The Spice of the Caribbean
Grenada, named the Spice Island due to its variety of spices, is an ideal place to relax and revitalise, offering beautiful scenery, diverse wildlife and plenty to see and do
Nestled in the clear azure waters of the southern Caribbean is the tri-island nation of Grenada. This country is made up of three islands; Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Grenada is located at latitude 12 degrees north and longitude 61 degrees west, and is home to a host population of 100,152 (July 2014, estimate). In 2015, Grenada and its neighbouring dependency, Carriacou, welcomed approximately 281,000 manifested cruise passengers to its shores.
Global cruise lines, such as Carnival, P & O Cruises, Fred Olsen Cruises, AIDA, TUI, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Ltd., Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, and Silversea Cruises, have all brought significant cruise business into Grenada’s national economy.
The largest volume of cruise calls and passengers, are received between the months of October to April each year. Cruise passengers are welcomed to its beautiful shores by warm, gracious Grenadians, a large number of whom are trained to provide quality services for our cruise guests.
Most of the passengers who disembark from the cruise ships take pre-booked shore excursion tours to a variety of Grenada’s unique attractions. If you are a lover of sun, sea and sand, then the famous Grand Anse Beach is where you will want to be. Noted as being 3 km long, this beach of exquisite white sand will provide clear, warm and salty waters to wash your cares away. Grenada has over forty-five white and black sand beaches where you can swim, snorkel, paddle-board, and sun-bathe to your heart’s content. These are only a few of the beach activities that a visitor can enjoy while spending a day in Pure Grenada.
Families who are looking for a fun, educational, enjoyable, and interactive experience can visit the Spice Island Petting Zoo. This attraction is located in the lush, green countryside, approximately a forty-five minute drive from the capital city of St. George’s, where the cruise ships are berthed. Another must see is the Grand Etang Forest Reserve, home to the Mona Monkey. The Belmont Estate is another one of Grenada’s world-renowned agri-tourism attractions. It is a fine example of a working estate where visitors can see the creation of rich, delicious chocolate, which is created from processing Grenadian cocoa-beans. One of the tours offered at the Belmont Estate will teach all of the necessary processes to take the precious cocoa beans and transform them into mouth watering chocolate.
Shore excursion tours to the River Antoine Estate will ensure that a visitor leaves with the understanding of how rum was made in the 18th century, and how that rum distillery process has continued up until today. At the River Antoine Estate white rums of 138 and 150 proof strength are manufactured using an 18th Century Water-Wheel. One can also purchase rums with a reduced potency to take back home as gifts for friends and loved ones.
For those who are interested in horticulture, Grenada’s team at the Royal Horticulture Society’s (RHS) annual Chelsea Flower Show, won their 12th Gold Medal in London, UK, this year. Grenada’s eighteen gardens are living displays of tropical and exotic blooms, including ginger-lilies, birds of paradise, perfumed gingers, orchids, anthurium lilies and a host of other diverse flowering plants, ornamentals and shrubs. Jessamine Eden Botanic Garden is noted in particular for its production of global award-winning honey. You simply have to place this attraction on your list of things you must-see and do while visiting Pure Grenada – the Spice of the Caribbean.
Pure Diving: Out of this World
In addition to terrestrial treasures, Grenada and Carriacou can also boast of being home to healthy reefs and marine life. The local scuba diving industry provides employment for persons at ten dive shops, three of which are located in Carriacou. Over fifty dive sites are located around the coastlines of Grenada and Carriacou, with wrecks, walls, reef and drift dives. Come to Grenada, scuba dive and snorkel at the world’s 1st Underwater Sculpture Park. View over sixty living underwater art pieces like the Ring of Children, designed by Jason de Caires Taylor, and Richardo Keens-Douglas’s Nutmeg Princess, which was sculpted by artist Lene Kilde.
Welcome to Pure Grenada – the Spice of the Caribbean, where you can just rest and rejuvenate your body and soul; visit interesting historical sites; consume flavourful cuisine and local rums; and even hike through lush, green vegetation to see lovely waterfalls like Au Coin, Annandale, Concord and the Seven Sisters. If basking in the pure sunshine on Magazine Beach, or river-tubing at Balthazar is what you desire, then Pure Grenada has it all. Tell your cruise travel planner to take you away on a cruise today, to Pure Grenada – the Spice of the Caribbean.
