I came to Nassau, capital and largest city of the Bahamas, to answer a question: is there a city here with value for visitors that goes beyond the cruise ships and resorts and what specifically caters to them? After a bit over two weeks here, the answer is a still a bit murky.

Today, I’d like to share my experience with you, both the pluses and minuses of being a non-cruise and non-resort visitor to the city and to the Bahamas as a whole.

By the Numbers

There are about 400,000 total people living in the Bahamas, and roughly 250,000 of those live here in the Nassau area. It is by far – obviously – the largest city in the country, and only three other cities even have populations over 10,000. But Nassau is still, by most standards, a small city.

Each day that I made the trip from my Airbnb on the western side of Junkanoo Beach to Downtown Nassau, I passed by the cruise ship terminal. And with the exception of Fridays, each day had at least five ships in port, with a few having six. (It can be hard to see the sixth ship, as it is blocked from my view on the beach.) These are not small ships, and a conservative estimate is that five ships will bring about 20,000 passengers and crew to Nassau. If the ships are larger, that number can increase significantly. For example, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas carries 8-10,000 passengers and crew by itself. (The range depends on if staterooms are merely double occupancy or if more – children – cram into cabins.)

Nassau also has, as of 2024, about 11,000 hotel rooms. With an average occupancy rate of about 75%, and an average occupancy of 2.5 per room (again, with kids), that is another just over 20,000 visitors at any given time. (These numbers do not include those staying at Airbnbs, or other day-trippers, but those categories are tiny in comparison.)

So a city of 250,000 hosts 40,000 or more visitors every day. About half of those stay here in Nassau overnight, and the other half pile on and off their ships, basically making it a 9-5 visit.

Visiting Downtown Nassau or Paradise Island

Let’s start with Paradise Island. If you are staying in Nassau, there is a decent chance this is where you’ll be. The island, located just across a bridge east of Downtown, is home to the mighty Atlantis Resort, which itself has nearly 4,000 rooms. (There are other smaller hotels here as well.) The entire west side of the island caters to tourists, and areas at the east tip are lined with multi-million dollar homes. If there is local life here, I can’t afford it, and the only locals I met were those working in the various aspects of the hospitality industry.

Then there is Downtown Nassau, which I’ll define as the area between Junkanoo Beach on the west and the Paradise Island ferry pier on the east, just past the cruise terminal. (If you walk further east, toward the bridge to Paradise Island, many – even most – buildings are, as of this writing, run down or empty.) Downtown runs from the waterfront inland about four blocks before it hits a hill, on top of which is Fort Fincastle. It’s a twenty or so minute walk from east to west, and ten north to south.

If you are in Downtown Nassau on a day of five or more cruise ships, the place is packed. It can be hard-to-walk packed. The streets are lined with souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, and higher-end shopping (clothes and jewelry mainly). All seem to do reasonably decent business, but just about every patron seems to be a tourist. Music plays loudly, drinks flow freely, and US dollars seem to be the currency of choice. (The Bahamian dollar is pegged 1-1 to the US dollar, so places accept both equally. Credit cards are hit or miss.)

When most passengers head back to the ships, around 3-4pm, Downtown Nassau definitely empties out. But locals don’t seem to come in to replace those tourists. This seems to just be a place for visitors.

What Sort of Tourists Are These?

I don’t mind when there are a lot of tourists in a place, for the most part. I travel extensively, and I want others to, as well. But…

This is obviously painting an overly broad caricature, but the average cruise ship passenger I encountered in Nassau was not the sort of tourist I like. Broadly speaking, Nassau caters to Americans, with a focus on younger couples and families. Luxury cruise brands rarely stop here (there are a couple Celebrity or Holland America ships, which I’d classify as lower-level-luxury, but none beyond that) and the lines that come are dominated by Royal Caribbean and Carnival, known for being rather party-centric. So while certainly some cruise passengers are in search of culture, or wholesome fun, it has been much more common for me to come across those who, well, aren’t.

Let me illustrate this with a couple stories. One of my favorite spots for crack conch (fried pieces of conch) is Linda’s, just outside the cruise terminal. Tourists here often just – I mean just – got off their ships. Next door to Linda’s is a bar that serves frozen drinks in pineapple shells. On multiple occasions, visitors yelled at the staff that it was taking too long to get their drinks. At around 11am. Just off a cruise ship. Or there was the bearded man with a vast potbelly at the beach just west of Junkanoo. He was wearing an American flag hat, shirt, and bathing suit. The shirt came off, revealing a “Don’t Tread on Me” tattoo, and then he reached for his chewing tobacco. I could go on.

I often commiserated with locals working at various bars and restaurants that I visited. (I avoided those with too loud volume of music playing.) They said these tourists often are rude, often don’t tip, and expect things to be catered to their every whim, like the person who actually yelled at a pharmacy tech for not having change in US dollars. (We are in the Bahamas. Them accepting your currency is a favor to you.)

Things in the parts of Nassau that see the most tourists definitely cater to this crowd. One needs look no further than Junkanoo Beach, where signs offer clear kayaks not to kayak in, but to use as props for a drone photography shoot for Instagram.

(Resort guests are better than cruise passengers, although many of them stay in their resorts, not wanting to interact with locals at all. That’s a win for me, but also speaks to them.)

So Is There a Locals Vibe?

It is kind of hard to say. By this I mean, yes, I’m sure there is. As one goes further from Downtown or Paradise Island, one runs into fewer tourists. My Airbnb was about fifteen minutes’ walk from Junkanoo Beach, and at my local breakfast spot (hat tip to The New Duff; seriously, try it) there were more locals than tourists unless a food tour came in. But locals seem to guard their own spots jealously. And I don’t blame them. When such a huge percentage of locals are directly or indirectly employed in tourism and hospitality, why would they want tourists – even nice ones like me – after hours or on their days off?

So the best I was able to come up with are sorts of hybrid places, those areas where tourists and locals seem to intermingle. Besides The New Duff, this list includes both of Nassau’s “fish fry” areas. One, the most famous one, sits to the west of Junkanoo Beach. The other is “under the bridge,” meaning under the second (east) bridge to Paradise Island. Both areas have well over a dozen eateries, with some catering just to tourists or to locals, but most gladly hosting a mix of both.

Beyond that, my quest to find the “real” Nassau was a failure. It was about a half hour walk to the nearest grocery store, so I only did that once (although I was probably the only tourist there), and the area around it was just banks and fast food so I didn’t go back to explore more.

Conclusion

So is Nassau more than cruise ships and resorts? The answer is yes, probably. But visitors will have a tough time finding that more hidden side to this city without locals showing them around. The best one can really hope for if one wants to avoid the sorts of tourists mentioned above is to go places in the city they largely won’t: museums (especially those dedicated to deeper things; the pirates museum gets the Disney Cruises families), beaches a bit further out (Saunders Beach is a 40 minute walk west of the cruise terminal and won’t have many making it that distance), or bars and restaurants with lower volume and off the beach (like Watling’s Distillery for drinks on the patio; there are tourists here, but they had to come with intention since it’s less conveniently located).

I hope that as the city grows, and as the Bahamas develops an economy not totally dependent on tourism, that I could give a different answer in the future.

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