I visited this WHS in January 2023. I wasn't expecting much but for one of my first Caribbean WHS, overall I was pleasantly surprised. Apart from the passage of time, extreme weather conditions and modernisation, the main threat to this and other similar Caribbean WHS is by far the huge impact of cruiseliner touch-and-go tourism. Very close to the core zone of this WHS there's the cruiseliner terminal which is a considerable hub and departure/arrival point for cruises.

With that in mind, I made sure to check the main cruiseliner companies' schedule and visited early mornings before the bigger arrivals or on the day of bigger departures. This might prove more difficult closer to the Xmas/New Year holiday period but it really worked fine towards the end of January. On our swimming days, we could easily see the countless numbered minivans and coaches unloading the equivalent of a small town's population, all pretty much doing the same all-inclusive rapid itinerary, precisely the reason why I always wanted to visit such places by plane. The core zone in fact is bigger than you would expect, and I covered quite a good number of kilometres on foot. Each inscribed neighborhood or area (such as Princess Alice, Dalkeith Road, Chelsea Road, Cheapside, Hastings, Kings Street on Baxter's Road, Garrison Historic Area) has its own UNESCO WHS inscription board with a map of the inscribed area and photos of the main sites to see on the back of each.

The main highlights are scattered mostly in the area known as Princess Alice. These are the Barbados Parliament buildings, the Mutual Building (now used by the West Indies University), the Carnegie Building or Public Library, St. Mary's Church, the Jewish Synagogue, the Town Hall and Gaol (being currently renovated by a very friendly former felon who let me in), the Spirit Bond and the Blackwoods Screw Dock. The other highlights are clustered around the Garrison Historic Area, namely the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, the barracks, the George Washington House and tunnels, the Clock Tower and Charles Fort. The Garrison Historic Area was quite pleasant overall although I really did an extra effort to turn a blind eye on some run-down places and focus mostly on the colonial buildings here and there.

The most unique highlight within this WHS to me was the Screw Dock and its rusty and quite rotten, yet original, screwlift dry dock mechanism. It really desperately needs a visitor centre or museum to explain this unique American invention of the early 19th century. The shiplift in Bridgetown uses screw jacks for lifting gear leading to an elegantly simple and durable system that remained in operation for nearly 100 years. It only became derelict when the owners were liquidated and the facility was abandoned. The "Screw Dock", as it is known locally, was built on the south side of an area known as the "Careenage" at the mouth of the Constitution river in Bridgetown by John Blackwood.

By visiting (mostly) during the limited time just before or after the cruise ship circus, I managed to enjoy this WHS and I think it deserves its place on the WH list. Perhaps by visiting on a tighter schedule, on a very crowded day or on a longer itinerary covering similar WHS in the region, my perception and score would have been worse though.