Walk along The Carenage, the island's
bustling waterfront, and you'll see dozens of turbaned market women selling
fragrant cloves,
allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Aroma takes on a seductive, almost musical
quality on this tiny island of beautiful natural wonders—lush mountain
forests, cascading waterfalls, and secret beaches. From rum shop to fishing
village to market square, Grenada preserves the Caribbean the way it was, long
before the American cultural intervention of Big Macs and Coke; best of all,
tourist development has been kept to a reasonable scale. You can still glimpse
women scrubbing laundry in the streets and goats and chickens vying with
traffic. Travelers can hike rain-forest trails, seek out more than 450 flowering
plant species and 150 varieties of birds, discover new dive sites, or simply
enjoy Grenada's 45 beaches.
Passport/Visa
Requirements
These requirements are subject to change. Check with the embassy or consulate in
your home country before you depart.
Australian and New Zealand citizens: A valid passport and a return
or onward ticket are required for entry. Canadian citizens: Two documents (one with a photo) that prove
citizenship and a return or onward ticket are required for entry. EU citizens: A valid passport and a return or onward ticket are
required for entry. British nationals, however, need only two documents (one
with photo) that prove their citizenship. Japanese citizens: A valid passport and a return or onward ticket
are required for entry. U.S. citizens: Two documents (one with a photo) that prove
citizenship and a return or onward ticket are required for entry. Others: Citizens of countries not listed above may or may not
require a visa. Check with the nearest Grenadan embassy or consulate for details
about entry requirements.
Phone Code
The international telephone access code is 809. No city codes are used. For
directory assistance, dial GRENTEL at 440-1000.
Time Zone
Grenada operates on Atlantic standard time, which is 4 hours behind Greenwich
mean time, or 5 hours behind Rome and Berlin, 13 hours behind Tokyo, and 1 hour
behind São Paulo.
Business Hours
Banks are open from 8 AM to 2 or 3 PM Monday–Thursday and 8 AM–5 PM on
Friday. Some banks are also open on Saturday from 8 AM to noon.
Store are generally open 8 AM–4 PM Monday–Friday (closed for an hour at
midday), and 8 AM–1 PM on Saturday. Most stores are closed on Sunday.
Holidays
Banks and most businesses close on New Year's Day (1 January), Independence Day
(7 February), Good Friday and Easter Monday (March or April; dates vary), Labor
Day (1 May), Whit Monday (June; date varies), Corpus Christi (June; date
varies), Emancipation Holiday (first Tuesday in August), Thanksgiving Day (25
October), and Christmas Day (25 December).
Weather
The climate of Grenada is tropical, with an average annual temperature of 28° C
(82° F) along the coast. Annual rainfall is 152 centimeters (60 inches). The
rainy season lasts from June to December.
Money
The basic unit of currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$), which is
divided into 100 cents. Notes are available in denominations of EC$1, 5, 20, 50,
and 100, coins in 1 cent, 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents, and EC$1. The current
exchange rate is 1.00 US dollars = 2.70 East Caribbean dollars
Currency can be exchanged at either banks or hotels, though the former tend to
have better rates.
Credit cards are accepted by most hotels and restaurants and businesses that
cater largely to tourists but are not accepted by most car-rental companies.
Traveler's checks, on the other hand, are a widely accepted form of payment, as
is U.S. currency.
Tipping
Most hotels and restaurants add a service charge to the bill, but in
establishments where this is not the case, a 10 percent tip is customary. Any
tip over the service charge is discretionary.
Customs
The following goods may be imported into Grenada duty-free: 200 cigarettes or 50
cigars or 225 grams of tobacco; 1 liter of alcohol, and perfume for personal
use.
Taxes
Hotels and restaurants charge an 8 percent government tax.
The departure tax is EC$25 for adults, EC$12.50 for children ages 10 through 16,
and no charge for children under the age of 10.
Measurements
The metric system is standard throughout the country.
Electricity
Current is 220/240 volts AC, 50 Hz. Visitors from abroad who wish to operate
personal small electronic items should bring a plug adapter and a transformer.
Driving
There are 1,046 kilometers (650 miles) of paved roads in Grenada. Traffic
proceeds on the left. Foreign visitors who wish to drive need to obtain a
temporary driver's license from the local police station or from a car-rental
agency and should bring along a valid license from their home country.
Emergencies
Throughout the country the number to dial for all police, fire, and medical
emergencies is 911. You can also summon an ambulance by dialing 434.
Transportation
Residents get around on buses, really vans that
accommodate up to 14 in very cozy quarters. To create a sightseeing tour, hire a
taxi and driver for a day, and head out to the forest reserve, waterfalls, small
fishing villages, and great views.
People
Like other Caribbean countries recently freed from
colonial ties, Grenada must constantly test the political waters—which may
explain why Grenadians seem so politically aware and fascinated by foreigners.
Warm and witty, Grenadians are also insatiably curious, often quizzing tourists
about world politics and economics
or the latest word on pop stars. About 75 percent of residents are black.
Although most of the 91,000 residents live off the land, unemployment (estimated
to be about 30 percent in 1990) is a huge problem. As a result, crime,
especially in the lagoon area between St. George's and Grand Anse Beach, has
increased; hoteliers warn guests not to walk on that beach after dark, but to
take the lighted service road instead. In general, Grenadians are very
pro-American, and still grateful to the U.S. for the military intervention.
Although there are no longer American soldiers on Grenada, you will run into
lots of American students studying under palm trees at St. George's Medical
School on the Grand Anse campus.
Since Grenada was formerly under the British throne, residents speak English
with a beautiful lilt. A local dialect mixes French with African slang.
History
The first people to inhabit what is now Grenada
were the Arawaks. They were later wiped out by the Caribs, who occupied the
island when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1498. The French built
Grenada's first European settlement, initially appeasing and then slaughtering
the Caribs, many of whom chose suicide over domination by the French. In 1651,
the last of the Caribs leapt to their deaths from Morne de Sauteurs, a rocky
promontory on the island's north coast. Grenada was a source of contention
between the French and the British until 1783, when the Treaty of Versailles
declared the island British. Planters imported African slaves as laborers. The
Emancipation Act of 1838 ended slavery, forcing plantation owners to import
indentured laborers from India, Malta, and Madeira.
This cultural mix lives on today in the country's multi-ethnic cuisine, in the
French-African lilt of the language, and in the names (both British and French)
of the villages. Until 1958 the island remained a British colony, when it joined
the abortive Federation of the West Indies. In 1967 it became a member of the
West Indies Associated States, with Britain retaining responsibility. Many
Grenadians were opposed to self-rule under Eric Gairy, the first prime minister,
who was often compared to Haiti's Papa Doc Duvalier. Nevertheless, Gairy became
a champion of the poor overnight, though he also gained renown for his strange
behavior—marching a steel band through an opponent's meeting and lecturing the
United Nations about UFOs, for example. In the early 1970s, Maurice Bishop, a
charismatic lawyer just back from his studies in England, earned popular support
as a human-rights activist when, in a mock trial, his New Jewel Movement
convicted Gairy of 27 crimes and called for his resignation. Bishop and other
members of his party were mercilessly beaten by Gairy's police, and thrown into
jail for the night.
Such was the climate when Grenada (and its two dependencies, Carriacou and Petit
Martinique) gained its independence from Britain on 7 February 1974. That very
day, management of the Holiday Inn pulled out, leaving an entire Independence
banquet in the hands of one pastry chef. By the late 1970s, Gairy's economy was
a shambles and his support diminished, even among the poor. On 13 March 1979,
Bishop staged the first modern coup in the English-speaking Caribbean while
Gairy was off the island. The economy improved early in his tenure, and
countries around the world accepted Bishop and the New Jewel Movement as a
governing force. Still, free elections were never held. Bishop fostered ties
with Cuba and the Eastern Bloc countries, and when Fidel Castro granted Grenada
aid to build a larger airport at Port Salines in the south, U.S. ties began to
unravel. In 1983 Bishop was ousted by a more radical member of his own party,
who placed Bishop under house arrest and imprisoned some of his supporters.
Bishop was subsequently brutally executed, and on 26 October 1983, the U.S.
government landed 7,000 soldiers on Grenada's shores, accompanied by the
military forces of other neighboring islands. Ostensibly this was a move to
protect democracy and defend the lives of some 1,000 Americans residing there,
mostly medical students at St. George's University. The American troops were
welcomed with open arms by most Grenadians, who termed the mission an
"intervention" rather than an invasion.
In recent years the island has experienced a stars-and-stripes public relations
blitz, the construction of bridges, a retraining of its police force, and a
renewed sense of democracy. The Americans put the finishing touches on the
airport, and in 1990 American Airlines began daily service to the island. Today,
Grenada holds democratic elections every five years, with five major political
parties vying for votes. Among these are Gairy's GULP and the Maurice Bishop
Patriotic Movement. The once-exiled Gairy, now well into his seventies and
virtually blind, claims that the Almighty will restore his vision if he is
elected.
)
cloves,
allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Aroma takes on a seductive, almost musical
quality on this tiny island of beautiful natural wonders—lush mountain
forests, cascading waterfalls, and secret beaches. From rum shop to fishing
village to market square, Grenada preserves the Caribbean the way it was, long
before the American cultural intervention of Big Macs and Coke; best of all,
tourist development has been kept to a reasonable scale. You can still glimpse
women scrubbing laundry in the streets and goats and chickens vying with
traffic. Travelers can hike rain-forest trails, seek out more than 450 flowering
plant species and 150 varieties of birds, discover new dive sites, or simply
enjoy Grenada's 45 beaches.)
)