Inexpensive Alternatives to Shore Excursions: Freeport & Nassau

This was my 2nd cruise ever .. so far, Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas & Carnival Sensation are my favorite :)! Ok, so they're the only 2 ships I've on to date, LOL.

Loved the Royal Caribbean experience but I'm also partial to it as it was a very memorable & unexpected, surprising romantic trip. Carnival Sensation had too much competition in respect to RRC but I did enjoy the ship.

Loved our interior stateroom much more than Monarch's. The bathroom was heaven compared to the one on Monarch .. it was actually large & you can move around in the shower! Good points for Carnival Sensation on both stateroom & bathroom.

Thank goodness for the security briefing RCC gives, this prepared me for all future cruises as Carnival's security briefing sucks! Not very informative at all. Both ships are very comparable but as far as atmosphere, service, entertainment .. RCC wins. I did enjoy the water park on Carnival Sensation which was the 1 thing RCC does not have.

For my very 1st cruise last year, I pretty much went blind .. did not do any research at all for the ports. This time I researched as this would be our 2nd time to Nassau & Coco Cay was not a port of call this time round (really loved Coco Cay!).

We're shoe-string travelers, so shore excursions booked from ship is not for us .. plus, they are way too expensive! From doing some research on the internet, I found that the port of Freeport has nothing to offer & it is best to book an excursion or find transportation elsewhere.

Best advise I found: take the $5 jitneys to Our Luyaca, so that's what we did. Super easy to find the jitney's at port. Our driver dropped us off at the casino & pointed us in the direction to beach access. We spent a delightful few hours at the beach enjoying the water & sand. Later we shopped for a bit at the colorful Port Lucaya Marketplace.

We did not eat at Our Lucaya as we had ordered sandwiches from our ship which we took with us .. but did see a number of cute places to try the marketplace.

Overall, great day at Our Lucaya. Would like to try some other beaches next time, esp. the one at the national park. FYI: Catch the $5.00 jitney's back to the ship right at the marketplace. Not bad for a $10 per person day! :)

We had been to Nassau last cruise (last year), so we had already seen the straw market, shopping area & a little bit of Atlantis.

This time I had read about the $1.25 public bus # 10 from Downtown to Cable Beach (pick-up at the corner of W. Bay St. & George St. near the Straw Market or walk all the way to the McDonald's/Dunkin Donuts across from the Hilton British Colonial on W. Bay St.).

This was a great option and cheap! There are many stops to get off the bus for beach access. We asked the driver to recommend a stop and he dropped us off at the beach access that is shared with Sandals Grand Bahamian Resort. You won't be able to use the Sandals facility but the beach is for public use. The water here was heaven! Just like a pool .. totally worthwhile.

We stayed and enjoyed for a while before taking the bus back to downtown. Did some shopping and then back to ship for late lunch & to freshen up before taking the $3 water taxi to Atlantis.

We got lucky this time at Atlantis, it's huge and I'm sure we only covered maybe a 3rd of the property. We were able to walk thru the Coral Towers to the Conference center and somehow ended up finding a tunnel (next to the HIBISCUS LAGOON) that leads to the beach & no one bothered us. We walked around quite a bit and no one bothered us -- last year we got stopped at every turn!

We absolutely loved the Reef Lagoon, the Stingray Lagoon & the Royal Ray Lagoon. We walked around the walkway that lead to Paradise Lagoon, finally got the casino (won $88 played with only $1.00) and we got to do The Dig this time (no one was charging when we got there & so we walked right in). Going back to the ship, we took a $4 taxi from Atlantis.

Overall, we paid less than $10 person for the day (and I won $88 to boot!)

- $1.25 each way to Cable Beach: $2.50 round trip total

- $3.00 per person water taxi to Atlantis

- $4.00 per person taxi from Atlantis back to ship.

Nice!

Thanks for the review!

My family (7 of us) are going for Christmas and are looking for inexpensive things to do as my sister is on a VERY limited budget. Your ideas look like a lot of fun!

I would love to see Atlantis' aquarium and we are in port until 10pm, we may just go after 6pm...

Thanks again!

So I can just use the sandals beach and no one will say anything? Also, what is the straw market? Is it like a flea market? Thanks for the tips!

So I can just use the sandals beach and no one will say anything? Also, what is the straw market? Is it like a flea market? Thanks for the tips!

Not really. It's actually the beach next to Sandals. Sandals is a private property. You can walk along the beach, but not use the beach or it's chairs/facilites.

You would have to find a public entrance to cable beach.

We just returned from a 5-day Glory cruise that included Nassau as a port of call. We've been there before, done most all of the common excursions like the dolphin swim, sea lion encounter, Blue Lagoon, walking tours, etc, and were looking for something different. After a suggestion from ScubaGirrl (thanks!!) we arranged to meet a local host through the People-to-People program sponsored by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (www.bahamas.com).

This turned out to be a major highlight of our cruise! I can't give you a detailed description of exactly what to expect, because each experience is probably unique to the personality of the host or hostess, and your wishes as the visiting guest. In our case, our hostess was a lovely, gracious woman who has lived all her 76 years in Nassau. We pre-arranged to meet at the fountain in front of the Ministry of Tourism building at 10:00 AM. She took us in her own car on a tour that included a lot of off-the-tourist circuit locations, including East End mansions, beautiful beaches, and the Fox Hill residential area. Along the way we visited her church, which is currently building a new sanctuary, and her home, where we met her pack of friendly dogs.

Because I had expressed an interest in Rake-and-Scrape and Junkanoo music, she took us to a record store and helped me pick out a couple of representative CD's to take home as souvenirs. My wife had expressed an interest in visiting someplace other than the Straw Market at the pier where she could buy some souvenir arts and craft items (which did not say "made in China" on the bottom!), so we went to the Bahamas Craft Centre on Paradise Island. We treated her to lunch at Fish Fry (Twin Brothers, BTW...very good), and ended our day at Ardastra Gardens feeding the Lory parrots and watching the (semi-) skilled marching drill of the flamingos. Our hostess was still going stong, and I think we could have gone on longer but after nearly six hours we were beat, and decided to call it a day then.

There is no charge for this service, however we paid for all admissions, parking, lunch, etc. We offered to fill her gas tank, which she declined, but we also brought a unique gift for her which I think she appreciated. It was a sweetgrass basket, a local art form found only here in the low country of South Carolina, along with some books explaining their history and significance. Now you might think taking a "straw basket" to the Bahamas would be like taking coal to Newcastle, but the materials used and construction technique are quite different. Ironically my wife bought a Bahamian style basket to take home so now we can exhibit the two styles of basketry side-by-side.

This was a one-of-a-kind experience that we will remember for a long time. If you are interested in meeting locals in Nassau, are curious about the local culture, food, music, or history, we would highly recommend you try the People-to People program.

We just returned from a 5-day Glory cruise that included Nassau as a port of call. We've been there before, done most all of the common excursions like the dolphin swim, sea lion encounter, Blue Lagoon, walking tours, etc, and were looking for something different. After a suggestion from ScubaGirrl (thanks!!) we arranged to meet a local host through the People-to-People program sponsored by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (www.bahamas.com).

 

This turned out to be a major highlight of our cruise! I can't give you a detailed description of exactly what to expect, because each experience is probably unique to the personality of the host or hostess, and your wishes as the visiting guest. In our case, our hostess was a lovely, gracious woman who has lived all her 76 years in Nassau. We pre-arranged to meet at the fountain in front of the Ministry of Tourism building at 10:00 AM. She took us in her own car on a tour that included a lot of off-the-tourist circuit locations, including East End mansions, beautiful beaches, and the Fox Hill residential area. Along the way we visited her church, which is currently building a new sanctuary, and her home, where we met her pack of friendly dogs.

 

Because I had expressed an interest in Rake-and-Scrape and Junkanoo music, she took us to a record store and helped me pick out a couple of representative CD's to take home as souvenirs. My wife had expressed an interest in visiting someplace other than the Straw Market at the pier where she could buy some souvenir arts and craft items (which did not say "made in China" on the bottom!), so we went to the Bahamas Craft Centre on Paradise Island. We treated her to lunch at Fish Fry (Twin Brothers, BTW...very good), and ended our day at Ardastra Gardens feeding the Lory parrots and watching the (semi-) skilled marching drill of the flamingos. Our hostess was still going stong, and I think we could have gone on longer but after nearly six hours we were beat, and decided to call it a day then.

 

There is no charge for this service, however we paid for all admissions, parking, lunch, etc. We offered to fill her gas tank, which she declined, but we also brought a unique gift for her which I think she appreciated. It was a sweetgrass basket, a local art form found only here in the low country of South Carolina, along with some books explaining their history and significance. Now you might think taking a "straw basket" to the Bahamas would be like taking coal to Newcastle, but the materials used and construction technique are quite different. Ironically my wife bought a Bahamian style basket to take home so now we can exhibit the two styles of basketry side-by-side.

 

This was a one-of-a-kind experience that we will remember for a long time. If you are interested in meeting locals in Nassau, are curious about the local culture, food, music, or history, we would highly recommend you try the People-to People program.

So glad you had a great experience. The bahamas has such wonderful people and so much culture.. it's a shame most visitors never get this experience.

So I can just use the sandals beach and no one will say anything? Also, what is the straw market? Is it like a flea market? Thanks for the tips!

We got on the beach that Sandals Grand Bahamian Resort uses with no problems. :D

The security guy will advise that the beach is public & can be used and not to go past the pier/bridge, not to enter the actual Sandals property (where the concrete begins) & of course, not to use the beach chairs.

I did inquire if chairs could be rented & he suggested going front desk but we only planned on being there a couple hours to enjoy the water & lay in the sand, so it was not worth it to us to rent a few chairs.

The public access to the beach is 1/2 a block from the resort's entrance by the circle in the road (look for the beach access sign, look for the beach access signs along the road for other places to hop off the bus too). You just walk down the access road, go past a couple houses, and an apartment complex on the left side. On the right side of the road you'll see the building belonging to Sandals.

You'll walk what seems like 2 blocks to get to the beach itself. It does not look like much when you first get there, especially to the left side of the entrance but to the right side is Sandals. The water was an absolute delight, it felt just like being in a pool .. perfect for us cause we're not good swimmers. I'm going to try & upload some pics of us at Sandals Beach, hope it works :cool:

The Straw Market is basically a flea market. Lot's of fun items for purchase & lots of items made out of straw. You can see the Straw Market from the cruise ship -- look for the big white tent next to Senor Frog's. I did see there is construction going on for a building which is the future, permanent home of the Straw Market.

There's also lot's of shopping to do in the area where the Straw Market is located, if that's your thing.

You'll read much about vendors being very pushy. I have personally not experienced this in Freeport, Nassau or Paradise Island. Vendors will ask, I just smile and say thank and move on. If you want to experience pushy vendors & peddlers ... go to China (esp. outside of the Forbidden City), holy crap! those were some pushy vendors!

Thanks for the review!

 

My family (7 of us) are going for Christmas and are looking for inexpensive things to do as my sister is on a VERY limited budget. Your ideas look like a lot of fun!

 

I would love to see Atlantis' aquarium and we are in port until 10pm, we may just go after 6pm...

 

Thanks again!

Last year we were stopped at Atlantis every step of the way. This time we went around 4:30 pm and had absolutely no problem walking around. I was actually very surprised there was no one to stop as at The Dig. It was after 6 by the time we got to The Dig entrance .. guess we just got lucky this time round.

However, last year, our friends went earlier in the day (I'd say around 2 or 3 pm) and they had no problems getting into The Dig either & they did not pay anything to get in!

There are lot's of ways to explore Nassau inexpensively & have fun. Enjoy!:)

I'm going to try & upload some pics of us at Sandals Beach, hope it works :cool:

Have not been able to figure out how to upload pics, here is link to my pics. Look for the ones at Sandals to give you an idea what the beach is like. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096161&id=1284458887&l=7bcf063bf4

We just returned from a 5-day Glory cruise that included Nassau as a port of call. We've been there before, done most all of the common excursions like the dolphin swim, sea lion encounter, Blue Lagoon, walking tours, etc, and were looking for something different. After a suggestion from ScubaGirrl (thanks!!) we arranged to meet a local host through the People-to-People program sponsored by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (www.bahamas.com).

 

This turned out to be a major highlight of our cruise! I can't give you a detailed description of exactly what to expect, because each experience is probably unique to the personality of the host or hostess, and your wishes as the visiting guest. In our case, our hostess was a lovely, gracious woman who has lived all her 76 years in Nassau. We pre-arranged to meet at the fountain in front of the Ministry of Tourism building at 10:00 AM. She took us in her own car on a tour that included a lot of off-the-tourist circuit locations, including East End mansions, beautiful beaches, and the Fox Hill residential area. Along the way we visited her church, which is currently building a new sanctuary, and her home, where we met her pack of friendly dogs.

 

Because I had expressed an interest in Rake-and-Scrape and Junkanoo music, she took us to a record store and helped me pick out a couple of representative CD's to take home as souvenirs. My wife had expressed an interest in visiting someplace other than the Straw Market at the pier where she could buy some souvenir arts and craft items (which did not say "made in China" on the bottom!), so we went to the Bahamas Craft Centre on Paradise Island. We treated her to lunch at Fish Fry (Twin Brothers, BTW...very good), and ended our day at Ardastra Gardens feeding the Lory parrots and watching the (semi-) skilled marching drill of the flamingos. Our hostess was still going stong, and I think we could have gone on longer but after nearly six hours we were beat, and decided to call it a day then.

 

There is no charge for this service, however we paid for all admissions, parking, lunch, etc. We offered to fill her gas tank, which she declined, but we also brought a unique gift for her which I think she appreciated. It was a sweetgrass basket, a local art form found only here in the low country of South Carolina, along with some books explaining their history and significance. Now you might think taking a "straw basket" to the Bahamas would be like taking coal to Newcastle, but the materials used and construction technique are quite different. Ironically my wife bought a Bahamian style basket to take home so now we can exhibit the two styles of basketry side-by-side.

 

This was a one-of-a-kind experience that we will remember for a long time. If you are interested in meeting locals in Nassau, are curious about the local culture, food, music, or history, we would highly recommend you try the People-to People program.

This is wonderful! I wish I had known about this a few weeks ago- but will keep the info for future use.

SWEETBEA

now that's saving some money

I try to travel alot but don't have a lot of money

I will use your advise in my visit this coming week

Thanks

Thanks for telling us about the People to People program. I just returned today from my cruise. We were in Nassau on Wednesday. I had made arrangements with the "P to P" program. We had a wonderful experience. I will post a separate thread about it.

Carol

I just returned today from my cruise. We were in Nassau on Wednesday. I had made arrangements with the "People to People" program that I had heard about on these message boards. I found the contact information on google and filled out the application. A week before our visit I received a call from their office and they also emailed and gave me the name and contact information for our guide.

When we arrived we learned that our scheduled host had an emergency and was unable to meet with us. The office had found another volunteer who was able to show us around. His name is Julian. By profession, he is the aide to the Minister of Finance. We met at 10:30 and he showed us around parts of downtown--the library, the Parliament offices, a museum. He was able to take us in to a session going on in which his boss was speaking about a business registration law. It was like watching Congress in session. There were guards at the door to the building and we never would have been able to go in on our own. Julian also introduced us to several people, including the former Deputy Prime Minister.

We were impressed!

He had to get back to work, but met us at 5:30 and drove us around. We went by his house and met his wife, he showed us the ghetto and also where some bigwigs live. We then went to the Fish Fry. We had conch fritters at Oh Andros and then ate a meal at Seafood Haven. I was a little unsure about eating the conch salad and scorched conch, but both were wonderful! Although there is no charge for the service, we did pay for the food and also tipped him.

An added bonus was that when we got to the fish fry we saw some people dressing up for Junkanoo. That usually just takes place on Dec. 26 and Jan 1, but Food Network was set up to film a show at the Twin Brothers restaurant and they showed some people in Junkanoo costumes making their music and dancing. It was fun to watch the filming for a bit.

Julian had so much information and was a great "tour guide," but the best part was getting to know him as a person and to learn a little about his life. He invited us to come stay with him the next time we are in Nassau since we're friends now. Very, very friendly man.

I recommend this program to anyone who wants a more personal view of Nassau.

Carol

I just returned today from my cruise. We were in Nassau on Wednesday. I had made arrangements with the "People to People" program that I had heard about on these message boards. I found the contact information on google and filled out the application.

-------

I recommend this program to anyone who wants a more personal view of Nassau.

 

Carol

Thank you for the review. We arranged something along the same lines in Jamaica and also made friends we hope to see again. Great experience to hear about.

This was my 2nd cruise ever .. so far, Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas & Carnival Sensation are my favorite :)! Ok, so they're the only 2 ships I've on to date, LOL.

 

Loved the Royal Caribbean experience but I'm also partial to it as it was a very memorable & unexpected, surprising romantic trip. Carnival Sensation had too much competition in respect to RRC but I did enjoy the ship.

 

Loved our interior stateroom much more than Monarch's. The bathroom was heaven compared to the one on Monarch .. it was actually large & you can move around in the shower! Good points for Carnival Sensation on both stateroom & bathroom.

 

Thank goodness for the security briefing RCC gives, this prepared me for all future cruises as Carnival's security briefing sucks! Not very informative at all. Both ships are very comparable but as far as atmosphere, service, entertainment .. RCC wins. I did enjoy the water park on Carnival Sensation which was the 1 thing RCC does not have.

 

For my very 1st cruise last year, I pretty much went blind .. did not do any research at all for the ports. This time I researched as this would be our 2nd time to Nassau & Coco Cay was not a port of call this time round (really loved Coco Cay!).

 

We're shoe-string travelers, so shore excursions booked from ship is not for us .. plus, they are way too expensive! From doing some research on the internet, I found that the port of Freeport has nothing to offer & it is best to book an excursion or find transportation elsewhere.

 

Best advise I found: take the $5 jitneys to Our Luyaca, so that's what we did. Super easy to find the jitney's at port. Our driver dropped us off at the casino & pointed us in the direction to beach access. We spent a delightful few hours at the beach enjoying the water & sand. Later we shopped for a bit at the colorful Port Lucaya Marketplace.

 

We did not eat at Our Lucaya as we had ordered sandwiches from our ship which we took with us .. but did see a number of cute places to try the marketplace.

 

Overall, great day at Our Lucaya. Would like to try some other beaches next time, esp. the one at the national park. FYI: Catch the $5.00 jitney's back to the ship right at the marketplace. Not bad for a $10 per person day! :)

 

We had been to Nassau last cruise (last year), so we had already seen the straw market, shopping area & a little bit of Atlantis.

 

This time I had read about the $1.25 public bus # 10 from Downtown to Cable Beach (pick-up at the corner of W. Bay St. & George St. near the Straw Market or walk all the way to the McDonald's/Dunkin Donuts across from the Hilton British Colonial on W. Bay St.).

 

This was a great option and cheap! There are many stops to get off the bus for beach access. We asked the driver to recommend a stop and he dropped us off at the beach access that is shared with Sandals Grand Bahamian Resort. You won't be able to use the Sandals facility but the beach is for public use. The water here was heaven! Just like a pool .. totally worthwhile.

 

We stayed and enjoyed for a while before taking the bus back to downtown. Did some shopping and then back to ship for late lunch & to freshen up before taking the $3 water taxi to Atlantis.

 

We got lucky this time at Atlantis, it's huge and I'm sure we only covered maybe a 3rd of the property. We were able to walk thru the Coral Towers to the Conference center and somehow ended up finding a tunnel (next to the HIBISCUS LAGOON) that leads to the beach & no one bothered us. We walked around quite a bit and no one bothered us -- last year we got stopped at every turn!

 

We absolutely loved the Reef Lagoon, the Stingray Lagoon & the Royal Ray Lagoon. We walked around the walkway that lead to Paradise Lagoon, finally got the casino (won $88 played with only $1.00) and we got to do The Dig this time (no one was charging when we got there & so we walked right in). Going back to the ship, we took a $4 taxi from Atlantis.

 

Overall, we paid less than $10 person for the day (and I won $88 to boot!)

- $1.25 each way to Cable Beach: $2.50 round trip total

- $3.00 per person water taxi to Atlantis

- $4.00 per person taxi from Atlantis back to ship.

 

Nice!

Hi I have been told you cannot even gamble at Atlantis w/o paying an entrance fee, is this true?

Hi I have been told you cannot even gamble at Atlantis w/o paying an entrance fee, is this true?

Not true, you can gamble, shop in the lobby shops or Marina Village (outside the atlantis hotel proper), and eat in most, but not all restaurants. Dinner reservations are required for most restaurants on the property.

You can no longer enter the grounds, not even from the beach, without a pass of some sort.

I'm sure there are still some people who trespass and get away with it, but security is posted everywhere.. checking passes and wristbands.

Be aware that the casino is NOT open to children under 18. unless they are just passing thru.. so if you are going with kids, you'll need to find somthing else for them to do. And it's VERY smokey..

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It gives me ideas for future trips.

Nancy

Thank you so much for the information on the People to People program! I am definitely going to check into it. We have a group of 7, possibly 9 (including 3 or 4 young children). Is this going to be too large of a group for them to be able to accommodate us?

Are we safe going with people in their cars? I've always taught my children not to talk to strangers, and now we're going to go ride with one! :p

Thanks for the info!

I'm leaning toward the beach day at the Hilton (BCH) but am now also wondering about doing the beach day at Blue Lagoon instead--any input from anyone? (Just my husband & myself, no kids)

I am really interested in meeting some/a local Bahamian and getting to see Nassau a bit through the People to People connection. I've been googling and looking and simply cannot figure out how/where to apply. (Is it as a "citizen ambassador"?)

We--husband and teen daughter-- will be in Nassau on Boxing Day, in 3 weeks (!), but only from 2p-12a. Is it unrealistic to think anyone will leave his/her family to meet with us that day? Is it simply too short notice anyway? Unfortunately I JUST found this thread about it :( thanks for any guidance you can give.

Just call them, I called them today and got right thru and they took my info.....and said they would email me. Google people to people Nassau....

Sorry, double posted by mistake on another thread as well. Thanks for this info Preschool Teacher. I'll call tomorrow.

Thank you so much for the information on the People to People program! I am definitely going to check into it. We have a group of 7, possibly 9 (including 3 or 4 young children). Is this going to be too large of a group for them to be able to accommodate us?

 

Are we safe going with people in their cars? I've always taught my children not to talk to strangers, and now we're going to go ride with one! :p

 

Thanks for the info!

I don't know that anyone would have a vehicle large enough for your family.

Keep in mind this is a cultural exchange... not a tour guide. They introduce you to their lifestyle and show you "real life" in the bahamas.. sometimes it's a church service, or family dinner or event. Some people have visited firehouses, hospitals or animal rescue. Even a quilting party if that's what you are interested in.

If you are truly interested, give them a call.. give them your details, and they will try and match you up with someone with like interests.

I'm leaning toward the beach day at the Hilton (BCH) but am now also wondering about doing the beach day at Blue Lagoon instead--any input from anyone? (Just my husband & myself, no kids)

Very different experience. BCH is a small private resort on the busy harbour. Very few kids.

Blue Lagoon is a gorgeous shallow lagoon on the interior of a private island. The main area is the dolphin encounters and sealions. The main beach has inflatable slides and trampolines and lots of kids.

You can "find" a more low keyed area on the island, but it is a busy spot with plenty of kids.

If you just want to chill out.. BCH now has Cabanas and covered daybeds with privacy.

I am really interested in meeting some/a local Bahamian and getting to see Nassau a bit through the People to People connection. I've been googling and looking and simply cannot figure out how/where to apply. (Is it as a "citizen ambassador"?)

 

We--husband and teen daughter-- will be in Nassau on Boxing Day, in 3 weeks (!), but only from 2p-12a. Is it unrealistic to think anyone will leave his/her family to meet with us that day? Is it simply too short notice anyway? Unfortunately I JUST found this thread about it :( thanks for any guidance you can give.

Best to just give them a call and ask.

Mrs. DeAnne Gibson

Bahamas Ministry of Tourism

People-to-People Unit

P.O. Box N-3701

Nassau, Bahamas

Phone: (242) 356-037/8

Fax: (242) 326-0166

E-mail: peopletopeople@bahamas.com