(Updated 2020)
Sandals Grenada is the all-inclusive brand's first venture into Grenada. While it may be tempting to while away all your time on the property, and on Pink Gin beach, it's worth your while to get off the resort for a day of exploring. Here are a few ways to spend it.
Island Tours
Sandals' on-site tour company, Island Routes, you can arrange a full-day tour of spice markets in the island's capital, the Annadale Waterfall, the Belmont Chocolate Estate, the historic Fort Frederick, and Grand Etang crater lake ($125).
For an exclusive look at the island, book a Yacht Charter to Tobago Cays, a collection of five small islands surrounded by pristine coral reef. The tour brings guests to a protected marine area where they can swim with sea turtles and stingrays, followed by a catered lunch, and a trip to Petit Tabac, where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed ($4,699).
Underwater Sculpture Park
Grenada has the distinction of being the first place in the world to create an underwater sculpture park. First created by English diver and artist Jason deCaires Taylor in 2006, the sculpture park in Moliniere Bay is a living exhibition, in which the sculptures interact with their environment, functioning as artificial reefs that provide a habitat for sea life. Sculptures are inspired by characters from Grenadian folklore, including a kneeling woman named Sienna from the storybook A Different Ocean — a young woman whose gift for free-diving was exploited by treasure hunters.
Grenada Seafaris, which is run by a friend of the artist and chairman of the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park Management Group, offers narrated speedboat tours that depart from Great Anse Beach and travel along the sheltered coves of the island's western coast. The sculpture park offers a guided snorkel tour (rates upon request).
Divers can arrange trips to the park through most hotels. (At Sandals, diving is included in the rates.) Other diving sites to check out include two shipwrecks.
River Antoine Rum Distillery
The River Antoine Rum Distillery is the oldest-running, water-powered distillery in the Caribbean, having been in operation since 1785. Guided tours cover all aspects of the highly potent (150-proof) rum's production process — from cane-crushing to fermentation and distillation — and cost $2 per person. The distillery is located on Grenada's northeast coast, near Lake Antoine. If you have use of a car, it is around an hour's drive from St. George's. Otherwise, contact Island Routes or other local tour companies to take you there.