Family holidays in Barbados don’t have to mean beach resorts. This summer John Lewisohn suggests you take your Caribbean escape to new heights at Apes Hill Barbados instead.
Apes Hill Barbados
The Scotland District in east Barbados, facing the vast expanse of the windy Atlantic is built of clay, and subject to subsidence. The atypical village we visited with Ronald our expert guide was perched on an eroded hillside. Pointing at an abandoned chattel house where the back had fallen down a cliff some years past, Ronald remembered what the unruffled owner after had said to him after the event, “I was taking a shower and the room got bright.”
I might have reacted with rather stronger emotions had I been the one taking a shower when the back of my bathroom suddenly detached itself from the house, heading for The Republic of Guinea, the nearest landfall, 2,500 miles to the East.
You can’t miss chattel houses on family holidays in Barbados
Make time to explore the Scotland District on family holidays in Barbados
Less than 30 minutes drive from Apes Hill Barbados, where we were staying, the Scotland District is a different world. Although chattel houses can be found all over Barbados many are here, in an area so called because the landscape, certainly compared with the rest of Barbados, resembles a tropical Scotland. Characterized by hilly terrain, gullies and limestone outcrops, it was named by early Scottish settlers, who were likely feeling quite homesick for the old country.
These petite and colourfully painted wooden houses are an icon of Barbados: portable homes owned by the original free men who did not have any land.
A key feature is their absolute symmetry, with a central front door, a window on each side, small upper gable windows for ventilation, “bell pelmet” window hoods and elegant fretwork: a decorative feature common to both chattel and larger houses in Barbados. Naturally over the years, with more money came “gentrification” of chattel houses, and extensions were often added at the back, but always according to original styles and practices.
This popular local ditty sums up the chattel tradition perfectly:
“Tiny houses on a coral base, never anchored to the ground, easily moved in times of haste, when the landlord end the lease, and another land-lot must be found.”
Scotland District, east coast Barbados
Even in diminutive Barbados you’ll find plenty of roads less travelled
For an island only 21 miles long and a maximum of 14 miles wide Barbados has almost 1,000 miles of paved roads snaking a network throughout the island. Many, especially those inland, feel underused, there only to reach the isolated and hilly communities in the Scotland District, and lesser visited Atlantic East Coast.
“I’ve lived in Barbados all my life,” said a local who worked in real estate at Apes Hill. “There are countless roads I have never driven or am likely to drive. It’s like a maze, particularly in the Scotland District.”
Ronald also took us to Bathsheba – pronounced Bat-shiba – so called because of the white caps seen on the ocean: Bathsheba apparently bathed in milk in the Old Testament story. Wearers of glasses, like me, will be constantly wiping the salt off their lenses while looking out to the windswept sea.
Wander along the beach where swimming is impossible – too many rip tides, too many rocks – then have lunch like we did, at the Zemi East Coast Café in the shade overlooking the sea; enjoying local specialities such as flying fish “cutters”: a cutter is cut-up roll, popular island wide and generally filled with marinated local fish.
Family hiking, Apes Hill Barbados
Apes Hill is a great base for family holidays in Barbados
Apes Hill is 1,000 feet up, so there is a constant cooling breeze, which is welcome after the sultry heat on the popular west and south coast: one of many reasons that many people choose to have residences built up there. Views over to both coasts are spectacular and the golf course is one of the most renowned in the entire Caribbean.
The Apes Hill Estate was, like most of Barbados, originally a sugar plantation – there are still 40 operational sugar plantations on the island today. Then it mutated into pasture land, and if you tour the margins of the large estate you can still see cattle, which provide amazing beef, and imagine how the property must have looked, prior to being turned into a golf course.
With around 500 acres of land the resort employs close to 100 people to ensure it’s sustainable and looking its best. But don’t think its only for golfers, it’s not.
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Pool, Hilltop Villa, Apes Hill Barbados
The luxurious villas at Apes Hill are perfect for families
Luxury Villas , some private and some available for holiday rentals, are eminently suitable for families and come in a wide variety of styles, most with swimming pools. You’ll find them dotted around the estate, many within walking distance of the main hub which is home to a couple of excellent restaurants, the Noisy Cricket and 20th Hole.
Each villa has a well equipped expansive kitchen and gas BBQ should you decide to self-cater. However, we opted for in-house dining, where resort chefs arrive with pre-agreed menus: an ideal set up if you’re with kids and find constant eating out a challenge.
Apes Hill also offers in-villa babysitting, and if you fancy some adult time on family holidays in Barbados, the famous Platinum Coast is only a short drive away. We enjoyed a seafood dinner at the Sea Shed on Mullins Beach one evening, and spent another at glamorous QP Bistro where all tables face directly onto the floodlit sea below and live music is sung by a diva in silver ostrich feathers.
Speightstown, Barbados
No family holidays in Barbados are complete without a day in Speightstown
As well as superb golf tuition, you might want to try the scenic 9-hole, par-3 course with your kids, alternatively there’s the choice of tennis or padel as well as daily yoga classes and a gym.
Take advantage of the free transfer to Apes Hill’s own charming beach club, The One Eleven Beach Bar in Speightstown, which is also known as “Little Bristol” and home to a fish market, along with vibrant art galleries, Arlington House Museum, and a great beach.
On the short drive down the hills to Speightstown you get to enjoy the beautiful tropical scenery as your nostrils start to fill with ocean air. Plans are in store regarding a refurbishment of The One Eleven Beach Bar, but we very much hope it will be done in a style that holds on to the unique atmosphere it has at the moment.
20th Hole outdoor dining experiences, Apes Hill Barbados
You’ll find plenty to do – well beyond golf – at Apes Hill Barbados
Back at Apes Hill start your day with a gully walk. Barbados is criss-crossed with gullies, some created by the indigenous Amerindian population back in the 15th century, as a way to traverse the island and avoid the hot sun.
Barbados is predominantly limestone and rainwater has eroded and dissolved the rock creating channels which are populated with thick, verdant forest home to both 100ft high bearded fig trees, disused lime kilns and cheeky, green, native monkeys (quite convinced one pinched my golf ball on the 15th, after a rare perfect drive).
If you’re lucky, your guide might be resident Kiwi, Ed Paskins, the irrepressible course superintendent who has been at Apes Hill for 20 years. A passionate advocate of both Barbados and Apes Hill, he’s the one responsible for the Apes Hill honey and coffee you will find in your kitchen, and also the architect of the resort’s exceptional sustainability ethos.
Championship golf course, Apes Hill Barbados
Make the smart choice and head for the hills on family holidays in Barbados
My advice for family holidays in Barbados? Don’t follow the crowd and stay at the beach. Apes Hill Barbados is definitely the connoisseur’s choice, and a smart one, whether you’re a golfer or not.
Also, go now, this summer! Each season, the team at Apes Hill creates a jam-packed activity schedule to entertain younger guests, filled with the likes of creative tie-dye workshops, kite-making, padel tournaments, sport classes, and even fishing in the resort reservoir.
Yes, there are plenty of private villas worth millions of dollars here. But, simply renting a villa allows you to live the million dollar lifestyle on family holidays in Barbados, albeit just for a week or two. Plus, you can gaze down on the rest of the island from your breezy perch, knowing it’s all easily within easy reach. And I promise you that your bathroom won’t, “suddenly get bright.”
How to plan family holidays in Barbados
How to get there
Direct UK flights to Barbados from 8 hours, 55 minutes
Where to stay
Apes Hill Barbados, 4-bedroom Hilltop Villas, Seaview and Golf View, (sleeps up to 6) from £856 per night
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