Bargains in the Bahamas? You Bet

You don’t need to own a yacht or employ a chaffeur to afford and enjoy the Bahamas. But it helps to be resourceful.

Ads for luxurious Bahamian hotels/casinos are plentiful. You might even think they represent your only option for accommodations.

Not true. Central Nassau has numerous smaller hotels, as well as several comfortable guest houses costing under $35 a night per person in high season (that’s mid-December through the week after Easter).

There is even one place on ritzy Paradise Island where two can stay for $80 nightly, including two meals a day. Other, smaller establishments on New Providence Island can accommodate you within this same price range.

You have to plan your trip carefully to cut costs. For example, the taxi ride from the airport to Cable Beach, downtown Nassau or Paradise Island can cost as much as $20 each way, which is a $40 round-trip tab before you even get started. You can save this with a rental car ($50 to $75 daily, $175 to $400 weekly) or a reservation at a big hotel for a courtesy van.

However, you can get around it all by sharing your cab with others seeking to shave costs. The hearty can walk about one mile to the road running past the airport to catch a jitney bus for under $1. Local color, conversation and Bahamian/Caribbean music are added free. It gets you right into the swing of things.

As for the cheap hotels, many are within walking distance of downtown Bay Street. One is Mignon Guest House (P.O. Box N-786, Nassau, Bahamas), a small second-floor place on Market Street, two blocks off Bay Street. It has eight rooms. Bathrooms are at both ends of the hallway. Rooms are $22 to $30 nightly per person in or out of season.

Other Bahamian bargains are at Marietta’s Hotel on Okra Hill Road just off Bay Street near the Paradise Island Bridge. It has a very good, inexpensive restaurant. Rooms run $28 to $35 per person. Dinners are famous for fresh Bahamian seafood, priced $6 to $12, and for superior cooking in a friendly atmosphere.

The Parliament is a small hotel set among government buildings off Rawson Square at 18 Parliament St. Doubles run about $70 nightly. The Harbor Moon Hotel on Bay Street charges $64 for a double room, and is a close walk from the Paradise Island Bridge.

Olivia’s Guest House on Blue Hill Road is a little larger, better landscaped and also slightly fancier than many of the other hotels. It has 21 rooms, rates are $56 to $72 double, and it’s on the edge of the downtown area.

The Top of the Line

Nettie Symonette’s Casaurinas Resort and Apartment Hotel (P.O. Box N-4016, Nassau) is top-of-the-line in this field. It is on Cable Beach and has its own small beach-front. Rates are $75 to $124 daily for rooms, studios, two- and three-room apartments, and town houses accommodating up to six people.

Dining on home-baked breads, conch fritters, sauteed grouper and coconut cake have delicious benefits at Nettie’s Round House, which serves multicourse dinners for under $15. Albrion’s is across West Bay Street from the hotel, with most dinners running around $12 to $20.

Other inexpensive hotels you might want to check here, in the most expensive part of the Bahamas, include the Parthenon Hotel, P.O. Box N-930, West Street, Nassau. Rooms are $44 double. Kelton lodge, 4th Terrace, Centreville, offers a four-day, three-night package at $98 per person double, including free airport transfers.

The Orchard Garden Apartment Hotel on Village Road, two blocks from Montagu Beach, has cottages and studios on two garden-filled acres. Rates from $30 per person double, kids under 10 free.

Buena Vista, Box N-564, Nassau, on Delancey Street, overlooks the city from a hilltop. It is a gracious, 200-year-old estate with only six rooms for guests, with rates $50 to $60 nightly. A good and expensive restaurant adjoins, with dinners mostly around $25.

The best deal on Paradise Island is the Yoga Retreat, Box N-7550, Nassau. It is on a private beach, with 35 rooms and cottages that would best be called functional, not fancy. Cost is $80 nightly for two, including a vegetarian breakfast and dinner. Also has a pool and tennis.

Nice Balconies

More possibilities include the Dolphin Hotel, close to downtown on West Bay Street, Box N-3236, Nassau. Rates are $63 to $78 double. The Pilot House Hotel on East Bay Street, across from the Paradise Island Bridge (Box N-4941, Nassau), has a toll-free phone number, (800) 327-5118, and rates from $65 to $90 double. This is another slightly fancier place with nice balconies and free water-taxi service to Paradise Island and downtown.

Orange Hill Beach Inn, on the Beach Road near the airport, has nice rooms in a neat old house for $63 to $80 double. This pretty place is enhanced by a good, bargain dining room. Box N-8583, Nassau.

Despite all these attractive prices, be aware that all hotels and guest houses add a 6% government tax to room rates. Many add a 15% service charge, while a good many add energy surcharges as well as housekeeping charges. These can boost your bill considerably.

You’ll find many free things to do in Nassau. You can climb Blackbeard’s Tower on East Bay Street near Fox Hill Road. It overlooks the harbor and the city.

The Bacardi Distillery off Adeleaide Road on the south shore of New Providence Island provides rum drinks and liqueurs after the free factory tour, which can be taken weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. After the distillery tour, you might enjoy sitting in on a Supreme Court session on Parliament Square, where old British-style justice is enacted and enforced.

There are many pretty and old churches, including St. Andrews’ and St. Matthews’, as well as several forts you can climb around, including Charlotte, Montagu and Fincastle.

Touristy Crafts

The Bay Street markets and shops include the straw market for touristy crafts, T-shirts and straw goods. It is near the harbor and downtown. Shops along the main streets offer duty-free goods such as alcohol, jewelry, china, electronic items and imported clothing.

On the far end of downtown, near the Paradise Island Bridge, you can find boatmen filling market stalls with fresh foods, vegetables, fruits and fresh fish.

The Botanical Gardens, off West Bay Street near Ft. Charlotte, is an 18-acre site featuring 600 species of tropical flowers and plants. Admission is 50 cents for adults, 25 cents for children.

Ardastra Gardens, on Chippingham Road off West Bay Street, also near Ft. Charlotte, features a world-famous flamingo show. Admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children 3 to 12 years.

A Strange Garden

The Versailles Gardens and French Cloister on Paradise Island, next to the Ocean Club, is one of Nassau’s strangest gardens. It has a 12th-Century French cloister, originally from the collection of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.

The gardens are filled with tropical plants and shrubs, along with incongruous statuary, including a large bronze of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt peering across a courtyard at an equally mammoth Stanley Livingstone, the famous explorer. A reclining nude sculpture of Josephine, Napoleon’s wife, rests between them.

Night times jump in Nassau. Of course, there are the pricey hotels with their Las Vegas-style revues and busy casinos on Cable Beach and Paradise Island. They fill with tourists. Bahamians are not allowed to gamble in the strictly regulated casinos.

The Waterloo Disco, at Waterloo Bridge on East Bay Street, is one place east of town where you can find local people dancing to recorded music inside or outdoors around a pool, while a band plays reggae and pop hits.

A highly recommended bargain dining spot is the Fish Net, on East Bay Street across from Paradise Island Bridge. It features all-you-can-eat dinners of fresh fish or conch. The most expensive dinner on the menu is $14, most well under that.

One of the best ways to get around is by jitney, vans or buses that traverse Nassau’s downtown and hotel districts for 50 cents to $1. The vehicles ply all the side roads and give you a local’s eye view of the city. This is a great way to spend a few hours checking things out.

If you want to get even closer to the people, there is a well-organized people-to-people program that matches visitors with residents of similar interests, backgrounds or hobbies for talks, perhaps a home-cooked meal or possibly an island tour.

About a thousand Nassau residents are registered for this program, and there is no service charge. Contact any U.S. branch of the Bahamas Tourist Office for arrangements or the BTO in Nassau.

For any additional information, contact the Bahamas Tourist Office, 3450 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 208, Los Angeles 90010, or phone (213) 385-0033.

Good bargain information is also available in “Fielding’s Guide to Bermuda and the Bahamas” at your library or bookstore.

A Bahamas Reservation Service is at (800) 327-0787. It handles 11,000 hotel rooms at more than 100 hotels. Unfortunately, many of the real bargains are in the 3,000 other rooms not listed by the reservation service, although the toll-free number is definitely worth a try.