The Bahamas is about 700 islands and 2,400 cays spread across 800 kilometres of ocean, of which roughly 30 are inhabited. Nassau, on New Providence, holds around 70 percent of the population and receives the great majority of the visitors, most of them from cruise ships that dock in the middle of the town.
The islands people actually picture — the pink sand, the empty cays, the water that is a colour photographs struggle with — are the Out Islands, and they are a short flight or a boat ride away.
Nassau or the Out Islands
Nassau and Paradise Island have the big resorts, the casinos, the airport with the international connections and the cruise dock. The Cable Beach strip and Paradise Island are genuinely good beaches and the resorts on them are large and well run. It is also the busiest place in the country by a wide margin.
Harbour Island, a 45-minute flight then a short water taxi, is three miles of pink sand on the Atlantic side, golf carts instead of cars, and a small collection of hotels that have made it the most fashionable stretch of sand in the Caribbean.
The Exumas, an hour by air, are 365 cays with almost nothing on them: swimming pigs, sandbars that appear at low tide, and water clear enough to see the bottom at thirty metres.
The pink sand on Harbour Island, incidentally, is real. It comes from crushed red foraminifera shells mixed into the white coral sand, and it is most obvious at either end of the day.
The ten below are grouped by which.
Harbour Island
Three miles of pink sand, golf carts and no cars to speak of.
Pink Sands Resort occupies a beachfront estate with cottages in gardens, a famous bar and a reputation stretching back to when the island was a secret. It is the address on Harbour Island.
Pink Sands Resort
Harbour Island · 5★ · $$$$
Garden cottages above three miles of pink sand
Check availabilityThe Dunmore sits on the same beach as a small colonial-style property with a pool, a very good restaurant and a quieter tone.
The Rock House Hotel occupies a position on the beach with rooms in cottages, a beach club and a design-led interior.
The Rock House Hotel
Harbour Island · 5★ · $$$$
Beach club and the most design-led rooms on the island
Check availabilityCoral Sands Inn & Cottages sits in Dunmore Town on the harbour side with a pool, a bar that is the island's evening gathering point and a short cart ride to the pink sand.
Coral Sands Inn & Cottages
Dunmore Town · 4★ · $$$
The island's evening gathering point, cart ride to the sand
Check availabilityNassau and Paradise Island
The capital. Big resorts, the casino strip and the international airport.
The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, Bahamas occupies the former private estate of a Swedish industrialist on Paradise Island, with a twelfth-century French cloister in the gardens, a golf course and the best service in the country. It is quiet in a way nothing else in Nassau is.
The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, Bahamas
Paradise Island · 5★ · $$$$
A private estate with a twelfth-century cloister in the garden
Check availabilityRosewood Baha Mar sits on Cable Beach with an art collection, a spa, several restaurants and the most polished rooms in the capital.
Rosewood Baha Mar
Cable Beach, Nassau · 5★ · $$$$
Art collection and the most polished rooms in the capital
Check availabilitySLS at Baha Mar occupies a position on the same development with a rooftop pool, a lively ground floor and a younger tone.
SLS at Baha Mar
Cable Beach, Nassau · 5★ · $$$
Rooftop pool with the liveliest ground floor on the strip
Check availabilityGrand Hyatt Baha Mar sits within the same complex as the largest of the three, with a casino, a water park and full family facilities.
Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
Cable Beach, Nassau · 5★ · $$$
Casino, water park and full family facilities
Check availabilityThe Cove at Atlantis occupies the quiet corner of the Atlantis complex on Paradise Island with its own beach, a separate pool and access to everything next door without being inside it.
The Cove at Atlantis
Paradise Island · 5★ · $$$$
Its own beach and pool beside the larger complex
Check availabilityThe Exumas
An hour by air. Cays, sandbars and very little else.
Sandals Emerald Bay occupies a stretch of Emerald Bay on Great Exuma with a golf course on a peninsula, a marina and a long beach. It is the practical base for the cays.
What we have left off
The villa rentals across Harbour Island and the Exumas are excluded, and on islands where much of the best beachfront is privately owned they account for a great deal of the accommodation. They are houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Get out on the water. In the Exumas, the sandbars at low tide, the Thunderball Grotto and the swimming pigs at Big Major Cay are the standard day and it is worth doing.
On Harbour Island, ride a golf cart the length of the pink sand at either end of the day when the colour shows, and eat at the beach shacks and the small restaurants in Dunmore Town.
In Nassau, walk the colonial centre early before the ships land, see the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle, and get out to the western beaches.
Dive or snorkel. The Bahamas has some of the best wall diving and shark diving anywhere, and Andros has the third-largest barrier reef in the world.
Practical notes
Nassau has extensive direct connections from North America and Europe. Harbour Island is reached via North Eleuthera airport then a water taxi; the Exumas via George Town.
December to April is the dry season and peak, with the highest rates around Christmas. May, June and November are much better value. Hurricane season runs June to November with the peak risk from August to October.
Inter-island flights are small and schedules change; build slack around connections.
Explore 4 & 5 Star The Bahamas Hotels
Questions people actually ask
Is the pink sand actually pink?
Yes, from crushed foraminifera shells in the white sand, and it shows best in early morning and late afternoon light.
Nassau or the Out Islands?
Nassau for resorts, casinos and easy flights. The Out Islands for the beaches and the water that made the country famous.
How hard is it to reach Harbour Island?
A short flight from Nassau to North Eleuthera then a ten-minute water taxi. Straightforward, but it is a connection.
How many nights?
Seven. Two or three in Nassau either side of four on an Out Island works well.