Grand Bahama Getaway

When visiting this island, there are several must-do's. The best time we had was snorkeling at Paradise Cove. The Port Lucaya Marketplace is another attraction you must visit.

Quick Tips:

I've heard over and over again how expensive the food is in The Bahamas. I completely disagree with this. If you are looking for inexpensive dining options, visit the Port Lucaya Marketplace. There are many restaurants to dine at here if you are a traveler on a budget. If you want to have a few drinks and not break the bank, the marketplace is also the place to go.

Rum Runners, in the center of the marketplace, offers beer specials: two-for- Kaliks or Red Stripes and two-for- Coronas. If you are drinking on a budget, try the official beer, Kalik. Most of the bars offer these at a low cost.

Best Way To Get Around:

I really saw no point in renting a car while I was there. Taxis are readily available. We arrived via the port, which offers taxi service. The taxi fare from the port to the Lucaya hotels is . The taxi drivers here will load the taxis with other passengers, allowing you to split the fare. We ended up paying on the way to our hotel and total on the return, as there were fewer people. You may also take a bus. To go around within Lucaya is . The buses are a great way to get around. Like the taxis, the bus is just a van that is driven around from stop to stop collecting people. I definitely recommend taking the bus instead of a taxi if you are just going around Freeport/Lucaya.

I absolutely loved the Pelican Bay Hotel. We stayed in a huge standard room overlooking the pool and marina. The accommodations were tropical and quaint. I was particularly impressed with the room size. The room was extra large, with two double beds; feather pillows, which are standard at this hotel; a table for two; and a wet bar, with plenty of extra room to walk around and not feel cramped. The room also had a balcony with two adorable wooden lounge chairs. We spent quite a bit of time just relaxing on our balcony. I was also impressed with the bathroom amenities. The amenities were Gilchrist and Soames, which are seen in quite a few four-star hotels. I was ecstatic when I saw that they had even given us a loofah.

Guests of the Pelican Bay Hotel receive a continental breakfast each morning. This is not your typical continental breakfast of cereal and pastries. They also offered fresh fruit, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, bagels, and English muffins, as well as an assortment of teas, coffee, and orange, cranberry, and grapefruit juice.

As a hotel guest, you have three different pools at your disposal; the Yellowtail Bar and Grill, which has excellent food; and the option of paying $5 to use the amenities at the Westin right across the street.

The staff members at the Pelican Bay were all very nice, polite, and happy to make recommendations and arrangements for things to do. Stanley, one of the bellmen, was particularly helpful.

Overall, I highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to Grand Bahama Island. This hotel is right in the middle of everything. I am already planning my next trip there.

The International Bazaar is one of the main attractions in Freeport. There were quite a few inexpensive souvenir shops here where you could find some great deals. The bazaar also houses a local straw market and some restaurants. The bazaar is supposed to have different themed shops from around the world. Unfortunately, when we went, most of the shops here were closed and had not reopened from last year’s hurricane. The section of the bazaar that had the most shops open was the Oriental section. There were three separate shops open here. All had oriental clothing, fans, bags, and shoes. They also had the best deals on souvenirs in these stores.

Thursdays during the summer they have the Junkanoo Festival. There are many locals who dress up in native costumes, carrying around drums and other instruments and playing island music. Overall, the experience was fun, but I would recommend visiting The Port Lucaya Marketplace over this one.

I have been to quite a few casinos in my lifetime, and I have to say that this was one of the worst. The casino is extremely small. There is not really much of a selection of slot machines available. There are about five or five types of regular slots and about the same number of different video slots.

I was bored and ready to leave in about 15 minutes. The slot machines pretty much ate my money and do not pay very much at all. I started out playing the $0.50 machine and went through all of the money I put in about 2 minutes into playing. I did not win a single coin. My boyfriend had pretty much the same experience on the $0.25 machines.