This submarine tour transports passengers to coral reefs and shipwrecks 150 feet below the surface.

Horse races—another equestrian remnant from colonial times—are held Saturdays at the Garrison Savannah, a track located about two miles outside Bridgetown. The most prestigious of them all, the Sandy Lane Gold Cup, attracts jockeys and socialites from all over North America and is held on the first Saturday of March. Visit the club's website for this year’s racing schedule.

Barbados’s east and west coasts offer two entirely different beach experiences. On the west coast, where most of the high-end hotels are located, you’ll find the calm turquoise waters of the Caribbean. The less crowded Atlantic coast, on the east, is much more dramatic and romantic; the northeast, with its misty shores and jagged cliffs, has even been dubbed “Little Scotland.” Some of the more scenic beaches in the east include the pink-tinged Crane Beach, Foul Bay (just south of Crane Beach), Bath and Bathsheba, home of the annual Soup Bowl surfing championships. Atlantic waters can sometimes get rough, but Bath is generally considered the calmest, and there are always plenty of people swimming at Crane because of the nearby hotel. If you’re based on the Caribbean side and have time (the drive between the coasts takes about 45 minutes to an hour), definitely try to make it over to the other side of the island at least once. Good options for lunch include Round House (Bathsheba; 246 433 9678) and Atlantis Hotel (Foster Hall; 246 433 9445).

Note: All Bajan beaches are open to the public (of course, some hotel beaches are a little hard for the public to access), but you won’t find any overrun with craft vendors, who must be licensed by the government to sell their wares.

What began as a small celebration to mark the end of the sugarcane season (hence the name) is today a long-running (May–August) carnival of calypso competitions, arts and crafts fairs and just all-around revelry.Throngs of Barbadians with light sticks and tattered clothes can be found parading in the streets following trucks blasting soca music (a genre that originated in the Caribbean). The festivities culminate with Grand Kadoomet in the end of August. A colorful costume parade that lasts until the wee hours, the even brings together locals and visitors, and even a few elderly and otherwise staid British gents marching about in feathered and sequined attire.

Indagare Tip: For a bite after the festivities, stop by the St. Lawrence Gap for the best street burgers in town.

While many parts of Barbados have an old-school British vibe, Christ Church’s drive-in theater offers an ode to 1950s America (though movies are of the contemporary blockbuster variety). Shows run nightly at 6:30 and 9:00 P.M., and the selection changes weekly.

A trio of top-notch course designers have, in the past decade, transformed Barbados into one of the Caribbean’s premier golfing destinations. Robert Trent Jones Jr. completed the Royal Westmoreland’s super-challenging eighteen-hole course in 1995; in 2001, Tom Fazio designed two of Sandy Lane’s three courses—the Country Club and the internationally well-renowned Green Monkey and Ron Kirby did the Barbados Golf Club’s course, the island’s first public course. Those who aren’t members or guests of either the Royal Westmoreland or Sandy Lane will have a better chance of securing tee times at the Barbados Golf Club.

A natural limestone cavern in St. Thomas, and Barbados’s most popular tourist attraction, Harrison's Cave resembles a Disney amusement park ride. Visitors ride in an electric tram car, past stalactites and bubbly pools as water dripping from the roof echoes eerily.

Well-preserved colonial-era mansions and estates around the island are open to the public. St. Nicholas Abbey (Cherry Tree Hill, St. Peter; 246-422-8725; www.st.nicholasabbey.com), a manor house built in 1650 that offers rum tastings, and Drax Hall (St. George), a 17th-century estate, are some of the standouts, as well as two of only three Jacobean buildings in the Western Hemisphere (the third is in Virginia). Farley Hill (St. Peter) an eerily beautiful ruined stately home, is set in a public park, which boasts beautiful views of the island's east coast.

With weekly polo matches, horse races and National Trust cocktail parties, winter months in Barbados provide plenty of opportunities to schmooze and hobnob. The biggest event on the social calendar is Holders Season, an annual, two-week-long performing-arts festival typically held in late February/early March at Holders Estate, the home of Wendy Kidd (mother of supermodel Jodie and socialite Jemma). The roster tends to include a taste of everything—from opera and Shakespeare to comedy shows and philosophical discussions on love—and it usually attracts a lot of big-name international talent. Tickets are reasonably priced (Barbados is home to the affordable high-society event), but they sell out quickly.

If you decide to visit Bridgetown, the Nidhe Israel Synagogue and Museum is an interesting and rather unexpected stop. Built in 1654 mostly by Sephardic Jews from Brazil (who were fleeing the recently imported Spanish Inquisition), the synagogue is thought to be the oldest in the Western Hemisphere and is still a place of worship today. The adjacent museum, a more recent development, gives the full story of Barbados’s Jewish settlers. One lesser-known piece of information: in the 1600s, Jewish residents, who had learned tropical farming techniques in South America, introduced sugarcane to Barbados—and the crop went on to become the island’s largest (and most famous) source of income for nearly three centuries.

St. Lawrence Gap, on the south coast, is party central, but the northern section of Holetown (known locally as First and Second Street) has a number of spots for more sophisticated night owls. These include Lexy Piano Bar (Second Street; 246-432-5399; www.lexypianobar.com), run by former Broadway star Alex Santoriello; and the Friday-night hot spot the Mews (Second Street; 246-432-1122), where you’ll see everyone from locals and nearby restaurant owners to celebrities like Minnie Driver (who was raised in Barbados until the age of seven). Just up the road, across from Daphne’s, is the more modestly priced though still chic Scarlet (Payne's Bay, St. James; 246-432-3663) where you can sip cocktails amid Warhol-like prints of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O.

Every Friday night locals flock to Oistins, a little town on the south coast, to enjoy fried fish and jam to reggae and calypso. Just fifteen minutes west of Grantley Adams International Airport, the fish fry features stalls selling fish cakes, Banks beer and local arts and crafts. There’s also a stage for dancing.

Though polo is the sport of kings, ticket prices in Barbados are altogether democratic, and throughout the season you’ll see a lot of local enthusiasts mixing with the big-hatted blue bloods. Matches, many of them international, are held January through May at the famed Holders Estate as well as at three newer fields—Clifton, Lion Castle and Apes Hill.

Cobblers Cove has a quaint, cozy little spa, and the Royal Westmoreland opened one on Mullins Beach, but the Coral Reef Club and Sandy Lane take center stage here. Sandy Lane's 47,000 square foot spa facility has multiple treatment suites—each either a private pool or an outdoor garden—a special hydrobath and a meditation area offering yoga and tai chi classes. The Coral Reef Club's spa is much smaller but more intimate, and services are top-notch.

Native Bajan Zed Layson, who traveled all over the world competing against wave wunderkinds like Taylor Knox and Kelly Slater (who returns to the island every year to surf the Soup Bowl), has come back to Barbados to teach. Single lessons or six-hour courses, as well as board rentals and surf tours, are available.

For water-sports enthusiasts, there’s surfing on the east coast, water-skiing and snorkeling on the west coast and windsurfing in the south. Most hotels and villa rental companies work with a handful of instructors and catamaran companies. Some of the latter offer sea turtle cruises where you can jump off the boat and swim with the island’s famous leatherbacks and hawksbills.