Caribbean Travels – New Providence, Bahamas

After discussing the island in the Bahamas chain closest to the U.S. mainland, Grand Bahama Island, I figured the next island to discuss would be another superlative, the most populous island. For that discussion, look no further that the island of New Providence. When I say the most populous, I mean it as this island contains well over half of the population of the entire Bahamas nation.

Getting There

The glorious world of New Providence

With the high population, there has to be a big city to fly into and its capital of Nassau is it.? Looking for flights to Nassau, the prices are about the same as flying into Freeport to escape the winter. Around the middle of November, you can find a round trip ticket for about $420 from Chicago?s O?Hare Airport, and in the middle of January the price is around $470. Just like Freeport, you can find cruise ships that stop by Nassau, but you?d only get barely an afternoon on shore as the cruise wants you back on the ship.

Sightseeing and Activities

So, if you decide to fly to Nassau and explore the island of New Providence for a week, what is there to do? I?m glad you asked. If the former home to pirates looking to ambush ships heading back to Spain with their pieces of eight (arrrrh) can?t be interesting, I don?t know what can be.

To start my exploration, I looked at the couples section outlining what-to-do on the Bahamas tourism website. There wasn?t a section labeled ?repeatedly have sex in your room? so I figured most of it would detail things to do and I made the right assumption.

Historical Sites

On the island are three separate stone forts built around The Revolutionary War times, Fort Montague, Fort Charlotte and Fort Fincastle. All three offer tours from 8 am to 3 pm and at least website lists the tour at Fort Charlotte as free. It sounds like the coolest one anyway ? it has a moat and a drawbridge!

Relaxing

If you?re going to head to the Bahamas, I expect you?re going to want to spend time at the beach. There?s the four-mile stretch known as Cable Beach, where you can find a Sandals resort along with many other fine hotels and a few casinos. On the Northwest side is Rock Point Beach, where director Terence Young filmed Sean Connery in ?Thunderball?, as well as Love Beach, where you can find some good snorkeling. This site by Ken Thompson gives you some great information for snorkeling on your own.

Waterpark! Waterpark!

Holy hand grenades Batman! On Paradise Island, connected to New Providence by bridges and formerly known as Hog Island, there is a hotel/casino/everything known as Atlantis. Shannon Elizabeth hosts a poker tournament there, table games run from 10 am to 4 am, and there are room specials starting at $129 a night during the fall months with up to a $400 airline credit. There?s a 14-acre dolphin habitat where you can swim with the dolphins. Again, holy hand grenades Batman! But, the coolest thing is that there is a 141-acre waterpark. Yipppeee! Water slides! River rides! That just sounds really awesome to me. If you?re done with the beaches and all that sand sticking to everything, they also have eleven different swimming pools. Now, that is what I call a resort. Wow. With specials like those, I may be heading to the Bahamas much sooner than I thought. See you there.