Bridgetown (Barbados)

Bridgetown is the main seaport/cruise port, the capital and biggest city of Barbados. Fka Town of Saint Michael, Greater Bridgetown metro area is within the island's Saint Michael parish. Locally referred to as "The City", the most common reference to Bridgetown is simply "Town". The city covers a total area of approx 40 km2 (15 mi2) and has a population around 110,000.

Barbados' second-largest town and port is Speightstown (population around 4,000), located approx 20 km/12 mi to the north along the island's west coast.

Port Bridgetown (locode BBBGI) is located along Carlisle Bay (on the island's southwestern coast). Parts of the metro area (aka ABC Highway) borders with the parishes St James and Christ Church. Grantley Adams International Airport is located 16 km (10 mi) southeast of downtown, and offers daily flights to all major cities in the Caribbean, USA, Canada and the UK.

At its current location, the town was established in 1628 by English settlers. The prior settlement was at St James Town. Bridgetown City is a popular West Indies travel vacation destination and serves as major financial and convention center, as well as a major cruise port of call in the Southern Caribbean. In 2011, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison were designated "UNESCO World Heritage Site".

The cruise port serves the entire Barbados Island (Caribbean Sea). It is managed by the port authority company "Bridgetown Cruise Terminals Inc". Its largest shareholders (investors) are the country's Government (through the state-owned company "Barbados Port Inc", with 30% share) and the private companies "Goddard Enterprises Ltd" (20%) and "Cave Shepherd & Co Ltd" (20%). The remaining 30% of the cruise terminal's shares are held by the general public (subscribed at the initial building stage of the port's development).

Barbados is included in many Southern Caribbean cruise itineraries, also visiting Leeward Islands (Guadeloupe, St Martin, St Barts, Nevis, St Kitts), Greater Antilles, Windward Islands (Martinique, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica), Curacao, Bonaire, Aruba.

Bridgetown Barbados also serves as turnaround (departure) port for cruise liners in the fleets of Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, P&O UK (fly-cruise deals from Southampton England during the winter season).

In 2017, the cruise port handled a toyal of 818,752 passengers, or 12,9% increase over 2016 (725,020 passengers). Of all these cruise ship tourists, 137,541 stayed overnight (compared to 130,924 in 2016). The port's main source markets are the UK (33,5% share / 222,322 passengers), followed by USA (28,4% / 188,970 passengers) and Canada (12,8% / 85,209 passengers).

In 2021, RCI-Royal Caribbean homeported in Bridgetown (for the first time in the company's history) the ship Grandeur Of The Seas. The liner's winter 2021-2022 program (December 2021 through April 2022) was based on 3 itineraries - all leaving roundtrip from Port Bridgetown. RCI's fly-cruise deals were inclusive of cheaper charter flights from Miami. RCI's Barbados hotel packages offer tourists to stay in premium properties like Hilton Barbados Resort, Turtle Beach Resort, Sea Breeze Beach House Resort, South Beach Hotel Barbados, Radisson Aquatica Resort Barbados, Accra Beach Hotel & Spa.

• 7-night "Southern Caribbean Explorer" itinerary - to Scarborough (Tobago), Port-of-Spain (Trinidad), St George's (Grenada), Kingstown (St Vincent, Grenadines), Roseau (Dominica), Castries (St Lucia)
• 7-night "Southern Caribbean Adventure" itinerary - to St George's, Kralendijk (Bonaire), Oranjestad (Aruba), Willemstad (Curacao), Port-of-Spain
• 14-night "Ultimate Caribbean" itinerary - to St George's, Kingstown, Kralendijk, Oranjestad, Willemstad, Port-of-Spain, Cartagena (Colombia), Colon (Panama), Puerto Limon (Costa Rica)

For winter 2022-2023 season, Port Bridgetown reported a successful season handling 362 booked (358 received) cruise ship visits and 625,847 passengers (608,269 received), which was 86% of the pre-COVID record season 2018-2019 (726,028 passengers, 384 ship berthings).

For winter 2023-2024 (October-April), the cruise port had a record-breaking season with a total of 407 booked cruise ship berthings (392 received) from 26 different cruise line brands, with expected 741,265 passengers (715,527 received). The berthings' number included 18 maiden calls and a total of 217 homeporting operations/roundtrips from Bridgetown.

By annual passenger traffic (statistical data 2019), the Caribbean's top-10 largest airports are:

1. Luis Munoz Marin Airport/aka Isla Verde (San Juan Puerto Rico) with ~9,5 million pax
2. Punta Cana Airport (Punta Cana Dominicana) with ~7,2 million pax
3. Jose Marti Airport (Havana Cuba) with 5,7+ million pax
4. Sangster Airport (Montego Bay Jamaica) with ~4,8 million pax
5. Lynden Pindling Airport (Nassau Bahamas) with ~4,1 million pax
6. Las Americas Airport (Santo Domingo Dominicana) with ~4 million pax
7. Piarco Airport (Port-of-Spain Trinidad) with 2,8+ million pax
8. Queen Beatrix Airport (Oranjestad Aruba) with 2,5+ million pax
9. Pointe-a-Pitre Airport (Pointe-a-Pitre Guadeloupe) with ~2,5 million pax
10. Grantley Adams Airport (Bridgetown Barbados) with ~2,3 million pax

This explains why these port cities are used as seasonal turnaround ports for homeporting (roundtrip itineraries) by many major cruise companies with ship deployments in the Caribbean.

Bridgetown cruise terminal

Bridgetown tours, shore excursions, hotels

City Tours and Shore Excursions

Barbados Garrison: World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It dates from 1780 when it was established to be the Imperial Forces’ military headquarter. Now it is a home to the Barbados Defence Force. You can tour George Washington House, St. Ann’s Fort, the Barbados National Armoury and the Savannah park.

Parliament Buildings: or the “Public Buildings”. They were constructed in the period 1870-1874 of coral limestone in neo-gothic style. They house the Barbados Parliament. The Senate and House of Assembly are housed in the east wing. The Parliament Museum and the National Gallery are housed in the west wing. There also is the clock tower.

National Heroes Square: formerly Trafalgar Square, it is located between the Parliament buildings and the Constitution River Inner Basin. There you will see three sculptures. The first is a memorial to the Barbadians that were killed during the two World Wars. The Lord Horatio Nelson bronze statue marks the center of the city. The clamshell-shaped fountain is the third one.it is a memorial of the Bridgetown first piped water.

St. Michael’s Cathedral: located two blocks away from the National Heroes Square, direction East. It dates from 1789 and replaced the 1665 wooden building. The church is made of coral stone and got its cathedral status when Bishop William Harte Coleridge arrived in 1825.

Nidhe Israel Synagogue: UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the oldest Western Hemisphere synagogues dates from 1654.

Queen’s Park: located beside St. Michael’s Row, east of downtown.

Barbados Museum: the St. Ann’s Garrison British military prison houses the museum. You will find great variety of exhibitions.

Beaches: visit the beautiful Gold Coats beaches. Great for watersports is Payne’s bay. The Brighton Beach, Brandon’s Beach and Paradise Beach are located in the Fresh Water Bay, next to Payne’s bay. Also popular is Bathsheba Beach.

Hunte’s Gardens, Mount Gay distillery, Oistins Fish Fry