The Bahamas is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the
world. Most tourists go to New Providence Island which consists mainly of the
city of Nassau. Nassau is only the tip of the iceberg. The surrounding smaller
Bahamian islands are probably more how you picture island life to be. Kris lived in
the Bahamas for over a year and was lucky enough to visit almost all of the major
surrounding islands.
The People
The Bahamians are a strange lot. Whether
you go to the remote islands or just stay in Nassau you are probably not going to find the
people very friendly. This is obviously a result of their country being bought and
invaded by foreigners. Most of the hotels and restaurants are owned by foreigners
and even many entire islands are owed by wealthy celebrities. And Nassau itself gets
something like two and a half million tourists a year. Compare that to the country
population of 300,000 people! So you can see why they seem stand-offish.
In the Bahamas you will find the worst service in the world and will normally leave
most restaurants shaking your head, and the Bahamians are the first to admit that the
service sucks. But on the positive side, I think the Bahamians have more fun than
anybody else and they seem to be able to do it anywhere! Their attitude is relaxed,
easygoing, and generally unconcerned about anything.
New Providence - Nassau and Paradise
Island
Nassau is the city, New Providence is the island, and Paradise Island is a
small touristy island connected to New Providence by two bridges. Paradise Island
houses the new Atlantis Hotel and & Casino which is a monstrosity. One thing you
have to keep in mind is that Nassau is not a safe place. During the year I
was there there was about 50 murders, including a few tourists who were also raped.
There is lots of theft and muggings and for a while somebody was going around on
Sundays robbing people at church! Don't be paranoid, but also don't walk
around by yourself in quite areas.
Restaurants
Traveller's Rest
General: This gorgeous seaside restaurant on the south east
coast is about 15 minutes drive from the centre of Nassau. The house specialty is
Grouper Fingers with peas 'n rice accompanied by banana daquiris with a lethal amount of
rum. Also, the Steamed Grouper is excellent. The service is perhaps a little
better than most other places but don't expect a fast lunch. This place has an
absolutely wonderful view.
Prices: Lunch will cost you about $12
US pp
Location: East Bay St.
Compass Point
General: Just down the road from Traveller's Rest, this
restaurant/bar is also very worthwhile. More expensive than Traveller's but the
sunset view from the bar is amazing. The food is pretty good most days but I have
had a few bad meals there.
Prices: Expect to pay around $25-30 US pp for an entree and
beers around $5
Location: East Bay St.
Outback Steak House
General: If you don't want Bahamian food and are a meat
lover, go to this place. It is located near downtown (across from the bridge to
PI). The portions are huge and the steaks are amazing. When it first opened
the service was superb but as soon as the American trainers went home it deteriorated
overnight to the ranks of the others.
Prices: $20-25 US pp
Location: Across from the bridge coming from Paradise Island
Gaylord's
General: Great Indian food! It is located near downtown
and is a little hard to find if you don't know where to go. Our friend Steve is a
curry connoisseur and he loved the place. Expensive like the rest but delicious and
the service is actually pretty good.
Prices: $20-25 US pp
Location: Just off West Bay St.
Johnny Canoe's
General: You will find good Bahamian food here and it is
situated in Cable Beach, about 10 minutes from downtown Nassau. If you can, go on
Friday night because they have a small Junkanoo Band that puts on a good show.
Prices: $10-$15 US pp
Location: Cable Beach, beside Nassau Beach Hotel
The Fish Fry
General: If you want to see what the real Nassau Bahamians
do make sure you visit the Fish Fry. It is a strip of restaurants and bars between
Cable Beach and Nassau. You can get cold Kalik and great conch salads, which is
chopped up onions, tomatoes, peppers, live shellfish, salt, lemon, orange and sure to put
bullets in your gun. If you can, ask the guy chopping the conchs if you can sample a
"jelly tube", which is this strange organ in the conch that is supposed to give
you magical sexual powers.
Prices: $6-10 US pp
Location: West Bay St.
Belgian Waffle
General: This place is an oasis in the desert. It
is the only place in downtown Nassau that you can get a coffee... and it's good coffee.
This tiny little place on one of the small pedestrian walks near Bay St. serves a
variety of pastries and fresh bread and sandwishes. Of course they have waffles and
lots of ice cream. One of my favorite places in Nassau!!
Prices: $2-8 US pp
Location: Pedestrian walk off Bay St.
Bars and Nightclubs
Hammerheads
General: This is the best place to go if you want to get
shitfaced drunk and be surrounded by others in the same state and listen to great music
while you are at it! The Kaliks
are cheaper than other places and there are usually more foreigners than Bahamians.
The owner's name is Sully and him and his two big dogs are usually hanging around so
say hi to him from me. Oh, and don't feel too bad if the bar staff are rude, we must
have drank more than five thousand beers at that place and never got as much as a nod of
recognition from any of them. But I would have to say that most of my Bahamian
adventures (and there were many!) usually started, and ended up in Hammerheads.
Prices: $2.50 for a beer
Location: It is right across from the new bridge
and just a short walk from the Outback Steak House.
Crocodiles
General: This is where you go on Fridays after work for burgers
and Kaliks. The crowd is great
and it is right on the waterfront. The best thing on the menu is "The Mighty
Croc" - a delicious burger and a favourite of Iron Mike Schaaf's! The
regular routine is to go to Crocs for dinner and a couple starter beers then move on to
Hammerheads for the serious drinking. Actually, just before we left they opened a
new club right beside Crocs called The Last Quarter which was pretty good.
Prices: $3.00 for a beer
Location: West Bay Street, just down from
Hammerheads
Rock & Roll Cafe
General: This place is on Cable Beach and is pretty good on
the weekends. Mostly Bahamians and some foreigners from the nearby hotels frequent
this joint. The music is okay, some Bahamian, some standard stuff. For some
reason it always smells like puke around the bar area, so get your beers and move to the
tables.
Prices: $3.00 per beer
Location: Cable Beach just past Nassau Beach Hotel
601
General: Now if you want to see how the real Bahamians spend
their Friday nights, go to 601, which is located near downtown on Bay Street. The
Bahamians men wear suits, smoke fat cigars, and work their lines on the snooty Bahamian
women. This is the best place to hit the dance floor and grind like a
Bahamian. You will see some of the most unusual dance moves you can imagine.....I
can't explain here, but go and see for yourself.
Prices: $3.50 per beer
Location: 601 Bay St.
Places
to Visit and Things to Do
Exuma PowerBoat Adventures
This has got to be one of the best daytrips in the world! You board a huge
motorboat and they race across the sea to one of the nearby islands in the Exuma chain
where you have lunch, drink beer, suntan on the beach, go snorkeling, and drink more
beer. After that they take you to another island called Norman's Cay where there
lives a colony of iguanas which you can feed by hand. It is not cheap, at $150/pp
but is worth it. We had a most extraordinary adventure with them which included 15
foot waves, lethal rum punch, broken Ray-Bans, a scared Frenchman, and a wet cigar that
wouldn't light.
Saxons Junkanoo Practice at the Fish Fry
If you are there on Sunday night make sure you go out to the Fish Fry for the
Saxon's practice. This will be your most memorable experience of the Bahamas.
The Shell Saxons Superstars are the leading Junkanoo band in the Bahamas and this is
where they practice. It is sort of a musical parade with drums, brass instruments,
whistles, cow bells, and little girls shaking their booties. While you are there
make sure you grab a cold Kalik from
one of the vendors.
Cabbage Beach
The name sounds a little leafy, but this is the best beach in New
Providence. It is on Paradise Island on the north side. If you aren't staying
at one of the hotels there you can easily just walk through the Sheraton lobby and out
past the pool to the beach or you can drive a little further east on PI and walk in on one
of the paths. Beach vendors rent jet skis and also have banana boat rides and
parasailing. But keep in mind that Bahamian safety standards are non-existent and
there have been many accidents and even fatalities using this equipment.
Atlantis Hotel and Casino
If you want to spend $200 bucks a night you can stay there. But if you just
want to look around it is basically free. It was build by that South African guy
named Sol somebody, who also owns Sun City in South Africa. It is pretty much like
any of the big Vegas hotels but on the beach. Make sure you check out the fish tanks
they have build there, they contain all sorts of sharks, fish, lobsters, 200 lb groupers,
etc. Also, have a stroll around the casino and see all the gorgeous supermodels
paired up with the wrinkly old rich men playing $500 ante black jack. Kalik is a total rip off at about $7
each but the other drinks are even more expensive. For me, the most important
thing about Atlantis is that is where Ana and I met for the first time! And she
hasn't been able to get rid of me since.
Diving
There are lots of dive shops but the one we used was Nassau Scuba Centre.
There is fantastic diving nearby and not to be missed if you are a diver. You will
see lots of Caribbean Reef Sharks and many fish as well as some good wreck and wall
diving. The guys are Nassau Scuba Centre are very friendly and helpful. Two
tank dives are around $65.
The Family Islands
If you really want to see what the Bahamas is all about you have to get to
one of the other islands. Nassau is fun, but there are so many tourists that it is
just like being in any other tourist trap. The islands are safer, slower (if you can
believe it), and the people are not as unfriendly. Plus the beaches and diving are
as good as it gets. The local airline Bahamasair flies to all of the islands with
frequent, though fairly unreliable schedules. Each island is beautiful and each
island has a different feel to it. I will list them in my order of preference as
well as a couple places to check out at each.
Abaco
This is one of the more popular islands and for good reason. It is a
little more built up than the others, having more restaurants and bars, and there is lots
to do. I am not going to list places to stay because there are many and
accommodation
is quite easy to find. There is a few surrounding islands to Abaco, namely Green
Turtle Cay and HopeTown which are very beautiful. If you are there on a Sunday,
catch a the ferry or rent a boat and go to Nippers which is on Great Guana
Cay.
They have a big pig roast and there are hordes of people, don't ask me where they all come
from because I have no idea. In Marsh Harbour, which is the main town in Abaco,
there is a great dive shop which is right beside the Conch Inn. I don't remember the
name but it is run by a Canadian guy and he has this particular dive location where a big
tame grouper named Gilly lives. During the dive, the grouper comes over and the dive
master takes off his mask and puts it on Gilly who then swims around! And this fish
is so tame that you can actually put your fingers in her mouth and feel her teeth, or even
give her a kiss.
Exuma
These are actually a chain of islands south east of Nassau and
a haven for sailors and cruisers. The water is crystal clear, like all of the Bahamas, and the
beaches are pristine.. I did a one week sailing trip through the Exuma cays with my
dad and my friend Earl and we absolutely loved it! Check out the
stories on the Shaker Exuma
page. And a few months before that my
mom and grandparents and I rented a house on Tar Bay in Great Exuma and spend a glorious 4
days living the good life. We even had grandpa chasing crabs up and down the beach!
Eleuthera
Another wonderful, tranquil island, but this one boasts beautiful pink sand
beaches and rolling hills. Just off the mainland is place called Harbour Island
which is very special, go there if you can. It is a small village which
actually has some nightlife on the weekend. You can rent these strange little
buggies and drive all around the small island. There was an excellent dive shop we
had found but last I heard it had burnt down. A very nice restaurant on the island
is called Ma Ruby's and Ma Ruby is a very nice lady.
Halfway between north and south Eleuthera is a
place called the Glass Bridge which is where the island gets very narrow and from the road
you are able to see the crashing, choppy Atlantic on one side and the calm, clear
Caribbean Sea on the other.
Long Island
Long Island is home to the most beautiful beach in the world. It is
called Santa Maria and is so beautiful you can never forget it. It feels like you
are the first person to step on the beach, as there are no other people around and nothing
except your footprints in the sand. We stayed at a nice place called Stella Maris
Inn which is owned by a German fellow named Peter. The land itself on Long Island is
much more rugged than the other Bahamian Islands. But the real treasure is beach
Santa Maria. And this is the place where I fell in love with Ana.
Andros
This is the biggest island in the Bahamas but has very few people. The
best part of Andros is the diving and you will find some of the best you can
imagine. There is not much to do on the island itself so if you are not a diver you
may get a little bored. The place I stayed at was (can't remember!). They offer an all
inclusive dive package which is a great vacation. I would expect that most of the
world's serious divers have been here but most normal recreational divers may never have
heard of it. If you are a diver you know how difficult it is to explain the magic of
a dive so I won't even try. But if you do go diving there, send me an email and tell
me how much you loved it!
Grand Bahama
I was only in Grand Bahama for a couple days for work so I don't really know
much about it. The main city, Freeport, is very modern and sort of a treat to visit
after being in Nassau which is more crowded and dirtier. There is also a Fish Fry
near Freeport which is great on Wednesdays and is even better than the one in Nassau.
Cat Island
For those of you who have seen the film "U-Turn" this is like the
town Superior in the film. Deserted, strange people, derelict homes, bad voodoo.
We stayed at this dumpy hotel run by John Deveaux, a 75 year old Bahamian man with
a single, huge white tooth and 27 children from an assortment of women. His current
wife is restricted to a wheelchair, for seemingly obvious reasons. His place was
called the Little Bay Inn which was indeed in front of a bay, but it was more like a swamp
and about 30 feet wide. There were a couple nice beaches on the
island which we found but overall it was a very unusual place.
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