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Nassau & Paradise Island holidays
Gone are the days when Blackbeard led a lawless pirate republic here... Now, New Providence is an isle of fine hotels, heady beach parties and wonderful white sand beaches, bridge-linked to Paradise Island, which is exactly what it says on the tin.
- Flight time
- 9 h 45 mins
- From London
- Currency
- B$
- Bahamian dollar
- Time zone
- GMT -4h
Package holidays to Nassau and Paradise Island
Getting to Nassau & Paradise Island
Direct flights from London Heathrow to Nassau Airport (NAS) take around nine hours. The airport is also known as Lynden Pindling International Airport. It is the largest airport in the Bahamas and the fourth busiest airport in the Caribbean. Nassau Airport is located 13 km from downtown Nassau. A taxi rank can be found outside of the terminal.
Average weather in Nassau and Paradise Island
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Holidays in Nassau & Paradise Island
Cable Beach and Bay Street are the hub of nightlife over here. The Daiquiri Shack is a favourite, using fresh fruits to make the most amazing (and potent) cocktails. On East Bay Street, Green Parrot’s a good one for happy hours, with views of Paradise Island over the harbour and deliciously cold beers (a great list of craft beers from all over the world). Live music 3 times a week.
Paradise Island is home to the biggest casino in the Caribbean, the Atlantis Casino. Complete with 75 table games and 750 slots, it’s open 24 hours a day. There’s also the Aura nightclub and Dragons if you want to hit the dancefloor.
Head down to the fish fry at Arawak Cay, for fresh seafood - once a huddle of fisherman’s stalls, it’s now a roster of chic restaurants serving the best lobster you’ll ever have. Wherever you eat, you’ll find menus offering conch in every shape and form – whether salad, fritters or cracked this is something you can’t leave without trying. If you like you're dining with a bit of culture and history, book a table at Café Matisse, where they serve pizzas and pasta in an 1800’s house in downtown Nassau. Hammerhead’s bar and grill is a long-time favourite with students, expats and sailors alike, with a menu of shark bites, conch fritters and good drinks. Senor Frog’s (by the sea in front of the Pompey Museum) has a terrifically laid-back atmosphere that works for all ages (try their burgers). You’ll find a fair number of international brands near cable beach, like Domino’s, Subway and Starbucks). While downtown Nassau generally has cheaper eats, Paradise Island’s rather more upmarket with big name restaurants like Nobu.
Bay Street is Nassau’s main strip, with colourful colonial buildings housing duty free shops (great for jewellery, alcohol, electrical goods and perfumes) and souvenir stores, as well as bars and restaurants. This is also where you’ll find the legendary Straw Market where you can barter for handmade hats, clothes and jewellery. It’s well worth popping over to Festival Place (at Prince George Wharf) for Bahamian handicrafts, artworks and local produce. For posher shops, head to Cable Beach.
Activities in Nassau & Paradise Island
This is the main Out Island of the Bahamas, and as you’d expect it’s teeming with things to see and do: dive and snorkel to your flippers’ content, explore the Clifton National Park and experience the buzz of town life in Nassau. Just be sure to spare a few hours for lazing about on those white sand beaches.
Watersports
Diving in Nassau & Paradise Island
The shallow waters surrounding New Providence and Paradise Island are teeming with marine life to snorkel and scuba dive amongst. Centres around the islands offer courses, or if you don’t have the qualifications, Snuba and SUB diving (a weird but kind of wonderful one-man submarine) let you experience underwater life without needing any training.
It’s almost like a ‘wrecks of Hollywood’ exhibition over here. From Paradise Island, you can get a boat trip to the LCT Barch, a WWII ship better known as Thunderball after its starring role in the 007 film. That’s not the only Bond star below these waters – the Tears of Allah shipwreck, formerly a smuggler’s freight ship, was sunk as a prop in Never Say Never Again. Visibility in these parts is incredible and being not too far below the surface means you don’t have to be an expert diver to enjoy it. The Vulcan bomber from Thunderball is also submerged nearby. Off the west coast from Jaws Beach, you can dive to the Cessna plane from the Jaws IV film. And speaking of Jaws… Shark Wall, The Arena, Runway Wall are popular spots for shark diving.
There are some phenomenal natural wonders too – the Lost Blue Hole is a ninety-metre crater full of nurse sharks, sea turtles, rays and angelfish as well as corals and sponges in all colours. Some companies arrange dives in spots where wild dolphins often appear.
Surfing in Nassau & Paradise Island
The calm conditions here don’t lend themselves to surfers – the beaches on Eleuthera and the Abacos are your best bet for consistent waves. SUP on the other hand is excellent in these parts. Local companies (like PappaSurf) provide paddleboard lessons on Goodman’s Bay Beach as well as board rental so you can paddle at your own pace. Look out for SUP excursions on the sea or through wetlands – the sunrise and sunset ones are spectacular, and we’ve seen some amazing evening tours where the bottom of the board is lit up to reveal what’s under the water.
Windsurfing & kitesurfing in Nassau & Paradise Island
Windsurfing was huge around Nassau in the eighties, when the annual International Windsurfing Competition and Regatta took place here. Lessons and gear are offered in some of the bigger hotels – sometimes included in the overall cost of your stay. Kiteboarding is fast becoming one of the most popular watersports in the Caribbean, and New Providence is no exception. South Beach has excellent conditions for flat water riding with E/NE to SW winds. We like Goodman Bay when there are northerly winds, where the waves pick up nicely on the outside reef. For new kiters, AJ at Cross-shore Bahamas knows the area inside out and provides expert lessons and tours.
Sailing in Nassau & Paradise Island
The Bahamas have long been loved by sailors, from the pirates who plundered passing ships hundreds of years ago, to the annual regattas nowadays. Local companies offer private charter, putting you at the helm for parts, or all, of the trip with a crew who know the local waters inside out. If you’re here over the New Year, look out for the New Year’s Day sailing regatta in Montago Bay.
Fishing in Nassau & Paradise Island
This neck of the woods is one of the world’s best in the sport fishing department - the deep sea and fly-fishing opportunity here are brilliant. Paradise island hosts the Bahamas Rotary Tuna Classic every June, and the Deep Drop Fishing Championships take place in Nassau. Professional charters run for half and full days, whether you want to try deep sea, big game fishing or inshore light tackle fishing. Common deep-sea catches in these parts are white marlin, barracuda, blackfin tuna and sailfish. For bonefish, there are some cracking shallow flats on the south coast.
Canoeing & kayaking in Nassau & Paradise Island
Companies on Junkanoo and Cable Beach provide kayak tours where you can paddle along the north coast, or over to Long Cay and Crystal Cay. We like the tour of Clifton Heritage National Park, where you can stop off at Jaws Beach, Flipper Beach and terrific snorkelling spots. Further out, we love the routes around Rose Island, stopping off at private coves along the way. Not forgetting the lakes - lessons sometimes run at Lake Cunningham, and Lake Nancy is popular for canoeing, with shallow, clear waters and lots of wildlife to look out for.
Land activities
Golf in Nassau & Paradise Island
The exclusive Albany estate is home to an 18-hole championship course on the south-eastern end of New Providence. Ernie Else is the designer, who’s created a challenging and handsome course that brushes against the coastline and hosts the Hero World Challenge. As a mark of its calibre, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott own property here…
By Cable Beach, TPC at Baha Mar is a Jack Nicklaus signature 18-hole course with a ‘two courses in one’ concept. Players have spectacular views of the big blue on the front nine, and inland back nine through tropical forest. The signature 16th hole is a spectacular island green.
Tom Weiskopf is the brains behind the design of the Ocean Club Golf Course on the peninsula of Paradise Island. The 18-hole course sees challenging crosswinds and stunning scenes of the ocean every which way.
Cycling & mountain biking in Nassau & Paradise Island
While the flatness of the island means you won’t find any steep MTB descents, there are some fabulous off-road routes to take at a more leisurely pace. Birding and nature tours show you migrant birds and wildlife in their natural habitat, passing forests, ponds, coastline and mangroves. Bikes are also a good way to explore the authentically Bahamian village of Adelaide and the Clifton National Park. Hire is available from several companies in the town and on beaches, like PappaSurf who provide both rentals and repair.
Walking & hiking in Nassau & Paradise Island
It’s possible to do a walking tour of downtown Nassau, then continue along the bridge to Paradise Island and the beach on its north shore. The Clifton National Park has miles of paths through coppice forest including easier and more challenging routes, and recommended paths for birdwatchers. It’s a good choice if you want to mix your walks with beach stop offs at Jaws Beach, Flipper Beach and Johnston Beach.
