How to have all the fun in Grenada - The Boston Globe

Somewhere between the COVID tests, the predawn flight, and the (no-longer-in-place) mandatory quarantine, you may ask yourself: Is Grenada worth it? Is anyplace? At 5 a.m., boarding our flight to New York — there are no direct flights from Boston to this island paradise — we would’ve said “Nah!”, driven home in the dark, and crawled back into bed.

Miraculously, some seven hours later, after nearly missing our too-tight connection at JFK (nothing says “fun” like busting into a run at 7 a.m.!), we stumbled into the sunshine at Grenada’s international airport. Welcome to the Spice Island! A quick glance in the mirror revealed we looked as nasty as we felt, a mash-up of Nick Nolte’s mug shot and the comedian Carrot Top. And still to come: Another COVID test!

Grenada has about 45 white sand beaches, and nine with black sand, they say. All are public beaches, including this one at the Calabash Grenada hotel.Diane Bair

Spicy — and then some

Of course, in spite of it all, we were lucky to be traveling (and super-lucky that our fellow passengers didn’t include a punch-throwing creep). A quick ride from the airport delivered us to our island home, the Calabash Grenada hotel. Hel-lo, glorious Caribbean! Pausing only to throw on a swimsuit, we settled into a hammock strung between two palms, clutching a rum punch and a Grenadian chocolate bar. The view was totally Grenada: Gentle waves and flotilla of pleasure boats with a backdrop of candy-colored buildings dotting the hillsides. In a place like this, it’s easy to reduce your #lifegoals to eat, kayak, sail, swim, rinse, repeat.

Why Grenada? Although the island, like much of the Caribbean, was at the time considered a high-risk destination by the CDC (it is now considered “very high risk”), we felt fairly confident traveling. Grenada requires visitors to be vaccinated, with proof of a recent negative COVID test, taken no more than 72 hours before travel, along with another COVID test upon arrival at Maurice Bishop International Airport. Plus, the island’s Pure Safe Travel protocol requires tourism providers to be vaccinated and tested regularly for COVID. In addition, masking up is a given. And given the sunny Caribbean climate, being outdoors all day is no hardship.

Named the Caribbean’s prettiest place by the Huffington Post, Grenada is actually three islands, Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. Measuring 133 square miles, with a population of around 110,000, Grenada has everything we love about the Caribbean, including beaches to die for — some 45 white sand beaches and nine with black sand. All are open to the public. Plus, it has some bonus joys: waterfalls, hot springs, local rum and chocolate, and the Mona monkey, found only here and West Africa.

Take note — Grenada is becoming a travel hotspot. Harper’s Bazaar recently crowned it a top honeymoon destination. “We have the sea, the rain forest, and all the beauty of the Caribbean, and you’ll have a stretch of beach all to yourself,” says Roger Augustine of the Grenada Tourism Authority. In other words, no crowds on the Spice Island. The island’s charms are no secret to foodies, who shop for fresh nutmeg and other spices, tour the island’s five chocolate factories, and eat local dishes like oil down (Grenada’s local dish) and lambie (conch). There’s much to love here.

But we had a plan: to make our way to Grenada’s smaller, sleepier sister islands, Carriacou (pronounced Karry-a-koo) and Petite Martinique. Located 90 minutes away by ferry (or 20 minutes by plane), Carriacou, a.k.a. “the Isle of Reefs” is just 13 square miles, and home to 8,000 people known as Kayaks. Residents have African and Scottish ancestry and a strong boatbuilding tradition. A perfect day trip (the way most visitors experience the island) involves a hike to High North Peak, some beach time at Paradise Beach, and grabbing some food and music, preferably Culture Stringband. Meanwhile, 586-acre Petite Martinique is even more laid-back, except during major events like Cake Dance and Whitsuntide Regatta, and is reachable via ferry.

Wish we could tell you more, but we can’t. Because of COVID (the three words we all loathe), the sister islands were closed to visitors to prevent spread of the virus. They reopened during our stay, so flights and ferries began operating, but not in time for us to finagle a visit.

Fun. Maybe too much fun?

Time to pivot! If we couldn’t experience those mellow sisters, we’d take the opposite approach: Have all the fun! Instead of lounging on the beach, we’d go full-on outdoorsy, and take on every adventure the island has to offer — or at least as many as we could squeeze into three days.

First up: Heading underwater to see some art. Grenada’s famous Underwater Sculpture Park, located within the Molinere-Beausejour Marine Protected Area, was the first of its kind in the world. A draw for divers and snorkelers, the underwater installations reflect Grenada’s folklore and history. (There’s even a Nutmeg Princess.) Created by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor in 2006, the underwater gallery has become a haven for marine life. Some sculptures sit just six feet below the surface of the water, so snorkelers can get a good look. A favorite is “Vicissitudes,” a circle of 28 life-size figures of Grenadian children, holding hands. We went out with Aquanauts Grenada (www.aquanautsgrenada.com), a family-run dive business, and made a day of it, visiting the sculpture park and a nearby reef. Back on board, we tried to avoid looking at Carriacou and Petite Martinique, rising seductively on the horizon.

One of the newest things to do in Grenada: paddling over reefs in a clear kayak. Before you go out, they’ll take drone photos of you, sans paddles.Cayaks of Grenada

And how fun would it be to paddle a see-through kayak? A new outfitter called Cayaks (www.cayaks.com), runs ”clear kayak” tours of the island’s gin-clear bays. The vessels really are transparent: you can see through the sides and the bottom. These are guided tours with a marine biologist, who’ll point out cool bird life (magnificent frigatebirds!) and sea animals as you go. Unfortunately, we caught a rough-weather day, so we basically got pulled around in our kayak while tethered to a motorboat. Not what we were expecting, but fun. A big part of the experience: the owner, Gabriel, will take pictures of you with his drone while you pose fetchingly on the kayak. Uptight Bostonians are terrible at this, but still.

Ah, but being dragged around in a kayak by a motorboat was mellow compared to our next adventure: Tubing on the Balthazar River. Forget your lazy river — this was a wild trip that involved navigating volcanic boulders, swirling eddies, and rapids galore, which would’ve been fun indeed but for the low water level. In our rubber doughnuts, we bounced off those jumbo rocks like human pinballs, when we weren’t wedged between boulders and hurtling into bamboo groves. One member of our party popped out of his tube, hit his head on a rock, lost his glasses, and tore his swim trunks. Yikes. A few more inches of water would’ve made the ride way smoother, and more “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” than “Man vs. Wild.” This experience was fun in the “testing a prototype roller coaster designed by teenagers” definition of same.

After that, our next activity, a “Bareback Jeep Island Adventure” with Sun Hunters (www.sunhunters-grenada.com) seemed positively placid. The highlight: Eating fish tacos and golden apple juice (a local fruit) at Wild Orchids, a treehouse-like eatery alongside Annandale Falls. We also visited Grand Etang Lake and spied two Mona monkeys (who aren’t shy about approaching visitors for treats) and stopped for a treat ourselves: Cracking a cocoa pod and sucking the gooey flesh of a cocoa bean, which tastes fruity, and not chocolate-y at all.

A Jeep tour of Grenada may include local towns as well as roads that wind into the rain forest. St. George is the capital and largest town.Diane Bair

Winding down, Grenada-style

After bouncing around in boats, Jeeps, and rubber tubes, we were ready for some TLC. We’d heard that a charming Boho-style oceanfront hotel called Laluna (www.laluna.com) gave the best massages on the island. No lie. Indonesian art and outdoor yoga pavilion added to the Zen-like vibe, and the Balinese massage made us forget all about our bruises.

En route to the airport on our final day, we stopped at Friday Bar for a Grenadian-style breakfast (including salted fish, fry bake, and cinnamon tea) and the proprietor asked, “When will you be returning?” (Not if, when.)

Hmm. We still haven’t attended Spicemas (Carnival), where participants commonly cover themselves in motor oil, and we’ve never eaten “prison bread,” made by local inmates and said to be the best on the island. Nor have we sampled black cake, a rum-bathed fruit cake that takes weeks to reach boozy perfection. Not to mention, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. So, yeah, we’ll be back.

If you go . . .

COVID requirements have recently changed on Grenada. A mandatory 24- to 48-hour quarantine is no longer in effect. For up-to-date COVID protocols, visit www.puregrenada.com. JetBlue and American Airlines offer air service to Grenada via New York and Miami. Local currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, pegged to the US dollar at US$1 to EC$2.70. To stay, the quietly chic Calabash Grenada hotel in St. George Parish sits on a lovely scoop of beach and features 30 suites, a spa, a beach bar, watersports, and a top-rated open-air restaurant, Rhodes. From $595 (US) per night (including taxes, breakfast, and dinner); www.calabashhotel.com. Also in St. George, lively and colorful True Blue Bay Boutique Resort is a favorite of divers. From $189 (US); www.truebluebay.com. If you want to get off the beaten path, consider Mount Edgecombe Plantation, a vintage 1800s guest house tucked in the hillside in St. Mark Parish; www.mountedgecombegrenada.com; from $150 (US). If nothing else, go up there for a romantic dinner with a view, featuring foods fresh from the plantation’s gardens.

Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at bairwright@gmail.com