The Bahamas is known for its pristine beaches and cruise ships. We went to Nassau, which has beautiful beaches, but it has the “worst” beaches in all of the Bahamas. Exuma, Harbour Island and Eleuthera are home to some of the Bahamas best beaches but those islands were too far away and would be very pricey to get there from Nassau all for a days trip. Instead, we opted for island hoping around Nassau. After browsing online for a couple of weeks, I came across a 3 island, 4 stop tour on a speed boat booked through Get your Guide. The tour is actually run by Shore 2 Shore and was reasonably priced compared to some of the other island tours in the Bahamas.
The tour came with lunch, free soft drinks and rum punch with lunch. The tour consisted of snorkeling, turtling viewing, swimming on a private beach and feeding the pigs of Nassau. The package was on sale but when selecting the dates it wasn’t as cheap as the original sale promoted, but still cheaper than when I first started looking. One problem with the pricing and with Nassau in general is, they make you pay for the baby. Our little girl is only one year old and sat on our lap in the boat, yet we still had to pay, mind you, only half the price for her. The total was $470 USD after taxes. With how little value the CAD dollar has, the price was a killer. But anyways, I was a bit worried about bringing our baby on a speed boat, but it was an option with the tour so I assumed it’d be safe. It was a really fast boat and the driving was fun, weaving in and out of the waves. It was a lot of fun for us and our laughing/smiling baby. The gentleman in the back who was vomiting uncontrollably would beg to differ though. In addition to speeding through the Caribbean, the crew was lively and the music was loud. It was a blast.
Now for the islands and stops itself.... our first stop was pig feeding on Athol Island. And on our way to Athol Island, we had some wild boating and saw some celebrity homes on Nassau such as Jay-Z, Elon Musk, Dj Khaled and a few more. When we arrived at the island, I was a bit unimpressed. The beach was remote but small and rocky and there were very few palm trees in sight. Although later I found out that palm trees on the beach in Nassau and its surrounding islands aren’t as common as they are on other Caribbean islands. We were taken to shore on a banana boat pulled by a Jet Ski and were given a cup full of cantaloupe and a skewer. We waited in the water as the pigs were herded from the bush. It was cool, but I spent most of the time trying to get good photos and videos to no avail. We had about 45 minutes on the island with the last 20 minutes relaxing around. There wasn’t much room on the beach to swim with the rocks, but the first stops mission was to feed the pigs and that we did.
The Get your Guide webpage advertised going to Pearl Island, but unfortunately, we never got to go as it is a private island and arranges tours on its own, but we passed by it and took a look on the way to our next stop, snorkeling. Snorkeling was fun, except for the poor sucker who had to scream for help. It was actually the guy who was vomiting uncontrollablys dad. The son began yelling to the crew that his father (despite wearing a lifejacket and being in calm waters) was drowning. One of the crew members dove in and “saved” the poor bastard. I guess that family had seen better days. But the snorkeling was good, there were a lot of fish and the reef was vast. The reef was deep, but the water was crystal clear and some of the clearest I’ve seen so it was easy to see the fish, some swimming at the top and some all the way at the bottom. We were provided with snorkeling gear, but I brought my own anyways.
Finally, we were off the Green Cay, which I was really excited for. I saw pictures and the small island looked tranquil and beautiful. Unfortunately, due to conservation efforts, we were not allowed to swim with the turtles or go on shore. But we parked near the shore and watched as the turtles came up for air. I would have liked to swim with the turtles or go on shore, but I guess it was for the best. And anyways we saw about 20 turtles come up for air, and even when they were below the surface we could see them quite far down because of how clear the water was.
Then, my favorite stop of the day was the private beach on Rose Island for lunch and swimming. The lunch was a small salad, a wrap and chips. We were also given unlimited rum punch when stopped for lunch. It was a beautiful and remote beach with some of the best water I’ve ever swam in. The sand was powder white and the water was crystal clear and warm. I flew my drone a bit, ate some lunch, had a few rums and swam. It was a beautiful beach but I could have used another hour on the remote island.
After our short stay on the beach we headed back to the harbour for the end of the tour. The tour was a lot of fun and we saw cool places but a few things were underwhelming, such as skipping Pearl Island and seeing the turtles from afar on the boat. Overall though it was good, but pricey. I have done similar tours before such as a Catamaran in Cuba which was a bit cheaper and probably a better tour, island hoping in Cartagena, Colombia and a tour to Flamenco Beach in Puerto Rico which was pricey but was pretty much a ferry that served lunch. The Shore 2 Shore Island Hoping tour was the most expensive, but it is the Bahamas, we do have a baby now and a few more years of inflation. Compared to the other tours it was about middle of the pack. Despite the shortcomings of the tour, the last island, where we felt like marooned pirates on a remote island in paradise, made up for it. The boat was comfortable, the crew was great and we saw some memorable things. It was a good 4 hours but I feel we could have used another hour or two.
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