Landing at Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown puts you right in the middle of things, with rum shops, reef beaches, and the wild east coast within easy reach. Bridgetown is the capital of Barbados, a coral island in the eastern Caribbean with a strong sense of its own culture. It is friendly and talkative, with cricket on the radio, fish fries on Friday nights, and a rum shop at every crossroads.

Things worth your time in Bridgetown and around the island: - Walk historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, together a UNESCO World Heritage Site - Snorkel over the shipwrecks in Carlisle Bay - Join the Friday night fish fry at Oistins - Tour the Mount Gay rum visitor center - Ride a tram through the stalactite chambers of Harrison's Cave - Watch surfers at the Soup Bowl in Bathsheba - Stroll the tropical plantings at Hunte's Gardens - Visit St. Nicholas Abbey, a plantation house with its own rum - Eat flying fish and cou-cou, the national dish

Barbados is an island, so there are no neighboring cities by road, but you can cross it in about an hour. Holetown and Speightstown sit along the calm west coast, the Animal Flower Cave is at the rugged northern tip, and Bathsheba has a moody Atlantic shoreline. The Grenadines and other islands are a short flight away. Come in summer for Crop Over, when the island celebrates the end of the sugar harvest with calypso and costumed parades. Bridgetown makes it easy to stay longer.