St. Nicholas Abbey and Steam Railway

As a local, it's been some place I wanted to visit for a long time. Decided to go and was not disappointed. All the staff were very friendly and accommodating, even down to the guys who maintain the facility and track by extension. Having done a few rum tours in different countries I definitely find this one to be more unique with the steam train, and gives and immersive experience and understanding into the history of the Abbey as well rum production as a whole. They were many your options to choose,but I did the 20 minutes train ride paired with the rum tasting. Only issue I found was that is was a bit pricey,but it can be argued that they have a specific allure in having the old fashioned locomotive. They also spoke of track extensions ,which I think would be great

This is a very nice tour with a few options for what to see and the length of the train ride. The islands history is shared throughout the tour, which is very informative. The cafe was good as well. The food was very good and fairly priced. I would recommend it for some light entertainment.

We had an amazing day at the St. Nicholas Abbey. We did the train ride and full visit to the house and distillery. Our guides were super nice, and the visit is really worth it. Warmly recommended to do both the train ride and the guided tours.

Brilliant place with plenty of history with the owners son doing the tour was amazing with lots of humour such a great Gent

Absolutely wonderful experience. We purchased the ticket for the train and the rum tour, which were 100% worth it. The train ride feels from another era on the coal-powered engine. Our train guide, Tonia, was fantastic and charming. She has a lovely voice. It was my niece’s birthday on the day that we went, so I asked Tonia to send her a greeting which she agreed to! Well-earned tip for a gift to remember. The second part of the tour was the rum distillery. That was fascinating to me, particularly the traditional method that continues to be widely used in Barbados. The guide, Chris, was also knowledgeable. Before the rum tasting you watch an 18 minute film shot by one of the owners. Honestly, I was not expecting much from it, but I was wrong. It is a film about Barbados during colonial times narrated in the most clever, hilarious way possible. Worth a watch!

We started our tour poorly because it was raining and Google Maps took us down a shorter but unpaved back road, on which we almost got stuck. Luckily we called them and they guided us to the starting point. Note that if Google Maps is taking you on a dirt road a few minutes before you're due to arrive, that's the bad back road and you really shouldn't go that way. Advice to managemrnt: add some signs there to guide visitors the right way. We started with the short steam train ride, which was enjoyable even though it rained. We then continued with a guided tour of the house. A 20 minute video of the distillery and Barbados followed, which was fun, but we expected a distillery tour, even if short. Then we had the tasting, which was disappointing - only a couple of their cheapest rums and it ended very quickly. We were hoping to buy a few bottles of rum at the end, but they were far too expensive, so we bought none. Advice to management: make it clear that there's no tour of the distillery with this package, just a video. Improve the tasting experience with more variety and taking a bit more time. And do work on those prices a bit - it's better to sell more at a lower price then sell almost nothing at all. Overall it was a great experience, especially since the guides were engaging and funny, but some tweaks could easily be made to gain that extra star.

I wanted to see this place before I even went to Barbados for the first time, and I was not disappointed. Well... except for the fact that they use a mini-diesel instead of the old Steam Locomotive, but it was getting VERY old. Overall, everything else was absolutely wonderful. It is the perfect antidote to all the plastic, touristy stuff you see in the rest of the Caribbean. Get the LONG tour, it makes the taxi ride to get there worth while.

Amazing tour. Both the train ride and the great house tours were really great and well worth it. It was our favorite tour on the island. My only complaint is that the rum tasting was incredibly stingy. The rums are very expensive, so for someone who loves rum and would gladly pay for a really nice bottle, it would have been nice to taste some of the aged rums. We only got to taste the silver, 5 year regular proof, and a ginger liqueur. I've read old reviews that say they got to taste the entire lineup, so I'm not sure why this is no longer the case. If you want someone to spend hundreds of dollars on your rums, it should be included in the tasting. Even if there is a separate charge for a premium tasting, I would have jumped on the opportunity immediately.