Christ Church holidays

Add turtle-spotting, snorkelling and Oistin’s Fish Fry to your to-do list on holidays to Christ Church.

Bars and beaches

Christ Church is a large parish on the southwest coast of Barbados. It’s best known for its tourist hotspot, Saint Lawrence Gap – this is by far the liveliest area of the resort with a one-and-a-half kilometre street stacked with bars and restaurants. But, it’s got a great standing when it comes to beaches, too as it’s right by the coast, with the likes of St Lawrence Bay and Dover Beach within 10 minutes’ drive.

Sea turtle spotting

You can drive to Dover Beach in 10 minutes – it’s flanked by Barbie-pink houses, and is a great place to spot sea turtles in their natural habitat. The reef’s a little further from the shore, but head there early in the morning, and if you’re lucky, you might be able to see turtles feeding in the shallows near the rocks. If you’d rather dive down and see what lies under the water, St Lawrence Bay’s the same distance away, and has some excellent snorkelling credentials. You can walk out for ages without the water even touching your knees at low tide, and there’s a reef bordering the bay teeming with schools of tropical fish.

Oistin’s Fish Fry frenzy

For the ultimate Caribbean experience, get involved in Oistin’s Fish Fry. The fish market’s right on the beach, and every Friday night, people gather to eat freshly caught seafood, from tuna and swordfish to lobster and mahi-mahi. It’s a chilled setting with a buzz – seats are scattered all around where you can sit down and tuck into your fish. You can get it grilled or fried, and it’ll be cooked on the spot in front of you.