Oistins

Oistins is a fishing village on the south coast of Barbados that becomes, every Friday night, the island's largest dinner table: at the Bay Gardens by the fish market, dozens of stalls grill and fry the day's catch — flying fish, marlin, mahi-mahi, mackerel — beside macaroni pie and breadfruit, the rum flows, the dominoes slap, a stage plays soca and old soul, and Bajans and visitors eat elbow to elbow on plastic chairs until late. The village has been here since the seventeenth century — the Charter of Barbados was signed at an inn here in 1652 — and it has never needed to be anything grander.

The traveller comes on a Friday, early enough for a table and hungry enough for two plates — the fish is grilled to order and the queue is part of the evening —; walks the market at dawn another day to watch the boats come in and the flying fish being boned at speed; swims at Miami Beach, the calm cove just east of the village that locals prefer; strolls the south-coast boardwalk toward Hastings; gives a night to St. Lawrence Gap, the strip of bars and restaurants ten minutes west; and takes the bus into Bridgetown, fifteen minutes away, for the rest of the island's story.

The Guide's honesty: the Friday fry is a real Bajan gathering that welcomes visitors, not a show staged for them — the fish is fresh, the prices fair, and the loudest stalls are not always the best, so walk the row before choosing —; Saturday's fry is quieter and just as good; the sea on this coast is calm in the coves and lively on the open beaches; buses and route taxis (the ZR vans) run late and cheaply along the coast road; and Barbados is a small, well-run island where the main danger is leaving with less rum knowledge than one hoped.