A view of Saint George's Grenada from across the inner harbour. This colourful Caribbean city is built around a natural port created from a collapsed volcano. It dates back to the 1650s when the French empire built Fort Royale here to massacre the natives and protect their trade from other colonial empires. This didn't last long as the island was ceded to the British a century later in the Treaty of Paris.
The town is built from the port up and spreads into the hills and beyond. At first this was just a military town for fixing ships. Most of Grenada is unsuitable for farming as it is quite mountainous with dense jungle and the island is rather small.
There isn't much to do in the town, the majority of tourists would come here from the cruise ship terminal on the other side of the hill from the harbour. We flew into the airport a few miles away on the Southern tip of the island. Most people come to Grenada to enjoy the beach, the weather and the peace from busier tourist destinations.
While there are a few old buildings that have some charm, there are a lot of seedy looking characters and unemployed people hanging out in the city. There is a large police presence and really not much to do except buy things at local trinket markets. We just came here to have a quick look around and to leave.
This is the main square when you exit the cruise port terminal. While they put in some effort to make a few streets look nice, you can see it's just meh compared to some other cities in the Caribbean. There are a couple of forts you can see and some churches along with markets but really it isn't worth coming here for more than 30 minutes. Most tourists head over to the beach. You can see photos from other more natural parts of the island here if you don't believe me.
They are trying to fix things up and when it isn't really hot I am sure there are a few nice bars and restaurants in and around the capital city. A large medical school would attract some more upscale patrons as tourists would be near their hotels by Anse Beach. The Southern Caribbean sun is so hot, I cannot sit in it for more than a few minutes without getting burnt to a crisp.
We walked to the city from our lodgings and took a taxi back because it was now midday and far too hot. The streets are chaotic, the width is not standardized, sidewalks randomly end, people park where they shouldn't and they drive on the wrong side of the road so watch out!
Grenada like most Caribbean nations requires an active police force to keep the peace. Crime here is more opportunistic than aggressive. If you leave a door or window open, someone might come in and help themselves, or if you are in the wrong place at night something might happen but generally walking around we felt safe.
The exposed power wires do not help the view and one wonders why they don't put in a little more effort and bury them or even put them in the water. The harbour could really use a revitalization and this place would be an absolute gem.
The Grenada Tourism Authority is more concerned about a fresh paint job and random art. We found most of the souvenirs were from China and are standard printed junk that could be found in any country or poorly made local crafts. While there were a few items of higher quality, the only thing we bought was nutmeg jelly, as this is the Spice Island.
People come here for yachting and there isn't anything anyone could do to improve the sea, it is already perfect.
The cruise ships come here for the beaches and we can see the big hospital for training doctors next to the ship. These are the two main industries in Grenada. They would also make good money developing real-estate for wealthy investors looking for some prime vacation property.
The effort to keep the houses looking colourful must be constant in the tropics next to the sea. Grenada is a little far south to get the worst of the hurricanes but it does rain heavily here quite frequently.
The harbour keeps the boats safe from the rough waves of the Caribbean and the even worse waves of the Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the island. There is a mix of boats here from old junky fishing vessels to luxury yachts.
The fishing is great and many wealthy keep their yachts here and live in mansions on the hills and cliffs around the Southern part of the Island.
A tourist train takes cruise ship passengers around town. It looks like a fun way to see the city of St. George's if you are just here for a day and don't want to spend the entire time on the beach.
Thank you for reading. All photos were taken with an iphone 15 pro max or s24 and were not filtered.
//:# (!worldmappin 12.05184 lat -61.75095 long St. George's d3scr)k