Nassau, Bahamas, February 2026
The Bahamas are one of those places that I have always heard about and never really thought too much about. It has always been resorts and mai tais in my mind. The sort of place people stop over on a cruise or sit around at in an all-inclusive. Everything else has been pirate tales or YouTube videos about sailboats and swimming pigs.
A couple friends really like the Caribbean and generally try to go to an island at least once a year. I saw a cheap flight for Nassau and talked to my friends about going. They were interested and had only been to a resort in the Bahamas previously. They were interested in going, so, we decided to go check out Nassau.
Getting into Nassau
We took a flight from Austin to Atlanta to Nassau. It was a Saturday morning flight and the airport was pretty empty. We got to the airport and into Nassau without issue. From there, we grabbed a cab and went to where we were staying, in Centerville. We settled in and stashed our stuff before deciding to venture out for some dinner.
Dinner and walking around
For dinner, we wound up going to Flamingo Bar. It was pretty eclectic in its menu and seemed to have a bunch of stuff all under different grouping names like they were different restaurants but all cooked there. Kind of weird, but whatever.
Flamingo Bar was out of three or four things we tried to order and I settled on some nachos and a couple of drinks. Food was universally thought to be fine. The service was good and really friendly.
From there, we started to walk around and headed toward Downtown Nassau at around 9pm. We walked a bit over a mile toward downtown and nothing really seemed to be open. It was not very late, or possibly it may have been too early. There were a couple bars open closer to downtown, but not a lot on the way there. For a Saturday night, it felt pretty dead to us and we didn’t see anyone else walking around until we got near the Margaritaville hotel.
We got to Tiki Bikini Hut and there were a few people there. It is on Junkanoo Beach among the other spots, but was the only one that seemed to be going that late. Here, we got a couple sugary drinks and listened to the music they were playing, mostly 00’s pop. A local cat wandered by and hung out for a bit that we deemed Beach Cat.
After hanging out with Beach Cat for a while, we decided to head out. We walked along the beach on the sidewalk until we heard a massive concert happening. It turned out to be a big Valentine’s Day festival and we heard about it a couple times from people while we were in Nassau.
We walked to an area called Fish Fry. It is an area with a bunch of small shack-like bars and restaurants that goes on for a good half mile or so. We weren’t hungry or really wanting drinks, so we walked up from the start where we were to the end and back again and then to where we were staying.
Second Day
We started our first full day in Nassau with a plan to go hit a few tourist spots and then go to the beach. Walking around in the morning, Nassau was far busier than it had been the night before. There were a lot more people out and about and a lot more activity on the roads. We guessed that meant the cruise ships had come in and people were deboarded and on their excursions.
The first place we went was Queen’s Staircase. It is a staircase carved out of limestone next to a waterfall that was named for a Queen (duh) or something else that I didn’t really bother learning about. It was full of people on buses or tour groups down from the cruise ships.
Cruise ship area and Museum of Junkanoo
From the Staircase, we headed to the heart of the Cruise Port area. It was busy with both cruise-goers and barkers trying to sell tours or atvs and scooters to ride or boat trips to feed pigs or swim with dolphins. It was kind of gross and there were a ton of shops in the area catering to the cruise-goers. In the middle of the madness though is the Museum of Junkanoo. Junkanoo is a celebration akin to Carnaval or Mardi Gras where people dress in costumes, play music, and dance in the streets as they parade. It’s named after the leader of a slave revolt, John Canoe, and the museum is really freaking neat.
The museum has a ton of information on Junkanoo as well as costumes and floats to check out. They have a room with some instruments and three looping videos of a recent Junkanoo celebration. It looks like a ton of fun and was the catalyst for me and my friends deciding that 2027 is the year we make an attempt to go to Carnaval in Brazil.
Straw Market area
From the cruise port area, we walked back into the downtown area of Nassau. It’s pretty small and was busy. There, we went to Straw Market to try to snag some beach towels for our planned trip to the beach that afternoon. Straw Market is a series of stalls in a single building selling bric-a-brac to tourists. It’s crowded with narrow walkways and absolutely the type of place I tend to want to get out of as quick as possible. We got some towels there, avoided buying anything else, and went outside through some of the exterior vendors.
We grabbed lunch at a place called Smugglers. It was pretty forgettable, but I had a Chicken Crack sandwich. I kept seeing crack as a descriptor for things like Konch Crack, Chicken Crack, Shrimp Crack. It turned out to just mean breaded and fried.
Smugglers is linked to the Pirate of Nassau Museum. We didn’t go to that though. I thought about it, but just kind of meh’ed right past it. It looked busy though. We can’t all be winners.
Graycliff Area
We went to an area called Graycliff that has a fancy hotel and a bunch of other things to draw you in. You could tell it was special because it had a bunch of umbrellas on strings hanging over a road. It evidently was a big deal and then it wasn’t and now it’s trying to be a big deal again. I don’t know, that is what a cabbie told us.
We went to the Graycliff Chocolate factory and had some free samples.There were several tours that were going in and out, something we would encounter a lot over the time in Nassau. There, we got to witness two kids lean on the glass counter with the very big “Do not lean on the counter” sign and knock the top of the plexi-glass counter of the ledge holding it up and into a bunch of truffles. Their parents were annoyed at having to buy all the truffles they wrecked. They turned out to be the ghost pepper chocolates, so I was pretty amused at the thought of these kids having to power down ghost pepper chocolates since the parents had to buy them.
Next, we went to John Watling Distillery. It’s a rum and vodka distillery on the island, not known for its production of rum or vodka. We got in and were ushered onto the tail end of a group of people on a guided tour to join the ten minute tour the staff gives of the distillery.
There, we had a couple pina coladas and a sampling of all the available rums. I’m not huge on rum, so they were fine. Oddly, the one I liked the most was the one that had been aged the least and was the bottom shelf version of their rums.
National Gallery of the Bahamas
We ventured over to the National Gallery of the Bahamas. We got in, stood around for a bit waiting for someone to take the entrance fee to no avail and then just ventured through the museum. It is a couple of floors with a lot of Bahamian artist’s work. I liked it a lot, but I’m a bit of an art museum nerd.
Junkanoo Beach
We left and went to Junkanoo Beach. It is a big public beach between the cruise port and Fish Fry. When we got there, it was fairly crowded with people selling seating they would set up for you and with people selling drinks and food from the stalls lining the beach and road.
While there, it went from crowded around 3:00 pm to virtually empty by 5:00 pm as the cruise ships left. The water was fairly cold but really clear and blue. I snorkeled some and trailed a small school of fish for a bit.
Fish Fry
We cleaned up and headed to Fish Fry. There, we landed at a place called Oh Andros. It looked kind of small from the outside, but was pretty large inside. We got a table and settled in with a couple of beers and an order of Konch Fritters.
For dinner, I got some fried shrimp and had some konch salad. The food was really good and I would definitely go back.
HarryPotterObamaSonic10inu
Sunday night, we decided to find a bar to check out. We found a place called HarryPotterObamaSonic10inu. Evidently, it was named after a meme. That’s the first time I’ve been to a place named after a meme.
The bar had a decent amount of people in it. We had some daiquiris that were pretty good and probably the best we had on the trip. I drank a couple beers. The bar staff was friendly and were excited that we were there. It’s a bit of a locals bar, so they found it neat that we ventured in.
Day Three
On the third day, we headed over to Paradise Island to catch a tour to go snorkeling. On the way, we stopped at the Rum Cake Factory. It was day time again, so there was a tour group there when we got in. We picked up a small rum cake and tried it. It was fairly good.
Paradise Island
We walked to Paradise Island, which is a huge resort compound on an island just off of Nassau. It’s connected to Nassau by the Sidney Poitier Bridge and home to a bunch of hotels and casinos.
We were a bit early and the boat was leaving from a dock next to Margaritaville. So we had lunch at Margaritaville. It was pricey and not very good. So exactly what I expected but still disappointing.
Snorkeling Trip
We boarded a boat called the Flying Cloud and motored to Rose Island. Along the way, the captain and crew pointed out all of the fancy homes on private islands and who owned which house.
We anchored near the beach on Rose Island and they gave everyone snorkeling gear. We swam for about an hour over a coral reef and saw a ton of fish.
The trip was fairly inexpensive and a lot of fun. I’d do it again. The crew was great and all really nice to be around. They also had a cooler of drinks and they poured rum drinks for whomever wanted one on the way back to the dock.
Atlantis
From the dock, we walked over to Atlantis, which is a giant ass resort. It has a casino, a bunch of shops, restaurants, and most importantly, a bar my friend wanted to try called the Dilly Club.
We went to the casino where I quickly donated $20 to the house. From there, we walked through the aquarium they have, which was neat, and around the campus.
We settled on a place called Murray’s Deli for dinner. I got a meh hot dog that was resort priced. It was odd seeing the place full of families, none of which looked overly excited to be there.
The Dilly Club
After dinner, we went to the Dilly Club. We settled up to the bar and got a menu of tiki drinks. All the drinks we had were good and the bar staff was hella nice and good with recommendations. We got a couple samples of things they poured and had a bit left over after filling drinks.
They asked about our trip and when we said we went to Oh Andros for dinner, they were excited and the bartender said it was his favorite place on the island. I don’t know if that is part of charming the guests or genuine, but they knew the menu really well.
To me, the most amusing thing about The Dilly Club was watching the people in the bar. The range of people in there was wild.
There was a variety of couples who would show up, dump their kids off at a table, and then slam a couple of drinks quickly before ushering the kids out and off into the night. Half the kids had weird death stares from being uber tired.
There were also groups of people on vacation who would dip in, grab drinks, and then go to the restaurant they were waiting for. Then there were the obviously well off people who would step in, grab a drink, slam it, and take off. It was a lot of nice watches and jewelry on these people.
Last Day
For the last day in Nassau, we walked to Model Bakery where I got a cinnamon sugar twist that was solid. We then walked toward downtown for a bit before grabbing a taxi back to the airport. The taxi driver was one of the best guides I’ve had on any trip. He was nice and told us all about the island and areas we passed through.
The airport was busy and the oddest thing was that we got to go through US customs and immigration in the Bahamas. There are so many flights to the US from Nassau that they have a big ass section of the airport dedicated to those flights and allow you to go through the US customs process there instead of back in the States.
Overall Thoughts
I had fun in Nassau. I don’t know that I ever need to go back. It was about the perfect amount of time to have been there. The only real thing I would have done additionally would have been to try to find more local spots to check out.
The way everything was centered around the cruise port and ships being in felt weird to me. I don’t know that I really liked that since things sort of felt like they shut down when the ships left. The resort area was a bit much for me and I didn’t really care for it.
The Bahamian people were all hella nice. They were universally friendly. This trip made me want to check out a cruise and a stay at a resort. Neither of these are things I’ve done, but seeing so many people who were enjoying themselves made me want to try them out.