Catch a Tan at Southern Palms Beach Club in BarbadosRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/globe02/Carib02/barbados/spalms/spalms.html
There are unexpected pleasures and surprises when you travel, that's why it is so much fun. When I stepped onto
Southern Palms Beach Club property in Barbados' Platinum Coast, I went back to a genteel, Victorian era — an architectural timeless period piece.
Have you ever looked at antique tintypes of buildings frozen in time? The Southern Palms Beach Club is a traditional Barbadian plantation resort, an interlude between past and present, with guests and staff burned forever into daguerreotype plates.
I first noticed this special appeal at Monday evening Manager's Rum Punch social at Circle Terrace where I met tall, British hotel manager, Britta, dressed in a sort of Victorian era and white lacey evening gown. Later, I found out she races her own thoroughbred, Granite, at Garrison Savannah racetrack, historic British military site (www.barbadosturfclub.com, or call 426-3980). I sipped a special Southern Palms Piña Colada and listened to a sewing company magnate from Canada tell me that he has been staying at Southern Palms each year for decades, staying for months to outwit brutal Canadian winter.
Get Bronzed At The Southern PalmsThe pink property sits on one of largest beaches in Barbados, with over 1,000 feet of its own velvety, coral sand to stick toes in. Young palms are growing in sand in front of resort. The resort is not quite on Caribbean, and it is not quite on rougher Atlantic side, either.
Located in south end of island in an area known as St. Lawrence Gap, resort is close to bistros, nightclubs, and chattel house shopping, but it also has nightly entertainment, barbecues, calypso bands, sporting tournaments, and its own duty-free shop. The entire complex makes it so convenient not to leave, except maybe to watch running of Granite.
Click for Bridgetown City GuideThe Southern Palms is really a great place to stay for weeks or months at a time, as testified by Canadian. Many Canadians and Europeans have discovered property. What I liked about my ground-level suite was balcony/patio offering fully-glassed Caribbean-style verandah doors for seclusion, opening into a living area, kitchen off to side, and bedroom that had a feel of a homey apartment. You have windows on both sides of unit so I immediately turned off air-conditioning, popped open bedroom windows and swept patio doors open to catch breezes. The bedroom closet was enormous, made for long-term living. Each unit at resort has telephone, radio, TV with lots of stations, and cool ceramic floor tiles. The Southern Palms is actually more than one complex, and each three-story building (The condo unit is 4 stories.) has its own uBook The Southern Palmsnique moniker: The Palm Court, Jasmine Court, Capri, Lady Smith, Banyan Court, and Carlisle Rooms, which I suspect are most upscale on property. Southern Palms offers 92 units, in three categories: rooms, suites, and condos.
