A good range of restaurants offer an array of international and Bajan cuisines to suit every budget, from grilled meat joints and street-food markets to upscale diners. Replica British pubs are popular and serve genuine British bitter and stout – often with fish-and-chip bar snacks.

National specialities:
• Cutters (large flying fish sandwiches, often served with coucou (seasoned cornmeal topped with spiced tomatoes, onion and peppers)).
• Conkies (cornmeal blended with coconut, pumpkin, raisins, sweet potato and spices steamed in a banana leaf).
• Rice'n'peas (made from a local bean and usually flavoured with coconut).
• Sea eggs (devilled sea urchin roe).
• Souse, or Pickled Pork (brawn with tomato).
• Other local specialities include crane chubb, grilled pigtail, conch fritters, plantains and breadfruit.

National drinks:
• All types of rum-based cocktails including rum punch, planters punch and pina coladas.
• Top rum brands include Cockspur’s Five Star and Mount Gay (the oldest rum blend on the island).
• The local beer is Banks.
• Falernum (rum, sugar, lime and almond essence).
• Mauby (non alcoholic, made from the boiled, strained and sweetened bark of a local tree), tastes like an extremely potent sarsaparilla.

Legal drinking age: 18.

Tipping: Allow for 10 to 15% in restaurants, round-up taxi fares and tip porters at around a dollar a bag.

West Indians love to party, be it in a nightclub, disco, bar or simply on the beach. Entertainment is everywhere, from limbo dancing, fire eaters, steel bands and live music. Most bands play calypso and reggae, but a few play excellent R'n'B. There is usually a small cover charge. As in all Caribbean countries, swinging nightspots tend to come and go with seasons. Twilight boat cruises with live entertainment, free-flowing rum and local food are very popular; most sail twice daily. Caribbean-style dinner shows are also well attended and typically feature steel pans and dancing men on stilts, BBQ food and free drinks until the early hours.

As a trading hub since the early 1600s, Barbados has a long history of commerce and boasts excellent links with merchandisers throughout the Caribbean. High quality, inexpensive goods and first-class service await shoppers and Barbados is the eastern Caribbean’s tax-free haven. Umpteen chichi boutiques and funky street stalls are found along the coast. Bridgetown is the shopping epicentre and boasts major Caribbean chains as well as local crafts. Local specialities range from rum, straw goods, painted silk prints (batik) and woodcrafts with black coral and shell jewellery especially popular buys.

Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat 0830-1600 (supermarkets are open longer on Saturdays).