Our last day of our Caribbean cruise on P&O Arvia arrived as we docked back where we started in Barbados.
We had a full day and night in port before leaving the next morning so decided to make the most of being able to be out later in the evening and booked a sunset catamaran tour – an independent excursion rather than a P&O one – with a local company, Calypso Cruises.
We were met at the port exit by the Calypso Tours driver, who took us a short 10-minute or so drive to a local marina, where the Calypso Cruises catamaran is moored.
What we liked about this excursion was that it promised to limit numbers to no more than 14 people on the boat, unlike some of the other catamaran tours around Barbados, which you see full of people crammed on board – maybe 50+ people or so.
As it happened, there was actually only seven people on the catamaran in total – us four and three others – so it felt virtually as if we had the whole boat to ourselves, which was a real unexpected bonus.
We were given a brief introduction by the captain Nick to the other two crew members and an explanation of what to expect on the cruise.
And what to expect was mainly being supplied with large amounts of alcohol and food, along with the opportunity to hopefully snorkel with some turtles and to enjoy a perfect, uninterrupted view of the famous Barbados sunset as we cruised along the serene Caribbean coastline.
Nick, the captain, is a real character – friendly, welcoming, full of jokes and clearly keen to make sure everyone enjoys themselves as much as possible on his catamaran.
The two crew members – Akeem and Oisin (sorry if that’s the wrong spelling) – were equally friendly and eager to make us as comfortable and well-furnished with drink and food as they could.
We were able to stretch out on the front netting of the catamaran completely by ourselves, enjoying a drink on the way to our first stop in Carlisle Bay.
Here we dropped the anchor and were able to get snorkelling gear on (all of which was supplied), as it’s a frequent hangout of turtles.
Apparently the turtles like coming here as they’re supplied with a regular source of easy food by the tourists, which has tamed many of the turtles enough that they’ll swim right up to you and even take food right out of your hand.
It didn’t take long before we spotted one on the seabed and soon it was swimming up towards us to come up for air.
It wasn’t quite as confident as those who come right up to you, but it didn’t seem phased about us and other snorkellers as it glided gracefully past us, close enough for us to get some good photos and video footage.
The next day we saw on one of the P&O Arvia Facebook groups an awesome video someone else had posted of a turtle swimming with them at the same place – and being fed directly by hand – so it does happen, but we had to leave for the rest of the sunset cruise before we got the chance to encounter any more.
Back on the boat, we headed leisurely up the west coast of Barbados, passing by the beautiful P&O Arvia in port and cruising past the beaches with the sun setting beside us.
We were lucky, as during the morning we’d been hit by a rare bout of heavy rain and cloud, which we thought was going to turn our final excursion of the cruise into a complete washout.
In fact we very nearly cancelled, as we thought the weather would ruin the experience, but we were glad we didn’t as we’d now been swimming with turtles and were being treated to a stunning sunset in incredibly calm waters.
The crew entertained us with interesting and funny stories about the region, their lives here – and kept a constant flow of drink and food coming throughout.
Eventually it was time to head back, and with the sun having set and the sky now dark, we cruised serenely back to the marina to be met by the driver who took us back for our last night aboard Arvia.
The Sunset Catamaran Tour with Calypso Cruises in Barbados provided a brilliant end to our holiday and we enjoyed every minute.
If you’re looking to do a sunset boat excursion in Barbados, then look no further than Calypso Cruises.
Their setup of keeping the numbers on board to just a small group made the whole experience much more enjoyable than other options we considered and we highly recommend them.