Grenada
In the Southwest Caribbean the furthest South nation in the Windward Islands is the multi-island nation of Grenada. It’s a relatively new independent nation having celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2024. It has been ruled by the British and the French and was discovered by the Europeans (its second discovery as the Carib people already lived on the islands) by Christopher Columbus. Grenada is called the “Isle of Spice” due to the numerous spices like nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and so many others. In 1983 Grenada was invaded by the United States after political instability around Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and Cuba building a large airfield that was feared to be used for Soviet long-range aircraft. Today Grenada is a very safe country full of history, wildlife and friendly people. We did a full island tour and enjoyed our resort and Sandal’s Grenada. Our visit took place in November of 2024. Here are our experiences visiting Grenada.
How to get to Grenada and Transportation
Grenada is a small multi-island so the only ways to get to the island are by air or sea. Grenada has a modern international airport that has service by some major US such as American (from Miami) and JetBlue (Boston and New York). There are also European Airlines like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic that serve the country. The way we got to the country was by flying to Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago and then flew on Caribbean Airlines on a quick 20–30-minute flight to Grenada. There is a direct flight from Houston to Port of Spain that we took. The other option other than flying from another island in the region is to come to the island by cruise ship. Most of the cruise ships that visit Grenada are smaller more luxury lines like Oceania but a few large cruise ships such as MSC, Celebrity and Norwegian that do come to the island on a few cruises. As for transportation, like in many Caribbean nations that do have small bus/vans that service the island, but I really recommend getting a guide like we did for our tours as it makes things much easier, and you learn much more. You can rent a car, but I do not really recommend that as well with the many tight spaces and narrow roads. If you would like to visit other islands in Grenada there are ferries and flights available.
Country Information
Grenada is made up of the main island and a couple of lessor populated and some un-populated islands. The countries’ population is a little over 100,000 people with its capital city being St. George’s. Grenada just celebrated it’s 50th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom. It is still a part of the commonwealth with King Charles currently their head of state. The country is fairly mountainous and as should be expected is a tropical climate. You should be prepared for very warm and humid weather with frequent rain. When we visited the region was having frequent rainstorms and in Trinidad there had been floods and landslides. Mosquitoes can be bad so bring insect repellent and sunscreen. There are many different kinds of animals on the island including monkeys. The currency is the East Caribbean Dollar that is shared with several of the nations in the Windward and Leeward Islands. As on December of 2024 1 XCD is worth around $.37 USD. I used US Dollars and credit card the entire time on the island and just converted the prices into US Dollars. Grenada has been hit by very strong hurricanes in the past with the most recent being Hurricane Beyrl that hit the smaller island of Carriacou. The nation had to completely rebuild after a hurricane direct hit in 2004. So, traveling during hurricane season can be risky. For electricity if you are coming from the US, you will need British style plug adapters.
Safety
In Grenada as of the time of this writing in December of 2024, the US State Department rating for Grenada is level 1 which means to take normal precautions. We found the country very safe and we even walked the beach at night (not usually recommended) to go to a restaurant nearby. You should still take precautions as issues can occur anywhere but we found Grenada safer than most US cities and the locals are friendly and helpful.
Our Hotel - The Radisson Grenada Beach Resort
We stayed at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort while staying in Grenada. We looked at a variety of hotels an being somewhat budget minded travelers we chose this hotel based on the more affordable price and central location near St. Georges. We had a king balcony room that looked over the long Grand Anse Beach. The room has a refrigerator, a balcony with a table and chairs, and our room had a third bed/couch setup. In our rate a nice buffet breakfast was included that we took advantage of each day. Like the majority of Caribbean hotels the restaurant is outside with a cover. Some birds would come and try to get food. A big plus is that the air conditioner worked very well during the hot days there. The restroom was nice but we did have issues at times with the shower water not being overly hot. Due to the heavy rain, we did get water standing in our balcony. The resort has a large and very nice pool and grounds with small bridges over the pools, plenty of trees and greenery, bars and other facilities. The beach area in front is really nice with calm water. We ate at the hotel restaurant a couple nights and the food was decent. The hotel is an older property but we still though it was good. We enjoyed our stay there and would come back.
Sandals Grenada
We had the opportunity while visiting Grenada to tour the Sandals Grenada Resort. If you are not familiar with Sandals, they are a Luxury All-Inclusive Resort brand that has hotels throughout the Caribbean. Sandals are adult only resorts, and their Beaches brand are family all-inclusive resorts. We had never visited a Sandals Resort so while in Grenada we took the chance to visit. The Sandals Grenada has multiple restaurants with some being buffet style and others being A la carte. They rotate the kind of food served in the buffet as we saw it was French day for lunch at the time we visited. There are multiple bars to get any kind of drink you might want and a pizzeria to grab unique brick oven cooked pizzas and other snacks like popcorn. There is a Parisian style coffee shop where we got an amazing Frappacuino with coffee ice cream in it and some high-quality nutmeg ice cream. Most restaurants do not need a reservation, but the high-end steak house and the Japanese restaurant do. There is also an a la cart French restaurant and an outdoor Greek style restaurant on the beach that we had a nice lunch at. There are multiple pools available with one having a DJ blasting tunes and taking requests like from me playing a Bob Marley song and volleyball being played in the pool. We got some Pizza and visited the bar where I asked the bartender for a drink that is from Grenada. He gave us a drink with rum, pineapple and passion fruit juice. It was a concoction he created that he believed represented his country. I called it the Terrell after him. The other pool is a quiet pool where you can relax. We enjoyed both pools and also went to the beach. The beaches at Sandals are nice but are fairly rocky so bring water shoes. We got a tour of several kinds of rooms that they have at Sandals. They have rooms that have a private butler that you can call with a cell phone provided by them. We saw rooms with swim up balconies that had a living room and bar area stocked with high end liquors and a large bathroom. There were only smaller rooms but still had many great amenities. The resort also has great wedding venues. There are departure lounges that we used to change in and then special lounges for loyal guests. There is a shopping area with stores like Colombian Emeralds and tours you can book for an extra cost. They also have a traditional pub and entertainment at night. On the way out we bought a few things at the Sandals giftshop and waited for our pickup. We watched many people checking in and were greeted by staff singing them a song and personally greeting them. The staff is very kind and helpful at the hotel and makes the experience even better. We hope to stay at a Sandals someday and encourage you to check it out!
First Room we Visited
Second Room we Visited
Last Room we Visited
Other parts of the Resort
Our Tours of Grenada
On any trip to a different country, we always get out from the resort and see the country. Grenada might be a small country but it has a wide variety of things to do. We visited a fortress high on a hill, visited a beautiful university campus, hung out with a wild monkey, visited an extinct volcano crater, saw remnents of and visited a chocolate factory and a nutmeg processing museum. We toured the island in the span of two days, but we did not see it all for sure.
St. George's University
Our first stop after leaving the airport on our first day was to see St. George’s University. It’s a medical and veterinarian school that has a few other subjects you can study. Many Americans and other nationalities study at the University. The University Campus is beautiful and is perched on small cliffs over the blue waters of the Carribean. There is a great area with picnic tables that gives a view of the airport and the island. The University is gated so you might not be able to enter but its a nice place to see even if you are just passing by. We also stopped at a nearby lookout point where a lighthouse that is now a home is.
Fort Fredrick
Located in the hills above St. George’s is a fortress built in the 1700s originally by the French but the British used the fortress to defend the island from land attacks against the French. Most fortresses face the ocean in the Caribbean but this one faces the mountains North of St. George’s. This was to protect the capital city from attacks coming from the jungle that did happen once. You can go inside the relatively small but well-preserved fortress that has murals at the top showing how the fort was used. You get great views of the mountains North of the area and the coast and ocean near St. George’s. You can see the countries prison and the Governor General’s home as well. You can get guided tours to learn about the history but we got there at the end of the day so they were done with tours. There were many cruise guests from the MSC ship docked in St. Georges. It took us around 30-45 minutes to tour and take in the views. Its a great place to see.
St. George's Spice, Vegetable, and Craft Market
On our second day in Grenada we took a full island tour that make a circle around nearly the entire island. Our first stop was in busy St. George’s to visit a place that sells one of the most famous product from Grenada. We visited the open market where there were many different booths selling many different products. It reminded me of a kind of farmers market in the US. We passed by people selling fresh fruit and vegetables and plenty of booths selling high quality spices from the island. Our guide Joesph took us to a booth run by a very friendly lady named Eneasha but goes by “The Spice Princess”. She was wearing a Christmas hat and while we were looking we had a great conversation about travel and exploring different countries. We bought many great products from her booth. We got nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and interesting products like a nutmeg spray that helps arthritis and pains. I also bought my traditional flag from the nations I visit and gift boxes of spices. You can get more affordable spices and help small business by buying at the market. After our cheerful conversation we headed out to our next stop.
Monkey Encounter and Grand Etang Lake
We headed high into the mountains of Grenada for our next stop. We stopped by a nice overlook before heading to the lake. Before we reached the lake we stopped where wild monkey’s were hanging out. A large male monkey was on some other guests and once a local gave Donna and I a banana he jumped over to us and posed for pictures. After we were done the monkey decided to hang out on my for a while before he went to other people. We headed to the lake that is the crater of an extinct volcano that spread huge boulders around the island when it erupted many years ago. We were in the clouds at the volcano which I was told is common. The lake is full of Koi from Japan and tilapia. The lake is freshwater and the main source of water for the island. There are trails around the lake where you can see wildlife like the monkeys. It reminded me of a similar crater lake in Dominica and shows the highly volcanic nature of the islands in that region.
Pearls Airport and the Belmont Estate
We headed back to 1983 with our next stop which was Pearls Airport. Its a now abandoned airfield that was bombed and taken over by the US Military during the invasion of Grenada in 1983. We passed by a couple destroyed aircraft with one being a Russian made transport plane that was used by Cuba. Another smaller plane is also there. The runway is still intact and we drove on it for a little while. Today it is used for drag racing, running events and storage for oil drums that will be recycled. Grenada is doing its part in trying to keep the world clean with their extensive recycling programs. Our guide talked to us about the invasion of Grenada because he was once a soldier in the Grenadian Military and was wounded 3 times in the conflict. After visiting the airport, we took a break from the rain and ate a great lunch at The Belmont Estate. The Belmont Estate is a former sugar plantation that now is a restaurant, chocolate factory, and a place you can tour the plantation. The food was great and included Callaloo (similar to spinach) Soup, Fish, Chicken, rice and more. We also got a Grenadian Chocolate Milkshake. Grenadian Chocolate tasted different than other chocolate partially because of how they make it. Instead of using industrial dryers they let the cocoa in the sun and it keeps more of the flavor. We made a quick visit to the small Chocolate Factory there and tasted some of their Chocolate and then headed out as there was a school group visiting.
Leaper's Hill
We headed to the farthest Northern Point of the island called Leaper’s Hill. There we got a guided tour into the cemetery there. Our guide mentioned there are many old graves in the cemetery and one man buried there is the first recorded case of Sickle Cell Disease. The name of the hill is due to a rather grim history of that area. In the 1600s, the local Carib Indigenous tribe had been fighting the French. When they were pushed up against the ocean and the cliffs in the area, they decided to jump rather than be captured. There is a memorial where this occurred. We also made another cat friend while walking there as a young cat came wanting a lot of pets and followed us around. We had a couple more stops left on our full island tour.
Jouvay Chocolate
After arriving at the furthest North part of the island, we started heading down the West Coast to our last destinations. We stopped by the Jouvay Chocolate Factory which is the larger of the two chocolate factories we visited that day. They unfortunately were not giving tours inside but Joseph showed us outside how unlike other chocolate companies who use drying machines, they still use the sun to dry out the cocoa beans slowly. That means more of the flavor is kept in the chocolate. The Grenadian Chocolate we try was much more flavorful and tasted different than other chocolates we have tried. We found out that cocoa is usually grown near other citrus plants so the chocolate can take the flavor of the fruit of the other plants. We visited the shop where they had many different chocolate bars with different percentages of cocoa. It went from 100% (more bitter) to around 50%. They had chocolate balls meant to put into hot water to make hot chocolate and things like fudge. We tried the chocolate as they had a tasting section, and it was great. We bought the largest candy bar we have ever bought at 2.5 pounds of chocolate. We headed on to our last stop on the tour after our chocolate experience.
Concord Falls
We made a quick stop to visit the beautiful Concord Falls in the middle of the rainforest. A nice man was running the giftshop there and had a nice balcony to look at it. You could walk down to the bottom of the falls, but we were too tired to do so at that time. It’s a double falls, and after our quick visit and buying a few things in the gift shop we headed to our final stop.
Grenada Nutmeg Museum
Our last stop on the island tour was to visit a former nutmeg processing plant that is now a museum. We got a guided tour of the facility where it showed us each step of the nutmeg process. The plant was where farmers brought their crops to be graded, dried and packed for export. We went over each step in the process and how they grade the nutmeg nuts based on size, and if they float or not (the oil content). We saw the different products that come from the process such as Mace which is a red sticky substance that surrounds the inner nut when cracked that can be used for spices and other purposes. There are different grades of Mace as well. We tried our hand at cracking nutmeg and looked at the drying and packaging process. Grenadian nutmeg is shipped world-wide and they showcased some of the ports they are sent to. At the end we viewed a variety of nutmeg products like spray for arthritis, drinks, hot sauce and of course spices. After this nice visit we drove through St. George’s and headed back to our hotel.
Leaving Grenada and Tips
We headed to the airport as our driver Cam from Vision Tours Grenada picked us up right on time. The Maurice Bishop International Airport is small but very nice and modern. We quickly checked our bags with Caribbean Airlines and headed to security. We filled out a departure card and gave it to the airline. The security check was much like anywhere else with a baggage x-ray and a metal detector. They checked our passports and tickets and we headed into the airport. There are only a few gates (around 5 or so) in the airport but it was well airconditioned and upstairs they had a coffee shop where we got one more coffee with Grenada chocolate. We watched an interesting Luxury Travel Agent show before we walked out to our plane and left the country.
For us personally we found it easiest to fly to Grenada from Trinidad than flying to Miami or elsewhere for a direct flight to Grenada. The Port of Spain Airport is small but very nice to go through. We dread going through Miami as its usually a nightmare of crowds and broken-down moving sidewalks, escalators and elevators. We have also dealt with Lyft scams where they refuse to pick us up at the airport or drive by and act like they pick us up hoping we will cancel, and they get money for nothing. You can rent a car but we once again enjoyed the guided tours where we got so much more insight into the history and culture of the island. While there definitely do not miss buying spices and chocolate since it is what the country is known for. Try the local ice creams with nutmeg as it is excellent. Also, if you visit with the monkey’s like we did be sure to not touch them especially the tail with your hand as we saw someone get bit for doing so. Enjoy the wonderful beaches and resorts but do not just stay there! Go our and explore the island and meet the local people. You will be glad your did!
Grenada Tour Options
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