Bahamas - talk to me!
Discussion
Looking at going here in July (although Barbados is a close second).
Read some of the posts on here and read up online, always looks great in films but the hotels appear to be a bit 'Vegas', ie large hotels, small rooms and lots of mass dining options.
Is this correct or am I just worrying about nothing???
Looked at the 'The Ocean Club' from Casino Royale. Very nice but even as a PH member with multiple directorships I think £8k a week is bit pricey!
Any recommendations will be greatly received ...or if anyone owns a villa there :-)
cheers
Adam
Read some of the posts on here and read up online, always looks great in films but the hotels appear to be a bit 'Vegas', ie large hotels, small rooms and lots of mass dining options.
Is this correct or am I just worrying about nothing???
Looked at the 'The Ocean Club' from Casino Royale. Very nice but even as a PH member with multiple directorships I think £8k a week is bit pricey!
Any recommendations will be greatly received ...or if anyone owns a villa there :-)
cheers
Adam
I've been out there a few times as I have friends out there.
Weather and beaches are fantastic as is a lot of the food. In terms of where to stay, depends on your budget and what you want. I believe that the Ocean View Club is on Paradise Island on the main island. Atlantis is also there. I've stayed at Atlantis for a few days and the hotels are mostly as you describe. As there are a large number of rooms the water park and beaches can become quite crowded - although as the Ocean Club is much more exclusive I'm sure it's not an issue there. There are a large number of good restaurants though, including Nobu.
Paradise Island is linked to the main island via a bridge. If you fancy less of a resort holiday there should be loads of smaller hotel options on the rest of the island - although you won't get the big swimming pools and range of restaurants on your doorstep, so you'll probably have to rent a car. The upside of this is that you can go to a number of different beaches and smaller restaurants.
If you want proper isolation, then rent a boat and get out to some of the nearby islands. I was there in September and it's easy to find a beach with literally no one else on it. Not sure what the boat hire options are and if you need to take any safety precautions (not sure if they have a coastguard).
There are also a host of other islands you can go to. Eleuthera is very beautiful and was reasonably empty when we were there. It's a 2 hour boat ride from Nassau, or you can charter a small plane relatively cheaply.
Last time we went, we spent 3 nights at Atlantis for the nice restaurants, water park, casino and other typical resort stuff and spent the rest either on local beaches or ones we went to by boat. Not tried any of the other accommodation, but I did have dinner at the Breezes hotel and it seems small, but not crowded. I do imagine it lacked some of the 25h service, casino etc of the big hotels.
Weather and beaches are fantastic as is a lot of the food. In terms of where to stay, depends on your budget and what you want. I believe that the Ocean View Club is on Paradise Island on the main island. Atlantis is also there. I've stayed at Atlantis for a few days and the hotels are mostly as you describe. As there are a large number of rooms the water park and beaches can become quite crowded - although as the Ocean Club is much more exclusive I'm sure it's not an issue there. There are a large number of good restaurants though, including Nobu.
Paradise Island is linked to the main island via a bridge. If you fancy less of a resort holiday there should be loads of smaller hotel options on the rest of the island - although you won't get the big swimming pools and range of restaurants on your doorstep, so you'll probably have to rent a car. The upside of this is that you can go to a number of different beaches and smaller restaurants.
If you want proper isolation, then rent a boat and get out to some of the nearby islands. I was there in September and it's easy to find a beach with literally no one else on it. Not sure what the boat hire options are and if you need to take any safety precautions (not sure if they have a coastguard).
There are also a host of other islands you can go to. Eleuthera is very beautiful and was reasonably empty when we were there. It's a 2 hour boat ride from Nassau, or you can charter a small plane relatively cheaply.
Last time we went, we spent 3 nights at Atlantis for the nice restaurants, water park, casino and other typical resort stuff and spent the rest either on local beaches or ones we went to by boat. Not tried any of the other accommodation, but I did have dinner at the Breezes hotel and it seems small, but not crowded. I do imagine it lacked some of the 25h service, casino etc of the big hotels.
July in The Bahamas is good weather wise, but it's at the start of the hurricane season.
Can't give much advice of New providence island, only visited it a couple of times on a day trips from Grand Bahama.
Loads of hotels along Cable Beach.
I spent 18 months working/living on Grand Bahama and from what I can remember (it was 12+ years ago) there was a new hotel which had just been built near Port Lucaya, which i think has since got walloped by a hurricane and don't know what it's status is now.
If you do go to Grand Bahama, hire a car and explore. If you travel to the east end of the island, you will (if you look) find some gorgeous, huge, empty sandy beaches. At the other end of the island you'll drive past Paradis Cove, where there is some superb snorkling.
It's not too expensive to get a flight between islands, so that might be worth investigating.
Can't give much advice of New providence island, only visited it a couple of times on a day trips from Grand Bahama.
Loads of hotels along Cable Beach.
I spent 18 months working/living on Grand Bahama and from what I can remember (it was 12+ years ago) there was a new hotel which had just been built near Port Lucaya, which i think has since got walloped by a hurricane and don't know what it's status is now.
If you do go to Grand Bahama, hire a car and explore. If you travel to the east end of the island, you will (if you look) find some gorgeous, huge, empty sandy beaches. At the other end of the island you'll drive past Paradis Cove, where there is some superb snorkling.
It's not too expensive to get a flight between islands, so that might be worth investigating.
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