Going to the Bahamas

[Beau Cassidy]

I just booked a trip with the new Ladyfriend for August 19 thru 22. Looking at the Atlantis Coral Towers. Any of you folks ever been there? Any good ideas on what to do besides the obvious.

[jsam]

Would you mind posting your address and where you hide you guns and other valuables since you told everyone when you will be gone?

[MtGun44]

I always go on a sailboat, we spent the days snorkeling and diving, some on the
beach but not much. I have been mostly to the out islands like Berries and
Eleuthera, Abacos. Abacos have excellent close in to the beach reefs on the
Atlantic side, you can fly to Marsh Harbor from anywhere in the islands, water taxi
over to Green Turtle Cay, which has a few nice small hotels and great snorkeling
without hiring a boat.

Away from the beaches and reefs these islands are mostly just another third world
$#**hole, IMO. Really enjoy the diving, seeing a few sights like lighthouses, but
I don't drink or gamble or play golf so most of the "normal" stuff is lost on me. If
you like these things they apparently have them in good number. August is going
to be really hot and humid, but we don't have AC on the boat and I'm sure you will
in your hotel.

Bill

[Bloodman14]

I offer a friendly warning based on a recent essay that was presented in class; DO NOT VENTURE TOO FAR OFF THE BEATEN PATH!!! Stay as much as you can in the resort area or beaches. Apparently, the Bahamas are seeing an increase in petty crime; the story that was related in class was that a sister and BIL had gone down there a few years ago, decided to visit the locals, and were robbed at gunpoint. They seem to like their gun control laws! Don't mean to put a damper on the fun, but please be careful: forewarned is forearmed, as it were.

[OBXPilgrim]

Never tried the tire shops down there. Let is know what wheelweights are going for.

[enfield]

you know how much gun money your wastin on a trip like that ! crazy what luv will do. tell her the trips been cancelled and buy a nice old lever gun instead, or single action revolver, or military surplus bolt gun in your favourite caliber etc. etc.

[Geraldo]

In mid to late August it's a good idea to keep an eye on this:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

A co-worker of my wife's owns a place in the Bahamas. I think all they do is sit on the beach or buy stuff. AFAIK the only stuff to do there is the obvious: fishing, beach, diving, gambling, drinking, piracy, etc.

If you've never been before it will most likely be fun, but hot and humid. Be sure to drink something more than just rum.

[waksupi]

Actually, just watching people drive there can be entertaining. Narrow streets, with not real good drivers. Take a taxi or bus to get around. I remember an island I was on, had a Harley Davidson shop. Not a Harley in sight, but they sold lots of T shirts!
Some of the islands have neat old fortresses to check out, and pirate lore galore. Snorkeling is fun to do.
Also, most islands have local straw markets, where you can pick up cheap T shirts, Panama hats, Cuban cigars, and cheap top shelf booze. If you get your hair corn rowed, take pictures for us!
Try to get out to see the sights early in the day, when it is cooler. I'm betting you will stick pretty close to air conditioning, or the water later in the day.

[Recluse]

Away from the beaches and reefs these islands are mostly just another third world
$#**hole
Bill

That is a stone cold fact.

We were looking to fly our plane there, and then I was reminded of two things by an old military pal:

1. The entire country is a (bowel movement) hole except for a few acres of tourist-destination beaches and shops.

2. The gun control there is draconian.

I even called their ministry and asked if I could declare a personal handgun during the duration of our stay since we would be flying from Texas, in our own personal aircraft, and would be spending the night along the way in several U.S. towns.

A very stiff, unapologetic British accent very rudely told me no, I could not declare the firearm, that there was no need for a firearm on their little island paradise, and that if I were caught with one--

I interrupted and told him to fornicate off and hung up.

Told the wife we'd fly to the Florida Keys instead.

Every time I see a hurricane approaching the Bahams, I root for it.

:coffee:

[waksupi]

True on the gun stuff. Even the possession of a single bullet, or casing, can get you into jail.

[Buckshot]

............. In 1971 courtesy of the US Navy, while on our way to the Indian Ocean we stopped at Kingston, Jamaica. There was a lot of folks on the pier to see us come in (just a humble Destroyer) but possibly an event? There was a very attractive gal on the pier trying to toss bottles of Coke to the line handlers on the sea & anchor detail on the main deck. I was on the 01 level aft (staying out of the way) and found out later one of the chiefs made her stop as I guess she wasn't too good at it :-) The bottles had a business card for a club rubber banded on.

I don't think the pier we tied up at is the one Princess Lines uses, but here were plenty of people wanting to sell you stuff, or take you places ..........in addition to other stuff. I went ashore with 2 buddies. We took a sight seeing cab ride and it was all pretty neat. We walked around some and I bought a kind of a sarong type dress thing for my girlfriend for a couple bucks. I had my dad's old Leica split image rangefinder 35mm camera and got some photo's. We ended up at a club called the Chantaclaire (pronounced like that but I disremember the spelling). There was several others of the crew there too. Liberty was up at 2400 but I don't recall the trip back to the ship. I did wake up in my rack clothed but my shoes were off and my wallet was under my pillow, so thank God for shipmates!

Before hitting Recife, Brazil we stopped at Port Au Spain, Trinidad but I had the duty, and like at Jamaica we were only there one night, leaving before noon the next day. I wouldn't mind going back to Recife.

..............Buckshot

[MtGun44]

If you arrive in the Bahamas in a boat, guns are no problem. We used to go during the
height of the drug problems (not like they have gone away, but I could tell you some really
interesting stories about places we have been) and went heavily armed with milspec
.308 battle rifles and handguns and mucho ammo.

Registration when you officially go thru customs and get your cruising permit was a
simple process, and was relaxed and polite. We were told to keep the guns on the boat
and there were no problems, no particularly significant raised eyebrows as we hauled
out some significant machinery, either.

Knowing that you could pretty much shred most small boats with a .308 battle rifle at
fairly long range was comforting, but we never actually needed to unlimber any hardware.

As far as "off the beaten path", IMO, the farther the better. A few miles from a resort on
the big islands could be pretty sporty. Out islands life is calm and polite from the locals
and we never had any fear whatsoever from them. Occasional hotshots with big boats and
lots of gold chains were worrying, but they were in the bigger areas. Like most places,
folks that fish or farm for a living are pretty honest and nonviolent, friendly to strangers
or just ignore you.

The ‘third world ***hole’ is reserved for the biggest few islands away from the resorts.
As you get way out on the smallest islands people are real friendly and help each other.
Like stopping on an island after a couple of weeks for some fresh bread. You ask around
and there is a lady that ‘runs a bakery’ nearby. Actually, she bakes fantastic bread to
order in her own home kitchen and sells it out the back door. You leave an order and
pick up a few loafs of fresh bread the next day. Excellent.

The is a tiny ‘monastery’ on the top if the highest hill on maybe Cat Island (I forget).
The one monk that lived out his life there built a very small one room house and a
tiny maybe 10 person stone church on the top of the highest ‘mountain’ on the island
(maybe 200 ft?).
He also cut hundreds of steps into the native coral rock to make a long stairway to the
top, complete with religious carvings on the sides. He had died years earlier but the
place had not been vandalized and the church was apparently still in use at times.
Tiny places like this are very interesting to see, far off the beaten path.

The tour companies don't go there.

Do some snokeling. You haven't seen anything until you've had a pair of 7 FOOT
diameter stingrays fly by in close formation! Some of the reefs are really fantastic, but
the best are far away from the resorts, in my experience.

Bill

[OBXPilgrim]

Told the wife we'd fly to the Florida Keys instead.



Ah yes, the Conch Republic!!

Haven't been there since the early 70's on Boy Scout campouts - I sure loved it then. Scoutmaster was a returned Vietnam vet radio operator. We did things his way, but had lots of fun. Learn things that weren't in the boy scout manuals also.

Good times, better memories. I hope it hasn't changed much, but I'm sure it has.

[Recluse]

If you arrive in the Bahamas in a boat, guns are no problem.

Bill

And if you arrive in the Bahamas via personal aircraft (unless it's a bizjet or something similar), guns are a huge problem according to the Ministry.

I'll take the Keys. Got a friend who has a condo there we can use anytime we want and he leaves all his snorkeling and dive gear there for his guests--and it's top-shelf stuff.

Easy to fly, easy to land, no declarations (ie customs), and our CHL's are reciprocal with Florida's.

I'm not too big on traveling out of the U.S. anymore. Not with this resident in the White House. Did enough international sight-seeing in the service.

Exception being that we're looking to venture to Australia and New Zealand in the next few years.

If the elections go (further) south on us in November and again in 2012, we'll be looking at Honduras or Costa Rica for residency.

:coffee:

[2wheelDuke]

I agree with what everyone else has said here. I personally haven't been to the Bahamas yet, but I've heard tons of stories since they're so close and almost everyone I know has been over.

The resorts can offer a great experience if you're into that sort of thing, but they charge you top dollar. There's some cool experiences off the beaten path, but you are rolling the dice a bit, and forget having your own legitimate protection. And of course the bad guys have no problem getting their hands on whatever weaponry they want.

Since you're mentioning a lady friend, that explains it all really. The ladies tend to love that whole resort experience. If you've got the money, go for it. You can't take it with you.

[BD]

Parts of the Bahamas are beautiful, (generally the parts without people). Parts are the pits, (generally the parts with a lot of people). Harbor Island is nice, and there are some good folks there. It's pricey, but if you eat local, and stay out of the resorts, it's not too bad.

Norman's Cay is beautiful, but some pretty awful things happened there in the past. About 5 years ago I was contacted concerning some new development plans there, but as far as I know nothing has come of them so far.

I lived in the Caribbean for five years. If I was to make broad generalizations they might go something like this: The British islands are fairly straight laced, The Dutch islands are corrupt, the French islands are fun and populated by nare-do wells, and the American islands are crime ridden.

The simple advice for big tourist areas is: If you don't know where you're going at night, don't go out at night.

BD

[9.3X62AL]

I understand the tourist draw to warm, humid places like the Bahamas--but living in a VERY warm and dry place already, that sort of vacation doesn't move me a whole lot.

I'm another who isn't real keen on leaving the USA--but one nation I'm VERY happy to visit is Canada. I suppose the water temps in Great Slave Lake discourage most water sports, but the fishing there and surrounding the region more than compensate for that loss. Canada doesn't get in a huff if you want to bring a rifle or shotgun along, either. Fact is, Canada is not very "foreign" at all. It's nice to visit a country where the people don't hate us, too.

[Sonoma2k2]

i went to Jamaica about 5 yrs ago and ran around at the hedonism resort. totally awesome trip. resort was great.the beer was great and i had a great time hahaha. even picked me up a sugar momma down there that came to roanoke to see me every month for a few days... those are gone now and getting married next july.