Tag Archives: Bahamas

A Romantic Escape to Bahamian Sandals

In our last installment on the best of the Bahamas, Eileen Ogintz of “Taking the Kids” describes a luxurious kid-free stay at two of the couples-only resorts.

Where’s my butler?

That’s right. Not only are there no kids anywhere, but we have a personal butler to satisfy our every whim.

Emerald Bay

Welcome to the away-from-the-crowds Bahamian island of Great Exuma and Sandals Emerald Bay, an hour’s flight from Miami. This is a grownups’ getaway – no one under 18 admitted.

That means we don’t have to feel guilty about leaving our kids behind because we won’t see any one else’s kids building sand castles on the beach or doing cannon balls in the pool.

It is kind of unnerving at first to have someone cater to my every wish but I get used to it-fast. Sparkling water with lime?  Glasses for martinis? (Since this is an all inclusive, the room is stocked with liquor.)  No problem.  He even stops by the pool to see if we need anything.  Some chips and guacamole, perhaps, he suggests. We joke with other guests that it’s hard to think of things for the butler to do for us.

If you prefer Nassau, you have another romantic Sandals Option– the Sandals Royal Bahamian that was voted the Top Spa Resort by readers of Conde Nast Traveler and back in the day was a playground for British royals.

It’s home to spectacular Nassau beaches as well as cottage-style suites and a private offshore island where you can pretend to be a castaway. (One with access to a swim up bar, though.)

There is something to be said for an all-inclusive resort where you don’t need to pull out your wallet whether you want a Piña Colada pool-side, play tennis, snorkel or enjoy a wonderful meal.

Sandals Royal Bahamian

Gorgeous pool views at the Sandals Royal Bahamian

Sandals Royal Bahamian, for example, has 10 restaurants to choose from and eight bars serving premium brand drinks—take your pick of fresh seafood on the outer island at Stew fish, made to order Teppanyaki at Kimonos or  the antipasti bar at  Casanova, among others.  Dig in! You’ve already paid for your food, drinks and activities.  Even better when you can snare a deal that includes free nights and an air credit.

My favorite dinner at Sandals wasn’t at any of the resort’s restaurants.  Mine was one that cost extra at  an elegantly set table for two in a private “tower” overlooking Sandals Emerald Bay pool . We could also have opted for the beach (too windy) or the Wedding Gazebo (taken) but this proves perfect, complete with champagne. We’ve chosen a decidedly Bahamian menu–conch fritters,  Bahamian conch salad,  cream of carrot soup, roasted Jerk Chicken and lobster, ginger crème Brule and bittersweet chocolate parfait.

Earlier, the hardest thing to decide is how should we spend all of our well-earned idleness? We thought we’d go scuba diving but the waters were too rough. We didn’t mind, actually. After a breakfast on the terrace), we go for a long walk along the beach dotted with palms and grasses.

We could play beach volleyball or join in the “name that tune” games around the pool bar but we are content to adjourn to our yellow-striped cabana and read. Our “pool butler” comes by every so often to see what we need — water…Bloody Marys…a snack?

We only move from our beach chairs for lunch at the Barefoot Restaurant—yes our toes are really in the sand while we eat conch salad and conch chowder.

Did I mention there were a pair of swans fashioned of towels on our bed with flower petals scattered around them when we checked in, that our butler greeted us when we arrived?

Towel Animal

No Bahamian vacation is complete without….a towel animal

One night, there was a bubble bath drawn for us, complete with candles and flower petals, when we returned from dinner. Love was spelled out in flowers on the bath mat.

OK a little hokey but it made us smile. And that’s why we were there, after all.

I sure missed my butler when I got home.

EILEEN OGINTZ

Eileen Ogintz is a leading national travel expert, syndicated columnist of the weekly column Taking the Kids and the creator of TakingTheKids.com whose special sections including the latest 50-plus places to Light Up the Holidays and Fun in the Snow have become a go-to resource for families planning getaways.

She is regularly quoted and featured as a family travel expert in newspapers, magazines and websites across the country. Eileen is the author of nine travel books, including the most recent The Kid’s Guide to New York City, and The Kid’s Guide to Orlando.

Follow @takingthekids.

Where to Eat In Nassau

Local lobster or grouper?

Maybe you want to try some conch fritters. (They’re delicious!) But if a burger or pasta is what you are in the mood for, you can find that too. The restaurants of Nassau offer virtually every type of cuisine—Chinese, South American, Italian, Steaks, Mediterranean, Sushi, even Indian (at the appropriately named and popular Taj Mahal).

Nassau, after all, is a city of 170,000-plus people—the capitol of the Bahamas and one of the most popular cruise ports in the world less than 200 miles from Florida.

The Fish Fry at Arawak Cay is famous for Bahamian delicacies like conch salad and fried fish as well as the traditional drink of coconut and rum, while the stalls at Potter’s Cay dock serve up scorched conch – all made in front of you.

One night we ate overlooking the sea at the terrific Dune at the One&Only Ocean Club where Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten developed the menu. Think pumpkin soup, roasted grouper, sweet rice in a banana leaf. How about banana cake with salted caramel ice cream for dessert?

Dining at Nobu

Dine in style at Nobu Paradise Island

The island’s famed Atlantis Paradise Island, of course, boasts 21 different restaurants, including the famous Japanese restaurant Nobu.  We loved Bobby Flay’s Southwestern cuisine with a Bahamian twist at Mesa Grill with dishes available only here. (How about Bahamian spiced chicken Crispy Squid and Cracked Conch Salad with Orange-Chipotle Vinaigrette, Bahamian Lobster Tail with Red Chile-Coconut Sauce and Green Chile Rice.)

The Bahamian Club at Atlantis is considered one of the Bahama’s leading restaurants. (You’ll think you’ve time traveled back to British Colonial times.)

At Atlantis We also loved Virgil’s Real BBQ and Carmine’s—both welcome imports from NYC.

Graycliff Hotel

The gardens of the Graycliff Hotel

Another night we were treated to a gourmet feast at the historic mansion hotel Graycliff that has become Nassau’s first five star restaurant known for one of the most extensive private wine cellars in the Caribbean—from escargots to tenderloin to  cappuccino cake. I loved the dining rooms set with candles and overlooking the gardens. There is also a cigar factory here where you can make your own or buy one for after dinner.

While you are in Nassau, sample peas and rice, a Sunday dinner staple, with peas, bacon, celery hot peppers and rice.  Remember that beyond Nassau, the outer islands like the Abacos, Exuma and Bimini boast some of the best fishing sites in the world, delivering fresh fish to restaurants and hotels there and on Nassau and Paradise Island. Have you ever tried grouper fingers? (Think fish sticks but a whole lot better!)

One of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had was a beach barbeque on a deserted island off of Green Turtle Cay where our host free-dived for spiny lobsters and conch, cooked the lobsters over an open fire and prepared a fresh conch salad.  Yum!

Frommer’s recommends Sun and… originally built in the 1930s as a private home and now serving international cuisine in Red Mill House in upscale residential neighborhood. Have you ever tried grilled octopus? Go for the Bahamian fisher’s platter—all local fish.

Other foodies suggest Café Matisse, an Italian restaurant in a century-old Nassau house.   Eat in dining rooms  decorated with Matisse prints  or outside at tables with candles. This may be the place to splurge on local lobster.

For down-home Bahamian food at modest prices, you can’t beat Bahamian Kitchen located next to Trinity Church in downtown Nassau.  This is the place to try fried red snapper, curried chicken, okra soup and peas and rice. You can get take out here for a picnic.

Cable Beach

Looking for a fresh catch at Cable Beach!

If you’d rather have lunch with a view of Nassau’s famous harbor, try  The Poop Deck, a fixture here since 1972 just across the bridge from Atlantis and Paradise Island. (There is a second location SandyPort on the beach with ocean views just west of the Cable Beach hotels. Here’s the place to eat fish or Bahamian lobster caught the same day you are eating it.  Try conch fritters, cracked conch and conch chowder.  But you can also get a grilled cheese sandwich, burger or fried chicken here. This is also a great spot for dinner.

Pass the grouper fingers please.

EILEEN OGINTZ

Eileen Ogintz is a leading national travel expert, syndicated columnist of the weekly column Taking the Kids and the creator of TakingTheKids.com whose special sections including the latest 50-plus places to Light Up the Holidays and Fun in the Snow have become a go-to resource for families planning getaways.

She is regularly quoted and featured as a family travel expert in newspapers, magazines and websites across the country. Eileen is the author of nine travel books, including the most recent The Kid’s Guide to New York City, and The Kid’s Guide to Orlando.

What to Do in Nassau

Travel writer Eileen Ogintz tells us the best reasons to visit the Caribbean’s best kept secret – Nassau Paradise Island. Nassau has it all – great hotels, fantastic food, local culture and plenty of family activities.

The best dance partner I’ve ever had was a 14 year old, eight foot long, 492 pound dolphin named Icaro. I met him at Dolphin Cay at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas and he left an unforgettable impression. Resident dolphins like Icaro enable visitors to participate in one of the largest dolphin interactive programs in the world—as many as 800 people a day, Atlantis officials say. There are also interactions with sea lions if you want to brave it.
They live in a seven interconnected pools containing nearly seven million gallons of seawater. A staff of more than 80 including an on-site vet cares for them.

Swimming with Dolphins

Swimming With Dolphins

Sign up to be a trainer for a day or swim with the dolphins, as long as you are 10. Even babies have done the shallow water interaction. Check the Nassau Paradise Island for all of the options and costs.

You shouldn’t feel guilty about splurging for the experience either as some of the proceeds support the Kerzner Marine Foundation that works to preserve and protect marine ecosystems around the world.

Sea-Turtles

Sea Turtles

Nassau Island Top Things to Do

I love that in Nassau, the Bahamas’ capitol city on New Providence Island, and its neighbor Paradise Island you can do everything from kiss a dolphin to snorkel in beautiful clear water (visibility is over 200 feet in some places) deep sea fish (50 world records were set in these waters), sail, jet ski, canoe (on Lake Nancy) horseback ride on the beach, golf or take a yoga class along the ocean, gamble or learn a little history. (Check out the historic government buildings Rawson Square, Fort Fincastle, the highest point on the island, and the Queen’s Staircase—65 steps carved by slaves in a limestone cliff at the top of Elizabeth Avenue Hill to honor Queen Victoria’s 65-year reign.)

Like pirates? The Bahamas had so many of them in the 18th century there even is a Pirates of Nassau Museum.

You can even make cigars.

That’s right. You can make cigars at the small cigar factory at Graycliff, a historic mansion dating back to the 18th century that now is a small hotel, restaurant and cigar factory. Sixteen master rollers from Cuba turn out a million cigars a year. I’m in awe. They roll out a perfect cigar in four minutes!

Mine aren’t so perfect.  I learn it is all in the feel—bunching the leaves in my hand and then wrapping them in a binder leaf that I ”glue” with a touch of sap.  Fun!

Swimming with Sharks in Stuart Cove, Nassau

I’ve had lots of adventures in Nassau—even scuba diving with sharks with Stuart Cove Dive Bahamas which also offers the option of exploring reefs, wrecks and coral walls.  The company has four sites where you can dive with sharks.  They swam in front of me, behind me, so close I could see their teeth as I kneeled 37 feet under the water.

We weren’t in a shark cage, neither was the dive master.  As long as we stayed motionless and keep our arms to ourselves, they ignored us. “You aren’t in their food chain,” the dive master explained.  Thank goodness!

Stuart Cove Shark Dive

Stuart Cove Shark Dive

Marching Flamingos at Ardastra Gardens

Like birds?  Nassau/Paradise Island are home to some of the most exotic birds in the world, including marching Flamingos.

Audastra Flamingos

Audastra Marching Flamingos

I’ve had lots of adventures on outer Bahamian islands too—kayaking through the mangroves in Great Exuma, where the path is so narrow we must go single file, scuba diving off of Green Turtle Cay. In fact, I learned to scuba dive at Brendal’s Dive Center on Green Turtle Cay in Abaco, Bahamas.

Once we’d finished our certifying dives, we went to a tiny uninhabited beach where we  met wild dolphins,  and feasted on Bahamian lobster tail and fresh conch salad that our guide had gotten from the sea as we watched.  Amazing!

Keep in mind that there are 700 Bahamian islands starting just 50 miles off the coast of Florida that offer every variety of experience, including meeting the locals in Nassau and beyond.  Join the complimentary People-to-People program and you will be paired with a Bahamian ambassador who welcomes the opportunity to introduce you to their culture through a meal, a visit to a school, a tea party, even a local church service.

Ask the locals where they go at night on Nassau.  You have your pick of clubs and casinos, from the gargantuan Atlantis Paradise Island Casino to the newly renovated Crystal Palace Casino at the Wyndham Nassau Resort.

nassau crystal palace

Wyndham Nassau Resort

About Eileen Ogintz

Eileen Ogintz is a leading national travel expert, syndicated columnist of the weekly column Taking the Kids and the creator of TakingTheKids.com whose special sections including the latest 50-Plus Places to Light Up the Holidays and Fun in the Snow have become a go-to resource for families planning getaways.

She is regularly quoted and featured as a family travel expert in newspapers, magazines and websites across the country. Eileen is the author of nine travel books, including the most recent The Kid’s Guide to New York City, and The Kid’s Guide to Orlando.

Follow @takingthekids