Bahamas Travel Guide

Bahamas OVERVIEW

Do you ever wonder what celebrities do with all that dough they get for their contributions to the mass media industry? They buy islands in the Bahamas. While Eddie Murphy and Johnny Depp make do with just one, Nicolas Cage went the whole hog and owns two. And there's a whole list of those "more indigent" front cover names who only possess their properties here and there, including Sean Connery (what better place is there to go golfing?) and John Travolta.

So you think if it's good for the bevy of major leaguers who land on this paradise on Earth every now and then, it's certainly too good for you? Well, a Bahamas trip is not a cheapskate party and you'll inevitably have to loosen up your purse strings if you want your conch served at a top-notch restaurant in legendary Nassau. Much as it is advisable to try the staple of the Bahamian diet, here it's better to watch your buck so that you can still slip into the moonlit dock of the Pirates Museum, board a replica of "Revenge" and get a taste of the rum-smelling tavern aura. Nassau will not necessarily leave you heavily in the red, especially that the sheltered harbor, mansions, cathedrals and 18th-century fortresses, all beautifully preserved and permeated with the historic feel, can be gloated over absolutely for free and for as long as your feet can take it.

The neighboring Paradise Island, with it international glamor, 685 acres of pure bliss, and attractions ranging from all that's aquatic to all that's only limited by your imagination, is truly the way life should be lived. But beachside yoga classes, shopping at cafe-lined Bay Street, or a night of dancing, let alone basic expenses, will certainly cost you a couple of Bahamian dollars more than in the Out Islands.

Here, away from the glitz, the windswept beaches, views of a tempestuous blue sea, and endless opportunities for eco-tourism altogether rise up to images produced when we're asked to free-associate on "the Bahamas", plus the people seem to be kind of nicer and less nonchalant. With the pace of life a notch or two slower, the Out Islands will more readily provide a hideaway from the hubbub of the pocket-draining, snob-ridden spots (yet don't expect radical differences in prices). The idyllic Abacos is cut out for romantic weddings and honeymoons, Andros boasts the world's third-largest reef, wild dolphins offshore Bimini come really close and personal, Cat Island is 240 square meters of wilderness sprinkled with ruined slave huts, sparsely populated Acklins has this certain misanthropic appeal if you need it, while the pink sand beaches, New England-style architecture and exquisite resorts of Harbor Island make for a mix that gives you all- luxury and high-spirited company or simplicity and seclusion.

Chuck Norris can't be wrong. And it doesn't take long before you see why all of them want to have a pearl from the Bahamian necklace just for themselves. Selfish, but totally understandable.