Luxury hotels in Nassau

Nassau guide

Nassau and the Exumas by boat

The Bahamas' capital, Cable Beach and a day among the cays, swimming pigs included.

Nassau, on New Providence, combines colonial streets, Cable Beach and the resorts of Paradise Island. The most cited day out, though, is the Exuma Cays: a speedboat or short flight takes you to sandbars, turquoise channels, iguanas and the famous swimming pigs of Big Major Cay.

Back in Nassau, visit the Queen's Staircase and the Fort Fincastle viewpoint, and have conch salad at Arawak Cay. December to April is dry and pleasant; summer is hotter, with the hurricane season running from June to November.

The Exuma Cays and the swimming pigs

The Exuma Cays, a chain of islands south-east of Nassau, are the most cited excursion from the capital: a day by speedboat or seaplane to swim with the pigs of Big Major Cay, see nurse sharks at Compass Cay and snorkel in the Thunderball Grotto, a James Bond film location.

The water of the Exumas is among the clearest in the world, and the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park protects reefs and iguanas. Private charters allow stops at empty sandbars, and the sea is calmest from December to May.

Paradise Island and Junkanoo

Paradise Island, linked to Nassau by bridges, is one of the most cited areas of the capital, with Cabbage Beach, a long white strand, and the Versailles Gardens and French Cloister, a fourteenth-century cloister rebuilt stone by stone.

Junkanoo, the Bahamas' great street festival, fills Bay Street with costumed groups, cowbells and drums on Boxing Day and New Year's Day; the Educulture museum shows its craft year-round. Fish fry stalls at Arawak Cay serve conch salad and fried snapper.