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Gold Rock Beach @ Lucayan National Park, Grand Bahama

xpanmanx

By xpanmanx,
in Bahamas

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Greetings, we'll be in Freeport after St. Patrick's day. We're thinking of renting a car and driving out to Gold Rock Beach. I have a few questions...

 

Is personal safety ever an issue in Lucayan National Park or on Gold Rock Beach? ...what about vendors/panhandlers/etc?

 

Could we pick up food along the way to have lunch at the beach? If I were doing this in the States, I'd be looking for an Albertsons or a Subway.

 

It seems to be ~45 minutes from the harbor to Lucayan National Park. I've read that most of the highway is lightly traveled. Should I expect any congestion coming back into the city at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon?

 

Thank you!

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clskinsfan

clskinsfan

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My family of 4 has been there a few times. The park is a good ways east on the island. Maybe 40 minutes from Lucaya. Once you are out of the city there is nothing for miles until you get all the way to the east end of the island. We have never felt threatened in any way. The people of Grand Bahama are awesome. The last time we were there we went to a festival on the east end of the island. We were the only Americans there. It was fantastic. My kids had a great time swimming and playing with the Bahamian kids. We had deep fried lobster tails for around 8 bucks I think. Gold Rock itself is amazing. You will most likely have the mile long stretch of beach to yourself. The first time we went there we didnt wear bathing suits and ended up swimming in our underwear. It was that empty. Dont miss the rest of the park while your there. It is worth the trip and Is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. That includes all over the Caribbean, Hawaii, South Pacific and so forth. Just pack yourself a lunch before you go. It is absolutely worth the trip.

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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I'm finding it difficult to make rental car arrangements. Brad's is only booking 5-day rentals this time of year. Still waiting to hear from a few others. Avis at the airport is an option I haven't looked at yet.

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Check the tide charts for the day you'll be there. It is best to go closer to low tide.

 

If I'm reading the charts correctly, low tide is at 1:30PM on the day we're in port. Should give us 90m to enjoy the scene before departing to the harbor at 3pm.

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Got the car booked through Avis, it wasn't too expensive. Now to deal with food at the beach. We're arriving on a cruise ship, so food might be a little more complicated. Are there grocery stores or something generic like Subway along the route?

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zubee23

zubee23

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There's usually a woman roadside at the park selling sodas - also a yummy coconut cake! You'll pass stores on your way. Banana Bay is a restaurant right on the beach not far from the park and Gold Rock. You can try some Bahamian food (cracked conch is like fried clam strips) have some local beers (Sands or Kalik) or try a Gullywash or a Bahama Mama. Also have banana bread! When you rent the car make sure you get a map. Ask them to mark where a sandwich shop is etc.

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Do the stores in Freeport sell flats of bottled water? Can we carry water in our own 1L backpacking bottles off the boat?

 

Thinking about staying hydrated at the beach. :)

 

Sailing in just three days! So excited!

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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And so, our experience went like this...

 

After the ship was moored, I used my cell to call Avis Bahamas using AT&T's roaming agreement with BTC. I'm sure I'll enjoy seeing the charges on my bill. Then we filled five two-liter bottles with ship's water, dropped them in a beach bag and covered them with some Carnival lido towels, and made our way off the boat. Our bags were given only a cursory inspection, but definitely there were warnings about food and a overflowing bin of digestible contraband at the ship's security checkpoint.

 

Avis picked us up at the harbor loop in less than 25 minutes. At the airport counter, it took about 15 minutes to finalize the contract and drive away, and yup, I took every bit of optional insurance they offered.

 

It wasn't too hard to figure out the left-side-of-road, left-hand drive thing. The whole day, we had only one close call, but thankfully the oncoming driver was on his toes.

 

We made a quick grocery stop at Solomon's, a large supermarket near the airport. $25 and 20 minutes later, we were on our way. I'd downloaded a Google Maps offline package before leaving the ship, so we had great navigation abilities. It took about 35 minutes to reach the entrance to the park, where we were greeted at our car by the staff who took our $5@ admission fee and gave us some good info. There was also a lady in a minivan selling refreshments, towels, etc. We didn't need anything from her, and she was pleasant and welcomed us to the park.

 

We used the changing rooms to put on our swimsuits, then applied lots of sunblock, and started walking to the beach. It's an easy walk, starting with about 1000' of boardwalk across a tidal stream, then another 600' down a trail, and poof! .....the beach appears as the trail breaks through a line of trees.

 

Gold Rock Beach is miles of the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. We arrived about 3 hours before low tide, and the water's edge was about 150 yards from the tree line. During high tide things probably get a little tight against the tree line, I'd say the beach dwindles to about 50' in most places.

 

Within eyesight - and you could see for a mile in either direction - were maybe two dozen people. We felt like we had the place to ourselves. And this was during spring break! I'll link some pix for you in a bit.

 

It was a very sunny, yet windy and coolish day at the end of March, with temps around 75 degrees. I'd say the water was around 70 degrees. The wife and I didn't get in past our waists, but our kids frolicked like sea otters.

 

At 3:15pm, we drove ourselves back to Avis and filled the tank along the way. So strange having someone pump gas for me. We had a crazy moment or two when I didn't tell our navigator to take us to the INTERNATIONAL terminal, and the resulting confusion caused a near-fender-bender :) After we got it figured out, Avis ran us over to the harbor, and we made it back on board 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

 

Note that the sun on Gold Rock Beach is intensive. Despite our precautions, which included re-applying sunblock every 75 minutes, all of us got sunburnt to some degree. Nothing TOO bad, the pain was gone in a day, but if you tried to do this without proper preparation, you'd be watermelon red and miserable for a good long while.

 

So there you have it - a homespun Grand Bahama excursion for the price of a rental car, a few sack lunches and a little sunburn. I'd do it again with no hesitation, except for the sunburn :)

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Hmmmm...... I wonder if my family and I could pull off this self made excursion. But it's 10 of us.....I wonder what sort of rental car we would need?

Call Avis Bahamas, or any of the other Rent-a-car places. Consider two cars instead of a bigger ride. Also maybe see if you could hire a private driver with a 15-passenger van for the day.

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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tinkr2, the Avis SUV was $160, it took about 45m to get from the gangway to the steering wheel, we drove about 35m coming and going, spent about 4.5 hours at the park, and another 45m checking the car in and getting back to the ship.

 

clskinsfan, we sure did! Such a neat surprise. However we're from a big cave state, with lots of lore and whatnot, and we felt right at home :)

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xpanmanx

xpanmanx

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Thank you so much for the info. We are going next week and were stumped on what to do. Gold Rock beach looks amazing and rental car is $80 and the way to go for our family of 4!

We were a family of five and had to jump up to the SUV to fit everyone and our beach gear.

 

Also --- assuming you're from the States, you should mentally prepare yourself for the left-side of the road, left-hand driving experience :eek:

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