Discover Hunte's Garden

After taking you through the Andromeda Garden, we’ll now walk through another garden, the one with the best reputation on the island, Hunte’s Garden. As with my articles on the rest of Barbados, I’m going to keep this one very short and sweet and guide you through the gardens, especially the photos! It’s a change from the very long articles I’m used to, and knowing that it’s just a tropical garden, there’s not a lot to say about it, haha!

After Andromeda, this was the second garden we visited. We had been there before, but they don’t take credit cards. So we had to turn around and come back later!

We arrived for the opening at 10am. We were the first ones there. It has to be said: Children get up early, even on holiday, and that’s a good thing. In fact, as a side note, it’s often something that we advise people to do. It’s true that some tourist spots can be crowded in the middle of the day. But if you make the effort to get up early, you’re often alone, or almost alone.

We entered this beautiful garden after parking in the small roadside car park. My first impression of the place is really very pleasant. There are lots of flowers, overflowing fountains and beautiful water lilies. To be honest, it’s a great entrance. It makes you want to see more! In short, we paid the entrance fee, which wasn’t cheap (we’ll give you our opinion at the end) and had a look around.

There’s classical music playing throughout the garden. It’s quite pleasant. Unlike the Andromeda and Flower Forest Botanical Gardens, this garden is very different. It’s more like a small, cosy garden. It focuses more on flowers and beautiful plants than on trees.

We walk through this beautiful place following the arrows. I don’t really know how to describe the feeling. But it’s much better than a traditional tropical garden. Everything is quieter, smaller. It has an ‘Asian garden’ feel. There are many places with just one or two chairs and a little table in the shade. It’s really pleasant and gives the place a special atmosphere.

Small statues of gargoyles, animals and Buddhas are scattered throughout the garden. You really have to visit it to understand it, haha. The fact that there is no explanation of the plants throughout the visit is the only slightly negative point. There is, of course, a huge table in the middle of the tour. It shows the different types of flora and fauna that can be found on the site. But it’s a shame that there are no more explanations.

You’ll see lots of birds, including sugar birds and hummingbirds. They come to drink from the small fountains and ponds. The path is really well laid out. It allows you to visit the site at your own pace.

However, we were surprised by the garden’s small size. Even though the garden is grandiose in terms of the number of flowers and the species present, for the price that we had paid, we would have expected a longer visit. We took a lot of photos on the spot and the children took their time to look at everything, so we were able to stay a while.

They explored the site and bickered as usual for an hour and a half. For our part, we took turns using our two camera lenses to vary the shots we took.

We reached a 150-year-old building at the end of the route. The interior has been decorated with old pieces of furniture, which is a very good job. A flight of stairs takes us up to a souvenir shop, as I like to call it. We buy the kids some knick-knacks (a nice technique to get you to spend more in the end, haha!) with the fake $15 gift given at the entrance to the garden.

To give my final opinion on the place, I’d say it’s a bit expensive compared to the size of the area and the amount of time you spend there. Still, it’s a lovely garden with lots of flowers!

As with our other articles on Barbados, here’s the practical information you need to remember when planning a visit.

Here’s the information you need to remember about this site:

• Admission: US$20 per adult, half price for children under 12.
• Open daily from 10am to 16pm.
• E-mail: huntesgardens@gmail.com
• Phone: (246) 433-3333

Of course, it all depends on where you’re coming from. If you’re in the capital, you should allow about 30 minutes for the 16 kilometres. The full itinerary can be found here.

We stayed in a fairly basic Airbnb further south on the island, but if you’re looking for something nicer, here are a few ideas:

The Atlantis Historic Inn: a very nice beachfront location on the east coast,
Jackson Breezy: this is a lovely apartment with a private pool inland,
Garden Grove: a superb hotel with stunning views on the west coast.

For other must-sees in the area, see our other articles on :

• Flower Forest Botanical Gardens
• Explore the beautiful beaches of the West Coast, especially Sandy Lane Beach, Paynes Bay Beach and Batts Rock Beach. You’ll also find some beautiful beaches on the east coast, such as the famous Bathsheba.
• St John’s Church
• Or Codrington College.

I’ll stop here and see you soon for the end of my articles on Barbados!

Written by Sylvain PONS

I had the opportunity to go on a 2-week family holiday to discover the island of Barbados, which is just a stone's throw away from Guadeloupe, where we live. Here are a few stories about the time we spent there!

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