Nassau, Bahamas

Good weather and nice beaches. Some crime to be careful about. Don't walk alone at night etc. We have friends that live there year round and we mostly stay at their house in Nassau. The island is about 7 miles long. Can discover on a rented scooter or motorbike. Downtown markets very commercial and a lot of cruise ships stop there as well. Over all nice but not my favorite destination.

My wife and I took the kids to Paradise Island last year. I have to say I was extremely disappointed. I will skip the complaints about eight dollar water bottles and go right to the attitudes.

I don't mind paying for service and treatment but when you are paying a measurable amount for rooms, food and amenities you would expect a certain amount of personable treatment. My first day in the lobby I was clipped in the arm by a luggage rack hauling bellman. I turned, he looked right at me and just kept on going......wow!

We went to, what we thought, was the hotel concierge to ask about going into town. Turned into a twenty minute time share pressure session. The woman became noticeably put off when we finally said "NO! Really, thank you".

Not to keep going back to the money but I do think it is relevant. Gratuity is automatically included in everything, including that eight dollar bottle of water. I worked as a tipped employee before and I understand tipping. I also understand that once you realize you don't have to work for you some people tend to stop working for it. Above that if you were so rude as to not leave an additional tip, on top of the included gratuity, it was as if you had stiffed them completely. I was truly shocked by the poor service on the resort, and off, by the locals.

I thought this summed it up pretty well. In Jamaica they have a word "ire". It means it's all good, happy, OK etc and everyone we met there lived with that word at the tip of their tongue. We asked one of the locals if there was a similar word/expression in Nassau and we just got a blank stare. I was not surprised.

The beaches were nice the water was beautiful. We also took a side trip to http://www.dolphinencounters.com/ and they were great. It was a nice boat ride there and the scenery was beautiful.

The highlight of the trip was meeting Paulo, a man and his family from Sao Paulo Brazil, and he was just great. He was so nice to the kids, they loved him. It was a great lesson for them and the fact that there are other people in the world.

Overall I give Nassau one star and Paradise Island none.
-Jeff

I had a great quick weekend getaway to Nassau and found two great local spots for great local cuisine. There were lots of locals at these places so that is usually a very good sign. One is called the Cricket Club. It is on the main street heading from the airport to downtown. It is a cool bar/restaurant overlooking the cricket ground and across to the water. Good conch, local beer (kalik) http://www.bahamascricket.com/
Also check out the Traveller’s Rest, this has the best view and great local food, it is directly across from a beautiful beach where i am holding the local beer in a picture. http://www.the-bahamas-restaurants.com/travellersrest/

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Great place expecially the aquarium at the Atlantis Hotel

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