Across the Straits of Florida, just 50 miles from Miami begins the 120,000 square miles of ocean lightly scattered with 2,400 islands known collectively as the Bahamas. This diverse group of islands provides limitless vacation possibilities for young and old alike.
» Bahamas General Information
Area: 13,939 sq km (5,382 sq miles)
Capital: Nassau
Currency: Bahamian Dollar (BSD)
GNI per capital: US$14,920 (World Bank, 2005)
Language: English
Main exports: Pharmaceuticals, cement, rum, crawfish, refined petroleum products
New Year's Day; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Whit Monday; Labour Day (June); Independence Day (10 July); Emancipation Day (Aug); Discovery Day (Oct); Christmas; Boxing Day.
› Visas
US citizens do not need a passport or visa for stays of less than eight months, but must show proof of citizenship. Visas and passports are not required of citizens of Canada or the UK and Commonwealth who stay three weeks or less (though UK citizens will need to show their passports when re-entering the UK). Visitors from most other European countries need passports but not visas for stays of up to three months. Air passengers must have a return or ongoing airline ticket.
» Bahamas History
Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the New World in 1492 is believed to have been on the island of San Salvador (also called Watling's Island), in the southeastern Bahamas. He encountered Taino (also known as Lucayan) Amerindians and exchanged gifts with them.
Taino Indians from both northwestern Hispaniola and northeastern Cuba moved into the southern Bahamas about the 7th century AD and became the Lucayans. They appear to have settled the entire archipelago by the 12th century AD. There may have been as many as 40,000 Lucayans living in the Bahamas when Columbus arrived.
The Bahamian Lucayans were deported to Hispaniola as slaves, and within two decades Taino societies ceased to exist as a separate population due to forced labour, warfare, disease, emigration and outmarriage.
Some say the name 'Bahamas' derives from the Spanish for "shallow sea", baja mar. Others trace it to the Lucayan word for Grand Bahama Island, ba-ha-ma ("large upper middle land").
After the Lucayans were destroyed, the Bahamian islands were deserted until the arrival of English settlers from Bermuda in 1650. Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers, these people established settlements on the island now called Eleuthera (from the Greek word for freedom).
The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718 but remained sparsely settled until the newly independent United States expelled thousands of American tories and their slaves. Many of these British Loyalists were given compensatory land grants in Canada and the Bahamas. Some 8,000 loyalists and their slaves moved to the Bahamas in the late 1700s from New York, Florida and the Carolinas.
The British granted the islands internal self-government in 1964 and, in 1973, Bahamians achieved full independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Since the 1950s, the Bahamian economy has been based on the twin pillars of tourism and financial services. Today, the country enjoys the third highest per capita income in the western hemisphere.
Why not stay at the Powell Pointe Resort at Cape Eleuthera, a deluxe Bahamas hotel on Eleuthera Island. This slender strip of land is surrounded by the warm crystal-clear waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The Blue Water Resort is located in the wonderful Cable Beach, Nassau, in the New Providence island, Bahamas.
This outstanding Nassau hotel at competitive prices offers welcoming lodgings overlooking the Ocean and the Garden as well as a wonderful outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court and a private beach. Besides guests of the Blue Water Resort Hotel will find in the proximities several casinos, shops and restaurants.
The Surfers Beach Manor Hotel is located near Gregory Town, placing this Eleuthera, Bahamas beach hotel in a great spot for discovering all of the island's natural wonders. Guests can visit Hatchet Bay Cave, which was once a favorite playground for pirates and now fascinates geology fans with its rock formations. Alternatively, enjoy the stunning promontory at Lighthouse Beach, the waves at nearby Surfers Beach, or peer into the bottomless Ocean Hole at Rock Sound.
Popular with stops on Bahamas sailing trips, the St Francis Resort offers Stocking Island hotel accommodation with a 5-mile stretch of pristine white sandy beach where you certainly won't find any tourists!
