COVID Barbados Travel with Travel Journalist Melanie May – T…
COVID Barbados travel with travel journalist Melanie May. Melanie travelled to Barbados October 2020 following all the COVID guidelines and protocols. Barbados travel guidelines below.
Melanie talks about Barbados travel protocols, COVID testing, quarantine as well as her stay at the beautiful Coral Reef Club. Learn more about the sunset cruise, the water sports adventures and snorkelling with turtles.
COVID-19 PCR In-Clinic Swab Tests (including a COVID-19 Travel Certificate) are available at selected Tropical Medical Bureau clinics for €180. A negative COVID-19 Travel Certificate is required for travel to Barbados. Visit www.tmb.ie or call 01-2715-200 to make an appointment.
Please visit this website before booking your travel.
https://www.visitbarbados.org/covid-19-travel-guidelines-2020
Coral Reef Cub hotel website with lots more information: https://www.coralreefbarbados.com/
Melanie’s website and social media pages below.
https://www.melaniemay.com
https://www.twitter.com/_melaniemay
https://www.instagram.com/_maymelanie/
Voice Transcript:
– Hi, I’m Melanie May and I am a freelance travel journalist. So, for the last week I have been in sunny Barbados. I was there on a press trip as part of the new safety measures that are taking place in Barbados and on the inaugural Heathrow to Barbados flight. So, before we could go on the trip, we had to get a COVID test and we had to do that 72 hours before we landed in Barbados, and then once we got our negative form, we were good to go, got on the flight. It was all pretty standard as it is today, masks on at all time, and they handed us sanitizing packs, it was all lovely. When we arrived in Barbados, they took our COVID test off us, they gave us a quarantine ban, so everybody knew that we had to self-isolate whilst we were on the island, and then we had to self-isolate for about two to three days and then we got another COVID test in the hotel, and when that test came back negative, we were then free to explore the island. So in Barbados, the restrictions are very, they feel minimum, they’re not very invasive. Obviously, you have to wear your masks out in public spaces, like let’s say, when you’re going into the restaurants and bars, and every time you go in somewhere, they will take your temperature, they will write it down on a sheet, and you will write your name down, and you also have to sanitize your hands as well. But then once you’re sitting at your table, you can take your mask off, so it’s pretty standard. I think we’re all getting used to it at the minute and it was actually just really pleasant. So we stayed in an absolutely fantastic hotel called the Coral Reef Club, which is on the Platinum Coast, which is on the west side of the island, which is where the Caribbean Sea is. It was right on the beach. The hotel had its own lovely private beach and it also had a coral reef about a couple of feet into the water that you could go snorkeling, hence, the name of the hotel, It was five-star, it was pure luxury. It was so classy and elegant and the hospitality was amazing. The staff made the stay. They were so friendly, so chirpy, so engaging, and they really did go above and beyond to ensure we had a brilliant time. It’s a family-run hotel, run by the O’Hara family, who actually are descended from Sligo. So, nice connection there, and it’s one of the small luxury hotels of the world. There’s only 80 rooms, I think 80 rooms or 88 rooms, and it has two pools and a spa, and the beach, and a huge restaurant on the beach front. So for me being a water sports lover, one of the highlights was the fact that there was a reef right outside of the hotel. So, all the water sports in the Coral Reef Club Hotel are free to use, you pay for the motorized ones, but the snorkeling, the sailing, the kayaking that was all free. Also getting out on the sunset cruise was fantastic ’cause we got to go swimming at nighttime. Again, the waters are so warm, they’re so clear that you just want to stay in them all the time, and I think you’ll find that with the hotels, sometimes the pools aren’t huge, but that’s what caused the whole draw of being on a Caribbean Island is the fact that you have the sea right there to swim in. We also did another cruise that had loads of water sports as part of the cruise. So we did some para-surfing. We did a Seabob, I think it was called, which was absolutely brilliant, And again, we got to snorkel with some turtles, which was probably the highlight. The people of Barbados are as warm as the climate. They really, really are friendly. They’re very chilled, very laid-back. You just notice that there’s nobody yelling into their mobile phone. There’s no screaming and shouting, it’s just all very chilled and relaxed, even when you go into the markets and the busy towns, they’re very hospitable, always smiling. You can tell the smiling, even when they’re wearing their masks and I didn’t get hassled at all when I was walking around,
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