Bahamas Trip Guide

It's that time of the year where I spend a blissful two weeks in the tropical islands of Bahamas. It's always nice to escape the cold weather in the middle of January. Who's never wished for a beach while trudging along a street filled with snow muck? That being said, Bahamas in January isn't the best time to go - especially if you're not familiar with the island.

There are a few islands but Nassau is the capital city. I usually stay in the Atlantis Resort which comprises of a huge hotel complex with its own aquariums and casinos on the Paradise Island.

The Atlantis

The Royal towers is known for having the most expensive hotel room at $25,000 per night. It's also the closest to the casinos and restaurants as well as a bay that is surrounded by many outdoor boutiques and restaurants. I either stay at the Cove, which is their high end hotel, or at the reef, which is more of a condominium style hotel that comes with a kitchen. The entire hotel complex is connected by walkways and shuttles; it can take nearly 45 minutes to walk from one end of the hotel to the other. There are plenty of activities and beautiful artwork, and of course the view is amazing both night and day.

Royal Towers

The boat docking area

Statues by the Royal Towers

The Cove entrance

View from the Cove

The thing to note, however, is that in comparison to other hotels of the same price the service is lackluster. The staff is friendly with an ear-to-ear smile but they'll bring coffee instead of the tea you asked for, forget your laundry service, get busy chatting up other guests when the help you asked for is urgent. It's a relaxing way to live yet can present a setback in some cases, such as when the entire island's power went down for hours without a backup generator or when a diner fell unconscious and the staff simply gaped at each other.

And a friendly note: everything is expensive in the Bahamas. From food to electricity, everything is imported from elsewhere. Just beware, even groceries are 3x more expensive for the same item and $5 tomatoes are still considered cheaper than hotel services.

Casino

At night there's one place where all the adults crowd over to. It's where all the bars, slot machines, gambling tables, as well as their nightclub and Nobu is located at. In January there's a large poker tournament lasting for about two weeks with a few million dollars to win. This is the event I come for. If you know who to look for, plenty of celebrities show up as well.

Live streaming area

Some of the tournament tables

Food

Food is influenced heavily by South American cuisine. A lot of dishes are prepared by rum, their obvious drink of choice. Rum cakes are sold by the tons in tourist shops and airports. There's a lot of seafood, but most are prepared fried. By far my favorite is the conch salad, which is a fresh ceviche-like dish prepared with conch, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and a spicy lime sauce.

Beach

So this is where I was ran into a bit of bad luck this year. For the most part of my stay, I was indoor bound thanks to storms and rainy days. I didn't get much tan and stayed away from the cold waves of the beach, so I pulled up some old photos when there were more sunny days involved.

The water is clear and deep blue with pristine beaches on the Paradise Island. It's even less crowded and more beautiful in any of the other islands. If sand isn't your thing, there's always plenty of pools, lazy rivers, artificial waterfalls by the hotel complex. It's a sin for even the cheapest hotel not to have a pool in the Bahamas.

Super pale

Dolphins and Sealions

These are some of my must-do activities. There's a few rescue dolphins and sea lions residing at the hotel, offering activities with the guests. The animals were quite friendly and didn't seem like they were abused - if they didn't feel like doing some of the activities, they left you and another dolphin would take over. I really liked the sea lions since they had more outgoing personalities than the dolphins.

Wildlife & Swimming Pigs

Most people aren't surprised to hear about the snorkeling/scuba, but they are surprised to hear about the swimming pigs. I think it's only available in the Bahamas and I highly recommend doing this at least once. It's actually not in Nassau, you must fly over to the Exumas island and book a tour through many agencies that offer them online. You can book a tour with others or book a private tour, which I did. They'll take you through many sightseeing areas, but my favorite was the wild iguana island and wild pigs that swim up to your boat because they know you've got some tasty treats. The pigs are big, but compared to the average pigs you consume they're quite fit!

Another thing I did was snuba, a combination of scuba and snorkeling. I prefer scuba, which lets you go deep underwater for a long duration but this time I didn't have much time for the mandatory scuba training. Snuba offers you best of both with a breathing tube connected to the boat. You can skip all the special scuba devices and safety procedures and just dive right in.

One&Only Ocean Club

This luxury resort is a few minutes away from the main Atlantis, but I make sure to come here at least once per trip. Unfortunately this year it was under renovation due to recent flooding, but usually it's open to guests and non-hotel visitors. It's famous for the feature in Casino Royale the movie, but I love how quiet it is with its large golf courses, private beach, Versailles-inspired garden and the restaurant Dune by Jean George. This places hands down has the best dishes and the best atmosphere on the island.

Conch salad and tuna & avocado tartare

Shima at the Island House

The Island House is a new hotel complex on the other side of the island. Since it's only opened last year, I've never stayed at the hotel. But it's one of the nicest hotels on the island, rivaling the One and Only. The only reason why I found out about this place is that they have a great Thai restaurant. After a week of conch salad, the boyfriend and I were craving some Thai food and decided to make a date night out of the 40-minute limo ride (normal taxis aren't willing to go that far) to the other side of the island.

And what.a.dinner. It's a secluded location with meticulous garden and pool area. As for the food the boyfriend claims that it's the best Thai food outside of Thailand. I'm not going to go that far, but it's definitely one of the best. Great service, too. The sommelier seemed to know his wines, offering a great white wine directly from the producer. Apparently he goes wine tasting in Italy at least twice a year.

The curries were great, the salads were delicious, and they weren't afraid to get to that true Thai spicy level in their dishes.

The wine of the night

The menu

"Moneybags" and pork buns

Spicy jungle curry and masaman curry

Salmon with curry on top

Salads and meats