Bahamas

September 2025

While booking the British Airways all inclusive holiday to Bermuda for March 2025, I noticed that they also did one to the Bahamas which would be a new country and seemed rude not to do, so we booked it for September.

Having flown British Airways quite a few times recently, we were used to the inflight food and entertainment (neither of which changed much but that’s ok). Leaving around 10am, we arrived at 2.30pm local time. As we descended from the nine hour flight we passed over some of the Bahamian islands and admired the stunning azure sea coastlines below.

The Bahamas are an archipelago beginning 55 miles east of Miami which include around 700 islands of which approximately 40 are inhabited. The name ‘Bahamas’ comes from the Spanish meaning ‘shallow sea’. The CIA website said “Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647, and they became a colony in 1783”. The Bahamas achieved independence from Great Britain in 1973, but our King Charles is still the head of state, represented by a governor general. The population is around 411,000 of which two thirds live on New Providence Island where we were staying. 91% of the population is from African descent, from the former slave trade and 70% of the population are Protestant. Tourism accounts for 70% of the economy.

The 32’c heat from the tropical marine climate hit us as soon as we left the plane at Lynden Pindling International airport which was larger than I had anticipated. At immigration, our passports were stamped (a rare occurrence nowadays) but we were asked to provide evidence of where we were staying and when we were leaving. Leaving airside there was a huge sculpture of a policeman in old costume directing us to the exit.

We were told that the Bahaman Prime minister, Philip Davies (Progressive Liberal Party) had been on our plane. That explains the small group of black men who seemed to be let on before anyone else. On one day during our stay, part of the cafeteria was filled with two dozen well dressed people having discussions. We heard later that they were part of the current government discussing their strategy to fight the general election in 2026.

A transfer bus (driven by a Miss Stubbs) took us about 5 miles to our hotel called the ‘Breezes’ on Cable Beach a few miles west of the capital Nassau. It was dwarfed by the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar hotel next door and only catered for around 250 guests, but it was enjoyably intimate. Since it was the low season, I think there were around 100 guests on a good day.

A plaque on the wall said that when our abdicated King, Edward VIII (who gave up the throne to marry an American) was shipped out to the Bahamas as Governor in 1940, he lived in a property where the Breezes Hotel now stood. Small world.

Half the swimming pool was being upgraded but there was a pool bar. The beach was glorious white sand in both directions, and the sea temperature was around a magnificent 30’C. I’ve had baths colder than this. Our ensuite 2nd floor room was spacious with air conditioning, but we were surprised that there was no kettle or fridge. We had bought our own kettle (for comfort cups of teas/coffee in the room) and were able to rent a fridge for $25 to store Wendy’s insulin. The $25 was the knock down ‘medical price’. Had we wanted it anyway, it would have been $75 a day!

The food was ok. Breakfast was the usual all you could eat fry up (though any eggs were cooked fresh in front of you). Lunches were snack stuff but there was a poolside grill where you could get burgers/hotdogs/fries during the day, Evening meals were varied with different themes – Mexican, steaks, Italian etc. Lots of cakes and pastries for desert (no ice cream!).I got to try a few conch dishes which is their national food. Our only complaint was that the food was sometimes lukewarm. Shame that we couldn’t rent a microwave.

On the all-inclusive stay, we were able to ‘sample’ the various cocktails such as the popular Bahama Mama. But our favourites were the ‘Slipper’ that looked like a Tequila sunrise made with rum and the ‘Mudslide’ made from Baileys in a thick ice cream. The only draft beer was the local ‘Sands’.

What made the place so enjoyable were the friendly staff who couldn’t do enough for you. We would be welcomed every day and got to know the old security guard Hewland (who I first met at 6.30am on the first morning on the beach when I went to watch the sunrise), Ahkeem who did lots of different stuff around reception and Rhaweeh, a jovial barman (studying chemical engineering) in the quiet Piano Bar that few guests visited (preferring the loud band upstairs every night where there was another bar). I also got to know Destiny at the poolside bar with our frequent visits. The restaurant staff looked after us and always had a smile.

On most mornings, the sunrises were stunning oranges and reds which I often watched from the beach. The temperature was a consistent 32’c but it was very humid. On some afternoons we would have showers. We would see lightening flashes on the horizon on most evenings and one evening we had a violent storm with thunder and lighting and a ‘wrath of god’ volume of rainfall. The locals called it a tornado. It explained why there were sandbags on the ground floor to prevent water entering the hotel.

The hotel did various activities but we weren’t interested in them. The only one that caught our eye was on the first day for a ‘Pottery Class’. A cheerful taxi driver called Mirium took half a dozen of us to the pottery class which was run by Alia. She showed the dozen participants what they could make. Wendy opted for a trinket dish and I went for a bird feeder. We were given a ball of clay, taught how to roll it out and then do the construction. Some of the other women were from Oklahoma and we discovered during the week that there were 15 of them (including husbands) and they were very friendly. We sat with Mary, one of the ‘Activities’ staff from the hotel. Our results were collected up and we were told that they would be fired in a kiln in a few days. Hopefully the hotel will post them on but I’m not confident. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable experience.

On our second day, I went scuba diving with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas. I had to book and pay online in advance (which was a first) and it wasn’t cheap. $250 for two dives and equipment hire. I was picked up at the hotel at 7.30 by a very happy driver who laughed his way around the island as we picked up a few more. Stuart’s Cove is the biggest dive operation in the Bahamas with 12 dive boats. There was only one boat today with 7 divers, 2 guides and the boat captain.

We pulled out of the Coral Bay inlet through a man made canal, past low lying swampland and the Bahamas Navy of 5 or 6 modest ships. As we made our way east along the coast, I was struck by how flat the Bahamas is. There was no point of reference.

Our first dive was ‘The Ridge’. We had been told that we would probably see coral reef sharks which might be ‘inquisitive’. As I descended into the sea with no wetsuit (because the sea temperature was 90’F (32’C!) influenced by the warm waters of the Gulf stream), I could see three of these sharks circling below. They are not aggressive sharks, but you don’t hold your arm out to stroke them. As we followed the ridge covered in hard and soft coral, I counted a total of 11 sharks on this dive (although some may have been the same sharks). The largest were probably 6 feet long. A couple came as close as 3 feet away to check me out. I also saw one turtle that flew past me. We finished the dive exploring an old fishing boat on the sandy seabed. The dive was only 39 minutes to a depth of 20m, but it had a bit of everything and I was very impressed. There were some shoals of fish but not as many as I would expect around the coral reefs.

After a break, we descended for our second dive at ‘Mike’s Reef’ where we explored two ship wrecks, swimming through parts of them. One was sheltering a lionfish. We saw some lovely soft corals and three more sharks (the same ones as before?). Another 40 minute dive down to 20 metres. On both dives I came up with a lot of air and wished the Caribbean islands did longer dives. I was glad to have dived in the Bahamas (not having the opportunity in Bermuda) but two dives were enough to get an idea of what it was like.

The following day, we rented a car for two days (the minimum allowed) and went to explore the whole island which is only 21 miles long and 7 miles wide. Setting off for the capital of Nassau, we passed the large pink and white Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Centre which was the Office of the Prime Minister which had the responsibility of various portfolios including the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.

The Rough Guide said of Nassau “Picturesque and compact, the easily negotiable city is a treat thanks in large part to its effervescent blend of British colonial architecture.” With a population 323,000, it hosts a never-ending fleet of cruise ships. We explored ‘Old Nassau’ which was very charming. Just off the waterfront, Rawson Square was lined on all sides by pastel-painted colonial style government buildings, the majority built between 1785 and 1815. South of Rawson square lay Parliament Square, the centre of Bahamian government that included the Opposition Building to the east and the Senate facing north. To the west, the House of Assembly was the oldest legislative body continuously in session in the western hemisphere dating from 1729. All three buildings were in beautiful Georgian style from the early 1800s featuring smooth cream-coloured limestone facades, and neoclassical pillars and pilasters. A statue of Queen Victoria (1905) looked down from the Senate steps. Behind the Senate was the Supreme Court and the Garden of Remembrance.

Other places we took in were the Nassau Public Library and Museum, an octagonal shaped structure built in 1797 and formerly the city jail. We passed Straw Market with its two imposing comical sculptures outside and the majestic British Colonial Hotel. Originally opened in 1924 on the site of the old fort, it’s stately interior features colourful murals on the ceiling and white pillars surrounding the vast reception lobby. On the outskirts was the run down Fort Charlotte (1790) built to protect the colony from French invasion. We would return to Nassau in the late afternoon the next day to find that the cruise ships had gone and the streets virtually empty and we had the old quarter completely to ourselves.

Paradise Island, the ”monument to the reckless buildup of 1990s international tourism” (Rough Guide), lay just off Nassau and was connected by two one way bridges. It was dominated by the vast gaudy Atlantis Resort and Casino and admission blocked to cheap tourists like us by security guards. We drove around the island past hotels and holiday homes and found only one thing of interest, the Cloisters, the remains of a 14th Century French monastery now a popular place for weddings.

From Nassau, we headed east, along the coastal road called inevitably Eastern Road. We had been told by the hotel staff that the Fox Hill district had taken the brunt of the tornado the night before, but all we found were a lot of flooded roads. We passed through some of the ‘poorer’ neighbourhoods where litter was strewn everywhere. Overall, Bermuda was a lot ‘tidier’ than the Bahamas. We followed the road round to South Beach. None of the beaches we saw on the eastern side of the island were a patch on our fabulous Cable Beach. At Yarmacraw Beach, we watched a man sit on the wall and scrap off the scales of huge Margate fish.

Two things that we came across were firstly a couple of police convoys with some black cars in between the police riders. We assumed it was the Prime Minister moving around the island but we found out later that they were funerals. The police are used to get them through the traffic. The other issue was the traffic. At crossroads, instead of fixed traffic lights, there were flashing red lights which meant you could go if it was free. But at one crossroads, all four sets of lights were flashing red, and it was bedlam as cars attempted to cross, get stuck and block the opposite cars. We watched while someone climbed out of his car and attempted to unblock the traffic. Fortunately, he waved us through as one of the first cars.

There were around 16 roundabouts on the island. Some of them had huge sculptures such as a flamingo, cockerel, bird, conch shell and tractor. They were very colourful and it helped us to know where we were on the island. The locals rushed around and undertook us on dual carriageways. Many of them had not leant to use their indicators yet and at the roundabouts you never knew if they would turn off or come round straight at you. The island was small enough that we were able to come back to the hotel for lunch before heading out again.

On the following day (Sunday), we headed west along West Bay Street to the ‘Caves’, a naturally occurring depression resulting from waves pounding against the limestone coast. Supposedly pirates including Blackbeard used to hide their loot here. There was a plaque from 1861 commemorating the visit of Prince Albert (Victoria’s husband). Much of the West Bay Street were gated communities. The views of the sea were wonderful, but there were no public beaches. We passed the entrance to another exclusive area called Old Fort Bay. This is where the ‘crypto-king’ Sam Bankman-Fried had set up his offices once he fled Hong Kong. Akheem, our receptionist guy had said he had worked security here for Bankman-Fried.

At Clifton Point, the westernmost point on the island, we saw the old slave huts from the road. These had been part of William Wylly’s early 1800s plantation. Nearby were a dozen tree trucks that had been sculpted into slave women. Beside each one was a story of a slave woman who had worked here. We saw a sign saying ‘Jaws Beach’ and pulled in to find a lovely little beach. Apparently, some of the ‘Jaws’ movie was filmed here but nothing was mentioned in my Rough Guide and it wasn’t on their map. Do your research!

We passed the gated community of the exclusive Albany district. Sam Bankman-Fried spent $300 million having a bunch of houses designed here for his colleagues and himself. Tiger Woods and Justin Beiber (who?) apparently currently have homes here. We passed by the East and West Gates with security staff and gates. We found the ‘Service Section’ where the deliveries were made. We tried back roads but never got a sniff of the place. Raheem, our barman had said they had their own shops and paid for the privacy. All I know is that I was that wealthy, I wouldn’t have chosen to live here.

We popped into the unassuming village of Adelaide which was founded in 1831 when Governor Sir James Carmichael Smyth settled 157 Africans, liberated from a Portuguese slave ship. The Africans established a school and church and commenced to live as fisherman and subsistence farmers. When we drove up to the beach, we found it all under high tide. We chatted to a fisherman who was scraping the scales off huge margate fish, groupiers and I think he called one a ‘Hog fish’ which he had caught them by spearing them. He told us that one of the Government big wigs lived next door and they didn’t stand a chance of getting re-elected. That was one of the enjoyable things about the Bahaman people. They were friendly and loved to chat.

We came up past the airport and had criss-crossed the island various times over the two days and felt that we knew this island very well. For such a small island, we still managed to cover 200 miles of driving. I suppose only seeing one of the islands is a bit of a cheat with so many others but you do what you can and getting to the other islands was very expensive as were the excursions, for example ‘swimming with pigs’. I could live without that.

We spent a final day on the beach and mostly in the wonderful sea. That morning, we had noticed a lot more guests at breakfast and wondered where they had all come from. It turned out that a TUI flight from Jamaica to Manchester had a ‘rowdy and aggressive ‘ passenger who had drunk his duty free in the airport and on the plane started to verbally abuse other passengers and the inflight staff. Then the insults got racial. The pilot decided to land in the Bahamas and have the passenger arrested. Many of the passengers were all shipped to our hotel because there were plenty of empty rooms. That afternoon, they were bussed back to the airport to be told that the aeroplane had a ‘technical fault’ and couldn’t take off and they’d have to stay another night. It was midnight by now and they became so aggressive the TUI staff hid on the plane. Some had been rude to our dining staff the night before and when the manager asked them to work late to cope with them returning, the staff refused. So, they were even more angry. Eventually TUI told them that a part was being flown back from Manchester and they would have a third night before finally flying to Manchester. Ironically, the drunk passenger who created all this chaos had been flown home by British Airways. Priceless.

On our last day, I got up to watch my final sunrise and walk the length of the beach. We packed and had to leave our room at 11am (or pay $30 an hour to stay there). We spent more time on the beach and by the pool and around 5pm could have a shower and change into new clothes. After a final dinner, our 7.30pm transfer took us to the airport for the 10pm flight.

It had been a lovely 6 night stay. The beach, sea, sunrises and most importantly the Bahamian people themselves were wonderful. Many people return to the Bahamas and the hotel staff would often ask us when we were coming back. I didn’t have the heart to say that there are so many places to see and we would probably never return but I’d recommend that you make a visit.