YOUR Q’s ANSWERED: Everything you need to know about booking a Caribbean trip!

Hi guys, Dylan here!

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a while now. Sue and I got so many questions from readers about our trip to the Caribbean so I thought I would put together a blog post that would help you understand a bit more about what Buccament Bay and St Vincent has to offer.

1.How did we hear about it?

A couple of months ago, I simply stumbled across Buccament Bay through Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan’s Instagram pages. We have since found out that they have visited the resort numerous times. At the time, we were actually looking to holiday somewhere exotic to kick off Sue’s travel section and so the way I looked at it was if it’s good enough for the Wright’s, then it’s good enough for the us to blog about 🙂

2. How do you get there?

So a lot of you were asking if we booked the flights ourselves or if we used a travel agent. The answer is I booked the flights using three different airlines. It takes quite a while to get there so if you’re a bad flyer then maybe this isn’t for you! 🙂 However if you can put up with it, then keep reading because The Caribbean is absolutely amazing!!

• Flight 1 : Ryanair. Dublin to London Gatwick. Cost of this flight including checked luggage was around €100 each.
• Flight 2: British Airways. London Gatwick-Barbados. Cost of this flight was around €630 each.
• Flight 3: Liat Airways. Barbados-St Vincent. Cost of this flight was around €150 each

Now I know a lot of you probably think that €880 is lot to pay for a flight to the Caribbean but you have to remember you’re going to a remote island 7000 km away. If I was to say one bad thing is that we weren’t overly happy about British Airways and if I was too do it again I would fly Virgin Airways for a similar price.

The resort will provide a driver to collect you from St Vincent airport to bring you to Buccament Bay, which is an added bonus.

3. What price was it and what did you get?

Buccament Bay is an all inclusive resort which means everything is included in your package deal from food, drink, activities, not to mention the fab accommodation. They are currently offering a 55% off on holidays booked so if you’re thinking about it then I would book soon. We booked the Elaine Junior Suite on the 1st floor which is the cheapest room on the website and still mad money – but because we availed of a great offer of 50% at the time, we got it for €1,700. To our great delight, we got upgraded to a villa as did a lot of the other guests that we spoke to, so maybe fire over a quick email to them if you do decide to book it 😉

This is an incredible price considering what you get. As well as all your food, drink, mini bar, and use of activities, you also get x5 one hour spa treatments which is amazing in my opinion! If you were to buy these separately, they would have cost you €400/500 so it’s a brilliant deal when you look at it that way.

In terms of the food, it is second to none. I ate like a king over there! Over the course of 7 nights, I had 5 fillet steaks! It was all part of the all-inclusive plan. You order your food off a menu, unlike other hotels that just offer a buffet service. If you’re a bit of a wine drinker, you won’t be disappointed either as it’s not a bottom of the barrel wine you are offered.

I cannot stress how good the food is in Buccament Bay, and in my opinion it is worth every penny you pay.

4. What else is there to do?

SO much!! We went on cruises, we kayaked, cycled around the resort, dived – you name it.

One evening we were invited on an amazing sunset cruise which is also complementary of the resort. What an amazing experience. As well as watching the beautiful Caribbean sunset, we got to get up close to about 100 dolphins who were following the boat, swimming around us, diving out of the water – incredible. That was an amazing experience in itself. During the cruise, we were also treated to some light tapas and rum punch cocktails! The Caribbean rum is AMAZING and super strong, we loved it 😉

Sue went on a her first ever dive there too, and what an experience that was for her! It’s something she had always wanted to do but never plucked up the courage. As you can imagine the Caribbean sea is pretty clear so if this is something you’re interested in, then look no further. It cost Sue about €120 which is well worth it as it’s a 3 hour experience from start to finish, including her lessons and training. You can watch Sue’s vlog here.

We also took the kayaks out most days which were also complementary of the resort. It was amazing to go kayaking at sunset, something you will never forget. A must in my opinion. There is also a cave you can go through if you wish but it’s FULL of bats and when Sue heard them squealing and saw how dark it was she chickened out haha. I would have loved to do it at the time, but thinking back – I dont know how I would feel in a room full of flying rats.

So this is the part our tour guide told me when you go into the cave, use your hands to push yourself through the cave… Hell no! Then with the screaming bats… 😨Not a chance! Man, I’m such a whimp 😂🙈🙊

A video posted by Suzanne Jackson (SoSueMe) (@sosueme_ie) on May 13, 2015 at 2:42pm PDT

The hotel offered plenty of other excursions around the island of St Vincent but a lot of them were overpriced in my opinion. Next time we are going to book an excursion through one of the locals we got to know over there. They are SUCH nice people.

5.Tipping the staff?

This is something that you should always do when you go away to all-inclusive resorts in less developed countries. The staff work tirelessly and to be honest, they aren’t on great wages so they really do rely on the tips from customers. Now I’m not saying you should leave a tip for every bit of food and drink you get, but a little something does go a long way there. When we were there, we tipped at dinner each night. We also tipped the masseuse, the cleaning lady who looked after our villa, and the driver who brought us to and from the airport. We also left a tip for the barmen and waitress at the end of our stay. The currency used is Barbados dollars but we used US dollars as did a lot of the other guests.

6. Would you go back?

ABSOLUTELY!!! Buccament Bay was worth every penny in my opinion. My only problem was we didn’t stay for 2 weeks. We hope to book it again next year and this time stay a little longer 😉

Hope you all enjoyed this little blog post.

Don’t forget you can also watch Sue’s Caribbean VLOG here.

Any further questions, just leave them below!

Dylan.