A significant percentage of those islands are technically cays, or coral reef islands, and most are uninhabited. Since winning its independence from the U.
Tourism, in particular, is the main thing driving the economy here, so locals tend to cater to visitors and are very welcoming. This video is commented by various personalities and professionals related to the tourist activity and lifestyle of the Bahamas. The Bahamas are made up of more than islands. At the time, it was populated by Arawak Indians. The British first arrived in , and the Bahamas officially became a colony in Due to its long history with Great Britain, the Bahamas continues to be highly anglicized.
English is the official language, and Christianity is practiced by nearly everyone who lives there. Indeed, the country is very religious and boasts the highest ratio of churches in the Caribbean. Though the Bahamas consist of thousands of islands, only a handful get any real attention from tourists. New Providence Island is home to Nassau, the capital.
Grand Bahama is best known for its amazing underwater cave systems. Many cruise lines own and operate private resort islands as well. Most of the islands in the Bahamas are long, flat coral reef formations.
Smatterings of small, rounded hills appear here and there in some areas. The highest point, Mt. Alvernia, is 63 meters high.
You can fill your days boating around the islands, noshing on cracked conch, swilling local rum and splashing about in the year-round degree waters. You can also check out art galleries, casinos, forts, museums, monuments and much more. The official currency is the Bahamian dollar, but American currency is widely accepted too.
Nassau is a true feast for the senses. The air is thick with the sweet aroma of tropical flora, locals can be heard bargaining over jewelry, rum cakes and coins at the duty-free shops of Bay Street and cotton candy-colored Georgian-style buildings nearly glow in the historic district. The capital of the Bahamas has a high-energy vibe that will cure any case of cabin fever and delight even the most well-traveled visitors. Package deals are easily found.
Set sail or hop on a short commuter flight for one of the Out Islands, such as Andros, the Exumas, or the Abacos, and you'll find fewer crowds -- and often lower prices, too. Though some of the Out Islands are accessible mainly or only by boat, it's still worth your while to make the trip if you like the idea of having an entire beach to yourself. These are really the places to get away from it all. New Providence isn't the largest Bahamian island, but it's the nation's historic heart, with a strong maritime tradition and the country's largest population , It offers groves of palms and casuarinas; sandy, flat soil; the closest thing in The Bahamas to urban sprawl; and superb anchorages sheltered from rough seas by nearby Paradise Island.
New Providence also has the country's busiest airport and is dotted with hundreds of villas owned by foreign investors. Its two major resort areas are Cable Beach and Nassau. Cable Beach is a glittering beachfront strip of hotels, restaurants, and casinos; only Paradise Island has been more developed. Often, deciding between Cable Beach and Paradise Island isn't so much a choice of which island you prefer as a choice of which hotel you prefer. But it's easy to sample both, since it takes only about 30 minutes to drive between the two.
Nassau, the Bahamian capital, isn't on a great stretch of shoreline and doesn't have as many first-rate hotels as either Paradise Island or Cable Beach -- with the exception of the British Colonial Hilton, which has a small private beach. The main advantages of Nassau are its colonial charm and lower price point.
Its accommodations may not be ideally located, but they are relatively inexpensive, sometimes even during the winter high season. You can base yourself here and commute easily to the beaches at Paradise Island or Cable Beach.
Some travelers even prefer Nassau because it's the seat of Bahamian culture and history -- not to mention the shopping mecca of The Bahamas. If high-rise hotels and glittering casinos are what you want, alongside some of the best beaches in The Bahamas, there is no better choice than Paradise Island, directly off Nassau's coast. It has the best food, entertainment, hotels, and terrific beaches and casinos.
Its major drawbacks are that it's expensive and often overcrowded. With its colorful history but unremarkable architecture, Paradise Island remains one of the most intensely marketed pieces of real estate in the world. The sands and shoals of the long, narrow island protect Nassau's wharves and piers, which rise across a narrow channel only m ft. More recent investors have included Merv Griffin. The island today is a carefully landscaped residential and commercial complex with good beaches, lots of glitter some of it tasteful, some of it way too over-the-top , and many diversions.
The island's name derives from the Spanish term gran bajamar "great shallows" , which refers to the shallow reefs and sandbars that, over the centuries, have destroyed everything from Spanish galleons to English clippers on these shores. Thanks to the development schemes of U. Casinos, beaches, and restaurants are now plentiful. The compensation for that is a lower price tag on just about everything. This island, especially popular with families, also offers the best hiking in The Bahamas and some of the finest sandy beaches.
Cotton from the south was the main commodity of exchange. During the prohibition era in the United States, from to , The Bahamas again prospered because of its proximity to the mainland. This time the islands supplied liquor for American rumrunners. The islands were also used by British and American units hunting German submarines. In the post-war years, The Bahamas has become one of the world's foremost vacation resorts. In about 40, visitors wintered in The Bahamas.
In , according to statistics supplied by the Ministry of Tourism, the total visitor arrivals rose by 4. Growth in sea arrivals abated to 5. Tourism now accounts for just over 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Financial services, an important engine of The Bahamian economy, are responsible for 15 percent of GDP. The number of banks and trust companies licensed to operate within The Bahamas decreased by 17 to during The vast majority of them are branches, subsidiaries or affiliates of major banking institutions in North and South America and Western Europe.
In addition, data from the Office of Registrar of Insurance Companies indicate that the number of licensed insurance companies, brokers and agents and managers in The Bahamas increased by one to at end , bringing the number of licensed insurance companies operating in the domestic sector to , while the number of external insurers remained at The Bahamas achieved independence from Britain July 10, , and is now a fully self-governing member of the Commonwealth and a member of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of American States.
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