Grenville is the east-coast counterweight to St. George's: less polished, more workaday, and far more useful if you want to see how Grenada moves when cruise ships are not setting the rhythm. The town sits on Grenville Bay in Saint Andrew parish, with minibuses, market stalls, fish vendors, and school uniforms giving it the feel of a proper local hub rather than a beach resort.
Saturday is the best day to come. The market fills with produce from the surrounding farms, fish from the Atlantic side of the island, and the sort of ordinary bustle that tells you more about Grenada than another hour under a beach umbrella. Grenville is also known locally as La Baye, a reminder of the French layer beneath the British street names.
The real reason to base yourself here, or at least to pass through, is the north-east coast. River Antoine Estate still makes rum with a waterwheel, Lake Antoine sits in a volcanic crater just inland, and Pearls Airport preserves the strange sight of abandoned aircraft beside a runway that no longer serves flights. In town, Progress Park is the local sports ground.
Grenville is not a soft landing for nervous travellers. It is hot, busy, and practical, with little in the way of tourist gloss. That is exactly its value: come for a morning market stop, a rum-country drive, or a look at Grenada's agricultural east before returning over the hills.