After a wonderful week spent exploring Barbados, and ahead of our return journey with Aer Lingus back to Dublin, we visited the very generically named ‘Airlines Executive Lounge’, Barbados Airport’s only lounge offering.

Barbados Airport certainly isn’t overwhelming in terms of size, although I found it surprisingly labyrinthine – we deposited my Mother to sit down for several minutes while we bought some gifts, discovering by accident that there were at least two different ways to return back to the same area. The airport itself is otherwise incredibly stuffy post-security, and I could feel the need for a cold shower coming on me with every second spent waiting in the gate area.

With that in mind, we quickly found the very underwhelming entrance staircase to the Airlines Executive Lounge to the left along the main gate corridor.

As this is the sole lounge offering in Barbados Airport, the queue while reasonably minimal, was incredibly slow-moving as passengers attempted to use a myriad of credit/debit card passes, and when a second agent made herself available specifically for Aer Lingus customers, the barcode on both our boarding passes wouldn’t scan and she had no idea what to do from there, or what level of AerClub membership offered admission.

The entrance to the lounge for what it’s worth, certainly wouldn’t tantalise you with the perception of luxury, but I hoped to ultimately find a seat, some air conditioning, and a glass of wine.

After a brief delay during which I provided a free crash course in the AerClub lounge admission policies while showing my actual app ‘membership card’, we were all admitted, and begun our trek down this very long, bland seat-lined corridor that I momentarily wondered could be the actual lounge itself.

Thankfully, the lounge was a little (I stress, a little) more exceptional, with a range of (mostly occupied) seating, along with a counter of what appeared to be snacks, drinks and a fridge with soft drink offerings.

Although it turned out to be uncomfortably close to the toilets, we managed to secure an elderly sofa and comfy single chair beside a fan, which I quickly increased to maximum – unfortunately the air conditioning inside the lounge didn’t appear to be any much better than outside in the main terminal.

Perusing the food selection, there was a quite lacklustre collection of sandwiches under plastic coverings, and ‘split pea soup’. I think evidence of the level of attractiveness of the food offering came via the family sitting nearby with pizza slices they’d brought in from outside.

There were also snacks in the form of a mixed selection of crisps, and ‘assorted nuts’, again under plastic covering.

Lastly we had the beverage offering – an actually quite reasonably selection of spirits, red & white wines, and soft drinks, bottled water and mixers available from a fridge at the end of the counter.

As you can well imagine, I prioritised several glasses of wine, before relieving them of two bottles of water for the journey.

Ultimately, we wound up with not more than about 40 minutes in the lounge – certainly no more than you’d realistically want, although it did provide a brief respite from the terminal and a chance to try and locate cooler air.

Overall, Airlines Executive Lounge is nothing to get excited about; as I say, it offers a change of scenery, and somewhere to sit and relax ahead of your flight – but luxury, or a compelling F&B offering, it certainly isn’t.