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Published: April 6th 2009
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Bahamian Sophistication
Why waste resources on a starter when you can just hotwire the thing? Nassau is not like I remembered it in 1991, but then I guess that is because a lot of time has passed.
Paradise Island
The action is no longer in downtown Nassau that is rundown and just plain stinky, it is all in Paradise Island. Nassau is good for what the rest of the Bahamas are for when not on the beach - island culture and colonial cityscapes. On Paradise Island, you go to Atlantis . . . all $1.8 billion of it (so far).
We first tried to make a day of it in downtown Nassau, but soon decided to take a water taxi to Paradise Island. Beyond the rich and famous’ houses, Atlantis is is definitely a cool resort, very Disney-esque in its scale and attention to detail. Or maybe Las Vegas-esque since there is a casino and high-end shops. There is apparently a way to get free beach access which we did not take advantage of, having gotten plenty of sun on Little Stirrup. So we walked around Atlantis, getting screened from a number of areas for not being hotel guests and finally ended up in the Marina shops, next to big beautiful yachts, enjoying a
Thunderball Hut
The real deal from the original Sean Connery Bond movie . . . and a prequel to our visit of Meteora from my favorite Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore. Kalik. But other than spending too much money, there is not much to do there so we headed back to Nassau to change shoes as we had to do more walking than expected.
British Colonial Hilton
Equipped with sandals, we walked around some more and ultimately ended up at the British Colonial Hilton which I had checked out online on a number of occasions previously. Definitely the old British haunt, a bit of imperial staleness here and there, but a great hotel. It costs $20 per person per day to use the facilities, which is a steal and highly recommended. We enjoyed Kaliks in the courtyard of the hotel where it was considerably cooler amid the beautifully landscaped gardens. The pool area and small beach area are not extraordinary but they are clean and private which is wonderful, especially by our standards, when compared to the craziness of Atlantis. Also next to the hotel, on the way back to the pier is the Straw Market which is basically the black market for fake designer handbags. The imitations are pretty poorly done and so I did not catch any prices.
Old Town Nassau
Later we ended up
Atlantis Resort
From the shopping district that killed downtown Nassau commerce (evil developers). walking further to the south of downtown, where few tourists venture, and saw some of colonial Nassau, which was very interesting and also worth a visit. It is possible to rent scooters at the cruise ship pier entrance and if you are not clumsy like me, I would suggest renting those to get around the island faster. The walking tour we took was a bit cursory as we had to get back to the ship, but I would suggest walking further east than we did. Nassau might not seem all that safe at times because of the vagrants and how dirty it is in some places, but the government is on top of their number one industry, we witnessed it first hand when we sat behind a couple on the cruise ship trolley who explained to the driver how they had been ripped off $20 for a passport stamp by the immigration officer. We decided to go get our own stamp and we were warned very emphatically by every official we saw that we should not pay anything.
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