Crane Beach

Crane Beach is on the south-eastern coast of Barbados, in the parish of Saint Philip, beneath a coral limestone cliff with a hotel on top of it. It faces the open Atlantic, which on this island means something specific.

Barbados sits outside the Caribbean arc, further east than any other island, and takes the Atlantic directly on its eastern side. The west coast is calm, warm and where the resorts are; the east is surf, wind and cliffs. Crane sits at the join — enough shelter from the headland to be swimmable, enough swell for body-surfing, which is what the beach is known for locally.

The sand has a genuine pink tint from shell fragments, subtler than Bermuda's but real. The cliff behind is coral limestone, the whole island being an uplifted coral cap rather than a volcanic peak like most of its neighbours. The break is a shore break and it is strong; there are no lifeguards and the current can run. The east coast beyond here — Bathsheba and the Soup Bowl — is where the surf competitions are held and where swimming stops being sensible altogether; Crane is the last point going north where the Atlantic is still manageable.

Development is the hotel above, which has stood here in some form since 1887 and claims to be among the oldest in the Caribbean. Access to the beach is public — all Barbadian beaches are — with a public path down, though the hotel's lift and grounds are for guests.

This is the Atlantic side and the shore break means it. Body-boarding rather than swimming, a hotel from 1887 on the cliff above, and a public route along the shore from Foul Bay for anyone who would rather not pay the descent fee. Calm water is twenty minutes west.