Visiting Barbados? Love a beach holiday but don’t want to spend your entire time on the beach? Perfect, I have an activity for you!

The Animal Flower Caves are on the North Point if Barbados, originally a blow hole used by smugglers. This blow hole has now been dug out to form stairs to allow tourists access to the caves.

The tour around the caves is well worth the $25 (Bajan), if you wear swim stuffs and bring a towel then there is a point you can go for a dip in the cave. The water is crystal clear but surprisingly deep. It’s not a particularly long tour  (around 20 min) but you can get some fantastic photos and the tour guides are always happy to help take some silhouette photos if you ask nicely. It’s also so different to what you expect from travelling to Barbados. The ‘Animal Flowers’ themselves are sea anemones, you will only get to see a couple, the tour is mostly for the caves. 

Top tip: I’d recommend wearing trainers if you don’t have fantastic balance or some kind of secure sandal if you’re swimming. Flip flops are only okay if you have good balance and agility! If you’re going to swim it’s easiest to wear a beach cover up or dress in my option (boys are so lucky with the whole shorts and T-shirt thing)!

Even if you don’t go in the caves it’s amazing to see the Atlantic Ocean crashing into the island, the contrast to the West Coast is really something. The restaurant is so so, I wouldn’t overly recommend the food, but the homemade lemonade is pretty fab. It is a lovely spot to enjoy a drink.

Overall it’s a great afternoon out, and the tour is something you won’t have done a million times before.