The best trip we've ever been on (Calabaza Sailing Cruises)

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	Calabaza Sailing Cruises
Date:	17/07/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic crew, great boat, an overall unforgettably brilliant day

Disadvantages: Could have a better booking system, but this is only a very, very minor complaint

My wife and I visited Barbados in June 2009 for our Honeymoon and the Calabaza Sailing Cruise was the highlight of a fantastic trip!

My wife initially heard about Calabaza through good reviews on Trip Advisor. Their boats are very small, only holding around a dozen people and so offer a much more relaxed and spacious experience that the other boats we'd seen that cater for upwards of 80 people. As it was our honeymoon, we wanted the best and so we contacted the company and booked our places. This is my first and only complaint: the booking process wasn't very secure as they wanted us to email our credit card details to them... which isn't the safest thing in the world to do. We eventually rang them with the details, but it wasn't a problem.

Now onto the trip...

We were picked up from our hotel at around 9.30am and taken straight to Bridgetown to board the catamaran. The transfer took around 15 minutes from St Lawrence Gap.

At the boat we met the crew - the captain Danny, and his first mate the lovable Gregory (but you can call him Bob)! Bob and Danny were very welcoming and helped us onto the boat before pouring us the first of many drinks... for which there was a wide selection - water, coke, rum, punch, beer... you name it, they had it!

With drinks in hand, we set sail up the west coast of the island, determined to find us some turtles to swim with! After around 45 minutes of lying in the sun we made our first stop, put on our snorkling equipment (which they provided) and got in the water to feed and swim with some turtles. Initially there were none to be seen, but after a couple of minutes a giant turtle came over to see what the fuss was about and get his dinner, which Bob was feeding to him! It was great being near to (and being able to touch) such a magnificent old creature and he swam about in his natural environment.

We were having great fun with the turtles, but it was eventually time to leave and move onto our next port of call which was an old shipwreck that had sunk some time ago a few yards from the shore. Bob told us that this was actually his old boat that he's crashed when he was drunk... although I think he was maybe making that story up!

After the shipwreck we moved onto our last stop where we had lunch which consisted of chicken, fish and rice. After another swim, we headed back to Bridgetown and home on the mini bus, arriving back at the hotel at around 3pm.

The day was fantastic from start to finish, made all the better by the excellent accommodating crew who really couldn't have been nicer to us. At one point my wife's hat flew off into the sea and we thought we'd lost it, but Danny turned the boat around and Gregory pulled it out of the water for us!

The cost of the trip was $100 US, which is more than some of their competitors, but we thought it was great value - it was the highlight of our honeymoon and we're glad that we pushed the boat out (please excuse the dreadful pun)!

Summary: If you go to Barbados, give these guys a try - it'll be the highlight of your holiday!