If you’re in Barbados and want to party, it’s likely that you’ll end up in St. Lawrence Gap, aka ‘The Gap’, unless you’re going to a specific event/concert that you already have tickets for. The Gap is in the South of the island, not far from Oistins. It’s basically a road full of restaurants, clubs and bars, and it’s popular with both tourists and local people.
One of the very popular clubs there is called The Old Jamm Inn, but when people talk about it they just call it ‘Jammin’. It’s popular mid-week as well as weekends, and I paid $20BDS to get in on a Tuesday night, but I think the price varies depending on what time you arrive and what day of the week it is. It’s hot and busy in there and they play a mixture of soca, dancehall and hiphop.
Another place you might end up is the ‘Car Park Bar’ (not sure if that’s its real name or not but that’s what people call it) which is near Jammin and has karaoke on Tuesdays and Wednesdays definitely, and I think on other nights too. Personally I found the karaoke night a bit boring and it made me feel like I was in a depressing holiday resort in Mallorca or somewhere because there were a lot of older men singing cheesy songs. However, the alcohol took control and I sung Shaggy – Wasn’t Me with my friend:
There are a lot of free entry clubs that not many people seem to go to, and you can just go in and check how they are and stay if you want.
Jammin and the karaoke bar are probably the most popular ones, as well as Sugar which is quite a posh club. In general for the Gap, there isn’t an official dress code as far as I know (except maybe for Sugar), but you should try and make a bit of an effort because they’re proper clubs, not just beach bars. As you can see, we wore casual dresses which was fine.
The parties finish in the Gap at about 3am, and there’s plenty of food available there all night. It’s the usual street food (rice, chicken, fish, macaroni pie, chips/fries, salad) but the prices are higher there than at standard street food stands. It’s $25BDS for a big container of fish, rice, pie and salad.
There are loads of taxis there all night so you’ll have no problems getting home.
If you want to really learn about the culture of Barbados and have a very different experience from your home country, I wouldn’t recommend spending many nights at the Gap (maybe just go there once to see what it’s like). For me, it was much more enjoyable to go to ‘fetes’ (soca events/concerts) where the atmosphere was much more positive. You can read about that in my ‘Fetes’ blog post.
Travel With Zoe 