My fiance and I have finally narrowed our choices for a honeymoon down to a caribbean cruise with ports including barbados, antigua, st.lucia, tortola, and st.thomas OR the Almond Beach Resort and Spa. i'd like to hear some opinions on the resort. As it is our honeymoon and we really don't want to have to think about money, we really prefer to stick to an All-Inclusive resort if we stay on one particular island and the Almond Beach Resort and Spa seems to fit nicely into our budget (plus I am an elementary school teacher and we'd be going on spring break- the fact that we'd be staying at the adults only portion of the resort is another plus!!).

I am particularly interested in the safety of walking around town and on the more private beaches. Is there a "town center" with shopping and restaurants or are they more spread out? Are beach vendors on all beaches or do they stick to a few particular ones. As far as the Almond Bay Beach Resort and Spa goes, will we find any sort of nightlife there or will we need to find it elsewhere. Do the bars at the resort stay open into the evening or are we going to find the place quieting down early?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Barbados is a pretty safe place, but you may still not be able to walk into town. I don't know if any of the Almond resorts except perhaps the Almond Casuarina, which is undergoing a major refurbishment and is due to open up again shortly. There's a lot of nightlife in The Gap, and it's either within walking distance or a fairly short cab ride (I'm not sure, honestly, because I've never stayed here).

Do you mean Almond Beach Club & Spa or Almond Beach Village? YOu mention the "adults-only" portion of the resort, but Almond Beach Club is an intimate adults-only resort on a very small and narrow beach, while Almond Beach Village (a much larger resort) has an adults-only end. I've visited this resort but haven't stayed here. I did have a wonderful spa treatment at the spa (there's a free shuttle between the resorts, so you can use the spa if you are staying at Almond Beach Village, which is about 20 to 30 minutes away).

But Almond Beach Village is not even remotely walkable to anywhere else. It's an isolated resort, though on a beautiful, long stretch of very walkable beachfront. Even if you stay in the adults-only end, you will still find this resort very popular with families, so there will be kids around alot on the beach, though they're not supposed to go in the adult pools. I've stayed here, and it's a pretty nice resort. The only nightlife in on-resort; it's a pretty far drive to anything else up there.

Almond Beach Club & Spa is within walking distance of the Holetown chattel house shopping village, but I"m not sure you'd be able to walk all the way into town since there aren't really sidewalks and the road is kind of busy. But it's very close and a short cab ride.

I really like the resort, but it's a small and intimate place, but I think you can probably walk on the beach fairly far down. There aren't really any private beaches around here though. The area around Almond Beach Club & Spa is pretty built up, but with very exclusive resorts. There is nightlife in Holetown.

Thank you so much for all your information! Thats a big help! We'd be looking to stay at the Almond Beach club and Spa (not the village). We are not huge into crazy night life but would like to be able to find some if we wanted

i'm also curious about excursions. has anyone done any horseback riding, parasailing, zipline, catamaran sailing, etc. and have any suggestions for who to book through if we decide on vacationing in the Holetown area of Barbados?

Also, how big of an island is it? easy to travel from one side to the other? I've only ever been to St.John/St.Thomas so I always try to relate islands to how they compare to those two islands

There is a thread on Trip Advisor regarding AI's vs cruising. I would check it out before making a final decision. Its at:

http://cancun-hotels.tripadvisor.com...Peninsula.html


You can do days trips from Barbados to several Islands including the Grenadines, Tobago Cays, Grenada, and St. Lucia. There are tour companies that have flight packages. They're about $500 p/p.

that was a very interesting thread on trip advisor! seems like alot of people tend to prefer AI's over cruises (that kinda surprised me!)

If you have not been to those islands, you may want a cruise to "test the waters." Most people here will be "islands" people, who would prefer to stay beachfront on an island or two for a trip, including me. I'm saying this about cruises because while Barbados is wonderful, Almond Beach Club is pretty ordinary with a tiny beach. Cruises afford nitelife, and you can explore the islands during the day. BTW, from St.Thomas you can ferry over to St.John for some of the most amazing gorgeous snorkeling beaches anywhere.
p.s. There are far better resort choices on Barbados, with prices not much different than Almond, but not A.I. You are stuck at an A.I. place for meals. On Barbados, there are many great restaurants, both independent and at hotels, and you can pick and choose from those and nitelife. It doesn't have to cost more than Almond in total.

We love Barbados but have never stayed at the Almond Beach. We stopped in one day and were not impressed. We have friends that stayed there and ended up not liking Barbados at all based on their stay there, which was really a shame. We've stayed at the Hilton in Barbados twice and loved it! Whether we were taking a dip in the pools, or enjoying an array of other activities on the island, we were excited to be there! It's a decent size island, so you would want to rent a car or hire a driver.

I know it has been awhile since you posted this but I just had to respond. I know it has been awhile since I have been to Barbados but I just had to give a big YES to the almond beach club. My husband and I went there for our tenth anniversary and we absolutely loved it. The people were the friendliest people I have ever met. The whole island was wonderful. The people just went out of their way to help with anything. It was great being able to have food and drinks whenever you wanted and not pay anything for it. (as far as AI) No little kids running around and just a wonderful experience. I personally don't think that you would ever get to see enough of an island from going on a cruise to get a feel for the island.