Bahamas

Trip Dates: March 7-14, 2014

Spring Break anyone?! While me and three of my best girlfriends were planning for our senior spring break trip, we had a few requirements that had to be made to make it a memorable one.

1. We had to get a lot of bang for our buck. We were college students who were soon to enter into adulthood with zero options to completely break the bank for a college trip. We spent about $500 each on lodging and $300 on round trip flight from Maryland. In total on the trip I would say I spent $300 or less on spending money.

2. We wanted somewhere warm and tropical with beautiful beaches and blue skies.

3. We did not want a cruise. (I LOVE cruises, but that’s just not what we wanted for this trip)

So, after careful consideration and tons of planning we decided on Paradise Island, Bahamas. The average temp for the time of year that we went was 73 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit and we were fortunate to have extremely clear skies every day of our visit.

After settling on a destination, we had to pick a hotel that was up to our standards but was also very affordable. Most people tend to stay at the Atlantis hotel, which seems to be the main attraction on Paradise Island, but we opted for The Melia. Located right near the Cable beach and central to local shopping and eateries, the hotel rooms were beautiful and averaged $283 a night, but if you’re lucky you can catch a deal on flights.com or similar search engines.  If I had to rate this hotel I’d give it three stars. It was not the most affordable and the rooms were average, but it was in a convenient location.

View from our hotel room at The Melia

We planned to spend our entire Spring Break in the Bahamas so we had plenty of time to explore the island and see all that it had to offer.

Our first day we literally used for exploring, for shopping and for finding the good spots to eat. We mainly found our way by using the buses and asking workers in our hotel to get advice and information on scheduling. Nonstop we heard about the “fish fry” and decided it was a must visit, so we hailed a cab and went to the local strip that everyone said was the best. The fish and the conch was to die for and meals were extremely reasonably priced costing us each less than $10 for our meals.

The second day was used to visit Atlantis. As I mentioned, Atlantis physically takes over a huge portion of the island and most tourists are there for their stay. Atlantis hosts a huge array of casinos and shopping malls. We quickly learned that once playing most of the table or slot games, the waiters would bring unlimited amounts of booze, the more you spent (or sat there) it seemed like the more drinks are passed around. So, needless to say, we got a little loose while in the casino.

After speaking to many other tourists groups and quite a few locals, we had heard enough about the Booze cruises that we decided we had to do one for ourselves. The booze cruise is a mini cruise boat that costs about $50 and is inclusive of 1 meal, unlimited drinks, snorkeling and a visit to a private island. This was probably my most favorite activity of the vacation and I highly recommend to everyone! We had wanted to jet ski and snorkel but at the Cable beach they charged $20-$40 a piece, but the booze cruise allowed for us to do both and more for a reasonable price. This was essentially an all day excursion.

Kalyn on Booze Cruise

Kiiera, Carolita and Kalyn @ private beach

Paradise Island has their own Señor Frogs, so despite the many US locations, we had never been to one and decided to give the popular chain a try.

To say this location was WILD is an understatement. First, the drinks were huge and were plentiful, but weren’t cheap (about $15 a drink). They had a Congo line every 1/2 hour that ended with free shots poured directly into your mouth, and you could go around as many times as you pleased, we passed around about 4-5 times! After the Congo line and finishing our drinks, we somehow ended up on stage dancing to popular songs of the time still accepting free shots from staff.

Most of our time was spent, in the water, near the water, on the water and drinking ….water and mainly alcoholic drinks, but still, you get the gist. The beaches were amazing with crystal blue waters, lovely white sand and men offering fresh coconut drinks. Despite all of the alcohol we consumed, I still found myself in the middle of the ocean on a jet ski, probably going faster than anyone should have allowed, until I tipped myself over LOL.

There were so many people offering different activities on the beach, all you had to do was essentially negotiate your price and go for it.

Of all of the Caribbean islands I’ve been to, I’d definitely say that the Bahamas is in my top 5! The island was absolutely beautiful, the people were extremely kind, it was affordable, food was delicious, the clubs were like a movie and the beaches were amazing.

Would I return? yes, hell, yes.

Do I recommend it? yes

We were able to use our US credit cards or US dollars, which is always nice when traveling as well as WIFI at our hotel and most spots we went to. My advice pay attention to the weather patterns, research hotels and book the trip! Great getaway spot.

Pros

1. Beach. All of the Caribbean is absolutely beautiful
2. Costs. The island was fairly affordable
3. Food. Quite honestly, we found a cute little Jamaican spot and had some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life
4. Excursion/ Booze Cruise. Comes highly recommended because all that it includes for its price

Cons

1. Catching taxis. The buses didn’t go everywhere we wanted to go so we opted for taxis but quite often it was a bit sketchy, especially at night.

Fat Tuesdays!

Night Out on the Town