5 Reasons the Bougainvillea Barbados is the Small, Upscale, Gorgeous Escape You’re Looking For

Listen to the ocean waves from your room, even from your bed, as you drift off to sleep.  A chic, modern, impeccably clean hotel with the most beautiful courtyard filled with pools, waterfalls, tropical flowers, and trees. When you think of an island paradise picture, the place you dream of is real. It’s the Bougainvillea Barbados. 

1. Bougainvillea Barbados: It’s as Stunning as The Pictures

When you’re planning a vacation, a hotel’s website is one of the first places to check out. Of course, it’s filled with the most stunning professional photography showing the best views of an empty resort. Then you get there, and you think to yourself, this doesn’t look anything like the pictures. Well, not at Bougainvillea Barbados. 

That was one of the first things that struck me as we walked into the lobby for our couples getaway and took our first peek into the resort’s striking courtyard. This place is so stunning. It’s almost hard to believe it looks exactly like the pictures. This family-owned and run hotel is obviously cared for with so much love and attention to detail. 40% of their guests are repeat visitors, and I can see why it’s earned Tripadvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Awards. This Christ Church Parish Barbados resort is fabulous without being pretentious.

2. Bougainvillea Barbados: Every Room Has an Ocean View

When you’re planning a beach vacation, one thing you always hope for but can’t always guarantee upon booking is an ocean view. Well, that’s something you never have to worry about at the Bougainvillea Barbados. See, the way the units were built into the U-shaped building means that every one of their 100-suite rooms has an ocean view. You read that right! Every room, no matter the price, has a view of the ocean.

3. The Beautiful Rooms at The Bougainvillea Barbados

Another thing to love about Bougainvillea Barbados is the varied room types that they offer. 

• The smallest room is called a studio, as it’s a hotel sized room with a microwave, refrigerator and stove top. Bonus, even the smallest rooms have a outdoor space to take in the glorious views
• Next up in size is a Junior Suite as it is larger than the studio allowing for a separate sitting area. It also includes a kitchenette and a outdoor terrace or patio
• We stayed in a one bedroom condo unit and it was amazing! Even though it was just the two of us, we enjoyed having the extra space and fully equipped kitchen to make breakfast and heat up leftovers. 
• They also offer a 2 bedroom option which is the one-bedroom unit combined with the studio, connected via a door in the living room.

The rooms have charming modern beach décor, upgraded bathrooms; all kept in such amazing condition. The king-sized bed was so comfortable, the full kitchen stocked with everything we needed, and the living room was spacious and decorated with classy yet tropical decor. 

Our One Bedroom Condo Resort Unit at The Bougainvillea Barbados

One of my favorite parts of our unit was the balcony with ocean and pool views. We loved eating breakfast out there and lounging outdoors, yet hanging in our room.  If you’re a family of four, the one-bedroom would definitely work well as the living room is spacious enough for the kids to sleep on the pull-out couch.

Whether your kid is a picky eater or like to stretch your vacation dollars, the rooms let you make your own meals. Our one-bedroom unit’s kitchen was fully stocked with all the plates, pots, pans, silverware, toaster oven, coffee maker and cutting boards that you would need. 

There were a couple of large grocery stores on the way from the airport, or you could work with the hotel to arrange for grocery delivery. There was also a smaller grocery store within a 15-minute walking distance of the hotel.

When we return with the kids for a longer vacation in the future, we’ll definitely be doing a large grocery run for the week so that we can have at least breakfast and lunch in our room. My kids aren’t really fans of sitting in restaurants and would rather eat their meals at one of the beautiful pool side tables and get back to swimming.

Eating out in tourist destinations, especially islands, can be really expensive. Having 2 out of 3 meals in your room can be the difference between affording a trip or it being too much for your budget. So while Barbados isn’t a cheap travel destination, you can save money by cooking vacation meals in your room.

4. Bougainvillea Barbados: Resort Amenities and Conveniences

We stayed at the resort during the pandemic, so we didn’t get to take advantage of all the amenities but did check them out, as very quickly into our trip, we knew we wanted to come back and bring the kids to this amazing boutique resort. One of the things I loved about staying at the Bougainvillea Barbados was its small size. Nothing is a long walk! From your room to the beach, to the pool, or a restaurant, it’s all close by. When you have young kids, a long walk through a giant resort can be exhausting.

Bougainvillea Barbados has all the amenities of a large resort but in an intimate, warm setting.

• Location, Location, Location! Yes, Barbados is a small island, but we met people at the Grantley Adams International Airport whose hotel was closer to an hour from their resort. Bougainvillea Barbados is 15 minutes from the airport, 20 minutes to the capital city and a 5-minute taxi ride ( or 20 minute walk) to the island’s most popular spots –  St. Lawrence Gap and Oistins Fish Fry.
• The resort is set oceanfront on a beautiful piece of Maxwell Beach. Sandals Resort is located right next door, so you know it’s a prime spot!
• Bougainvillea Barbados has three pools set amongst beautiful landscaping, flowers, waterfalls and a swimup bar. There’s both a kiddie pool and an adult’s only pool which is set in a seperate section of the resort providing nice privacy and a quieter environment. 
• Bougainvillea Barbados offers entertainment such outdoor movies, limbo dancing, steelpan music, and DJ nights
• Two on-site restaurants with fantastic drinks (they were so good!) and yummy food! Siam Restaurant was closed while we were there (boo pandemic!) but the online reviews are outstanding! Room service is available as well.
• If you’re traveling with active kids, it’s great that they a lot of water sports gear for you to use at the resort – for free! I can see my older kid riding the waves with their boogie boards day after day. It’s really lovely to not have to purchase gear at the store just for a week’s vacation. 
• There’s a fitness center, game room and playroom located in the basement of for breaks from the sun and surf, rainy days or quick family activities before bedtime
• Laundry facilities are available for a fee, so grab some laundry detergent when you’re at the grocery store and leave your big suitcase at home!
• If you’re renting a car, they have a small parking lot directly across from the lobby for guests. There is no charge to park your car, which surprised me as so many resorts charge a daily parking fee. 
• The warm, welcoming and accommodating staff are wonderful that they really do belong on a list of the resort amenities. Reviews mentioned the outstanding staff and how after two days they know your name and remember you– It’s really true! You won’t get that at other mega resorts on the island. They have relationships with superb taxi drivers and the best restaurants on the island. They secured the best table for us at the best Barbados restaurant and arranged for a taxi to take us there. While it may seem small, the staff are the cherry on top of a great vacation. 

So, Can You Believe That This Place is A Timeshare? 

Some of you might have thought earlier in this article, Why would we pay extra to stay in a bigger room than we needed? Well, here’s the thing. Believe it or not, this resort is technically a timeshare. I know, right? It can be shocking to those who think that timeshares are old, run-down places from their grandparent’s time.

This was the available unit via the timeshare exchange company we use, RCI, so I grabbed it! If you are a regular reader here, you may remember that we are happy timeshare owners of 15 years and trade our Catskills timeshare for amazing vacations worldwide! 

For my fellow timeshare owners, you may remember that I price compare all of our timeshare exchanges and keep them in a file. These records are real proof that timeshare ownerships equates to stays in amazing resorts for Motel 6 prices.  The day I confirmed this timeshare exchange, I went on the resort’s website and got a price quote for the same unit for the same dates of our travel. Well, to rent our room would have been $1,970 from the hotel or $2,260 from Expedia.  

Since I know the price of ownership for our Catskills timeshare, I can calculate that securing a room with our RCI Membership meant I paid $649.36 for the room. I know that timeshare traveling can have a bad reputation, but we believe it’s an amazing travel hack. If you’d like to calculate your own timeshare exchanges, here’s the formula I use to get these cost numbers!

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