Hermit Crab Races at the Owl – Grenada

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

Hermit crab races have long been a tradition at The Owl, on Grand Anse Beach, and after spending an evening cheering for my chosen hermit crab, I can easily understand why!

Wanting to make sure we caught the entire evening of the crab races, my friends and I made our way to the Owl for appetizers and drinks a little earlier than the scheduled event.  It’s a fun atmosphere, and who doesn’t love being on the beach listening to the waves on a peaceful night?

There are 3 rounds to the race, and you can place bets for any or all of the rounds if you choose to.

Here’s how it works: Basically all of the hermit crabs have numbers written on their shells and are put into a bowl.  A large circle is drawn in the sand along the beach, and the observers sit around the circle.  The bowl with the hermit crabs is then brought to the center of the circle and is flipped over so the crabs are let out.   Each round has a different requirement to be the winning crab, which keeps things interesting!

Round 1 was started off, and in this round, the FIRST crab to leave the circle = the winner!

After a few short moments, we were all cheering excitedly for the quickest crabs in the circle (or against them if you bet on a different crab!).  Sometimes a crab would start moving towards the edge of the circle with great pace, and we’d think it would win… then  all of the sudden it’d take a turn in the opposite direction.  Reading this may sound kind of silly, but in person it was seriously so much fun.

Round 2: the LAST crab to leave the circle wins!

It’s no surprise that this round took substantially longer than the first one.  It was cute, they tried to get a little girl to start the round off by lifting the bowl off of the crabs in the center of the circle but she wouldn’t do it.

The first two rounds were a blast, but let me tell you, I felt like round 3 was the main event!  For this round, they brought out a BIG box with more hermit crabs.  You can pick out your own hermit crab (or multiple) to enter into the race!  You even get to name it :)  Of course I picked o a crab to enter.

What was my strategy for picking a competitive hermit crab?  Well, it was simple… I just reached into the box and felt around for shells, and when I thought I could pick up without being pinched, I was set hahaha.  Not that anyone got pinched, but man that looks like it would hurt.  A flashlight would have been helpful to see what crabs were in the box still.

Others in my group had some creative names for their hermit crabs, I named mine after my husband… haha.  The sand circle was raked between each round, and after everyone was set with their entries, round 3 started!  There were 57 hermit crabs entered in the 3rd race on this day, and the winner of this round (first crab out of circle) got 75% of the money collected in that round.  There were so many hermit crabs it was hard to find the one I entered.  I didn’t win the race, but it was such an awesome night out!

I highly recommend checking out the hermit crab races if you’ll be in Grenada.  It makes for a great night of entertainment!

While I was in Grenada the races were held Monday evenings (usually at 9) at The Owl Sports & Beach Bar.  *According to their Facebook page, the races are now being held outside of the Kalinago Hotel, since the Flamboyant hotel closed last summer.  Be sure to check for current times/dates for the races.*

Grenada is one of my favorite places on Earth.  I have so many fond memories, and will be sharing a lot of posts about our adventures in the upcoming weeks!  New posts each Monday, so check back to learn more.  If you’ll be heading to Grenada, a map or field guide such as the one listed below (pic is link) is nice to use when planning your daily itineraries (this one shows dive sights too!):

Disclaimer:  Affiliate links may be included in this post.  All opinions are my own.