The Best Hotels in Barbados

"One of Barbados’ most glamorous hotels, Sandy Lane’s polished marble floors, old-fashioned sofas, and heart-tugging sea views framed by stone arches and pillars set an opulent tone. It backs onto a pretty stretch of blond beach on the west coast, not far from colorful Holetown. Despite the impeccable service, the Neo-Palladian stone bedrooms and the multitude of diamonds flickering under candlelight at supper, the atmosphere here is seriously easygoing. In British or American country club style, guests zip off in golf carts after a lazy buffet breakfast to one of Sandy Lane’s three golf courses, or commit to a full day in the palatial spa—easily done with its sauna, steam room, and hydrotherapy pool assault course, along with an impressive raft of delicious treatments, from Bajan sugar cane scrubs to cryotherapy energy facials. A gelato bar, water sports, and a truly superb Treehouse Club for smalls play to the country club idyll, buying deserving parents some time on the beach. Along with the romanesque pillared L’Acajou restaurant and the more relaxed Bajan Blue, an enormous layered pool with its own waterfall serves as a focal point in the hotel, where sunbathers can observe the comings and goings of tennis whites, or kaftans floating back from the bar with fresh piña coladas. —Rosalyn Wikeley" - Angelina Villa-Clarke, Rosalyn Wikeley