CaribbeanTravel.com - Winter 2009 - (Page 23)

AirJamaica.com Bahamas THE ISLANDS OF THE BAHAMAS scuba facilities and water sports from diving and sailing to swimming with trained dolphins. Shopping is entertainment at the Port Lucaya Marketplace, with its a wide array of bars, eateries and, often, live entertainment in Count Basie Square. Grand Bahama also has long stretches of deserted beaches, ﬁshing villages, and West End, the island’s quaint historic capital. Lucayan National Park shelters an underwater cave system accessible by land and sea as well as upland forests and mangrove creeks. West Indian ﬂamingos are the draw at the Rand Nature Center, but the endangered Bahama Parrot and other birds also call this home, along with plants such as “love vine,” said to be a powerful aphrodisiac. THE OUT ISLANDS Starting with the southernmost isle in the Bahamaian archipelago and heading northwest — and ultimately making a turn to the west — here are some glimpses of the Bahamas’ idyllic Out Islands. Great Inagua has fewer than 1,000 residents and more than 80,000 West Indian ﬂamingos, who share Inagua National Park with Bahama parrots, Bahama pintail ducks and other exotic species. The Morton Salt Company is the largest industry on the island, producing about a million pounds of salt a year there. Mayaguana has only 400 residents and one 16-room hotel. Here, as on many of the Out Islands, dinner could be fresh ﬁsh caught by the guests themselves, while the activities of choice are snorkeling, boating and just taking it easy. Acklins and Crooked Island, typical of the less-developed islands, offer a handful of small guest houses that serve as home base for diving, ﬁshing and exploring miles of secluded beaches. Long Island offers divers the world’s deepest known blue hole, the Conception Island Wall, as well as several wrecks and the Stella Maris Shark Reef. Great Exuma and Little Exuma delight yachters with hidden coves, calm harbors and swimashore beaches, and offer inns, small hotels and luxurious resorts such as The Four Seasons Golf Club Great Exuma at Emerald Bay, which features a championship Greg Norman-designed 18hole course. San Salvador, home to a popular all-inclusive resort and a small hotel, offers reefs and wrecks for divers, game ﬁshing ﬂats and the ruins of former plantations and historical Lucayan Indian sites to explore. Cat Island is a great spot for eco-tourists. It offers spectacular diving—including a blue hole, where divers often encounter Caribbean reef sharks—as well as ﬁshing, miles of nature trails and an eight-mile pink-sand beach. Eleuthera is a narrow, 110-mile-long island of sleepy colonial villages, pineapple plantations and pink-sand beaches. Visitors can settle in at one of the small friendly inns or an intimate, upscale resort. Harbour Island, just three miles long and bordered by a stunning powdery pink- sand beach, is a quirky combination of New England charm and Caribbean chic. Restaurants such as The Rock House and The Landing offer ﬁne dining; boutique hotels house celebrity visitors; and shops showcase the works of local artists. Adding to the charm, golf carts provide leisurely transportation for visitors. The Abacos, a 120-mile string of isles, are a sailing and boating haven, with a handful of hideaway resorts, quaint villages and an 18-hole Dick Wilson-designed golf course. Settled by immigrants from Great Britain and loyalists ﬂeeing after the American Revolution, these isles feel like a bit of New England in the Caribbean. The Albert Lowe Museum on Green Turtle Cay and Wyannie Malone Museum in Hope Town offer a fascinating glimpse into the past. Bimini Islands, where Ernest Hemingway came to battle marlin and other big game ﬁsh, draw anglers from around the world to compete in game ﬁshing tournaments. Divers enjoy the Bimini Barge wreck and the Road to Atlantis, once thought to lead to the mythical city. Organized tours can include the chance to swim with the island’s wild dolphins. Berry Islands, due west of the Biminis, offer coves, calm waters and beaches that appeal to yachters. Andros, by far the largest island of The Bahamas, is dotted with ﬁshing and diving lodges and small hotels that share the isle with about 8,000 residents — and with ﬂora and fauna found only here. The island is also said to hide pirate Henry Morgan’s buried treasure, as well as the mythical halfhuman, half-bird chickcharnie. Visitors here enjoy guided nature walks, kayak and birding tours and shopping for batiks, baskets, wood-carvings and other local crafts. 23 http://www.airjamaica.com http://www.breezes.com http://www.breezes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CaribbeanTravel.com - Winter 2009

CaribbeanTravel.com - Winter 2009 Contents Beaches and Water Sports Scuba Diving and Snorkeling Golf Courses Romance Spas Destination Websites Caribbean Map Caribbean Hotel Association Members Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda Aruba The Islands Of The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cancún, Cozumel, Riviera Maya Cayman Islands Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Martinique St. Barthelemy St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius St. Martin St. Vincent & The Grenadines Suriname Trinidad & Tobago Turks & Caicos U.S. Virgin Islands

CaribbeanTravel.com - Winter 2009

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