Barbados
Antigua
Grenada
Tobago Grenada |
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| St. James Travel & Tours (Grenada) Ltd. #1 Oberoi Apt Building P.O. Box 1528 Grand Anse, St George's Grenada |
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Telephone: (473) 439-2828 Facsimile: (473) 439-2829 E-mail: stjamesgnd@caribsurf.com |
Its capital, St. George's, has one of the prettiest harbour settings in the Caribbean. Tourist infrastructure is still generally small-scale and locally owned and offers a good balance between comfort and price, making Grenada a great getaway for those who want to avoid the resort experience.
Visas: Passports are not required of citizens of the US, Canada or the UK, as long as they have proof of citizenship. Citizens of other countries must have a valid passport.
Health risks: dengue fever, sunburn, diarrhoea, intestinal worms
Time Zone: GMT/UTC -4
Electricity: 230V ,50Hz
Weights & measures: Imperial
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When to Go
With warm weather and temperatures averaging 80°F (27°C) yearround, there really isn't a bad time to visit Grenada. The rain falls each month, though not every day, with a bit more during the rainy season between June and November. The second weekend in August is when to catch Carnival, the island's biggest and busiest event, so make sure to reserve in advance to enjoy the festivities. Winter is prime fishing season and, accordingly, the Spice Island Billfish Tournament, which draws anglers from around North America and the Caribbean, is held annually in January.
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Events
Grenada's biggest festival is Carnival, held on the second weekend in August. It includes calypso and steel band competitions, all sorts of costumed revelry, a pageant and a grand finale 'jump-up' on the following Tuesday. Many of Carnival's events are held at Queen's Park, on the north side of St George's. The Spice Island Billfish Tournament held in January attracts anglers from North America and the Caribbean keen to hook its six-figure first prize. Carriacou's four-day Carnival usually takes place in February. The Carriacou Regatta, a major sailing event featuring races to Grenada, Union Island and Bequia, is held in late July or early August. It's accompanied by additional sporting events and plenty of music and dancing.
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Money & Costs
Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollar
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Meals
- Budget: US$5-10
- Mid-range: US$10-25
- High: US$25+
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Lodging
- Budget: US$30-75
- Mid-range:US$75-125
- High: US$125+
US dollars are widely accepted by hotels, shops and restaurants, but you'll get a better deal if you purchase EC dollars at a bank and use the local currency. Major credit cards are accepted by most hotels and top-end restaurants as well as the larger car rental agencies. When you're catching taxis, make sure you know whether prices being quoted are in EC or US dollars.
An 8% tax and a 10% service charge are added to most hotel and restaurant bills. If no service charge is added, a 10% tip is generally expected.
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Attractions
St. George's
The picturesque hillside town of St George's surrounds a deep horseshoe-shaped harbour and is widely regarded as one of the prettiest spots in the Caribbean. It has a charming setting, steep twisting streets and pastel-hued 19th-century Creole houses, many of them roofed with red fishscale tiles brought over as ballast on ships from Europe. Cargo vessels, cruise ships and colourfully painted wooden schooners from Carriacou dock in the busy harbour, known as the Carenage. It's surrounded by mercantile houses, warehouses and quayside cafes, then by the steeply tiered streets of St George's and, finally, backed by Grenada's lush green hills.
The winding maze of streets and alleys on the west side of the Carenage are fun to wander around; check out the policemen directing traffic at blind street corners. The Grenada National Museum in the centre of town incorporates an old French barracks dating from 1704. Its hotchpotch of exhibits include fragments of Amerindian pottery, an old rum still and a grubby marble bathtub that once belonged to Empress Josephine.
The hilltop Fort George, established by the French in 1705, has fine views from the harbour's western promontory across the town's red-tiled roofs and church spires and over the Carenage. In the fort's inner compound you can see the bullet holes in the basketball pole made by the firing squad that executed Maurice Bishop. The spot is marked by fading graffiti reading 'No Pain No Gain Brother.'
The late-18th-century Fort Frederick protects the harbour's eastern entrance and has panoramic views of Grenada's southwestern coastline. The fort is well intact, thanks in part to a tragic targeting blunder made during the US invasion of 1983. The US intended to hit Fort Frederick but mistakenly bombed Fort Matthew, just a few hundred yards to the north, which was being used as a mental hospital at the time of the attack.
Grand Anse
Grenada's main resort area is a lovely sweep of white sand fronted by turquoise water and backed by hills. Packed with hotels, bars, eateries and watersports, it's the essential Grenadian experience for many. If you want some peace and quiet, cross the peninsula of Quarantine Point (once a leper colony) to the picturesque Morne Rouge Bay.
Grand Etang Road
This road cuts across the mountainous centre of the island through the Grand Etang Forest Reserve, passing close to waterfalls and a number of hiking trails. While both tortuously narrow and twisting, the road is lined with ferns, bamboo, heliconia and buttressed kapok trees, making for a rousing if formidable drive through the rainforest. Annandale Falls, close to the village of Constantine, is a 10m (30ft) waterfall in a grotto of lush vegetation with a pool beneath the falls that's deep enough for a swim. A short drive past Constantine is the Grand Etang National Park, which has some grand views of the western coast, numerous hiking trails and a crater lake.
Sauteurs
The largest town on Grenada's northern coast takes its name from the French word for 'jump.' This is the site where in 1651 retreating Carib families leapt to their deaths rather than surrender to approaching French soldiers. Carib's Leap is the name given to the 40m (130ft) high coastal cliffs where the tragic event happened. From the cliff ledge you can look down on the fishing boats along the village beach and see eroded rock formations and nearby islands.
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Off the Beaten Track
Bathways Beach
This undeveloped beach of speckled coral sands offers a 30-foot-wide pool protected from the strong Atlantic Ocean currents by a rock shelf that parallels the northside of the shoreline. A new visitor facility has some simple displays on shells, coral and ecology, as well as restrooms. Off the beach are three islands: Sugar Loaf is a privately owned island with a cottage on its south shore; Green Island has a few abandoned buildings and no beach; and Sandy Island has an abandoned hotel and a nice beach for swimming and snorkelling on its leeward side. Bathways Beach can be reached by vehicle along a good road leading northeast from River Sallee, and fishing boats can be chartered from Sauteurs to the islands offshore.
Carriacou
This small rural island has good beaches and a pace of life that can only be described as slow motion. There are 12,000 residents on Carriacou, and half of them are goats who forage the dry scrubby landscape dotted with cacti, acacias and splashes of bougainvillea. While the island's low-key character and natural harbour have long attracted yachters, few other Caribbean travellers have Carriacou on their itinerary. Consequently the beaches are uncrowded and finding a room is seldom a problem. Carriacou has fantastic views of the neighbouring Grenadines and a couple of nearshore islets of its own that can readily be visited for picnicking, snorkelling and diving. Hillsborough is the administrative and commercial centre of the island; Tyrell Bay is a popular yachting anchorage and the nearest thing the island has to a beach hang-out. The island is northeast of Grenada and can be reached by boat from St George's or by plane from Grenada's Point Salines airport.
Levera Beach
At the northeastern tip of Grenada a few miles east of Sauteurs is a wild sweep of sand backed by eroded sea cliffs with the pointed Sugar Loaf island (also called Levera Island) just offshore. This area, made up of the beach, a mangrove swamp and a nearby pond, has been incorporated into Grenada's national park system serving as an important waterfowl habitat and sea turtle nesting site. Although passable by 4WD, it can be a rough ride on the road leading north into Levera Beach from Bathways Beach and most visitors prefer the 30-minute walk.
Petit Martinique
This tiny circular volcanic cone rises out of the sea northeast of Carriacou. Most of Petit Martinique's 600 inhabitants make a living from the sea, and the island enjoys one of the region's highest per capita incomes. There's not much to see here unless you're interested in quiet isolation. The islanders have a reputation for their independent spirit, as well as a bit of notoriety for smuggling. The island has a school, church, guesthouse and a grocery shop-cum-bar, but no police, customs or banks. There's one road on the western coast, though most people get around on foot. A local cargo boat plies between Petit Martinique and Hillsborough on Carriacou twice a week, or you can arrange for a speedboat to zip you over to the island from Windward on Carriacou's northern coast.
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Activities
Grenada's most popular beaches for sunbathing and swimming are all in the southwest of the island. They include the fine sweep of white sand at Grand Anse, nearby Morne Rouge Bay and True Blue. Calvigny Island, off the island's southwestern coast, has a couple of pretty beaches; you can reach them by shuttle boat from Secret Harbour or by asking fisherpeople around Woburn Pier. If you want to have a beach to yourself, head to Carriacou.
The waters around Grenada have extensive reefs, with good coral, fish, turtles and other marine life. Dives come in a variety of flavors, including shallow reefs, walls, drifts and shipwrecks. The best sites are Bose Reef, Dragon Bay and Grand Mal Point. It's also worth checking out the unpopulated islands between Grenada and Carriacou. Kick 'em Jenny is worth visiting for the name alone, but the tiny island is also surrounded by pristine waters with great visibility; there's a sheer wall dive at Sisters Island. Molinière Point, just north of St George's, has the island's best snorkeling, although land access is difficult. If you're interested in game fishing, blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish and yellowfin tuna swim in Grenada's waters. The best catches are in the winter months.
Good hiking trails wind through the Grand Etang rainforest, which occupies the center of Grenada. They include the Mt Qua Qua Trail, which leads to the top of a ridge with fine views of the forest; the Seven Sisters Falls Trail, which leads to a series of seven waterfalls; and the gentle but frequently muddy Grand Etang Shoreline Trail. There's also a network of short walking trails in the La Sagesse Nature Centre, on the island's southeastern coast. The trails explore the former estate of the late Lord Brownlow, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
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History
Grenada's recorded history began in 1498, when Christopher Columbus sighted the island on his third voyage to the so-called New World. The first European settlement wasn't attempted until 1609, when a party of 208 English settlers tried to establish tobacco plantations, but they quickly fell victim to raids by native Carib Indians and abandoned the island.
In 1650, Governor Du Parquet of Martinique 'purchased' Grenada from the Caribs for a few hatchets, some glass beads and couple of bottles of grog and immediately established 200 French settlers on the island. Within a year the French were weary of skirmishes with the Caribs and sent a contingent of soldiers to sort the locals out. The Caribs were routed at Sauteurs Bay, but rather than submit to the colonists, the survivors - men, women and children - jumped to their deaths from the precipitous coastal cliffs. The French then set about establishing plantations of indigo, tobacco, coffee, cocoa and sugar, which were worked by African slaves.
Grenada remained under French control until it was captured by the British in 1762. Over the next two decades it teetered between the two colonial powers until it was ceded to the Brits in 1783. It remained under British rule until independence, though animosity lingered between the British colonialists and the minority French settlers with violence erupting periodically. In 1877, Grenada became a Crown Colony.
In 1967 became an associate state within the British Commonwealth. Grenada and the neighboring Grenadine Islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique adopted a constitution in 1973 and became an independent nation in 1974.
The post-independence period was plagued by corruption, extremism and political thuggery until a bloodless coup by London-educated lawyer Maurice Bishop in 1979. He immediately reinstated a measure of human rights and promised to resolve the country's economic problems. Bishop had widespread popular support and proved a charismatic leader, but his policy of nonalignment and socialist leanings didn't sit well with the USA or Grenada's more conservative neighbors. Ostracized by the West, Bishop turned to the Cubans for aid, who then undertook construction of a new airport on Grenada.
A struggle between Bishop and military hardliners resulted in Bishop's overthrow in 1983, and he was placed under house arrest. A spontaneous gathering of 30,000 people (one third of the island's population) forced Bishop's release. Together they marched to Fort George, where the military opened fire on the crowd, killing an estimated 40 protesters. Bishop and several of his followers were taken prisoner and summarily executed.
In the turmoil that followed, the US government convinced a handful of Caribbean nations to pledge support for a US invasion of the island. US forces invaded six days later in an operation that claimed the lives of 70 Cubans, 42 Americans and 170 Grenadians, including 18 who were killed when US forces mistakenly bombed the island's mental hospital. Most US forces withdrew two months later, although a joint US-Caribbean force remained stationed on the island for several years. Democratic elections have been held in 1985, 1990 and in 1995, the last bringing the New National Party to power and installing NNP leader Keith Mitchell as the Prime Minister.
In late 1998, the defection of several members of Parliament from the NNP to the opposition brought the government down. As a result, elections were held in January 1999, which Mitchell won handily despite accusations of corruption from the opposition.
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Culture
Grenadian culture is a mixture of British, African, West Indian and French influences. Though the majority of Grenadians are Roman Catholic and a French-African patois is spoken by some, the French influence on this small nation is slight compared to other neighboring islands that have oscillated between the main Caribbean colonial powers.
The official language is English, and though the majority are Roman Catholic, there are plenty of Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches. African Creole influences come to the fore during Carnival, and a general resurgence of black pride is visible in the widespread practice of giving African names to Grenadian children. Carriacou has a unique folk troupe that performs the African-influenced Big Drum Dance, centered around the playing of drums made of small rum kegs covered with goatskin. On Grenada, steel band and calypso music are popular.
The folk art of Carriacou artist Canute Caliste has gained international recognition painting visions of mermaids and sailing vessels at his home in L'Esterre. The popularity of steel hulls has made it difficult to see traditional wooden schooners being built on Carriacou.
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Environment
Just 60 miles (100 km) north of Venezuela, Grenada is the largest of the three small islands that make up the Caribbean nation of the same name. Completing the threesome are Carriacou and Petit Martinique, the most southerly of a long string of coral islands stretching north to neighboring St Vincent. Trinidad and Tobago are Grenada's only Caribbean neighbors to the south.
Grenada has a varied ecosystem of rainforests, montane thickets, elfin woodlands and lowland dry forests. Mona monkeys swing within wooded areas, and opossums, armadillos, mongoose, pelicans, osprey hawks and rarely seen tree boas roam throughout the island. Among the endangered species are sea turtles and hook-billed kites.
Temperatures in Grenada are balmy year round, with daily highs averaging around 80°F (30°C). The rainy season lasts from June to November, and rain falls on average on 22 days a month during this period. Even in the driest months, between January and April, it rains 12 days a month - which accounts for the island's lush vegetation.
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Getting There & Away
Grenada's Point Salines International Airport receives frequent flights from the US via San Juan, Puerto Rico, and direct flights are available a couple times a week between New York and Miami. From the UK, airlines fly a few times a week from London to Grenada, either direct or via Trinidad. Daily nonstop flights between Grenada and Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago and St Vincent connect the island to the rest of the Caribbean. The airport departure tax for stays over 24 hours is under US$15.
Yachts can clear customs and immigration at St George's or Prickly Bay in Grenada and at Hillsborough on Carriacou. Grenada is also a port of call for a fair number of cruise ships, which dock at the southeast side of St. George's. Small boats connect Hillsborough on Carriacou with Union Island in the Grenadines a couple of times a week.
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Getting Around
There are numerous flights a day between Grenada and Carriacou. Point Salines International Airport is on Grenada's southwestern tip, about 3 miles (5km) southwest of St George's. There are no buses operating from the airport, but there a number of rental car offices and taxis available with set fares to all points on the island. Carriacou's airport is just southwest of Hillsborough and minibuses and taxis tend to swing by the airport whenever a flight comes in.
Minivan buses are a good way to get around Grenada if you want to experience the rhythms of daily life - most blast calypso and reggae music and provide a hair-raising ride. Most buses leave St George's from the Esplanade bus terminal at the west end of Granby St. The two main minibus routes on Carriacou are between Hillsborough and Windward and Hillsborough and Tyrell Bay. Unfortunately most buses stop running in the early evening, and there are few services anywhere on Sunday. Some minibuses, however, double as taxis and are available for private charter. You can flag down a passing bus from the side of the road by simply sticking out your hand. To get off a bus, just yell out 'drop one.'
There are a number of local and international car rental agencies; most of the local agencies have small fleets and a minimum three-day rental period and you're probably better off dealing with the international companies. Visitors need to purchase a local driving license, available from the car rental companies; driving is on the left. Taxis fares are regulated by the government, though taxis can also be hired by the hour for sightseeing tours.
Cargo boats and catamarans run regularly between Grenada and Carriacou; a ride in an old-fashioned cargo boat can take three to four hours while the modern express catamarans take half as long but cost twice as much. Boats are available to several nearshore islands.
There is regular boat service connecting Petit Martinique with Grenada and Carriacou. This mile-wide island has one road along the west coast, but it is otherwise easy to get around on foot.
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