NEW PROVIDENCE · BAHAMAS
Junkanoo drums, conch shacks, turquoise everywhere.
Swimming-pigs day trips, Atlantis-side beaches, Nassau’s Bay Street rum bars and the rest of the Bahamian out-island doorstep — Rose, Pearl, Sun Cay, Exuma and Paradise Island, all reviewed.
Only in the Bahamas
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Every Caribbean island has snorkel trips, catamaran cruises and beach lunches. These three don’t exist anywhere but here. The pigs that swim. The water you can see through. The rum that built half of New Providence. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
Big Major Cay
Swimming With The Pigs
There are only a handful of places on earth where wild pigs paddle out from a beach to meet you. The original colony lives on uninhabited Big Major Cay in the Exumas, with a closer farm-raised herd on Pearl Cay. The boats out of Nassau are how you actually get there. The pigs are real, the photos are not staged, and it’s the single most-booked day-trip on this side of the island.
- 1 Nassau: 3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch
- 2 Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs Tour
- 3 Nassau: Snorkeling, Pig Beach, Swim with Turtles, and Lunch
In the clear water
Snorkel With Sea Turtles
Bahamian water is some of the clearest in the world — visibility past 30 metres on a calm day. Combine that with the green turtle and hawksbill colonies that feed on the seagrass beds off Rose Island and Green Cay and you get reliable face-to-face turtle encounters in water you can see your toes through. Few destinations deliver both at once.
- 1 Nassau: Pigs, Snorkel, Turtles, Lunch, Private Beach Club
- 2 Rose Island Adventure: Snorkel, Sea Turtles, and Private Beach
- 3 Ultimate SeaXscape Pigs/Turtles/Snorkel/Lunch/Drinks/PU/DO
On Bay Street
The Bahamian Rum Trail
Nassau is where Atlantic rum culture grew up. Bacardi spent decades headquartered here. John Watling’s Distillery still ages on Buena Vista Estate, the Graycliff cellar is older than the United States, and the bartenders on Bay Street pour pours of pirate-era spirits with stories attached. A rum-and-conch afternoon is unmistakably Nassau.
- 1 Rum Tasting and Food Walking Tour in Nassau Bahamas
- 2 Rum Reggae and Rhythms Tour: Dancing and Cocktails
- 3 Nassau: Rum Tastings and Culinary Walking Tour
The reader benchmark
The one visitors recommend back.
Out of every Nassau experience we’ve looked at, this is the one that books up first, gets the warmest reviews, and is most often mentioned in “you have to try this” threads. A safe first booking for any first-timer.
The classics
New Providence’s Most Popular Day Trips
Swimming pigs, Rose Island snorkel, Pearl Cay turtles, Exuma boat days. The trips that built this island’s tourist economy.
By island
Pick an out-island doorstep.
Each cay is its own day. Rose for the calm-water snorkel. Pearl for the small private cay. Sun Cay for the family-friendly day club. Exuma for the famous pigs. Paradise Island for Atlantis. Cabbage Beach for the postcard sand.
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Snorkel with sea turtles. Swim with pigs. Crack a conch fritter on the dock. Pour Bahamian rum at a 250-year-old cellar. Or jet-ski past the cliffs of Paradise Island.
The Bahamian bucket list
Eight things to cross off before you fly home.
If you only do half of these, you’ve still had the trip. The pigs, the turtles, the conch and the rum are the four most-photographed Nassau experiences. The other four fill the gaps between them.
The list
- 01.Swim with the pigs The original Big Major Cay or the closer Pearl Cay alternative.
- 02.Snorkel with sea turtles Hawksbills and greens, in 30-metre visibility water.
- 03.Eat conch at the Fish Fry Arawak Cay shacks, conch salad cracked fresh in front of you.
- 04.Drink Bahamian rum John Watling’s, Graycliff and Bay Street pirate-era cellars.
- 05.Walk Bay Street’s pirate trail Fort Charlotte, Queen’s Staircase, the Pirates Museum.
- 06.Day-club a private cay Pearl, Sun and Rose — lunch + lounger included.
- 07.ATV through Western Esplanade Off-asphalt loops out to Clifton Heritage Park.
- 08.Sunset over the Atlantic Catamaran out of Nassau Harbour, conch and rum on board.
Out on the water
The cruise day.
Catamarans out of Nassau Harbour, snorkel-and-lunch combos along the south coast, and the longer runs out to the Exumas. Three boat days we’d send a first-time visitor on.
Inland from the harbour
Bay Street, the forts, and the Queen’s Staircase.
Nassau was a pirate capital before it was anyone’s tourist island — Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny all worked out of this harbour. Our shortlist for spending a half-day on land instead of a half-day on water.
When the public beach is full
The private-cay day.
Cabbage Beach can read like a cruise-day crowd in high season. The day-club packages out to Pearl, Sun and Rose buy you the lounger, the lunch, the cocktail and the cay-to-yourself feeling. Three we’d keep coming back to.
For the active days
Snorkel, hop, jet, or sail.
When sitting on a beach isn’t enough — reef snorkels off Athol, island-hopping past Salt Cay, jet-ski runs around Paradise Island, glass-bottom boats over the reef wall. Three picks worth booking if you came to be in the water, not on it.
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