that we could stock up and be ready to go.

Golden Grove is a spectacular house with a wonderful pool in the back. Surrounded by palms and other tropical trees and plants, it was also a haven for birds, and so we had the joy of birdsong every day.

The house itself had four big bedrooms with ensuite baths and balconies. A huge kitchen opened wide to a protected outdoor dining area, and a wonderful living room was made for lounging.

It’s also a house with a history. It’s been the scene of many weddings, parties and celebrations, and has been featured in numerous historical books.

But not all of its history is pleasant. Barbados, like most of the Caribbean and the U.S., was built on the backs of slaves. The sugar cane fields depended on cheap labour to plant and harvest and turn the cane into sugar and often rum.

In April of 1816, a revolt organized by a slave known as Bussa was started at the Bayley Plantation which is just across the road from Golden Grove. However, their 400 men and women were no match for the force of 650 well-armed police and militia. Many of the slaves were shot or hanged on and around the plantations in the area.

Slavery was finally abolished in Barbados in 1834 (30 years before the USA). In 1998, Bussa was recognized as one of the ten Heroes of Barbados earning the title “The Right Excellent Bussa.” You can read more about the Bussa Revolt here.

We’ve been to a few Caribbean islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Aruba, St. Lucia, Bahamas, Trinidad) but never Barbados, which means we had another country to add to the list.

Like every country, Barbados offers a number of tourist attractions, but we weren’t that interested (oh wait, does the rum tasting at the distillery count – OK, we were interested). We decided we wanted to make the Oistins fish fry on a Friday night which seemed like a big deal with lots of little restaurants clustered around the fish market with live music and entertainment. Other than that, just hang out at beaches, read, eat and drink the local rum.

We learned that the closest beach to us was Crane Beach which Condé Nast Traveler magazine had just named the best pink sand beach in the world. Nice! It’s a beautiful beach and we went a couple of times, but there was lots of seaweed washing up, and the waves were quite strong. Still, a chill place to hang out.

The GPS led us to this little dead-end road that had a sign nailed to a tree, that simply read “beach”. We parked at the side of the road, leaving just enough room for other cars to get by, and then walked down towards the beach. There, we found ourselves at the top of a set of stairs that led down to a pathway of concrete disks that created a walkway along the rough cliff side down to the sand.

Like other islands in the Caribbean, we knew that the Atlantic side would be rough, not great for swimming (surfer beaches), and the gulf side would have the nice calm beaches.

Crane is at the south end of the island, so it gets some Atlantic exposure, hence the waves.

The Golden Grove house was our #1 highlight. Such a grand house for the three of us. Even when tropical storms blew through, we could sit outside of the kitchen on the covered deck while the trees got a soaking.

There were a few days when we didn’t leave Golden Grove – the pool out back was perfect and sometimes we needed a mid-day nap. The birds woke us up every day with the sun at about 6:30 to perfect 24°C weather. We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was winter.

A feral cat lived by the house and gave birth to three kittens during the first week of our stay. She would let us feed her, but never get closer than a few feet. She learned to relax around us, lounging on the warm deck, but always at a distance. This was no one’s kitty but she was a hungry mom. Hope the little ones survived.

One of the real highlights was the island and people of Barbados. Friendly, cheerful and proud of their island. There is a grace about Bajans (Barbadians) that we felt and enjoyed. Unlike other islands, we could walk down the beaches and not be accosted with numerous propositions (ahem, hello Jamaica).

We soon found our favorite swimming beach, Enterprise Beach, right by the Oistins fish market and the Surfer’s Café. Calm turquoise waters, fine sand and rows of ancient trees that gave respite from the sun.

From the beach, it was a short walk to the Surfer’s Café. This was the laid back, cool vibes kind of place we always look for wherever we go. The Café was the perfect way to end beach days with rum punches, fish tacos, tables that are cantilevered out over the beach and all of this wrapped in island-friendly service.

Oistins fish fry on Friday night. We’d walked by the little restaurants and sheds earlier in the week during the day, and some were open, but it wasn’t really busy. You might think there’s nothing going on here. But Friday nights the place explodes. It’s packed with locals and visitors, there were line-ups, we had to be fast to grab an open seat, music was jumping on stage and fish were frying everywhere.

On our last day, we realized we hadn’t been to a rum tasting tour at the Foursquare Rum Distillery which was just a few miles from Golden Grove. After a self-guided tour through the distillery (thousands of barrels of rum aging stacked in heavy racks) we went to the tasting room. We opted to taste nine rums (little tastes!). What a great rum education! After that, we were spoiled. Once we tasted that, it became impossible to buy the generic cheap stuff again.

After a while, we just loved driving through the Bajan countryside on their “highways”, most of which are two lane roads that twist and turn through acres of sugar cane. Windows down, warm breezes. One day we drove up the wild Atlantic Ocean side to watch the surfers at the Bathsheba beach. Perfect blue-sky day, with surf bums making movies of their friends riding the waves.

Simply, would we go there again? For Barbados, the easy answer is yes. The next time, maybe we’d explore the north end of the island.

Or, if we booked early, get to Barbados for carnival which, according to locals, packs the island to capacity. We’d have to reserve early. Might just do that.