Bridgetown

The Barbados Transport Authority Board (BTAB) operates the licensed taxi rank inside the cruise terminal building. Fares are posted on a board: $7 USD to downtown Bridgetown or Carlisle Bay, $14 to the Garrison historic area, $25 to Mount Gay Visitor Centre, $35–40 to Harrison's Cave one-way, $50–70 to the south coast resorts, $80–100 to Bathsheba on the east coast. Drivers are vetted, plates are visible (TV-prefix licence plates), and most accept USD or BBD; cards are not reliable. Confirm the fare before getting in. There is no Uber, Lyft, or Bolt in Barbados — those companies do not operate here. ZR vans (the local minibuses) cost BBD$3.50 (about $1.75 USD) but run set routes and are not built for tourists with bags.

The Barbadian dollar (BBD) is fixed at 2:1 with the US dollar and has been since 1975, so the math is genuinely effortless: a $30 BBD lunch is $15 USD. USD bills are accepted at every cruise-corridor business — Mount Gay, Harrison's Cave, Carlisle Bay beach clubs, the duty-free mall, the licensed taxi rank, Pelican Village. Change is sometimes given in BBD; that's normal and the rate is honest. Cards work at all formal venues; cash matters for taxis, beach vendors, and Pelican Village stalls. There is no need to exchange currency. ATMs at the terminal dispense BBD only. Restaurant bills usually include a 10% service charge and a 17.5% VAT — check before adding a tip on top.

Harrison's Cave is the standard half-day at $80–110 USD per person on a ship tour (4 hours round trip, 35-minute drive each way, 60–75 minutes underground). The full island day combining Animal Flower Cave on the north coast, Bathsheba on the east, and a Bajan lunch runs $120–160 USD for 7–8 hours and only works on calls of 9+ hours. The catamaran turtle-and-shipwreck snorkel from Carlisle Bay (3 hours, $60–80 USD) is the third major option and the one with the highest five-star reviews on cruise forums. Self-drive with a Barbados visitor permit is feasible but they drive on the left, the roads inland are narrow and signposted in local landmarks, and the parking at Harrison's Cave is the only easy bit — most people regret renting on a port day.

The Bridgetown Cruise Terminal is inside Deep Water Harbour on the western edge of the city, with six alongside berths (Berths 1–6) operated by Barbados Port Inc. Tendering is essentially never used here — the harbour is deep and protected. The terminal building has a duty-free mall, restrooms, free Wi-Fi in the arrivals hall, taxi rank, tour kiosk, and a small Barbados tourism information desk. The walk from the gangway through the terminal to the gate is 5–10 minutes depending on berth. Pelican Village (the official craft market) is immediately outside the gate; central Bridgetown is 1.5 km / 25 minutes' walk along the causeway. Confirm berth assignment on the ship's daily because the walk distance from gangway to the gate varies.

Carlisle Bay Marine Park is a protected area with six shallow wrecks (the Berwyn at 8m, the Bajan Queen at 12m, the Pamir at 18m, plus three others) all sitting in 5–18 metres of water within a 200m radius. It is one of the few cruise-day dive sites in the Caribbean where you can do a single-tank wreck dive plus a snorkel from the same boat in 3 hours. Operators include Barbados Blue (closest, on Pebbles Beach), Hightide, and Eco Dive. Single-tank cruise-day dives are $90–120 USD with gear; a two-tank trip is $150–180. Visibility is reliably 18–25 metres in winter, 12–18 in summer when the river plumes drift in. The wrecks are heavily encrusted and double as turtle and seahorse habitat.

Carlisle Bay is the cruise-day beach and has two organised beach clubs that sell day passes. Copacabana (south end of Bay Street) charges roughly $30 USD for a chair-and-umbrella day pass with $15 USD of food/drink credit; the Boatyard ($40–50 USD all-inclusive day pass) is the older party version with rope swings, an inflatable iceberg, and unlimited drinks 10am–4pm. Both are a $7 USD taxi from the terminal. The free public access points (Pebbles Beach, Brownes Beach) are immediately next door if you'd rather rent a chair from a beach vendor for $20–25 USD for the pair. Watersports — paddleboard rental, jet ski, snorkel-with-turtles boat trips — are sold from kiosks on the sand at all of these. The turtle-and-shipwreck snorkel boat trip is the famous Barbados cruise-day excursion at $60–80 USD for 3 hours.