Caribbean: Barbados's eastern promise - Telegraph Inevitably, guesthouses began to open, including the now venerable Atlantis Hotel, established in 1883 above the beach at Tent Bay near Bathsheba. Over the years it became an institution, if an increasingly eccentric one, but three years ago it was sold to two local families, the Kirbys and the Wardens, owners of Little Good Harbour (and its fine Fish Pot restaurant) on the west coast. They closed it, renovated it and in December 2009 reopened it as a very attractive hotel of eight simple, uncluttered but comfortable rooms with the feel of a New England beach house - lots of whitewashed tongue-and-groove panelling, louvred shutters, muslin-swathed beds and rocking chairs on the balconies. They also revamped the terrace restaurant, introducing a menu that makes a convincing case for Caribbean classics: Bajan fried chicken, conch fritters, jerk pork, curried yam (or goat), rotis, pepper-pot stew and fried flying fish, served in cutters (giant sandwiches) of home-made saltbread. The presence of sea cat ("pickled, on a salad of avocado and tomato") and "whole-baked dolphin" may seem disconcerting, but they're the local terms for octopus and mahi-mahi. In heading east, the first holidaymakers were following in the footsteps of the wealthiest of the early plantation owners. Look at a map, and many of the most spectacular Great Houses were built on this cooler side of the island: Sam Lord's Castle, a magnificent Regency Gothic mansion, complete with crenellations, that burned down in 2010; Easy Hall, which has just been sold for $6 million (£3.9 million); and Farley Hill, now a ruin, though its grounds are a national park with fabulous views across the area known as the Scotland District, so called less for its scenery, which is scarcely Scottish, than the fact that it lies within the parish of St Andrew. Only a few, however, are open to the public. There is Sunbury, with its red corrugated iron roof, abundance of old mahogany furniture and Victorian interiors. Or Fisherpond Great House, a handsome antique-filled mansion on an estate dating back to 1635, which owners John and Rain Chandler open to the public for a delicious twice-weekly buffet lunch. You can walk it off afterwards in nearby Welchman Hall Gully, an area of luxuriant rainforest with a half-mile long trail, from which you're likely to spot one of the island's 5,000 or so green monkeys, as well as ficus, ginger lilies, tree ferns and other verdure. But the most beautiful remains St Nicholas Abbey, a small (seven-bedroom) exquisitely restored Jacobean house built in 1660 and set amid towering mahogany trees a few miles inland. Its interiors are every bit as splendid as its gabled façade, with an intricate Chinese staircase made by Chippendale and a Sheraton sideboard in the dining room, as well as an exquisite Coalport dinner service laid out on the table. Yet for all its grandeur, it feels more like a home than a museum. During my visit, a cat dozed undisturbed on an 18th-century cane-and-mahogany armchair in the drawing room. The gardens are remarkable too, especially the trees: towering cabbage palms, kapok trees and a giant spike-trunked sandbox tree, said to be four centuries old. But back on the east coast, moments from Bathsheba, the six-acre Andromeda Botanic Gardens are finer still. Established in 1953, they're an enchanting place of palms, cacti, orchids, ferns and other exotica, most memorably a ghostly Ficus citrifolia, from whose vast canopy of branches descend tangles of aerial roots, thought to have been the "beards" after which the island is called because these trees were once so abundant. For all its many attractions, you probably wouldn't want to spend an entire holiday on the east coast, not least because Atlantic currents make bathing hazardous, and the ocean is a whole lot chillier than the Caribbean. But hire a car and a tour of the east coast works as a day trip from the west. Indeed wherever you're staying, it would be a shame not to spend at least an afternoon in the capital, Bridgetown, in the southwest corner of the island, where the area around the Garrison Savannah, two miles southeast of downtown, was named a Unesco World Heritage Site last summer. With a military parade ground, now the site of Barbados's racecourse, at its heart, it has the island's largest concentration of elegant Georgian buildings, the Main Guard and its clock tower in particular. The former prison, now the Barbados Museum, is an exercise in 19th-century colonial neoclassicism. And Bush Hill House, where George Washington spent seven weeks as a 19 year-old in 1751, contains exhibitions that commemorate not just his visit but, more searingly, the horrors of slavery. The first president of the United States, it reminds visitors, was himself a slave owner and though he sought to liberate them, one caption reads: "It would have cost nearly £6,000 to free them all [and] his plantations made only £900 a year." Bridgetown is also home to one of the oldest synagogues in the Americas, founded in 1654 by the same group of Brazilian Jews as are believed to have brought sugar to the island. Natives of Recife, they'd been persecuted by the Dutch colonists - hence the design and eventual construction of 500 windmills on the island, one of which, Morgan Lewis, stands above a magnificent and usually deserted beach of the same name. That it still has functioning sails is thanks to the Barbados National Trust, which has done sterling work in preserving the island's heritage and making it accessible. For nowhere in the Caribbean seems to resonate with history quite like Barbados. It may be a stretch to rouse yourself from your sunlounger, but a day or two exploring certainly lingers longer in the memory than just another rum punch by the pool. Barbados's national dish is pudding and souse. The pudding is either black pudding or sometimes the pig's intestines are stuffed with sweet potato rather than blood. The souse is boiled pig's head and feet, with pickled onion, cucumber and peppers. Of course taste is subjective, but it's as well to be aware before you order it. It's illegal for anyone - children included - to wear anything in a camouflage print, even swimwear. One in two Barbadians has a car, and the rush-hour traffic in and around Bridgetown moves very slowly from midafternoon into the evening. Although distances between restaurants on the east coast may look small, don't think about walking to dinner along the beach. Tides here are high, the sea comes in fast, and there are stretches where the sand disappears altogether. British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) offers daily, direct flights between Gatwick and Barbados from £648 return. Virgin Atlantic (0844 209 7310; virgin-atlantic.com) also flies to Barbados daily from Gatwick, from £648, including taxes. Grantley Adams International airport is on the south coast, about eight miles east of Bridgetown. A taxi to the hotels around Holetown or Speightstown on the west coast should cost B$60-85/£19-£27; and about B$100/£32 to Bathsheba on the east. Carrier (0161 492 1354; carrier.co.uk) offers seven-night packages to Coral Reef and Sandpiper from £1,785 per person, including return flight, breakfast and transfers. Andromeda Botanical Gardens (00246 433 9384), so-called because like its mythological namesake "they were chained to the coral rock of the east coast," contains more than 600 species of plant and a troupe of green monkeys. Like Welchman Hall Gully, Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill and Bridgetown Synagogue, it is managed by the Barbados National Trust (436 8043; trust.funbarbados.com), whose own headquarters, Wildey House, a Georgian mansion in Bridgetown, can be visited by appointment (426 2421). Arlington House Museum (422 4064) is a fascinating little museum in an 18th-century house in Speightstown offering insight into the history of the island and a host of ingenious interactive exhibits - feeding virtual sea turtles, for instance - to entertain children. Barbados Concorde Experience (420 7738; barbadosconcorde.com) at Grantley Adams airport is a small museum of aviation (with flight simulator), where the main attraction is an actual Concorde that visitors can go aboard. A great place to kill time after you've checked in for your flight home. Fisherpond Great House (433 1754), near Welchman Hall Gully, is a beautifully restored plantation house that hosts a buffet lunch of traditional Caribbean dishes, prepared to exemplary standards, on Sundays and Thursdays, for which it's essential to book well ahead. St Nicholas Abbey (422 5357; stnicholasabbey.com) is one of just three intact Jacobean plantation houses left in the Americas, and the only one open to the public. Exquisitely restored, it's also the site of a small but functioning rum distillery. Sunswept Beach Hotel £ This reasonably priced hotel provides the evidence that staying on the Platinum Coast does not require a platinum credit card. The clean comfortable rooms have kitchenettes, and there's a swimming pool and a shuttle into Bridgetown (001 246 432 2715; sunsweptbeach.com; doubles from US$130/£84). The Atlantis Hotel ££ The Atlantis offers eight comfortable, attractive rooms (try for "Three Boys" on the north corner, which has the best sea view) and two pleasant apartments, equipped with Wi-Fi, docking stations and flatscreen televisions. There's also a good restaurant and a small pool, but you can't swim from the beach (439 2604; atlantishotelbarbados.com; doubles from $255/£164). The best hotels in Barbados: read our reviews and book at the best prices Coral Reef Club £££ A long-established family-run but low-key celeb-magnet on the west coast, renowned for its lush gardens and outstanding spa. Its equally fine, more laid-back sister hotel, The Sandpiper (sandpiperbarbados.com), next door, has the better beach and less formal restaurant (422 2372; coralreefbarbados.com; doubles from $440/£284). For the best food on the island you do need to head back to the west coast. Elbow Room ££ A buzzy place famous for "stonegrill dining." Your main course - steak, fish, skewers of vegetables - is brought raw, with a hot lava stone on which to cook it. Its other speciality is ceviche (2nd Street, Holetown, St James; 432 1927; elbowroombarbados.com). Lone Star ££ More laid-back at lunch than in the evening, this former garage (hence the overall-clad staff) turned buzzy restaurant, on a spectacular stretch of beachfront, serves great salads, grilled fish, Caribbean curries and cocktails. There are also four guestrooms, each named after a car (Mount Standfast, St James; 419 0599; thelonestar.com). The Tides £££ This is one of the most ambitious restaurants on the island, a status that brings with it a minimum charge for food of B$100/£32 per person. It offers an eclectic menu that fuses classic Caribbean and European dishes: jerk pork, for instance, comes wrapped in Parma ham with pesto mash, Calvados cream and caramelised apples (Balmore House, Holetown, St James; 432 8356; tidesbarbados.com).