12 Unforgettable Things to Do in the Bahamas, Island by Island
700 islands. Most travelers see one. That's the mistake.
The Bahamas isn't a single destination — it's an archipelago where the smart move is to pick two or three islands and let each one do something the others can't. Nassau brings the history and the big resorts. Exuma brings the swimming pigs and the impossible blue water. The Out Islands bring pink sand and the kind of quiet you fly home dreaming about.
Here's a detail people miss: the Bahamian dollar (BSD) is pegged one-to-one with the US dollar, and both are accepted everywhere. So every price below reads the same in your wallet whether you pay in greenbacks or local notes. No conversion math. One less thing to think about.
These are the twelve experiences worth building a whole trip around.
1. Swim with the Pigs at Big Major Cay, Exuma
Yes, they're real. And yes, they paddle right up to your boat.
The famous swimming pigs live on an uninhabited island in the Exuma Cays, reachable only by boat. Full-day Exuma boat tours from Nassau run roughly $200–$350 per person and usually bundle the pigs with three or four other stops. Going independent from Staniel Cay? A local boat charter is the cheaper, calmer play.
Feed them only the captain's approved snacks — never bread. And keep your phone in a waterproof pouch, because they're enthusiastic and they will knock it clean out of your hand.
2. Snorkel Thunderball Grotto, Exuma
That sea cave you've seen on screen? This is it — the 1965 Bond film Thunderball shot here, which is how it got the name. At low tide you swim in through an opening and surface inside a domed limestone cavern, light pouring through holes in the ceiling, sergeant major fish swarming your legs.
Time it for slack low tide; the current rips through at other hours. Most Exuma day tours include the stop. Bring your own mask — the fish here are so used to people they won't even scatter.
3. Walk the Pink Sand Beach on Harbour Island
Three miles of sand the color of a faded rose. The pink comes from crushed red foraminifera blending into the white coral sand — the same mineral trick that tints the pink-sand beaches of Bermuda — and it glows hardest in the soft light just after sunrise or before sunset.
Harbour Island sits off North Eleuthera. Fly into North Eleuthera, then take the five-minute water taxi (about $8) across. Rent a golf cart ($60–$80 a day) — that's how everyone gets around — and wander the pastel cottages of Dunmore Town while you're at it.
4. Stand at the Edge of Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island
The second-deepest known blue hole on the planet: 663 feet straight down, ringed by a shallow turquoise lagoon and a limestone cliff. It's a world freediving competition site, but you don't need to hold your breath for four minutes to feel it — and if blue holes pull at you, Belize's Great Blue Hole is the Caribbean's other bucket-list plunge.
Wade in from the beach, snorkel the rim where the white sand drops into bottomless navy, and watch your stomach do something. It's free, public, and almost never crowded. Long Island is a short Bahamasair hop from Nassau.
5. Sail the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park
176 square miles of protected ocean — the Caribbean's first land-and-sea park and a no-take zone, which means the fish, conch, and lobster here grow bigger and bolder than anywhere else in the country.
Charter through it and stop at Compass Cay (the friendly nurse sharks), the sandbars that surface at low tide, and Allen's Cay, where prehistoric rock iguanas patrol the beach. A liveaboard charter is the dream trip; a day tour clips the highlights.
6. Climb the Queen's Staircase in Nassau
66 steps carved by enslaved laborers out of solid limestone in the late 1700s, later named for Queen Victoria. The walls drip with greenery beside a small waterfall, and the gorge stays cool even at midday.
It's a five-minute uphill walk from downtown to Fort Fincastle at the top, where the view over Nassau Harbour and the cruise ships is your reward. Free to visit. Go early — before the cruise crowds roll in around 10am.
7. Eat Conch Salad at Arawak Cay
This is the meal you'll talk about for months. Arawak Cay — everyone calls it the Fish Fry — is a strip of brightly painted shacks on the Nassau waterfront where conch gets diced to order.
Watch them pull it fresh, chop it with onion, tomato, sweet pepper, and a flood of lime and sour orange, then hand it over in a cup for around $12–$15. Order the cracked conch and a Bahama Mama at Twin Brothers or Goldie's. Saturday nights, the whole strip turns into a street party.
8. Go Big at Atlantis on Paradise Island
Love it or roll your eyes at it, Atlantis is a spectacle. The Aquaventure water park has a near-vertical slide that drops you through a clear tube into a shark-filled lagoon, eleven pools, and a mile-long river ride.
A day pass for non-guests runs around $185 and sells out in high season, so book ahead. The Dig, a walk-through marine habitat beneath the resort, is genuinely worth it. Paradise Island connects to Nassau by two bridges; a taxi from downtown is about $4 plus the toll.
9. Find a Vanishing Sandbar in the Exumas
Somewhere between the cays, the tide pulls back and leaves a ribbon of white sand sitting in the middle of glowing aquamarine — no land in sight, just you and a sandbar that won't exist in three hours.
The famous ones run through Pipe Creek and near Staniel Cay, and they only surface at low tide, so timing is everything. Any decent captain plans the route around it. This is the photo that makes everyone back home text you immediately.
10. Cross the Glass Window Bridge, Eleuthera
On a thin spit of rock, the deep navy Atlantic slams one side while the calm turquoise Bight of Eleuthera sits glassy on the other — two completely different oceans split by a few feet of road. The original natural stone arch collapsed; a narrow bridge spans the gap now.
On rough days the "rage" sends waves right over the road, so check conditions and never park on the bridge. Rent a car in Governor's Harbour and make it a stop on the drive north.
11. Haggle at the Nassau Straw Market
Downtown on Bay Street, hundreds of vendors pack a covered hall selling woven straw bags, wood carvings, conch-shell jewelry, and tees. Some of it is imported — but genuine plaited straw work is a real Bahamian craft, and a hand-woven bag runs $20–$40 once you negotiate.
And you should negotiate. Start around half the asking price. Skip the knockoff designer bags and put your money on the local straw and the carved pieces instead.
12. Dive with Sharks off New Providence
The waters off Nassau offer some of the most reliable shark diving on earth. Stuart Cove's, on the island's southwest side, runs the famous Caribbean reef shark dive — dozens circling a feeding station while you kneel on the sand at 40 feet.
Certified divers pay around $170; there's a gentler shark-adjacent snorkel and a "shark observer" option for the nervous. Not your thing? The same crew runs mellow reef and wreck dives over Hollywood movie sets sunk just offshore — and if it lights a fire, the wall dives off the Cayman Islands are a natural next stop.
Pro Tip: Build the Trip Around Two or Three Islands
Don't try to see all 700. The smart structure is a couple of days in Nassau for the history, food, and easy flights, then island-hop to Exuma for the pigs and the water, or to Eleuthera and Harbour Island for the pink sand and the slow days. Inter-island flights on Bahamasair and Pineapple Air are short and cheap, and the fast ferry connects several islands if you'd rather stay on the water.
One more thing worth knowing: peak season runs mid-December through April, when prices climb and the swimming-pig boats fill up days ahead. Come in late spring or early summer and you'll trade a little extra heat for fewer crowds and better rates — the water's warm year-round anyway. Book the boat tours before you fly. The good captains sell out.
