Departure Beach: how to get rid of that 'last day' holiday feeling

Does anybody look forward to that last day of holiday? The one where you’re kicked out of your fancy resort before noon, and then spend the rest of the day waiting for your transfer? Or the one where you spend the day at the beach and then have to sit on a flight with sand stuck in places it shouldn’t be?

It’ll come as no surprise that Sir Richard Branson has found a solution to the most unproblematic of holiday problems, and has opened a departure lounge, complete with check-in desk, on one of the Caribbean’s most popular beaches.

And so, now operating on Brownes Beach in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, is Virgin Holidays’ first ever Departure Beach – an innovative way to waste those last few hours of annual leave. Travellers check in at dedicated desks, picking up their boarding pass while they’re at it, before being granted access to a very slick beach club complete with showers, a toes-in-the-sand style bar and restaurant and direct access to the sea. Luggage is checked in at Brownes Beach, ready to pick up from the baggage belt at the final destination. Plus, guests get a free transfer from their hotel to Departure Beach, then onto the airport – where all that’s left to do is go through security.

For £25 per adult (which includes food and soft drinks, but not booze) it’s not a bad deal.

I landed on Departure Beach for its swaggering opening party at the start of December, for a brisk two-day tour around Brits’ favourite Caribbean island (in the first half of 2018, three per cent more British tourists landed on Bajan shores than in the same period in 2017 – and that number shows no sign of diminishing).

In those two days, I’d eaten at beachfront Daphne’s, known as “Rihanna’s favourite restaurant”. I’d bumped across the glittering blue-green waves of the calm Caribbean Sea on the western side of the island on a jet ski, then dodged mongoose and monkeys on the eastern coast, home to crashing, moody Atlantic waves favoured by surfers. I’d whizzed around the island on a tour, stopping at the 17th-century St James Anglican church, which (oddly) has a photograph of Tony and Cherie Blair framed by the entrance. I’d tried to go for post-dinner rum punches at the bars along Holetown’s Second Street, but preferred crawling into my bed at the Treasure Beach hotel instead...

When you’re done with all that, then you go to Departure Beach. And you don’t feel sad at all about the fact your Bajan holiday is almost over.

The new concept was deemed so important to the holiday company that Sir Richard Branson himself had even flown in from his home on Necker Island in the nearby(ish) British Virgin Islands, alongside a bevvy of famous faces including DJ Maya Jama, Laura from Love Island and Pixie Lott. We were all sinking rum punches, with the exception of Sir Richard: when I asked what I should order at the bar, he told me he’s a “virgin guy” on the tropical punch.

Virgin Holidays’ managing director Joe Thompson hints that there may be other Departure Beaches rolled out across other islands, most likely in the Caribbean – although there are “no firm plans” right now.

That’s fine. On Brownes Beach in Barbados, we’ve got powdery sand, sun-loungers and that shimmering sea to enjoy on what feels like a proper last day of my holiday. The flight home has rarely felt further away.

Virgin Holidays offers seven nights in Barbados from £1,373 including flights, B&B accommodation at the Treasure Beach by Elegant Hotels and transfers. Virgin Holidays guests can access Departure Beach for just £25pp.

For more information about visiting Barbados, see the official tourist board website.