RUM TOURS · AROUND THE WORLD
From the cane field to the glass.
Estate tours in Barbados and Jamaica, Bacardi in Puerto Rico, the old water-wheel still in Grenada, and tasting rooms from Bundaberg to Madeira. Real reviews of the rum tours worth booking, on the islands rum was born on and far beyond.
Worth the trip for the rum alone
Three islands that made rum what it is.
Plenty of places pour a good rum. Barbados, Jamaica and Grenada are where it is made: the 1703 distillery, the high-ester pot stills, the water wheel still turning since 1785. Start with the islands the bottle on your shelf traces back to.
Barbados
Barbados
This is where rum began. Mount Gay has been distilling since 1703, the oldest rum brand on earth, and St. Nicholas Abbey presses its own cane on a Jacobean estate that has barely changed in 350 years. A Barbados rum tour is the genuine article, the place every other island's rum traces back to, tasted at the source.
- 1 Mount Gay Signature Rum Tasting Experience
- 2 St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Great House and Rum Distillery Tour
- 3 Discover Rum Barbados Tour
Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaican rum is the loud one, the high-ester pot-still funk that blenders the world over chase. Appleton Estate sits in the Nassau Valley with its own limestone spring, and Hampden has made rum the same wild way since 1753. The tours run deep into the cane country, and most fold in a waterfall or a river to cool off after.
- 1 YS Falls, Black River Safari, Appleton Rum Tour OR Pelican Bar (Choose Up to 3)
- 2 Bamboo River Rafting Limestone Foot Massage & Bottle of Rum Punch
- 3 Appleton Estate Rum and Ys Falls Tour
Grenada
Grenada
The Spice Isle makes rum the way the whole Caribbean once did. River Antoine has crushed its cane on a working water wheel since 1785, the oldest functioning distillery in the region, and Clarke's Court pours overproof straight from the cask. Nothing here is for show, which is exactly why it is worth the trip.
- 1 Full-Day Tour: Concord Waterfall, Chocolate Factory, Rum Distillery, Grand Etang
- 2 Grenada: Culture and Nature Island Tour with Chocolate & Rum
- 3 Grenada Spice Gardens, Rum & Chocolate Tour (Full/Half Day)
If you only book one
The rum tour more travellers rave about than any other.
Out of every rum tour on the site, this is the one that sends people home telling everyone they know to book it.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Rum Tours Right Now
Mount Gay in Barbados, Casa Bacardi in Puerto Rico, Appleton deep in the Jamaican cane country. The bookings travellers are happiest they made.
Start with an island
The best rum tours, island by island.
Barbados for the heritage estates, Jamaica for the pot-still funk, Puerto Rico for Bacardi, Grenada for the old water-wheel still. Pick the island you are headed to and we will show you the rum tours worth booking there.
Which rum are you after
Three styles, three very different glasses.
Rum is not one drink. Before you pick a tour, pick a style: the rich molasses rums of the English-speaking islands, the smooth aged ron of the Spanish Caribbean, or the cane-juice rhum made well beyond the islands.
Barbados
Where the whole story starts.
Rum was first distilled on Barbados in the 1600s, and the island still treats it like heritage. Mount Gay has run since 1703, and St. Nicholas Abbey presses its own cane on a Jacobean plantation that time forgot. A tour here is the original article: the great houses, the ageing casks, and a tasting of the spirit every other island learned from.
See the best Barbados rum tours →Jamaica
Up into the cane country.
Jamaica makes the boldest rum in the Caribbean, and the tours go right to the source. Appleton Estate sits in the Nassau Valley with its own limestone spring; Hampden has run its high-ester pot stills since 1753. Most days fold in YS Falls or a river safari, so a rum tour here doubles as the best drive on the island.
See the best Jamaica rum tours →Puerto Rico
The rum capital of the world.
Puerto Rico bottles more rum than anywhere on earth. The Casa BACARDI campus across the bay from Old San Juan is the biggest premium distillery in the world, with mixology classes and tastings on the water; Ron del Barrilito has aged its rum in the same family hacienda since 1880. A short ferry or taxi from the old city walls gets you to both.
See the best Puerto Rico rum tours →Grenada
Rum made the way it was in 1785.
River Antoine is the oldest working distillery in the Caribbean, and almost nothing here runs on electricity. A water wheel crushes the cane, the juice ferments in open stone tanks, and the rum boils over a wood fire. On the Spice Isle a rum tour is living history, finished with a pour of overproof straight off the still.
- 1 Full-Day Tour: Concord Waterfall, Chocolate Factory, Rum Distillery, Grand Etang
- 2 Grenada: Culture and Nature Island Tour with Chocolate & Rum
- 3 Grenada Spice Gardens, Rum & Chocolate Tour (Full/Half Day)
By the pour
How far into the distillery do you want to go?
An hour-long tasting flight in Barbados. A full estate day up in the Jamaican hills. A working water-wheel distillery in Grenada with nothing modern in sight. Pick the kind of rum day that sounds like yours.
A quick pour
Barbados, the tasting flight.An hour at the bar with the islands' oldest names: a guided flight through Mount Gay or a heritage tasting at St. Nicholas Abbey, the story behind each glass and a cocktail to finish. The easy way in, no full day required.
The estate day
Jamaica, out to the estate.A drive up into the cane country to Appleton or Hampden: the fields, the copper pots, the ageing warehouse and a long tasting at the end, usually with YS Falls or a river stop folded into the day.
The full distillery
Grenada, the old way.River Antoine still runs on a water wheel the way it has since the 1780s. A working-distillery visit here is sugarcane crushed in front of you, the open fermentation tanks, the fire under the pot. Rum-making with nothing modern in sight.
Australia
Rum has a hometown down under.
Bundaberg, on the Queensland coast, has been distilling its famous “Bundy” from local sugarcane since 1888, and the distillery is a genuine national icon. The behind-the-scenes tours walk you through the towering molasses wells, the vats and the bond store, then pour a tasting flight that proves the islands do not have a monopoly on great rum.
See all 6 Australia rum tours →By island
Pick an island and go to the source.
Barbados for the birthplace. Jamaica for the pot-still funk. Grenada for the old water wheel. Puerto Rico for Bacardi. The Bahamas for the tasting walks. The Dominican Republic for the smooth aged ron.
More destinations
More places the rum is worth the trip.
St. Lucia and Antigua across the islands, Roatan off Honduras, Bundaberg in Australia, the cane terraces of the Canary Islands and Mauritius. The rest of the rum map, ready when you are.
Three islands, three distillery days
Pick an island, build the day around the still.
An estate-and-waterfall day in Jamaica, two heritage great houses in Barbados, the old water-wheel still in Grenada. Three islands, three very different ways to spend a day on the rum trail.
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