How to spend a day in Nassau Bahamas

Nassau was, by far, the most active port stop on our Carnival Elation cruise. It appeared to have far more to do within walking distance of the port itself, but I had no real plans of what I wanted to do, other than walk around downtown. There were many taxi drivers wanting to take travelers to the beach and various other places, but because we had already gone to the beach while docked in Freeport, I wanted to do something different. Just when we had almost made it past them all, we were approached by a driver named Marco and sucked into a 3 hour, round trip tour, with the promise of seeing the “real” Bahamas, for $20 per person … we actually took him up on his offer.

New York taxi drivers have nothing on taxi drivers in the Bahamas or just regular drivers in general. Just trying to get to Marco’s taxi was a challenge with all the cars zooming down the street. There were the 4 of us and he told us he booked 6 other people in his van, but it turned out to be 8 other people and we were packed like sardines, with 1 person sitting on a box that had been placed in the vehicle to act as a seat … it was certainly starting off very dangerous interesting.

Nassau Bahama Rum Cake Factory

Our first stop was the Bahama Rum Cake Factory. I was expecting a mini-tour in a place with the word “factory” in the name and while there was no such tour, there was a large window to the right, as you walk in, that allowed you to see the bakers making the cakes. To the left, was the actual store portion of the factory where you could not only purchase the cakes, you could sample all the different flavors. The kids opted not to sample, fearing the alcohol in the cake … I told them to keep that thought process as they got into high school and college.

Atlantis

From the factory, we went to Atlantis Paradise Island Resort where my mother left us to go to the casino and we attempted to walk through but got stopped by the lovely guards at the stairs letting us know we couldn’t proceed to other areas of the hotel without a room key or day pass. I asked about pricing for the day pass, but being we only had 30 minutes at this spot, I knew we weren’t really going to get one, instead opting to take the outside casino walk around route. Even with this being the only thing we could enjoy, it was still a treat. You could see the ocean behind the man-made beach of the hotel, both gorgeous sights, and get a small peak at the Aquaventure water park. The details of the hotel were my absolute favorite part, with all the things you would expect to see in Atlantis … seahorse details, pearl lighting, waterfalls, and what looked like the gates of Poseidon. We made our way to the entrance door at the start of the casino and noticed the beautiful, Dale Chihuly, glass sculptures sprinkled throughout as well as the famous million dollar chair big enough to fit the whole crew if Christion one of us wasn’t too cool for school to pose as a group. By luck, we spotted my mother and were able to start making our way back out to wait for Marco.

Fort Fincastle

Marco pulled up and whisked us off to Fort Fincastle … $1.08 per person to tour. The fort isn’t very large and was never used for its intended purpose, but overlooks the city and was later used as a signal station per our guide. We were hoping to get more information from the electronic story podium inside the fort, but it wasn’t working in any language. The fort isn’t very large and after capturing a few pictures of C being goofy cool on the cannon, we headed over to the Queen’s Staircase.

The staircase is referred to as the “66 step”, but per our guide, only has 65 because the 66th was covered during paving. He guided us down the step while telling us the background of this historic site. Once all limestone, the stairs were hand carved by slaves, providing a route from Fort Fincastle to the city. The stairs were later named the “Queen’s Staircase” as a gift to Queen Victoria to honor her 65-year-long reign as queen. Even going down, we were out of breath by the time we reached the bottom as the steps were quite steep, but luckily, our guide led us down the path and out the other side to a waiting Marco who shuttled us off to the Fish Fry for lunch.

The Fish Fry

By the name, one might think the Fish Fry is just one place, perhaps not even a place, just a parking lot spot with people frying fish and selling “plates” like you’re likely to see in the south, but you would be mistaken. The Fish Fry is actually a whole complex of restaurants on the beachfront selling all kinds of food. We went to Anchorage Haven, which was a little off to the side by itself, but still part of the Fish Fry complex. We were sat at a table outside, practically sitting on the crystal clear beach waters. The food was very good, our waitress was very sweet, but the service was extremely slow. When I say slow, I mean there was only one other table of guest and it still took us over an hour to get our food. Luckily, the view was amazing and the food, when we finally got it, was piping hot, almost as if the wait was as long as it was because they cooked the fish, macaroni and cheese, beans and rice to order. Even the conch fritters came out only slightly before the rest of our meal. Marco was extremely patient and waited at the bar, not drinking of course, for us to finish.

Pirates of Nassau

After finishing up, Marco dropped us back off at the Pirate Museum near the port. We thanked him for a lovely tour and for being such a great guide before heading back to our Carnival cruise ship.

Share some of your Nassau day trip favorites in the comments. Thanks for reading!