GRENADA

OVERVIEW

• When: 21 March – 24 March, 2026
• Where (accommodations): Radisson Grenada Beach Resort
• Transportation: American Airlines flight from Miami (MIA) to St. George’s (GND), Grenada, car rental with Ace through discovercars.com
• Sights/attractions: Grand Anse Beach, Annandale Waterfall, Grand Etang National Rainforest, Seven Sisters Waterfall, Belmont Estate, Leapers Hill, Levera Beach, Magazine Beach, Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park (Native Spirit Scuba snorkeling trip), Saint George’s (Art Fabrik shop, House of Chocolate, Christ of the Deep statue)
• Food/drinks: Umbrella’s Beach Bar, Belmont Estate Restaurant, Grenadian Grill at Silversands Resort, Sails Restaurant and Bar, Asiatique at Silversands Resort

Country #82 for me, Grenada, will go down in history as the trip booked with less than 12 hr notice. After finishing our seven-week stay in Miami Beach, we had a week-long trip to Nicaragua booked and thoroughly planned. However, the government changed the visa policy a month before the trip, and I did not find out about it until check-in time. Lithuanian passport holders are now required to obtain a consular visa, which can take up to 6 days to process, so this quickly threw off my well-curated travel plans. After several calls to the consulate, applying online all in Spanish, more calls to the airlines- we did all that was possible, but were told that a visa takes time and there is no chance to get it on time for the flight in the morning. That means we find ourselves in a pickle. Airbnb stay is over, we have a week of vacation in a country we cannot enter. We could always stay in Miami and pay the premium price for last-minute hotels, but who wants that? Let the brainstorming begin!

Luckily, Miami has many direct flights to the Caribbean, Central, and South America. Frantic Google flight searches yielded a lot of options, but of course, priority is for the countries we haven’t been to yet- Grenada being one of them. I already had my eye on this island, located not too far from Venezuela, and planned to visit it next spring. I guess we don’t need to wait a year; let’s go tomorrow! American Airlines had a morning flight. We booked it for a week, with a changeable flight back in case I am able to get a visa, so that we could catch up on some of the Nicaragua plans (spoiler alert: we did!).

Then comes the search for a hotel. We are now close to midnight and still don’t know where we will sleep the following night. Luckily, the island is not big, the best beach, Grand Anse, has several hotels nearby, and Radisson Grenada Beach Resort has rooms available for a reasonable price. Car rental next. Booked that for 4 days, in case we get the visa, and here you have it- the trip is planned! A few hours of sleep and we are at the Miami airport, ready to see the new country that we decided on less than 12 hours earlier!

I won’t lie- this was stressful. I am a planner; I love booking trips months out, adding all the details to my spreadsheet, and researching what is worth seeing and doing, which restaurants are best to eat at, etc. I guess we did all that (minus the spreadsheet) in a few hours. At the airport, I did more googling, confirmed that we are indeed staying near the best beach on the island, and quickly marked points of interest on the map. Luckily, it is not an overwhelming amount of waterfalls and beaches that caught my attention, but ready or not, we are on the way!

We picked up the car at the airport without delay. Driving is on the opposite side of the road, and a local driver’s license is required, which you can obtain at the car rental counter. I think if we had read more about driving in Grenada, we would’ve gotten discouraged (like we did with Saint Lucia), but since it was such short notice, we had no time for more Reddit posts. I am glad we had the rental car, because it gave us total freedom. Yes, some of the roads are not great, and there is often road work. Yes, some drivers are fast and furious, but it was not that bad. Sean quickly got used to driving on the left, and even I wasn’t freaking out about him being too close (or too far) to the edge. If you go to Grenada, definitely rent a car, it will be fine!

ACCOMMODATIONS

Radisson Grenada Beach Resort

I cannot say enough about how lucky we were to get this hotel at the last minute. Grenada has no shortage of hotels, but not that many on the Grand Anse Beach, and one of them- Silversands- was around 1000 USD per night. Radisson Grenada Beach Resort was a little over $200 per night and actually on the nicer part of the same beach. Multiple pools, breakfast included, free parking- you really can’t ask for more.

The room was simple, but we spent minimal time inside, so overall we were very happy with these accommodations.

Also, it is a short drive from the airport, making it super convenient for arrivals and departures from the island.

Life is a Beach

It goes without saying- the best thing about Grenada is the beaches. There are as many as 45 beaches on the island, the number that blew my mind at first! We drove around the island on our second day here and saw some of the ones, but to see them all, you would need a lot more time. The roads on the East side of the island were quite bad; it was so bumpy that we decided to get to the middle of the island and not explore the coastline on that side. If there are any nice beaches there, they would be hard to reach.

Grand Anse Beach

This two-mile stretch of white sand and blue water beach has made several ‘Best Beaches in the World’ lists. After stopping by a few more beaches across the island, we were 100% sure this was the beach to stay at.

The sand is super soft, there were no rocks in the water, no seaweed, no big waves. Sunsets are also spectacular at this beach, and you can watch them right in front of the Radisson hotel.

There are island dogs running around, super friendly and playful. It really is a Caribbean paradise.

Levera Beach

This beach is located on the North side of the island, and depending on the year and season, it is where leatherback turtles lay their eggs! We didn’t see any turtles, but checked out the beach and chatted with the local guy selling souvenirs.

The beach is nice, but there was a fair amount of seaweed left by the recent storm. It was also quite far up north, so we were glad to visit, but had no desire to even swim here.

Going back down towards the south, we stopped by another nice beach- this time, volcanic black sand. But it was also full of seaweed and the road became very rugged, so that’s when we abandoned mission to drive around the entire Grenada’s coast.

Postcard perfect and not a single person around.

Magazine Beach

The last beach before returning to Grand Anse was Magazine Beach, located right near the airport on the southern tip of the island.

We planned to stay here a bit longer, but after going in to swim, we decided to leave. The rip tide was very strong, and the bottom was not soft sand, but rough, cement-like coral or rocks.

I didn’t like how hard it was to get in and out of the water, so after a quick dip, we left and enjoyed the powdery sand of Grand Anse instead. It was great to see other beaches and get a solid confirmation that we picked a right spot for our stay without advanced planning.

Waterfalls, monkeys, and island adventures

We arrived Saturday afternoon and enjoyed the beach at the hotel. Sunday, however, we were ready for an adventure. Still waiting for the Nicaraguan visa, we decided to see as much of Grenada as possible so that if the visa is approved, we would feel like we’ve done some exploring. After an early breakfast, we started our self-guided tour with the first stop being at the waterfalls.

Annandale Waterfall

Just like beaches, Grenada has no shortage of waterfalls. Annandale is one of the easily reachable ones- you park the car, pay the small fee to enter, and it is less than a 2-minute walk. We thought that on Sunday it would be busy with local people, but when we arrived around 9am, we were the first visitors there.

The water is refreshingly cold, and you can swim in it (I clearly did!). Lush greenery around, and we had it all to ourselves!

Grand Etang National Rainforest

Our next stop was at Grand Etang National Rainforest. We heard that mona monkeys come close and you can feed them bananas (I absolutely took bananas from the hotel breakfast). We parked, there was a guy offering a tour to take us to the lake, but the path is very clear, so we declined the offer.

It was a pleasant hike, but not a single monkey around. We were a bit disappointed, and were ready to return to the car, when we saw that the same ‘guide’ was holding a monkey in his hands and a small group of tourists was ready for a photo!

Since we had the bananas, of course, we joined in, and “George”, the monkey, jumped from hand to hand, catching banana bites and even taking a piece from the shorts pocket.

He was not tied to anything, and the guy assured us that it was a wild monkey, but that it was used to people and to being fed. Not exactly what I expected (I thought we would see more monkeys and maybe in the trees), but it was still fun. George was very well behaved, clean, and pleasant to hold.

Seven Sisters Waterfall

When we told the hotel staff about our island plans and how much we wanted to see and do in a day, he said, “I want to see you when you return!”. He did warn us about this hike, so I am glad we knew what to expect. Seeing all seven waterfalls would require a guide and much more time. We decided that the first two waterfalls would be enough for us, but even to reach them, it was a good 20-min hike each way.

We also got kind of tricked with the parking. As we were approaching the waterfall, the guy came out of the lot and told us we needed to park there because there was no space near the waterfall. That was not true. We also knew that parking is free on Sunday, so, to his disappointment, we didn’t pay for this ‘special parking.’ It added at least 10 min to the hike on a hot day, so we didn’t appreciate this trick. We met another tourist couple who were also told to park there and were charged for it. Then we all saw that there is plenty of space much closer to the start of the hike. Oh well.

The sweaty hike was definitely worth it! Two waterfalls right next to each other, beautiful blue water, and you can also swim (we left bathing suits in the car). I don’t know what the remaining ‘sisters’ look like, but we really enjoyed the first two.

Belmont Estate

This 17th-century plantation is now a chocolate factory, and I read about their restaurant, so while we are exploring the island, why not stop here for lunch! The grounds are beautiful, so is the view, and the Creole-style food was indeed amazing!

Grenada is famous for its nutmeg, so of course I had a nutmeg milkshake! Yum!

There is a little museum, farm animals, and a chocolate shop. Products are made locally, and the chocolate was delicious. Worth a stop if you are on this side of the island.

Leapers Hill

We made it to the most northern part of Grenada. We parked right near St. Patrick’s church, which was not open, but the view from there is incredible, so it was a right place to stop.

And there was a cute kitty to pet, what a bonus!

Leapers Hill is a few steps away, and it is a sad and important place in Grenada’s history. It is a cliff’s edge where around 40 Carib (Indigenous Kalinago) people jumped (leaped) to their death in 1651 so to not submit to French enslavement.

The town around this area seemed very quiet with not much to see or do, so we went to Levera Beach, followed by Magazine Beach, and that was the end of our island tour! It was a full day, but we enjoyed it and didn’t feel rushed.

Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park

If there is one MUST-do activity in Grenada, I would say it’s snorkeling or scuba diving around the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park. We didn’t bring our GoPro because we didn’t plan to do many underwater activities in Nicaragua, but this was another lesson to be learned. From now on, we will take a GoPro to the desert!

We had no tours booked due to our last-minute arrival, but we were able to arrange a snorkeling excursion with Native Spirit Scuba, which had an office right on the Radisson Hotel grounds, in front of the beach. There was only one other couple with us on the boat, and the excursion lasted an hour on Monday morning.

The cool thing was that the guide went with us and told us the story about each sculpture as we swam around. Initially, I laughed at having a guide. I thought we would snorkel, see as best as we can, and go back to the boat. Having a knowledgeable local person was a by far superior experience. The sculptures are not super deep- just around 5-8 meters, but without knowing where they are placed, it would be hard to find them all. Also, telling the story about each of them was much more interesting than just looking at it without context.

I took these underwater photos from the internet, because we had no camera, so hopefully nobody is upset by me using them here. But I wanted to show how cool this Underwater Sculpture Park is. The first installation was completed in 2006, so the park is 20 years old as of today! Molinere Bay suffered damage from Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and this park was created to regrow coral and divert tourism from the nearby fragile reefs. This is the first of its kind underwater park and is listed as one of National Geographic’s 25 Wonders of the world!

There are glass-bottom boat tours, scuba, and snorkeling. Obviously, scuba divers can come the closest, but even snorkeling and free diving are perfect ways to see the sculptures. I would not go on a glass-bottom boat tour for this, because the visibility is much better actually being in the water.

There are other underwater sculpture parks in the smaller islands of Grenada, which I hope we’ll be back to see, and we will bring our underwater camera next time!

Great excursion, lovely views of the island from the Caribbean Sea, and the captain also agreed to drop us off in Saint George’s – the capital of Grenada. We planned to check out the town later, but since the ride was on the way, it saved us from taking a taxi!

Saint George’s

Island capitals are usually cute and colorful, and Saint George’s is not an exception. There is a fort (which we didn’t visit), a port, and some cute shops and restaurants.

We pretty much stumbled upon the Art Fabrik shop– adorable locally made clothes, souvenirs and an art gallery in the back. Very pricey, but when in Grenada…

Right across from this little boutique, you will find House of Chocolate– also many local items, mostly food-related. There was a chocolate-making demonstration with some chocolate tasting, so of course we took part.

After some sweet snacks, we needed a real lunch, and for that, we found Sails Restaurant and Bar. Right on the water, great view, and tasty food.

Grenada really surprised us with its flavorful food- Creole and Indian influences make this island’s cuisine really tasty.

Before heading back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon, we stopped by the Carenage harbor and the Christ of the Deep statue. It was gifted by the Italian Costa Line as a thank-you to the Grenadian people for their heroic rescue of the passengers after the ship’s boiler explosion caused it to sink in 1961.

Island dinners

As my visa was approved, we changed our return flight to Tuesday afternoon. This meant we had three dinners on the island. The first was more like lunch- we were very hungry when we arrived and walked down the beach to the Umbrella’s Beach Bar– casual restaurant popular during sunset.

It was ok, service was on the slow side, but at least we got seated pretty much right away. On Sunday and Monday evenings, we went to Silversands Resort, but to two different restaurants: Grenadian Grill and Asiatique. It really is a beautiful upscale hotel, and the food was excellent, however, very pricey.

We really liked both restaurants, but if I had to choose I’d say Grenadian Grill was more worthy of the expense.

Asiatique as good as it was, essentially was elevated Thai food. And no Pad Thai should cost almost $50 USD.

The atmosphere and the sunset reflecting in the ginormous pool were spectacular.

I don’t think it is worth spending 1k per night to stay here, but having dinner is very much recommended!

CONCLUSION

An unexpected and unplanned trip to Grenada was a pleasant surprise. It showed us that we can make lemons out of lemonade and turn a messy situation into a wonderful getaway. It does not escape me that we have the privilege of buying tickets and hotels at the last minute, but some people would’ve taken the easy route and just stayed an extra week in Miami. I am proud we solved the problem, made new plans, and, in turn, made amazing memories. It also showed us that we can have a great trip without months of planning, though my planning won’t change. I like my spreadsheets crammed with as many activities as we can do in the minimal time. Grenada also left us a very positive impression. We saw all we wanted to see on the main island, but we would return for more. If we stayed a week, we would’ve taken a ferry to Carriacou and probably Petite Martinique. There might be Grenada 2.0 sometime in the future, but now it is time to go to Nicaragua and salvage the second half of our prepaid trip!