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Barbados - bargaining


beshears
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I'm just wondering if there are any areas in Barbados where they do any bargaining, or do they have a set price on what they sell? I know some port/island do bargain, and others don't, and I was just curious.:)

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  • 2 weeks later...

While some vendors may play hardball with their pricing if you ask for a better price more often than not they will be willing to entertain "reasonable offers". NB this is relatvie as to what the particular vendor thinks the value of their product is.

Edited by Bajan Keith
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  • 1 month later...

My experience, after three visits, is that a lot of things are usually a bit more expensive in Barbados than in other ports in the Eastern Caribbean. And I'm talking about comparing oranges to oranges like, for example, liquor, t-shirts, etc. Also, my perception is that it's the least friendly port of all. I was even reprimanded for taking a picture of the inside of the cruise terminal once. People at the terminal shops are not pushy but they never seemed too interested in knowing if you needed help or not.

 

Edited to add: The taxis are also the worst organized and most full of drivers with bad attitude that I've seen. Don't be surprised if they get sit you in a clunker with no A/C to sit in the sun waiting for the van to be full. Been there, done that!

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I was in Bridgetown last week, and I'll add my experience with taxis....

 

 

 

The rest of my group went on an excursion; I just wanted to go downtown and photograph some of the historic buildings. They offer a $2 "shuttle" to downtown. I asked the "taxi & tour" reps outside the terminal who pointed me to the taxi stand. The stand was busy/noisy, and a little confusing. But I had the impression that the drivers/starters knew what they were doing; it just looks like chaos to the passengers. I just kept walking forward and asking "Shuttle to down town", and in less than a minute I was at the taxi.

 

 

It was a full size van, that already had 10 people on, and a couple and I were the last to board. As I sat down, a women said "We've been waiting for 15 minutes!" I thought, 1) for $2 I would expect the driver to wait for a full van, and 2) I was considering buying out the shuttle on the way back to speed the departure. :-)

 

 

When I was ready to go back to the ship, I walked up to meeting point for taxis (under the Breitling clock), and was approached by a driver. He charges me $5 US for the return - by my self! :-)

 

 

PS : if down town, I recommend visiting the Parliament museum. It tells the history of the 3rd oldest parliamentary system in the New World, and also offers a tour of the actual chambers of the lower and upper houses!

 

 

Aloha,

 

 

John

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I was in Bridgetown last week, and I'll add my experience with taxis....

 

 

 

The rest of my group went on an excursion; I just wanted to go downtown and photograph some of the historic buildings. They offer a $2 "shuttle" to downtown. I asked the "taxi & tour" reps outside the terminal who pointed me to the taxi stand. The stand was busy/noisy, and a little confusing. But I had the impression that the drivers/starters knew what they were doing; it just looks like chaos to the passengers. I just kept walking forward and asking "Shuttle to down town", and in less than a minute I was at the taxi.

 

 

It was a full size van, that already had 10 people on, and a couple and I were the last to board. As I sat down, a women said "We've been waiting for 15 minutes!" I thought, 1) for $2 I would expect the driver to wait for a full van, and 2) I was considering buying out the shuttle on the way back to speed the departure. :-)

 

 

When I was ready to go back to the ship, I walked up to meeting point for taxis (under the Breitling clock), and was approached by a driver. He charges me $5 US for the return - by my self! :-)

 

 

PS : if down town, I recommend visiting the Parliament museum. It tells the history of the 3rd oldest parliamentary system in the New World, and also offers a tour of the actual chambers of the lower and upper houses!

 

 

Aloha,

 

 

John

We were also there last week (RCI Freedom) and experienced the same shuttle into town and used a taxi back to the port...the driver told us it had been slow and charged the two of us a total of $4.00.

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