Spice up your life on the Spice Island. (No really, do: that’s it’s actual unofficial name.) Along with Dominica, which is similarly stunning, Grenada is one of my favourite Caribbean nations. The volcanic island has stunning beaches, an absolutely gorgeous mountainous interior crammed full of tropical vegetation, and its capital and home to its cruise port, is colourful and chaotic, whilst managing to retain all of its Caribbean heart. If you’re docking here and want to know the best things to do in St Georges Grenada then read on, dear pals! (Of course, you may well be staying longer than a day, in which case I salute you! These are some of the best things to do in Grenada, full stop.)
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Explore St Georges
If you’re docking in St George’s, you might as well explore it, mightn’t you?
Grenada’s capital city is widely considered to be one of the prettiest capital cities in the Caribbean, and part of the reason I love it so much is that it hasn’t pandered to the cruise tourists like some other Caribbean cruise ports which seem far more Americanised. The cruise port is right in the centre of the city, and from here you can easily get out and about into the streets of St Georges; just prepare your leg muscles, because these streets are steep.
Explore the market, head up to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and get lost in the little streets around the city. Venture either through Sendall Tunnel, or up and over the hill to the Carenage, which is a horseshoe-shaped harbour filled with fishing boats and surrounded by colourful shops and houses. (Plus the odd feral chicken.) At different times of day the harbour is mainly filled with locals; fishermen preparing their old boats or returning with their catches, people tucking into street food and drinking a beer from one of the waterfront stands, or children going to or from school.
Visit the chocolate museum in St George’s
Part museum, part chocolate shop, House of Chocolate on Young Street may be small, but it’s well worth a visit. Don’t go expecting a full day museum experience, but do go expecting to learn something about chocolate production and taste some downright delicious chocolate. The staff are super friendly and will talk you through the full process of chocolate making, from cocoa bean to chocolate bar, and there are plenty of displays about the process too.
Thanks to its highly fertile volcanic soil and the hot but humid tropical climate, Grenada is home to some of the richest cocoa in the world. I’ll vouch for that, because as much as I love learning, the best part of the museum for me was the eating.
Apart from being visually beautiful, the cafe here has some of the most delicious chocolatey goodness I’ve ever tasted, from cakes and sweets, to milkshakes and hot chocolates. If you want a true taste of Grenada, try a cup of cacao tea, which is absolutely nothing like hot chocolate at all. This drink is gulped down at breakfast and is made using ground raw cocoa nibs and often mixed with local spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. (Here’s a recipe for cocoa tea from another Caribbean island.)
Eat at BB’s Crabback
The hot sauce is hot, the rum punch is strong, and this no-frills restaurant in St George’s is one of my favourites in the whole Caribbean.
BB’s Crabback is an absolute institution, and is a popular eatery for locals and tourists alike. (Also, celebrities. The walls are filled with photos of celebrity guests who have visited.) In short: for true Grenadan food, you cannot go wrong here.
The brightly-painted restaurant is only a short walk from the cruise terminal (through Sendall tunnel, its open verandah overlooks the Carenage.) The kitchen cooks up all kinds of local specialities, from freshly caught fish and goat curry, to crabback- crab shells stuffed with crab meat and baked. Try Oil Down, the national dish of Grenada, here: a stew made with breadfruit, meat, vegetables and a spicy-coconut-milky broth.
Visit Fort George
Almost every Caribbean nation has a history intertwined with Europe thanks to colonialism, and then the slave trade. And Grenada is no exception.
Although indigenous Carib people lived here for centuries, St George’s officially began life in the late 1600s as a French settlement, after the governor of Martinique colonised the island of Grenada. The Caribs were basically wiped out, and it looked like the French were in town to stay. They built a fortress on the hill overlooking the natural harbour, and named it Fort Royale.
By 1763, the fort had been upgraded but the island had been signed over to England in the Treaty of Paris following a long old war (seven years long, to be precise.) The city was renamed St George’s, after the patron saint of England, and the fort was renamed Fort George after King George III, who was the big guy in charge at the time. In 1974, Grenada won its independence from the UK and became a nation in its own right.
This landmark structure high up on the hill isn’t just an important spot because of these centuries-old colonial reasons; this was where the prime minister Maurice Bishop was executed in 1983. Maurice Bishop was a Marxist with close ties to Cuba; however the new prime minister was also a Marxist. The US government didn’t like this at all, and the execution of Maurice Bishop was the straw that broke the camel’s back; president Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion, and eventually a government that was more favourable to the USA was put in power.
Today the fort is open for visitors, for a small charge of a few dollars. (Payable in cash only, pals.) It’s not particularly well-kept and there’s not a lot of information available within the buildings, but even just for the views of the harbour and the city, it’s worth a visit.
Check out Barbados, Grenada’s Commonwealth cousin.
Swim at Grand Anse Beach
If you’re wondering which is the closest beach to St Georges cruise port, it’s this one, folks! Grand Anse is about 1.5 miles of glorious white sand and classic crystal blue Caribbean waters, and there are plenty of restaurants, bars, and market stalls here as well as the beautiful beach itself.
Bear in mind that this is incredibly popular with cruise passengers, meaning it’s busy, and prices tend to be high. Was I ripped off here and charged $10 for a ‘freshly squeezed orange juice’ the colour of neon lucozade? Why yes, yes I was. It was absolutely horrible, and I was actually pretty upset that the lady had lied to me both in writing and in actual spoken words to my actual face.
But the beach itself was still glorious.
To reach Grand Anse from Grenada’s cruise port you’ve got several options.
Firstly, take a taxi. You’ll find plenty of taxi drivers waiting inside the terminal building, who you can negotiate a price with. Depending on the amount of passengers (the fuller the taxi, the better), it should cost around $5-6 USD per person, one way. The journey should take no more than fifteen minutes, depending on the traffic.
Alternatively, you can catch a public bus from the bus terminal which is a three minute walk from the cruise terminal, and costs mere pennies. Buses in Grenada look more like minivans, but I love them, and they’re also very easy to use. The one downside is that they only leave when they’re full, so you might need to wait.
You also have the option of a water taxi. Water taxis leave from a little jetty to the left of the cruise terminal as you exit. (There are plenty of signs for this.) This is currently $5 USD per person each way, and although plenty of people regularly use these water taxis I didn’t have the best experience.
Our boat didn’t just wait until it was full, it waited- for about half an hour- until it was seriously overloaded. The journey ended up taking about 25 minutes instead of 10 because of the combined weight of all the passengers, and I was terrified we would capsize. (Maybe a bit dramatic but it truly was crazy.) While we stood in the sun waiting for more passengers, the boat driver stood in the sun munching on a sandwich and swigging a bottle of water, and when he was done, he screwed up his trash and threw it directly into the sea beside him.
But- bear in mind this is just one experience. I cannot speak for all water taxis in Grenada, and your choice of transport to the beach is entirely up to you.
Stock up on spices in Grenada
They don’t call it the Spice Island for nothing; this is the best place in the Caribbean to stock up on spices. In St Georges you can either head to the market in the centre of the city (it’s parallel with the cruise terminal, and one block back), or even stick to the shops within the terminal itself.
Nutmeg is one of the most abundant and prized spices here, and if you don’t fancy an actual fresh nutmeg (like the ones below), you could alternatively purchase a nutmeg jelly, nutmeg jam, or even nutmeg-print swimsuit or bikini, because why not? Cinnamon, cloves, turmeric and allspice are also grown here, and these spices are the ideal things to take back from Grenada with you.
If you want to learn more about the spices grown on the island, here’s a tour which includes stops at one of the island’s biggest nutmeg growers, a spice garden, and a rum distillery. Click here for spice tour info!
Popular excursions from the cruise port at St George’s Grenada
Whilst there are plenty of things to do in St Georges, Grenada is a magical island full of stunning nature, and there is so much more to see outside of the city. Each of these are very easy day trips from Grenada’s cruise port.
Annandale Falls
Annandale Falls is a beautiful waterfall high up in the mountains, and in terms of physical exertion this is the easiest day trip idea. The walk from the road to the waterfall is short (less than ten minutes), and although you can choose to hike up and around the water, it’s not necessary if you’re not feeling it.
It’s possible to swim in the water here, although it’s either refreshing or chilly depending on how you want to look at it. There’s a small entrance fee, payable in cash.
Read my detailed guide to visiting Annandale Falls.
Underwater Sculpture Park
This underwater sculpture park is just off the coast, a little further north than St George’s, and it’s a must-see for the more adventurous traveller. The sculptures sit on the sea bed, and although the best way to see them is by diving or snorkelling, it’s also possible to view them from a glass bottomed boat.
They were originally installed by artist Jason deCaires Taylor, partly as a way to steer tourists away from coral reefs, protecting their fragile environments by creating something else interesting to look at. (If you’re curious, check out this video. It’s genuinely intriguing.)
Although it’s possible to visit the sculpture park on a budget (I have friends who got public buses, and either swam the longish distance out to the sculptures, or paid for a boat driver to take them out), it might be safer to go with a tour.
This boat trip includes a guided snorkel tour of the sculpture park, as well as lunch on board.
Seven Sisters Falls
Not to be confused with the Seven Sisters cliffs in England, or the Seven Sisters waterfall in Norway, there are apparently seven waterfalls here- although we only saw three.
Regardless of numbers, our day hiking to the Seven Sisters Falls was my favourite thing we did in Grenada. This is a much more challenging waterfall trip than Annandale Falls, and you should be prepared for a longer, steeper and potentially more slippery hike. The scenery around Seven Sisters is incredible, and as the trekking through the rainforest is quite sweat-inducing, the cold dip in the waterfall turned out to be much appreciated.
Even by me, who turns blue after mere seconds of chilliness.
I get that a lot of people visit the Caribbean solely for the beaches, but Grenada is solid proof that there is so much more to uncover than just resorts. The culture, history, nature (and food) that this enchanting, colourful country possesses is magical. Whether you stick to the city of St George’s, or head further afield: Grenada has it all.