Grenada: My 5 favourite things about the island

I will shortly be making my third visit to the Caribbean island of Grenada. My first visit was two years ago when I was invited to experience the Grenada Chocolate Festival, then in it's second year.  I had been to the Caribbean before but I was not expecting to fall in love with this spice paradise like I did.

The island is a very complex place and it's impossible to narrow down the reasons that I love it there so much, however I thought I would just list a few. In no particular order they are as follows:-

Chocolate: Grenada has three main chocolate producers, all of them growing the cacao, harvesting the wet cacao beans and processing them into top quality, world class chocolate.  The future of the chocolate on the island is championed by Magdalena Fielden who has organised The Grenada Chocolate Festival to educate, enlighten and inspire generations of future Grenadians and visitors alike.  This year is the 4th Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival will include some of the familiar events and some exciting new ones as well.  Click here to check it out.

Spices: Grenada is a spice paradise on earth.  You don't need to look far to find nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, vanilla to name but a few and all growing in abundance on the island.  One of my goals was to pick my own nutmeg.  As well as a visit to the Grenada Nutmeg Processing Plant in the small fishing village of Gouyave I had the immense pleasure and opportunity to pick my own nutmeg from a nutmeg tree on the Crayfish Bay Cocoa Plantation as well as stuffing my pockets with the ones that had already fallen on the ground.

The local spice market in St Georges is an explosion of colours and smells to treat all your senses.

I visited the home of a local man who had turmeric growing on his land,

and cinnamon trees.  He and his wife showed me how to remove the bark from the cinnamon tree with instructions to lay it out on our balcony for the rest of our stay and it would dry and curl and look like the cinnamon we know.  On the trip home the smell in my suitcase was intoxicating!

People: Generally I have found that the people who live in Grenada are warm and friendly. The residents of this paradise island want you to enjoy your time there. If you ask anyone for information or help in finding somewhere they will go out of their way to get you there.  Grenada is not a wealthy island for most of the inhabitants however they take great pride in the jobs that they do whether it is supplying bananas they have growing on their property to the hotels or a family ice cream company.

Beaches: Grenada has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Grand Anse beach is often considered one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  Over 2 miles of beautiful white sand - you can walk the whole length dipping into the calm and warm waters to cool off at regular intervals!

Food: The focus on food is freshness and local, simplicity yet innovative, intricate and innovative!  There is a plethora of high end restaurants, small food bars and street food available.

We stopped by the side of the road to chat to this young lady who was cooking corn on the cob from her home garden and selling to passing motorists.

Then markets have piles and piles of fresh produce all locally grown, bananas, coconuts, limes, breadfruit and more.

And of course don't forget the rum.  Rum is my spirit drink of choice, on it's own with an ice cube, a splash of Coca Cola or local pineapple juice, mmmm!!

I was not paid to write this post. All opinions and photos are my own. No photos may be reproduced in any manor without my written permission.