🇬🇩 190 down. 3 to go.
After our 3 day stay in Dominica, we took a long hour-and-a-half drive back to the airport from our Portsmouth lodgings, stopping for a quick photo opportunity along the way.
Dominica’s airport is tiny. You wait outside before entering the two-person sized security screening room. If you don’t have a plastic bag for liquids, you’ll need to purchase a small ziplock at the Oasis Café in the check-in lounge for 2 Eastern Caribbean Dollars.
The largest room in the airport is the check-in lounge itself, while the departures area feels even smaller. That said, you’ll likely run across the construction for a larger international airport just down the road 10 minutes away if you’re driving west towards Portsmouth.
After boarding InterCaribbean Airways JY 713 at 12:10pm for a 50-minute hop to Barbados, we connected onto JY 748 at 2:00pm, landing back in Grenada at 2:55pm.
This time we splurged: 2 nights at Six Senses La Sagesse, entirely on IHG points. This brand-new property, which opened recently in April 2024 and was constructed using only natural, renewable and repurposed materials, sits along Grenada’s southern coast and represents Six Senses’ first Caribbean resort and first resort in the Americas.
In addition to its open-air architecture and private pools in each lodging, Six Senses is known for its focus on a theme of local sustainability; staff led us to a spice stand where we could mix Grenada’s legendary local spices. Instead of being discarded, leftover tumeric, butterfly pea, soursop, bay leaf, ginger, and cinnamon were ground up for us new guests to take home as tea and souvenirs.
Then came our room: even the most basic category features its own private plunge pool!
The property itself feels like its own ecosystem. Secluded lawns transition into dedicated areas: a kids’ zone, a teens’ lounge, a watersports center, and even a nature path lined with fitness calisthenics options.
Their spa complex features a large jacuzzi, communal Finnish sauna, cold plunge, foot baths, and even a “body hack ritual” with compression stockings and heated back band vibrators.
Dining options include Callaloo, the all-day restaurant by the communal main pool; complimentary ice cream at Scoops; and fine dining at SeaFire by the sea.
Every morning at Callaloo, breakfast began with shots of apple cider vinegar affectionately nicknamed “Rocket Fuel.” At SeaFire, we indulged in exceptional duck dishes for dinner. The pool bar served popcorn salted with various local spices, and we ended our evenings back at Callaloo with lemongrass basil-infused crème brûlée—a perfect finale to each day.
On our second morning, we booked a full-day tour, driving west along the coast through fishing villages before winding up through Belvidere Estate, where most of Grenada’s famous spices actually grow. This is the “Spice Island” after all.
Our first stop was Laura’s Herb & Spice Garden, where Laura herself gave us a private tour showing how Grenada earned its aromatic reputation.
Trees and bushes growing nutmeg, cinnamon, butterfly pea, moringa, tumeric, cacao, coffee, soursop, aloe, tamarind, peppermint, basil, bay leaves; you name it, we smelled it, tasted it, and would have bought it all if our luggage allowed.
From the gardens, we drove to Fort Frederick above St. George’s for panoramic harbor views.
Recently restored, we had the entire fort to ourselves as we gazed down on the capital.
Looking into the distance, we could spot Grand Anse Beach stretching along the coast.
We then headed into Saint George to explore the town . . .
. . . stopping for awhile at the House of Chocolate to trace the journey from Grenada’s local raw cocoa to finished chocolate, with plenty of complimentary samples along the way.
The town’s colonial architecture and colorful hillside buildings create one of the Caribbean’s most photogenic capitals.
Next came Annandale Falls & Forest Park, featuring a short five-minute nature trail before reaching the cascades.
You can dive from a small platform or venture behind the waterfalls for a different perspective.
Instead of visiting a rum distillery (since we don’t drink), we stopped at Gouyave Nutmeg Processing Station. This is where you actually see and feel why they call it Spice Island. Nutmeg in every form imaginable, with samples included, and processing still done largely by hand using traditional methods.
Our final island stop brought us to Grand Etang National Park, a volcanic crater lake surrounded by rainforest. We first checked in at the small introductory museum.
At the trailhead just behind the museum, we took a 15-minute hike to the Morne Labaye watch tower for sweeping views over the rainforest canopy.
On our return, we caught glimpses of Grand Etang Lake through the trees.
After 6 hours touring the island, we returned at 3:45pm and just in time for the hotel’s complimentary candle-making class, also sustainably using only the materials that were supposed to be tossed but instead would be reused for candle-making. We were the only guests who showed up!
The next day, we took it slow. With no alarms set and nowhere to be, we simply absorbed the serenity of Six Senses before catching our 4:22pm direct flight back to NYC, arriving 37 minutes early at 7:53pm.
At World’s End
Grenada now completes it for me in the entirety of the Western Hemisphere! With 190 of 193 UN member states now under my belt, only 3 remain for me: Sudan, Niger (which requires more than an airport layover), and a technical return to the holy lands to visit territories beyond what I accessed from Syria’s side of the Golan Heights.
Nothing special other than the reminder that the final few destinations of any journey now carries a different kind of meaning.
- At time of posting in Grenada, it was 29 °C - Humidity: 82% | Wind Speed: 19km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
