Bahamas

Overview

The Bahamas is an archipelago nation in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Florida . The country is made up of about 3,000 islands and cays, of which approximately 30 are populated. The capital city of Nassau, is on the island of New Providence and is home to about half of the country's population. The Bahamas is renowned for its natural beauty and unique culture, and is a popular tropical vacation destination.

The name of the country is said to be derived from the Spanish words "baha mar" or shallow water. Before 1973, the islands were officially the Bahama Islands although often dubbed the Bahamas. The country's name was formally changed when the country gained Independence from the United Kingdom.

Arawak Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World in 1492 on the island of San Salvador; see Voyages of Columbus . For years, San Salvador was thought to be the island known today as Cat Island . But Watling Island was thought to more closely resembled Columbus' descriptions and in 1926 the island was renamed. However, it has since been argued that based on the logs, his landfall may have been on Samara Cay.

British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. The Bahamas were also infamous as a pirate nest with some even trying to form a pirate Republic. Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, the Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management. Because of its location, the country is also a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the U.S., and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the U.S.

Places to explore

Several cruise lines operate private island retreats in the Bahamas. Disney Cruise Line owns Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, Norwegian Cruise Line owns Great Stirrup Cay, Princess Cruise Line owns Little Stirrup Cay, Carnival Cruise Line owns Half Moon Cay, and Royal Caribbean owns Coco Cay. To visit these islands you usually have to be a passenger on the cruise line that owns the island.

Dolphin Encounters is an all natural seawater dolphin facility with Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions located on Blue Lagoon Island (Salt Cay), a private island retreat and tourist attraction 5 km (three miles) from Nassau, Bahamas.

Experiences

Diving: The "shallow seas" of the Bahamas lie over extensive submerged limestone platforms, with high points here and there just breaking the surface to form an archipelago. The climate is good for diving year-round, and hurricanes seldom strike. All the inhabited islands have local diving, and some have extensive inland cave systems. Nassau on New Providence is the base for liveaboard cruises.

Culture and food

As you'd expect in an island nation, seafood is very popular. The national dish is conch (pronounced "conk" with a hard K), a type of mollusk, served deep-fried ("cracked") or raw with a twist of lemon, and as elsewhere in the Caribbean, the classic accompaniment is peas and rice .

Ordinary meals can be purchased for anywhere from $5-25 a plate. Authentic island food can be found at the Fish Fry , a collection of small open air restaurants where many locals hang out. Meals can be had for about $8. Sunday night the locals flock to this area for some authentic Bahamian nightlife. You can find fast-food chains such as KFC or McDonalds, especially in the downtown areas, but as it is a highly touristed country, you can find many nice restaurants serving many different cuisines. Most restaurants serve American or British food, though you can easily find the normal island flair, especially during the Fish Fry during June. A 15% service charge is added to the bill at most establishments; additional tips are optional.

The culture of the islands is a mixture of African (Afro-Bahamians being the largest ethnicity), British and American due to historical family ties, migration to the Bahamas of people freed from enslavement in the United States, and as the dominant country in the region and source of most tourists. The Bahamian national identity is influenced by African heritage, its colonial past, and modern cultural traditions. Research shows that storytelling, festivals, and shared memories bring people together across the islands. These traditions continue to shape how Bahamians view their nation and their communities today.

Planning your route

Nassau/New Providence have a system of buses called jitneys , discussed in the Nassau article. Bus travel on the other islands (with the exception of Grand Bahama) is very limited.

Sights and landscapes

The Bahamas consists of a chain of islands spread out over some 800 km (500 mi) in the Atlantic Ocean, located to the east of Florida in the United States, north of Cuba and Hispaniola and west of the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands (with which it forms the Lucayan archipelago ). It lies between latitudes 20° and 28°N , and longitudes 72° and 80°W and straddles the Tropic of Cancer . There are some 700 islands and 2,400 cays in total (of which 30 are inhabited) with a total land area of 10,010 km 2 (3,860 sq mi).

Nassau , the capital city of the Bahamas, lies on the island of New Providence ; the other main inhabited islands are Grand Bahama , Eleuthera , Cat Island , Rum Cay , Long Island , San Salvador Island , Ragged Island , Acklins , Crooked Island , Exuma , Berry Islands , Mayaguana , the Bimini islands, Great Abaco and Great Inagua . The largest island is Andros .

All the islands are low and flat, with ridges that usually rise no more than 15 to 20 m (49 to 66 ft). The highest point in the country is Mount Alvernia (formerly Como Hill) on Cat Island at 64 m (210 ft).

Travel guide text compiled and adapted from Wikivoyage article (contributors) and Wikipedia article (contributors). Sections were selected and reordered for this guide. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Check current arrangements with your travel consultant.