I remember touring through the winding countrysides of Italy and Greece, just hubby and I. We didn’t mind jostling along on a large bus and waiting around for the other passengers who just had to get one more keychain for their collection. However, when you have kids, your experience changes dramatically. You want to see the sights, but you are very much aware of the many, varied needs of your children. For example, are your kids fine in large groups or would they have a more positive vacation experience if they got to tour around with people who are more familiar to them? Do any of your children experience motion sickness and would prefer a more relaxed tour that would allow you to pull over and get out so they can walk around and regain some equilibrium? When you are touring a new country with your kids, it is helpful to think ahead of time about what they would need.

With all of these concerns in consideration, I set out to find the best tour company to help us explore Barbados. So I hopped onto Trip advisor and cruise critic to find the right tour company for our family. After reading reviews of several tour companies and visiting their websites, I came across the perfect tour company to show us around the beautiful island of Barbados: Glory Tours.  Within hours, I was corresponding with the owner, Sarah, whose friendly and professional manner made the planning process effortless and fun.  She is from one of the oldest families on the island and is excited to share the history and beauty of her island with tourists.

Before you knew it, we were docking in Barbados and on our way to find our Glory Tours representative. Quammie, our tour guide, was quite knowledgeable of his island and very friendly. He kept us entertained with his stories, riddles and fun facts about the island.   For example, some “fun facts” that we learned about the island of Barbados are that it is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela. The Barbadian, or Bajan, people are friendly and hospitable. Their main language is English although the Bajan dialect is spoken throughout they island. The island is 166 square miles, divided into 11 parishes. He even showed us the stomping grounds of the rich and famous who visit the island.

Quammie has been with Glory Tours for the last 12 years and loves to interact with the people he meets. For our itinerary, he drove us over to the east coast of Barbados to visit Cherry Tree Hill, Morgan Lewis Windmill, Cattle Wash, Bathsheba and St Johns Church. On this tour we also went on a tram ride to explore Harrison’s Cave. It is one of the great wonders of Barbados and had us in awe of it’s natural beauty. We took pictures galore of this crystallized limestone cavern, it’s white flow stones and its remarkable speleothems. This landmark was mapped in 1974 by Ole Sorensen from Denmark and assisted by two Barbadian natives Tony Mason and Allison Thornhill.  Then after a morning of tropical beauty we made our way across country, traveling through the Garrisons Historic area built in 1806.

Although we started the day with rainy weather, by early afternoon it had cleared up completely to show us blue skies and hot sun, and we found ourselves ending our day at the Copacabana where we relaxed in beach chairs under umbrellas, watching the kids play in the sand, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Our only disappointment was not being able to stay longer and enjoy even more of the beautiful paradise of Barbados.