Trip Date February 2020

I had the most amazing vacation in Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. I went with my BF for our 1 year anniversary and we had such a wonderful stay and today I wanted to break down the different parts of the resort in case you’re also planning a visit in the future. We saw all sorts of groups during our time at the resort – families, bachelorette/bachelor parties, couples, etc. This post is not sponsored in anyway – just wanted to share my thoughts with you since I got so many questions about our trip!

GETTING THERE

Baha Mar is located on the island of New Providence (Nassau), the main island in The Bahamas. I love the Bahamas because it’s not too far from Miami (about a 55 min flight to Nassau and 3 hours from NYC) and it has some of the most amazing clear waters that I’ve ever seen. Many of you asked if we would visit again and I for sure say YES! The resort has something for everyone.

We took a taxi from the Airport to the Resort, since we did not book a round trip service which the resort actually offers. (BTW you must book in advance) and Bahamas does not have Ubers.

THE RESORT

There are three places to stay at Baha Mar – Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt. Check in was pretty seamless and the room was spacious. In Grand Hyatt there are the East and West towers. The blue rooms pictured in this post are located in the East tower and the West tower is filled with creamy neutrals.

What I loved about the room was the bathroom. It had a double sink feature, a huge tub and shower and Balmain bath products. What I found a little odd in the rooms were the sliding doors next to the tub, but it was nice that we were able to look into the room from the bathroom. We also had a large balcony with ocean views and it was nice to be able to sit outside.

Instead of room keys you get a wristband (each hotel has it’s own different one) which also acts as your room key and entrance into Baha Bay which is the new waterpark.

Just walking through the resort was a total vibe. The casino floor is stunning with giant chandeliers and large windows to the outdoors. The resort grounds are immaculate, lush and no detail is spared.

We also noticed that it was quiet during our stay. Our trip was from Wednesday-Sunday and it was overall very relaxing.

WHERE TO EAT

The resort has so many different places to eat. The restaurants are split up within the three hotels – Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and SLS. You are able to go to any of the restaurants in any of the hotels! For the four nights we were there we had reservations at Swimming Pig (American), Katsuya (Japanese) and Cleo (Mediterranean). My favorite dinner was a toss up between Katsuya and Cleo. The best advice I can give is to reserve dinners beforehand. Reservations can be made easily through OpenTable or the Baha Mar website. I made our dinner reservations three weeks in advance. All restaurants were booked up by the time we arrived and the wait for walk ups was REALLY long.

Baha Mar is NOT an all Inclusive Resort, therefore food and drinks were the most costly part of the trip – more than our flight and hotel room combined. For breakfast we would grab food from Madeline’s or Pizza Lab (there is also a Starbucks onsite). Lunch was at the food trucks and one day at the Umami Burger at Baha Bay (which was SO GOOD! Better than Shake Shack and In and Out Burger).

Dinner was Swimming Pig, Katsuya and Cleo as I said above. Baha Mar does a great job in providing a variety of food and next time we go we’ll check out the other restaurants! One thing to note is that if you are traveling on a weekday some restaurants don’t open in the evening until Thursday (i.e. Cleo).

Restaurants on site

Beach/Pool Area:

EL JEFE
DA POKE BOWL SHACK
UMAMI BURGER

POOLS/BEACH

The beach was stunning and the water was the most clearest I have seen.

All the pools we went too were stunning and there were several of them sprinkled throughout the property.

We mostly spent our time at the Dean’s Blue Hole. The Dean’s Blue Hole pool is a large pool with a huge cave with sea life. It has the zero-entry so you could walk right into it and also had rocks you could walk up and jump off into. I of course arrived early at this pool for photos because throughout the day it would get busy with families and their kids. I would recommend the Privilege Pool at SLS which is the adults only pool with parties on the weekends.

At the beach you will come across many merchants selling cigars, coconut drinks, coconut and activities such as jet ski rental, snorkling, etc.

WHAT TO DO (Inside the Resort)

Besides the pool/beach there are many other things to do!

BAHA BAY – Baha Bay is the newly opened waterpark. We loved the fact that there is something for everyone here! Adults, kids and babies we all had tons of fun! I also liked that towels were easy to find and it was spotless.

WATER ACTIVITIES – There are stand-up paddleboards, single and double kayaks, water hammocks, floating lounges, personal floats, snorkels, and masks.

CASINO – Baha Mar has a beautiful casino with slot machines and table games. The tables opened later than we liked (around noon) but the casino at Baha Bay opens earlier. I actually preferred the casino at Baha Bay which is brand new.

SPA – I went to the ESPA on a prior trip to the Bahamas and had an amazing massage. The spa is designed beautifully and it’s nice that before and after your service you can lounge and have tea/light snacks.

SHOPPING – There is high end shopping – we didn’t really go into much of the store because the hours were weird during the weekdays – I think they open around 2PM but we did go into Cartier and Rolex.(inventory is extremely low due to covid).

AVIARY & SANCTUARY – There are birds which you can feed in the Aviary and also in the Sanctuary there is small ocean life petting zoo with stingrays, starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins. There are also flamingos onsite.

GOLF & TENNIS

FITNESS CENTER – State of the art gym and classes

NIGHTLIFE – After dinner there is alot to do to keep the party going. There is the Rooftop Bar at SLS & Bond Nightclub, Monkey Bar, Blue Note – Piano Bar, Manor and Library Bar. SLS Hotel is the most “adult” friendly out of the three hotels.

WHAT TO DO (Outside the Resort)

Visit the City

I totally recommend if you have time to step out the resort and go down to the city of Nassau if you have never been. Nassau is a relatively small island and you can go to the city for a day and see pretty much eat and drink at a fraction of the cost the resort offers.

Pirates Museum

We went to the Pirates Museum and learned the history of Pirates in the Bahamas which was super interesting.

Straw Market

Besides that we passed by the Straw Market. Which is a traditional open-air market selling handwoven straw crafts, Bahamian souvenirs & tourist trinkets. We bought shot glasses as souvenirs.

Power Boat Adventures

Power Boat Adventures was a really fun addition to our trip. This was an excursion activity we booked completely separate from the Resort. Power Boats Adventure is a company that offer a day trip to Exuma to swim with the famous Exuma pigs, feed wild stingrays, sharks and iguanas. They offer lunch, they cook fresh conch salad and have open bar. They full day activity included the following:

• Your Own Private Island
• Shark & Stingray Experiences
• NEW! Famous Exuma Piggies!
• Stunning Beach
• Huge Fresh Cooked Lunch
• Bahamian Conch Salad Show
• Open Bar – ALL FREE, ALL DAY!
• The Best of The Bahamas

WHAT TO WEAR

Resort wear, in my opinion, is the best way to go for an island vacation. For daytime I lived in swimsuits and cute cover-ups and in the evenings I dressed up each night. I’ll be doing a separate blog post linking all my outfit details next week so stay tuned!

OVERALL THOUGHTS

In terms of traveling during the pandemic, before traveling you need to complete a health visa for everyone in your party (if you are fully vaccinated you need to show your proof of vaccination or get a covid test done prior). To come back, Baha Mar offers covid testing onsite at the resort. They really make things easy which is great and it was nice to not have to leave the resort for any reason.

Overall, we LOVED our time at Baha Mar and can’t wait to come back!