Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands – The Lowdown

So, most people are familiar with Nassau and Paradise island, but what is there to see in all the other islands?  Essentially the Bahamas, and the neighbouring country; Turks and Caicos, are all about beaches, chillin’, watersports and marine wildlife.  Aside from Nassau on New Providence island, cruise ships tend to visit Freeport on Grand Bahama Island and Grand Turk Island, plus a number of private islands, owned by specific cruise lines; Princess has Princess Cays (pronounced ‘Keys’), NCL has Great Stirrup Cay, Holland America has Half-Moon Cay, and  Royal Caribbean has CocoCay.  To be honest, all the private islands are pretty similar, focusing on beach life and water sports.  Grand Bahama Island offers plenty of duty-free shopping, plus scuba diving and fishing trips, whilst Grand Turk Island offers a more low-key version, with whale-watching trips from January to April.

You want to visit some of the other islands?  Well, you’ll need to abandon the ship completely and spend longer on land, as you’ll need to take a ferry or short flight do do any significant exploring, so you may want to consider cruising out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale for a week, combined with a full week of exploring the islands of the Bahamas; after all, some of the more exotic islands, such as North Eleuthera and Exuma, are only a short flight of about an hour or so from the Florida coast.  Don’t want to take any extra flights?  Consider the fast ferry across to the fun island of Bimini, which is located approximately halfway between Florida and the Bahamas, and offers a microcosm of most things you can find in the Bahamas, including one of my favourite activities…shark diving…yes, you can dive with hammerhreads, and even tiger sharks…this part of the world is amongst the best for diving with large predators, if that’s your thing!