Horizon Yacht Charters, Grenada, opens a new base in St Georges’s – in time for the Sailing festival

Horizon Yacht Charters, the yacht charter company with bases in several islands around the Caribbean (Grenada, Antigua and the BVI), is opening a second yacht services office in Grenada, at the brand new Camper and Nicholsons Port Louis Marina in the harbour at St George’s.

Horizon has been established in Grenada for 10 years, at True Blue Resort and Marina on the south coast. At their new office they will offer yacht charter as well as a full yacht brokering service, including purchase of new yachts (Horizon are agents for Bavaria Yachts and Fountaine Pajot Catamarans) and sales. In addition they will offer yacht maintenance and management services, including the installation of new
equipment, repairs and a general boat watch service. Yachts can also be hauled for bottom painting and other hull work. Please see our Review of Horizon Yacht Charters in Grenada.

The new office is opening just in time for the annual Grenada Sailing Festival, which is also based in the new Port Louis Marina. Over five days (29 Jan – 02 Feb) there will be a daily race in several classes, usually starting at 10am, an After Race Lime at 4pm in Port Louis Marina, followed by serious partying each evening. For more information about the regatta, see the Grenada Sailing Festival and for information about the island, see the Definitive Caribbean Guide to Grenada.

Help us Update our Guides to St Maarten and St Martin?!

Definitive Caribbean will soon be putting together a new guide to St Maarten/St Martin. We will be doing our research in person of course, but it would be great to hear recommendations as well, to see what our users enjoy about the island and – because we haven’t been there for a couple of years - to discover the latest hot spots.

Here is our current Guide To St Martin and St Maarten.

So, we would very much appreciate any comments or advice you can give on the following subjects -

Beaches - which are your favourite strips of sand currently, on both sides of the island? And why?

Scuba – which are the best scuba diving operators?

Sailing – and the best yacht charter companies?

Spas – which are your favourite spas - hotel spas and day spas?

Yoga, Complementary Health – which individual practitioners and companies give the best service?

Weddings - If you were to get married in St Martin, do you know a good wedding organizer?

Finally, if you’re a Caribbean regular, or you live in the islands – are there things you feel that St Maarten/St Martin is particularly good for?

So, if you have had a particularly pleasing – or unpleasant experience – in St Maarten or St Martin, either side, it doesn’t matter which, we will be covering both - then do please leave your suggestions under this posting so we can discuss your thoughts with other readers, or email us on Feedback@DefinitiveCaribbean.com..

We look forward to hearing from you.

The editorial team at Definitive Caribbean.

Two for Tapas – new restaurants in Barbados

Two new restaurants, one on the South Coast and the other in the thick of the action on the West Coast of Barbados, have opened recently and become hotspots for the season. They have gone for a ‘light’ formula. While sushi and tapas have been available over the years in Barbados, these two new restaurants have revamped the theme of small eats on the island.

Nishi is right on the corner in Holetown. Set on the site the old Olives, which sadly closed in 2009 after many years of lively service, the new restaurant offers bistro and sushi. Nishi’s owners have completely redecorated, in a new colour scheme of burnt orange and pale grey. The dining room upstairs is now enclosed and has a menu of sushi and sashimi. Downstairs is the bistro, which serves a mix of Caribbean and international dishes. Their very pretty courtyard contains the bar, where it is possible to eat outside as well.

Tapas has opened on the site of the former Aqua restaurant, which has a cracking setting overlooking the boardwalk on the South Coast. Their chosen style, as the name would suggest, is tapas, and among the general tapas there is a good range of seafood, including mussels and eel as well as the regular calamari. Tapas is owned by three Italians, including Franco Parisi, who until recently was chef at the Lone Star.

Other spots around the island where you can get sushi include Café Luna at Little Arches Hotel, Zen at Crane Beach and at Fusion in Accra. For tapas you can try Scarlet on the West Coast.

For more information about where to eat on the island, see our Definitive Guide to Barbados Restaurants.

Sentebale Polo Cup, Apes Hill, Barbados, 31 January 2010

On the last Sunday of this month Barbados will host an international polo tournament with a difference. Teams will be competing for the Sentebale Polo Cup, which has been created in order to benefit Sentebale, the charity for disadvantaged African children. The tournament is backed by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, who are patrons of the charity and who will be there in person. Prince Harry will be playing for the Sentebale team.

The charity, which was set up by the two princes in memory of their mothers, aims to help orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, those whose lives have been affected by poverty and particularly by HIV/Aids. The charity has managed to help over 3000 children so far and they wish to continue the good work. The Sunday 31 polo match is the first of what is hoped will be an annual fundraiser.

The aim of the Sentebale Polo Cup is not only to increase awareness of the plight of these children, but to raise vital funds so Sentebale can increase its help to those most in need and very often forgotten.

The idea is that the tournament will tour the world over the coming years. The inaugural event will be held at the Apes Hill polo ground in St James the middle of the island. Apes Hill itself is a development of villas around the polo field.

Polo itself has become increasingly popular as a spectator sport in Barbados and in the way of the island - there is always a lively, informal crowd - attending a polo match is a fun day out. The day opens at 10.30am, with special activities for children, and the sporting activity will be in the afternoon, starting at 2pm with a plate match sponsored by the Barbados Tourism Authority, after which the main event, the Sentebale cup match, will take place at 3pm.

Admission is Bds$50 (around £15), tel +1246 422 3147. Children under 5 go in for free. For more information, see the Sentebale website. For more information about sports on the island, see the Definitive Caribbean Guide to Barbados.

Temenos Golf Club Has Re-opened

Just before Christmas 2009 Temenos Golf Club on Anguilla re-opened. The par 72, 7063 yard course – the only one on Anguilla - was opened by Cap Juluca, the Anguillian resort, on 19 December.

Set in the west of the island, close to most of the resorts, the course, which was designed by Greg Norman and opened in 2006, sits on slightly sloping ground that falls away to the south coast. The shape of the land gives some lovely views from the open spaces of the fairways - five miles across to St Martin, which sits hazily green in the incredibly strong blue of the tropical sky. The sun is hot and strong, glancing off the crests of the swell between the two islands. It’s a spectacular
setting.

And the fairways are relatively open spaces. Or that’s what they say… Wide they may be, but they are not easy on ‘erratic’ players, as no two of them run parallel without scrub in between. Go even slightly off course and you’re in the rough, which is an unholy mix of sea grape, thatch palm, tamarind and neem tree. And loblolly – which is what you’ll be doing if you go in there. And then there are the ‘water features’.

Thirteen of the holes follow or cross water, particularly on the back nine. You have to be deft to pick your way through them... There’s a challenge, anyway.

Fir more information about the hotel, please see our Definitive Caribbean Guide to Cap Juluca.

For more information about the island, please see our Definitive Caribbean Guide to Anguilla.

The Standpipe, January 2010 - The DC Newsletter

The Winter 2010 edition of The Standpipe has just been published.

For those of you who don’t know The Standpipe, it is Definitive Caribbean’s quarterly newsletter. If you have an interest in the Caribbean there’s sure to be something in it for you. We cover news and chat about the islands - about new openings and refurbishments, that sort of thing – and then there are also interviews, stories and recipes too.

This early 2010 edition has written and video interviews with Gary Thulander, the GM of Cap Juluca, a story about hiking in St Vincent and a recipe from the Hermitage in Nevis. The Standpipe also has a regular Photo Essay - this quarter we got hold of some cracking images of Trinidad carnival, which is surely one of the liveliest, most fantastic festivals anywhere in the world.

So if you want to catch up on the latest Caribbean information, and have a bit of fun too, then go to The Standpipe. And if you enjoy it you can subscribe easily enough, right there at the top there.

Happy Travels - Definitive Caribbean


By the way, if you’re wondering why our newsletter is called The Standpipe, that’ll be because the standpipe, the source of running water for many West Indians until not that long ago, was also the centre of village gossip… So, for the best news, come meet us at The Standpipe...

Be a Tobagonian for a Week and Win a Holiday For Four

Here’s a bit of fun. If you enjoy playing around with video, particularly making comedy, and you dream of the Caribbean, then you could win yourself a week’s holiday on Tobago (UK residents only I am afraid).

To start off 2010 with a laugh, the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association has launched a competition called ‘Be a Tobagonian for a Week’, in which you have to produce a video explaining your dreams about Tobago and what you would do there - whether you’d like to be scuba diving on the island’s reefs, walking in the rainforest, or just liming (chilling out with a rum punch in hand).



The spec is one minute max and as fun and comic as you can make it. You send it in and they’ll put it live on their YouTube Channel - Tobago Time, where it can be judged. The ever helpful (and clearly eccentric) Duane Kenny of Stonehaven Villas has put together a few examples of what you might say, but he clearly has the advantage of Tobago itself as a backdrop.

British entrants might have to be a bit creative… Perhaps you’ll find yourself in your tropical shirt in the wintry uplands of the Lake District, or making merry with a string band on the seafront in Blackpool in January…

All entries must be submitted by 18 March 2010. The best video (judged on originality, comic value and creativity among other things) wins a stay in Tobago for a week for four people, sponsored by Golden Holidays, including return flights from the UK, accommodation and tours while on island. The winner will be announced on 20 May 2010.

And when they make it on island, the winners will be asked to produce a video diary of their holiday. More fun then…

See the Tobago Time Youtube channel and competition rules on the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association website.