Self guided tour to forts and pirate museum?

We'll be there in about one month, and husband and I decided exploring on our own would be better than the historical fort tour offered by NCL.

We would like to see Fort Charlotte, Pirate Museum, Queens Staircase, and Fort Fincastle. Charlotte seems furtherst from the ship, but I've done quite a bit of research and for each of these places, reviwers have said they're all walkable. Any advice? Google maps also gave the WRONG location for Fincastle (I knew there was no way that was a fort), and I found it several blocks to the east. Google maps' location of Fort Charlotte also looks off; is it on Arawak Cay?

Husband prefers the security of tours, so I'm trying to not mess anything up :D and make sure we'll survive the trek to all these places, or whether we should invest in at least one taxi ride.

We'll be there in about one month, and husband and I decided exploring on our own would be better than the historical fort tour offered by NCL.

 

We would like to see Fort Charlotte, Pirate Museum, Queens Staircase, and Fort Fincastle. Charlotte seems furtherst from the ship, but I've done quite a bit of research and for each of these places, reviwers have said they're all walkable. Any advice? Google maps also gave the WRONG location for Fincastle (I knew there was no way that was a fort), and I found it several blocks to the east. Google maps' location of Fort Charlotte also looks off; is it on Arawak Cay?

 

Husband prefers the security of tours, so I'm trying to not mess anything up :D and make sure we'll survive the trek to all these places, or whether we should invest in at least one taxi ride.

Frommers has a great walking tour and map. All the same places, but the map is correct.

We walked to Fort Charlotte when we were in Nassau earlier this month. It is definitely doable if you are a good walker. We wore walking shoes, gym friendly clothing (because it was very warm and humid and we knew we would sweat :o), brought a string backpack with bottled waters, and I wore a hat (much needed).

If you look at the Google Earth map, Fort Charlotte is further inland from Arawak Cay. Zoom in. Across the street from "Fish Fry" and close to the park "Hanes' Oval" (You have to be zoomed in for that label to come up), you can see what looks like a white outline of a building. The lower right hand corner has two round areas. There is a rock sign at the intersection of M.Bethel Way and Bay Street. I think you could walk up that to the parking lot and then into the Fort.

By "Clifford Park" there is a grid like looking thing of white and green and a very small white building. Those are stairs/stands and the building was the officer's barracks. We had picked up a "tour guide" (a local that offers to "guide" you to wherever you are going) and he lead us from near Junkanoo Beach (where we picked him up) down Bay Street and then across Bay Street (jaywalking) to the area between the two parks I've mentioned. I guess there didn't used to be a chain link fence surrounding the fort and the access was different. We ended up crossing Clifford Park and going up the stands and stairs to get to the fort. You can stand on top of the barrack building...there are stairs to the roof, but you can't go inside...and this is where we parted ways with our tour guide. (We did tip him. I had read from many others about this possibility and was prepared.)

The parking lot is lined with booths where locals sell touristy things. They will call out to you but we didn't find them to be too aggressive.

It cost $1 per person to get into the Fort. There we were greeted by a "tour guide" again that literally recited a memorized script. He barely breathed as he said everything. No inflection. Fast talking. You had to concentrate to really listen. He lead us around a bit and into the dungeon area where he lets you know he works for tips only. Again, prepared. (I had read $1/person for a tip.)

There was a little gift shop in the Fort...there's some air conditioning in there. There is local food items for sale. I was excited to see local Sea Salt. I purchased that.

You are free to roam all around the fort.

We actually saw the tour come and go. Looking at the map, from the parking lot...there is a path from the parking lot for pedestrians to walk up to the entrance to the fort...there is also a "road" that winds around and goes close to those round things? The tour bus goes down the road and into what was the moat area of the fort. I don't know how long it stayed there, like I said...it came after we arrived and left before we did.

We saw the signs for the Pirate Museum on the way to Fort Charlotte. And I think we could look down the street it was on and see the building. Not sure what all to say...I'd be happy to answer any questions about what we did. :)

Fort Charlotte is about a mile and a half away from port, across the road from the Fish Fry as Anita Latte said. You could always take the #10 bus there or back (or both). The bus stop is very close to the Pirate Museum.

Once you are off the ship and through the small port, the Pirate museum is about two short blocks walk from the pier's end or Senor Frogs, very easy to get to.