Last week we gave you the low-down on the new Sandals LaSource, the all-inclusive brand’s first venture into Grenada. While it may be tempting to while away all your time on the resort, and on Pink Gin beach, you shouldn’t miss getting off the property for a day of exploring. Here are a few highlights of this manageable and easygoing “spice island”:
Island Tours
Through Sandals’ on-site Island Routes tour company, you can arrange a full-day tour of the island that includes visits to the spice market in the island’s capital; the Annadale Waterfall, the Belmont Chocolate Estate, the historic Fort Frederick, and Grand Etang crater lake. Your guide will also point out the famous produce growing all around you, including cinnamon, nutmeg, mace ($79).
More energetic travelers can book a two-and-a-half-hour bicycle tour of the volcanic (and, hence, hill-covered) island. Cyclists ride along the coastline while learning about the island’s history, stopping along the way at a local fishing bay and at L’Anse aux Epines at the tip of the peninsula ($59).
Underwater Sculpture Park
Grenada has the distinction of being the first place in the world to create an underwater sculpture park. First created by English diver and artist Jason deCaires Taylor in 2006, the sculpture park in Moliniere Bay is a living exhibition, in which the sculptures interact with their environment, functioning as artificial reefs that provide a habitat for underwater life. Some sculptures are inspired by characters from Grenadian stories and folklore. A kneeling woman, for example, represents Sienna from the storybook A Different Ocean; a young woman whose gift for free-diving was exploited by treasure hunters.
Grenada Seafaris, which is run by a friend of the artist and chairman of the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park Management Group, offers narrated speedboat tours that depart from Great Anse Beach and travel along the sheltered coves of the west coast of the island. At the sculpture park, they lead a guided snorkel (contact the company for rates).
Divers can arrange trips through their hotel. (At Sandals, diving is included in the rates.) Other diving sites around the island include two shipwrecks.
River Antoine Rum Distillery
The River Antoine Rum Distillery is the oldest still-functioning, water-powered distillery in the Caribbean, having been in operation since 1785. Guided tours cover all aspects of the highly potent (around 150 proof) rum’s production process – from cane crushing to fermentation, and distillation – and cost $2 per person. The distillery is located on Grenada’s northeast coast, near Lake Antoine. If you have use of a car, it is around an hour’s drive from St. George’s. Otherwise, contact Island Routes or other local tour companies to take you there.