Caribbean
Barbados
Saint Peter Parish
Things to Do in Saint Peter Parish
St. Nicholas Abbey
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St. Nicholas Abbey

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St. Nicholas Abbey
4.5
#1 of 14 things to do in Saint Peter Parish
DistilleriesHistoric SitesArchitectural Buildings
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
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About
Our hours of operation are 10.00 a.m.; with our last tour at 3.30 p.m. We recommend allowing 2-3 hours for your visit, with a minimum of an hour to tour the property. (All guests must depart the property by 4.30 p.m.) Visitors can enjoy lunch, tea and other light refreshments at the Terrace Café during our opening hours. The steam operated syrup factory c.1890, grinds sugar cane from January to May. Adults (13 and over): BBD $30* (US $15) Youth (Ages 5-12): BBD $10* (US $5) We also have a steam railway onsite
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  • Charlotte R
    Whitehaven, United Kingdom136 contributions
    Nice house and grounds, but a bit pricey
    Lovely house and grounds. Somehow the house was much smaller than I had imagined? Anyway we did a self guided tour of the house and the grounds, everything is signposted well, and you get given a booklet that gives you a bit of information on what you’re looking at. Distillery exhibition is informative. It was only as we were on our way out someone asked if we wanted a guided tour; I’m not sure where you go to do one of these otherwise? I didn’t realise a guide was an option until I’d already toured it myself! Couple of bad points - - it’s quite expensive, for house only 60 BBD each, and there’s not loads to look at - there were some unhappy looking birds in a cage near the big tree, and again a very stressed looking Macaw near the distillery area… he had pulled out a lot of his feathers and when we were at the cage kept lunging at the bars!
    Visited December 2022
    Traveled as a couple
    Written December 7, 2022
  • Debbie C
    28 contributions
    Fantastic visit highly recommended
    We visited the Great house and took the train around the plantation as well as viewing the distillery and wonderful historical family video. We had the chance to see the distillery and taste the fantastic rum. The train staff were knowledgeable, friendly and the trip was really informative. It was a pleasure, especially the view from Cherry Tree Hill. Their willingness to help with photos and their amusing banter and sense of humour really added to the trip. We were guided around the house and distillery by the excellent Virginia who was a very welcoming and a highly informative guide. Her knowledge of the history of the house and its contents was incredible and she made our visit a really enjoyable one which we would highly recommend to anyone visiting Barbados.
    Visited December 2022
    Traveled as a couple
    Written December 15, 2022
  • Tina B
    London, United Kingdom103 contributions
    A fantastic attraction!
    Been many times - it just gets better! The steam train is wonderful - highly recommended. The guide (Megan) was lovely very knowledge with a great sense of humour. The Ladies doing the rum tasting very helpful and expert. The film is also a must see! One downside - the man in the Cafe was not friendly and everything seemed too difficult for him. The upside is the food is good as is the coffee!
    Visited January 2023
    Written January 7, 2023
  • JH
    3 contributions
    Proper history, jungle oasis, choo-choo
    A nice few hours, killer views and gardens, but a bit Disney-esque. The train was cute, but a bit corny. The Distillery tour was weak (you really don’t see much of the process at all). If you’ve been on a Kentucky Bourbon distillery tour, you’ll get my drift. The house is lovely but very little is open to the public. A fun place to visit especially if you have kids.
    Visited February 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written February 13, 2023
  • Gemma D
    102 contributions
    Train ride is awesome!
    St Nicholas Abbey is a stunning property and distillery, and you really need to do the guided tour to understand its history and operation. Our guide Asha was an absolute star, and so funny. The main reason we went was for the steam train, which is marvellous! It takes you from the station by the house up to Cherry Tree Hill, where we had 20 minutes for photos of the view and with the train. I even got to help turn it around on the turntable and had a go at blowing the whistle! The conductor, driver and fireman were so lovely and spent time getting lots of photos and videos for everyone who wanted them while we were stopped. A highlight of our visit to the island!
    Visited February 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written February 19, 2023
  • NorfolkDianne
    37 contributions
    Magnificently restored plantation
    We visited St. Nicholas Abbey since it was a "must see" in the Eyewitness travel guide. We were not disappointed. It is a fascinating estate and my only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore all the buildings and hear the history of each part of the plantation. The short film was very enlightening about plantation life in the mid 1900s with actual photographs from the family that owned the plantation for hundreds of years. The train ride was fun, but somewhat disappointing. It only travels .8 mile and stops for about 20 minutes at a breathtaking view of the Atlantic side of the island. Numerous vendors were there, but not much in the way of local items. I would not recommend the train portion of the plantation. I would recommend at least a couple of hours to be able to enjoy this venue in its entirety. It is immaculately preserved.
    Visited March 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written March 30, 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
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4.5
2,616 reviews
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Bailey Joshua
Felpham, UK6 contributions
Hit and miss
Feb 2020 • Couples
If you’re interested in seeing production of rum this isn’t a great insight as you only see a small part through a door, no “distillery tour”, and even the great house is mostly shut off. We started with a very brief 10 minute ish walk around the downstairs of the house before walking around the grounds and left by the tour guide in an old stable to be shown a 15 minute clip from almost 100 years ago what Barbados was like and how the abbey was run back then, this is the best part. Then you get a small rum taster in the gift shop where you can buy personally engraved bottles of rum starting at £50/$65 roughly. The tour staff are good, the cafe and staff in that part was very poor, and the shop staff were average. Nobody was particularly welcoming and I wouldn’t really recommend this to anyone unless you’re really scratching for something to do. The highlight for me was the magnificent steel pan drum player in the cafe area!
Written February 18, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
croatialover
Dublin23 contributions
Beautiful Place to Visit
Dec 2019
Beautiful place to visit while in Barbados.

But what spoilt it for us was the sight of some colourful exotic birds locked in cages FAR TOO inadequate in size for them to fly around.

There were two affectionate macaws and two cockatoos without any vegetation, toys or anything to stimulate them in a small, dark enclosure.

There were also nine other birds crammed into a wire cage that wasn't much bigger than a large laundry basket!

These are highly intelligent animals, so please give them the bigger, more modern aviary they deserve.
Written January 8, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
laprug81
Leamington Spa, UK35 contributions
Beautiful ..
Dec 2019 • Family
We hadn’t planned on visiting st Nicholas Abbey but “stumbled across” it during our drive back from the east coast and heading towards the wildlife reserve. The drive up to the Abbey is spectacular and then the Abbey itself is beautiful - it’s a working rum distillery which is great to see.

I would recommend a guided tour (which seem to take place every half an hour on the day we visited). Our guide was fantastic and very engaging as well as the other staff. Our young children loved it too.

We had a small bite to eat in the cafe. The staff were clearly struggling to keep up with orders and needed several prompts. They could probably do with a bit of help including providing good customer service as we felt they didn’t want to serve us or anybody. This did let the whole experience down a little but I haven’t marked down the rating as it’s not the reason we visited and overall we had a great experience.

There is a steam train on the grounds too.

We spent the whole afternoon there leaving the wildlife reserve for another day.
Written January 7, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
mikesierra
Bourne, UK1,995 contributions
Great House - needed a better guide
Dec 2019
It is well worth a visit to see this plantation’s beautifully restored Jacobean style 17th century mansion taking you back to how the wealthy lived. There was a group tour, but unfortunately our guide was somewhat disorganised and our group seemed to scatter in all directions after the main house. Our rum punch included in the visit was also very poor and weak. Combine a visit to the steam railway and distillery.
Written January 1, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
jamaicasun
Eastern Canada921 contributions
Perfect spot to slow down and see some history!
Mar 2020
1st time vising St. Nicholas Abbey & it was an enjoyable experience! The Abbey has a historic plantation house, rum factory, gardens, and a train that circles the property. You can take a tour and learn from a knowledgable guide or wander at your own pace. The patio is an excellent place for a cool drink or lunch.....one of the best meals that I had on the island!
The owners are on the property and very welcoming.
The gift shop offers a wide variety of sprits besides rum as well as local products such as cane syrup, rum flavoured coffee, and more.
It is definitely worth a visit!
Written April 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
BobWE
Manhattan Beach, CA727 contributions
Old Surviving Plantation in Barbados
Jan 2020
In the middle of the island of Barbados is one of the islands oldest surviving plantation built in 1658. There are over 400 acres of sugar cane fields, tropical gullies, mahogany forests, and gardens. Setting in the middle of the plantation is the famous Jacobean mansion heavily influenced by the Dutch architectural style. It is one of only three remaining Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere (the other two are in Barbados and West Virginia). The tour guides are well informed but we were not granted access to the upper floors. Included in the tour is the boiling house, distillery, rum bond, gardens, orchards and gullies. Definitely try the delicious rum and if you are there in the late afternoon inquire about a high tea experience. Nearby is the St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway which provides a 30 minute ride Monday through Friday through plantation fields, a quarry and a turnaround experience of the east coast of Barbados from Cherry Tree Hill. A family adventure for sure.
Written January 12, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
localred
Manchester, UK279 contributions
Great Visit
Feb 2020
The owners are to be complimented on their new steam train ride funded by themselves without government help. The driver & staff on the train are also to be praised for making it an enjoyable & funny ride. Bye a combo ticket & enjoy the guided trip around the house. The only downside is that you only get to sample one rum.
Written March 12, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Leilla F
Scotland, UK6 contributions
Virginia made our visit extra special!
Feb 2022 • Couples
We visited St Nicholas Abbey on 25th February 2022 and opted for the tour and rum tasting without the steam train option.

We were greeted by Virginia who was very helpful and looked after us since she was able to sync our visit with a small group so we could be guided round the house. Virginia was very engaging, knowledgeable and charismatic and shared lots of interesting history about the house and the surrounding gardens.

We were fortunate to visit during sugar cane crushing to make the sugar cane syrup used in their rum and Virginia answered all of our questions with her detailed knowledge. The process was very interesting and we watched a video to understand how the rum production was made.

This was followed by a rum tasting which we really enjoyed. So much that we have a memento engraved 8yr rum bottle and sorrel rum (Virginia’s recommendation) to take back and treasure our time in Barbados when we return to Scotland.

Thank you Virginia and St Nicholas Abbey staff!
Written February 25, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Brian B
London, UK20 contributions
A rum do!
Feb 2020 • Couples
A beautiful Jacobean House with extensive grounds sympathetically renovated by the current owners. There is a sugar cane plantation and working rum distillery producing relatively small batches of quality rum. We had an interesting tour led by a very enthusiastic guide (all the staff wore very smart uniforms). The black and white film from the 1930s was a highlight. Guests were offered rum punch on arrival and we sampled the 5 year old rum at the end of the tour. We then had a lovely informal walk around the house and grounds including seeing the heritage steam railway recently completed by the owner. Reasonable value at BDS$45 but felt the BDS$60 for the steam train ride a bit pricey so didn’t go on it! Well worth a visit.
Written February 3, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
LordHow
Australia51 contributions
Amazing renovation by latest owners
Apr 2022
First came here in 2005 and it was interesting to visit but rather rundown. The current owners have vastly improved the house and gardens as an attraction. And the addition of the railway ride to Cherry Hill was excellent. The conductor on the train gave a very insightful talk about the history of the original railway and the newly built one. Our guide for the house and rum was funny, friendly and very knowledgeable and the walk though the rum making activity was very interesting. The rum tasting was great!
Written April 8, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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