Here’s to another addition of FODMAP travels! I convinced my husband that we needed to go on a babymoon (but really who needs convincing to go on a beach trip?) and we wanted to fly Southwest Airlines as we have a Companion Pass. There were really only two options if we wanted to take a beach vacation and avoid the Zika virus: Bahamas & Grand Cayman. I did very little research between the two places and decided on Nassau. Southwest does not fly directly to the Bahamas so we connected in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and took a very short flight into the island.
Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to learn more about the history of the island and people. Nassau (previously known as Charles Town) was founded in 1670 by British settlers. During the early 1700’s, Bahamas had become a base for pirates who quickly outnumbered the inhabitants (hence why there is a Pirates Museum located in downtown). Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas and makes up 70% of the population.
Resort Life + Resort Food
We took a short cab right (15 minutes) from the airport to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar which is connected alongside the SLS Hotel & the Rosewood Hotel. Overall, the staff were wonderful and extremely accommodating. For such a massive property, I was impressed with the amount of staff and attention they had for their guests. It never felt overly crowded (even though I would recommend dinner reservations to be booked ahead of time) and we never saw another person on our floor.
The good stuff:
- The hotel property was huge but did not lose the integrity of a high quality hotel that it was.
- Every restaurant asked about food allergies and were extremely accommodating.
- 3 Tides Fish House – this was our favorite restaurant inside the hotel. We came here for breakfast and dinner two days in a row as the food and service were that good.
- The beach was beautiful and we never had an issue finding chairs.
- We enjoyed exploring downtown Nassau.
The annoying stuff:
- We were both completely SHOCKED at how expensive the restaurant and room service prices were. One morning I decided I wanted a room service gluten-free waffle which was on the menu for $18. When it arrived, I was shocked at the ridiculously small portion as well as how poorly it tasted. I never send food back but it was that bad that I had too. Later on we saw the price after adding the gluten-free, room service, gratuity and VAT tax charge was $50!!! For a waffle that was the size of my palm and inedible! We found out that all the food has to be imported into the island which is why prices are so alarmingly high.
- If you wanted a snack or a light bite during the day, the options were limited. I tried getting oatmeal at the in-house Starbucks but they were sold out. I would make sure to pack your own snacks as the closest grocery store is a cab ride away.
- Cigarette smoke – I know there is a massive casino located on the first floor but every time we went downstairs we were overwhelmed with the smell of cigarettes. #barf
- I felt a bit of cabin fever being at the resort 24/7 and not being able to walk around the island without taking a cab. A cab ride into town was $20 each way which adds up quickly.
Downtown Nassau
Going into town was one of the highlights of our trip. It was really nice getting off the resort and exploring the shops and restaurants. We had a delicious lunch at Goldie’s (a traditional fish fry) which was an easy 20 minute walk from downtown. The service was pretty lackluster but sitting outside and enjoying the weather made up for it!
Did we love the Bahamas? No, we found it a beautiful island that is more of a perfect cruise stop destination than a full vacation spot. I’ll stick to my favorite beach vacation in Cabo in the future. 😉
Looking for other FODMAP travel guides? Check out some of my favorite trips in Cabo San Lucas, Amalfi Coast, & Greece.
