Until a year ago I never heard of Nassau and I also didn't know many things about the islands of Bahamas - only that they are beautiful exotic places that I wasn't thinking I will be visiting so soon. When we signed up for a cruise in the Bahamas, I wasn't expecting to be so impressed by this city, capital of the Bahamas, one of the most atypical and interesting destinations. Both exotic and common, on one side you have expensive hotels and on the other, houses ravaged by the frequent hurricanes of the Lucayan Archipelago. Diamond shops and coconut booths on the beautiful blue beaches, are a rare sight for the tourists that are lucky enough to spend their holiday there.
We arrived in Nassau with a cruise and because we only had a day to spend, we tried to make the most of it – and I have to say, I am very happy with what we managed to visit. We got off the ship around 10 in the morning and we had until 4 in the afternoon, when the ship was supposed to leave.
I didn't know about the attractions we could see in Nassau, but I've heard on the ship of the famous Atlantis Hotel. I knew it was one of the most expensive in the world (there's another one in Dubai and in a few other cities around the world) and here stayed celebrities like Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Beyonce, and many others. The most expensive room is the bridge that connects the two hotels, that you cannot miss, and costs 25.000$ a night.
Atlantis is actually a complex that stretches on most of Paradise Island, with many hotels, a famous aquapark, a dolphin cay, an aquarium, lots of restaurants and bars, private beaches, luxurious gardens and shops. In other words you can't get bored in there, everything is so carefully designed, it feels like you really are in the mythical sunken city of Atlantis. If you are not a guest of the hotel, of course you do not have access to all of the facilities, but I know that you can book day tours, and you get to see what the complex is about. You can spend time at the aquapark - Aquaventure, or swim with dolphins at the Dolphin Cay.
Nassau is split in two sides: the city itself on the main island where our ship landed, and Paradise Island, where you can find this hotel and many others, just as beautiful and expensive, but also stores, touristic places like an aquapark, an aquarium, a golf court, and public beaches.
In the harbor I found a few maps of the city, cause I always take some from the places I visit, and they turn out to be very useful especially if you don t have internet. So I took a map and once we got out of the harbor, we decided to turn left, despite all the other tourists that turned right, because, I was confident that we can manage to walk to the bridge that connects Nassau and Paradise Island and hopefully take a glimpse of the marvelous hotel.
The point is that if you want to get to the island you have 2 options: either go with a taxi/ car with a local driver that in my opinion is too expensive for 1-2 hours tour, or you try to walk by yourself as we did. I honestly don't know if I should recommend the second option or not and you will see why.
When you get on the shore in Nassau you'll see many taxis and vans that'll try to take you on a tour for a few hours. Honestly, they re pretty expensive and I don't think they re worth it considering that we were able to walk to almost everything and we enjoyed it more that way.
The advantages are that you don't spend money on taxis and what's more important you don't have to stick to their schedule, this meaning you can spend as long as you want on the island, and the walking time is around 20-30 minutes tops.
The disadvantages to us were that we walked through the heat, we didn't have any water with us, and also you don't really walk through a populate area, but one full of damaged buildings, trash, and it's a bit unsafe. It s just a straight street, with many cars, but on the sidewalk we were the only ones, all around us were houses ravaged by hurricanes, with crumbled rooftops and a lot of garbage on the ground. Honestly I was a bit scared, but we decided that any moment we feel like something's not right, we turn back and go visit the rest of the city.
After around 15-20 mins walking we got to the bridge. The bridge is also for pedestrians. We crossed it and got on the Paradise Island, where you truly felt like in paradise. Compared to the city, everything was tidy, well maintained, and modern, truly a tropical paradise and a perfect way to spend your holiday if you can afford it. Luxurious Houses and impressive buildings, lots of golf carts, lots of palm trees, but extremely hot.
We walked for roughly 10 more minutes, through a cute market full of souvenir shops and ice cream places, and we got to the hotel, actually to the part accessible for tourists. We entered the hotel through a side door that we randomly found, that apparently was leading into a mini mall full of expensive brands and marble hallways. We walked around and ended, I think, in the reception area, but I m not sure cause everything was huge, you couldn't see the other end.
Everything was decorated in an aquatic style, with shells, pearls, fish, sea horses all around the place. They even had a big aquarium incorporated in one of the walls. We also saw a big casino, and by accident we entered in a few places where the workers kept asking for our room card. I was very flattered of them thinking that we belong there, but sadly we were not lucky enough to stay in a fancy royal suite.
Somehow we got out on a terrace that was surrounding a part of the hotel and connected more buildings, and honestly it was the most interesting part of the whole journey. We had an amazing view of the hotel, and the outdoors area was of course designed accordingly, with sea horses that splashed water from their mouths, a pool bar that had the roof shaped like a shell and a lot of exotic plants. Even if it probably was a simple terrace to connect the buildings, to me it was a trip to a botanical garden, an aquapark and a stroll through the mysterious Atlantis, all at the same time. And you ll see in the pictures what I'm talking about.
After leaving the hotel we tried to go to a public beach cause we couldn't leave the Bahamas without swimming again in those mesmerizing blue waters, but because it was very hot and we didn't have water with us, we couldn't make it to the end of the island, but stopped at another attraction that I discovered on the map - The Versailles Gardens. A green oasis that looked like it belonged to an European palace, hence the name. When I researched more at home, I found out that these garden are another attraction point of the island, even if they're not very impressive, it's a pity not to take a look if you ever get the chance.
We knew we didn't want to make all the way back on foot so we looked for a ferry to take us back. We found it right under the bridge, an old boat, with a few tourists like us. It looked like a tiny old harbor that had a couple of local vendors selling water and fruit juice, just what we needed.
It cost us 7$ if i remember right and it dropped us near the big harbor, right next to our ship, exactly where we wanted to get. We were very lucky finding this ferry cause I was sure we'll end up walking back the whole way and wasting the rest of the day.
During the journey, one of the guys working on the ferry told us about the history of Nassau, interesting details about the Paradise Island, but unfortunately we couldn't really hear much because the engine was very noisy. Everything I found out I already told you.
We got to the other side, and all we wanted was to find a beach because we wanted to relax for a bit. After 5-10 minutes walking we got to Junkanoo Beach, a beach I knew nothing about, but it was the first one we came across and actually it looked very nicely.
I truly believe it's popular destination for the tourists that came by ship like us, cause it's the first one that pops in your way and it's very attractive. It was also a beach bar where they were selling beverages and most importantly, fresh coconuts, the big ones, that you can cut and drink directly from them.
I always wanted to try one so of course I took a bunch of pictures with it to remember. And if anybody's interested about the taste, it's very tasty indeed, the coconut water is very refreshing, just a bit sweet, and if you're patient enough you can scoop parts of the inside and eat the coconut meat. Comparing to what you find in the stores, it's an unique experience, especially when they chop it right in front of you with a big knife and only a couple of moves.
We spend roughly one hour on the beach cause we didn't have much time left till the departure, it was already 3 in the afternoon. So unfortunately after one heavenly hour we had to leave: I got to drink from my coconut, and tried a local beer, we caught some wifi at the beach bar to send our families some pictures, swam a bit and that was it.
On the way back to the ship we tried to take a few steps back from the main road to discover more, and we passed by cute little shops, and through a large market like a bazaar where I got my fridge magnet souvenir, for my collection, and then back to the ship right in time for departure. We got on the upper deck and played some mini golf while watching our cruise ship getting away from the shore.
Nassau was one of the most interesting cities I've ever been to, full of contrasts, and people living their lives surrounded by palm trees and coconuts, in the shadow of the grand Atlantis that takes your breath away. It's a destination worth visiting, just like all the other islands of the Bahamas, that have marvelous landscapes. I can say I am very content with how much I was able to discover in such short time, I hope that one day I'll return here and why not even spend a night at the famous Atlantis Hotel!
See you soon!