New Bahamas Guide

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Chelle Koster Walton’s experiential The Bahamas: A Great Destination was released by Countryman Press at the end of September, and in its first week Tripatini.com selected it Read of the Week. The book “treads confidently where other guides stop short, taking you past the beaches and casinos to give you access to ancestral lands, fishing settlements, goat farms, conch shacks, and theaters. These are the real islands with all their culture and character,” reads the cover.

Walton has been writing about the Bahamas for 15 years and contributes to Fodor's Bahamas guide. She has also written an iPhone app called Nassau Selective & Seductive, published by Sutro Media.

“For this particular book, I spent more than a year traveling to the major Bahama islands and getting to know the people as well as the sights and wildlife,” said Walton. “I’ve always loved the Bahamian people for their humor and warmth. After this book, my admiration has measurably grown for them and their rich culture.”

Features in each chapter -- such as Island Character, which introduces readers to a Bahamian islander; Bahama Talk, which delights in local vernacular; and Sign Alert, which points out posted messages like “Undertakes Love Overtakers” - offer rare glimpses into local life in the islands.

“Some of my most memorable moments from my recent trips to the Bahamas? Well, definitely snorkeling with reef sharks in Nassau,” said Walton. “But also meeting Miss Elsie Knowles - the queen of Long Island’s straw-plaiting tradition.

Walton’s two newly updated books, The Sarasota, Sanibel Island & Naples Book and Fodor’s InFocus: Florida Keys are due out next month. She has also written the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Essential Guide app and several books about Florida and the Caribbean.

A resident of Sanibel Island, Florida, for more than 25 years, Walton is travel and cuisine editor for Times of the Islands and contributes to the Miami Herald, FoxNews.com, American Eagle Latitudes, and various other inflight on cruise-ship magazines, newspaper travel sections, and Web sites. As former contributing editor to Caribbean Travel & Life magazine, she received the Bahamas Discovery Award and Bahamas Cacique Award for International Writer.

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Photos

Elsie
Straw matriarch Elsie Knowles on Long Island