As Told by Ali

Possibly my EIGHT time visiting Grenada, but my very FIRST Spicemas experience. This was also my first regional carnival, something I’ve been wanting to do for years. As you may know, Grenada is known as the Spice Island due to its major production of spices. Hence, Spicemas is a tribute to their carnival celebrations and very unique to the island of Grenada especially for its J’ouvert. I’ll be sharing my experience as a first-timer and tips for those planning to visit in the future.

GRENADA CARNIVAL

One thing you should know about Grenada’s carnival is how fast paced it is. They do not sleep. Before we get into that though, carnival is traditionally held on the second Monday and Tuesday in August each year. Festivities begin J’ouvert in the wee hours of Monday morning, followed by a parade and the day ends with Monday Night Mas. On Tuesday, there’s the Parade of the Bands where revellers are in full costumes or more known as ‘Pretty Mas’.

WHERE TO STAY

St George’s or its surrounding areas is a good option to get to and from different events, attractions and ease of finding restaurants/bars. We stayed by a friend of a friend in St David’s. It took us about 20-25 minutes to get to where we needed to go (outside of exploring).

Hotel Recommendations:

• True Blue Bay Boutique
• Radisson Grenada Beach
• Mount Cinnamon Beach Resort
• Coyaba Beach Resort
• Kalinago Beach Resort
• Royalton Grenada
• Blue Star Apartments & Hotels

P.S. These are only suggestions of places I know, make sure to do your own research for places within budget and personal preferences. With Grenada, booking a hotel should be done as early as possible.

TRANSPORTATION

I’d advise anyone who’s travelling to rent a car. Unless, of course you’re going to a destination that has a top notch public transit system. However, for Caribbean countries a rental is probably your best bet in seeing more of the island and cutting costs in your budget.

Driving in Grenada though? A whole other ball game, so I hope you’re a confident driver. There’s lot of twists and turns, hills and valleys plus others driving in a frenzy. Not to scare you but it was definitely an experience. So if you’re accustomed to flat/wide roads it’ll be a little adjustment.

WHERE TO EAT

Surprisingly enough, I wouldn’t say I ate much on this trip as we were mostly on the go. However, here are a few stops we tried out and honestly they were a hit or miss.

• Umbrella’s Beach Bar: popular spot on Grand Anse Beach
• Utopia Corner Bar & Grill: nice hangout spot, food was pretty good
• Dodgy Dock Restaurant: located at True Blue, they host Street Food Wednesdays which is like a mini food fair of local dishes
• Container Park: food village (mexican, asian, italian etc), bar, mini golf etc
• Chadon Beni Restaurant: opposite Spiceland Mall, only for the doubles
• Wild Orchid Restaurant: only since we were at the waterfall and needed lunch, but I wouldn’t call it a must-go spot
• Breakfast Bites: lots of breakfast options, hit the spot! Love the bakes.

National Dish – Oil Down

One thing you should definitely try while in Grenada is their national dish, Oil Down. Don’t worry, it isn’t as the name suggest. It’s a stew made with breadfruit, callaloo, vegetables, dumplings and various meats. This is in addition to coconut milk and a variety of herbs and spices which give it it’s colour and taste. I quite enjoyed it on the first try. We got ours from Ants Nest Restaurant which is located right outside the airport.

Food Tour

One of the things we wanted to do on this visit was a food tour with Spice Foodie Tours. Unfortunately, the tour got cancelled due to the small number of participants. The tour would have included 5/6 local spots around the island.

WHERE TO EXPLORE

I know we’re here for Spicemas, but a little exploration won’t hurt and seeing Grenada from another perspective would be worth it. Whether you do this before the carnival festivities or stay a little longer to reset and recharge, these are a few places we visited. Also including some recommendations I came across.

• Annandale Waterfall
• Concord Waterfall
• Grand Etang National Park
• Grand Anse Beach
• St George’s (in the heart of town)
• House of Chocolate
• Tri-Island Chocolate Factory
• Belmont Estate
• Fort Frederick
• River Antoine Estate Rum Distillery
• Underwater Sculpture Park

WHERE TO PARTY

Admittedly, we didn’t do a lot of fetes. We were more focused on the carnival experience but Grenada has it’s fair share of parties to attend. These can go from beach fetes, all-inclusives, boat rides etc. A few fetes that were recommended to us to try for next year *this is not a definite yes yet*

• Shhh (All inclusive party)
• Brunch and Soca (All inclusive party)
• Soca Monarch Competition on Carnival Friday
• Boat Cruises (there’s a wide variety to choose from, Rum Boat was a popular one)
• Monday Night Mas: another parade on Monday usually from in the evening to 2/3am. It’s like glow parade, some bands sell packages. We unfortunately missed it but heard it’s always a good time.

Here’s where we found the fete info: Go2fete

JAB JAB / JOUVERT EXPERIENCE

J’ouvert means daybreak in french so it occurs in the early hours of the morning. What makes Spicemas so special is the Jab Jab experience. The Jab is adorned oil, chains, helmet with horns and don’t be surprised at the other additions you may see on the road. There’s a strong historical background on the Jab that you should learn about to truly understand its significance to the island.

We got a Carib J’ouvert Package as part of our package with Vibe Mas. However, J’ouvert is a free experience as people line the streets or jam behind music trucks. It does get crowded so be prepared.

Few Tips:

• Use vaeline/baby oil on your skin prior, make sure to do this really well so there aren’t any stains after
• Have dish liquid for the after cleanup, it breaks down the oil
• Waterproof pouch for your phone
• It’s really not a dress up event, so where clothing/shoes you’re okay with disposing afterwards
• We went to the beach afterwards which was therapeutic but I’m not sure how safe this was to the marine life

CARNIVAL WITH VIBE MAS

Vibe Mas or no mas, duh! It’s what they say, don’t shoot the messenger. But in all seriousness, we played both days with Vibe Mas and I can’t say we had any complaints. Of course we knew nothing about the other bands so there wasn’t anything to compare to. However, when I did my package unboxing on TikTok people were shocked about the package contents, meanwhile I was surprised at the items given (in a good way).

Package Included:

• Discount tickets on select events
• Free entrance into select events
• Snacks on the road Monday
• Breakfast & Lunch on Tuesday
• Drinks (I can’t say if it was premium or not, but they had JW Black)
• Entertainment (DJs on the road, regional and local)
• Security on the road (they use a rope to keep patrons within the band)
• Goodie Bag (backpack, hat, fanny pack, cups, snacks, fan, portable charger, small bottle of rum)
• Carib Jouvert package (T-shirt, bottle, whistle, bandana)
• Complimentary Monday Wear

On both days we would have found a parking close to the “end” of the parade and met the band along the route. There was a shuttle service which was a nice touch. I feel like the route was fairly short (although we didn’t meet them at the very beginning). It felt like we got through it pretty quickly, and also stalled in several spots for awhile.

Carnival Monday was definitely my preferred day. We joined the parade much later on Tuesday from the lunch spot and it would have also rained a bit with nowhere to shelter. As for the music, it was Grenadian through and through. You’d hear some one off hits from St. Vincent or Trinidad but it was mostly Grenadian soca which I admired. The songs definitely stuck with me after the carnival season.

Grenada 2025 Top Soca Songs:

• Muddy – Payroll (Power Soca Monarch winner)
• Lil Kerry – Bury All (Road March winner)
• V’ghn ft. Terra D Governor – Jab Decisions
• L.E.D. – Viral Again
• Bubbah473 – 1000°F

If we do make it next year my band selection would definitely be based on a costume I’m in love with, cost and amenities being offered. We saw that Lavish the Band got j’ouvert packages which included a jab helmet, I thought that was a nice touch.

Save the date below if you’re considering Spicemas 2026! We were in Grenada for 7 days so give yourself enough travel time for a full experience.