Bahamas

Scattered like precious jewels over 1,500 square miles of clear tropical sea at the top of the Caribbean, the chain of 700 islands, uninhabited cays and large rocks that make up the The Bahamas covers just 5,382 square miles of land. Formed mainly of flat coral, with just a few gently rounded hills, the highest point in the entire archipelago is just 206 ft. But despite this shared topography, the character of each island is as individual as the 300,000 people who live here.
And as unique as the holiday you'll enjoy here.

Unwind on immeasurably beautiful beaches

The emerald and turquoise waters of the Bahamas archipelago naturally form breathtaking beaches. Seclusion... activities... countless meandering miles of sand - white or pink. Here where ocean meets land, the possible rewards are genuinely endless.

A different experience on every island

With each island in The Bahamas offering something different, your best plan is to hop on a plane or push out a boat and visit as many as time allows. Sample city living, island-style, by spending a few days in cosmopolitan Nassau with its duty free shops, golf, museums and restaurants. If it's romantic seclusion you're after, lie back and relax on the pristine white sand of Long Island's deserted beaches. If you're looking for adventure, experience the dive of a lifetime, exploring challenging wreck sites off the coast of San Salvador, snorkelling the clearest waters in the world or taking up the local sport of bonefishing. Get closer to nature and hop over to Inagua National Park to witness the unforgettable spectacle of nesting flamingos and other exotic wildlife. And if you've come in search of paradise, charter a sailboat and indulge in a blissfully tranquil voyage through the Exumas' 100 mile-long string of pristine cays.

Wherever you go you'll enjoy a welcome that's as warm as our tropical climate and hear stories that are as rich and colourful as our culture. But as to discovering which islands to visit, well you won’t know until you find out more about our 14 main islands which serve as 'jumping off points' for the other 686!

History

Although no written history exists before the late 15th century, the exciting discovery of drawings, pottery, tools and bones has proved that the islands we now know as The Bahamas were first inhabited as early as 300 – 400 AD.

The very first people, believed to have arrived from Cuba, were soon followed by Lucayan Indians, 40,000 of whom were living on the islands when Christopher Columbus set out to explore the New World and landed on San Salvador in 1492.

What to do?

Shark feeding
Nurse sharks, black tips, bull sharks, tiger sharks, great hammerheads and Caribbean Reef Sharks all love the clear blue waters of The Bahamas. Particularly the coasts of those islands fringing the deep water of the Tongue of the Ocean, including New Providence, the Exuma Cays and the outer reefs of the Abacos. And, whilst it’s always a thrill to get a close encounter with one of them, in The Bahamas you can often meet up with thirty or forty on a single dive!

Wreck diving

Now home to the ‘San Jacinto’, America’s first steamship that sank in the Abacos in 1865, the ‘Cienfeugos’ that sank in 1895 near Eleuthera, the ‘Frascate’ that went down near San Salvador in 1902, the clear, shallow waters of The Bahamas are littered with the wrecks of ships that came to grief here.

But venture out into deeper waters and you’ll discover a fascinating wealth of more recent wrecks that in many cases were sunk intentionally!

Hollywood film-makers started the trend, sinking wrecks off the shores of New Providence for the James Bond movies, and the scaffold structure of the ‘Vulcan Bomber’ from ‘Thunderball’, now encrusted with colourful invertebrates and sponges, remains a spectacular dive site.