Barbados

Barbados is the easternmost island of the Caribbean: small, built of coral limestone, and lying east of the Windward Islands, where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea. The sheltered west coast, known as the Platinum Coast, pairs calm turquoise water with the island’s grandest resorts around Holetown, Porters and Paynes Bay. Further north lies Speightstown, an old port town, with the quiet north-west coast beyond it. The Atlantic east coast is wilder, with surf and wind, while the beaches of the south are livelier.

Colonial history survives in Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in the island’s plantation houses, while rum has been made here for more than three centuries. Cricket and polo have devoted followings, and for leisure there are golf, sailing, diving on the coral reefs and swimming with turtles. The dining scene is rich, too.

It is warm all year, and the trade winds soften the heat. The driest months run roughly from December to May; hurricane season lasts from June to November. Barbados suits honeymooners, beach and wellness holidays, families with children, golfers, polo enthusiasts and food lovers.