Last year I went to the Caribbean for the first time, and this year I went back to experience another country. I spent 4 nights in the Bahamas with one of my very best friends. My 2nd Annual Caribbean Escape was a huge success, and I’m convinced I need to continue the tradition next year. St. Lucia and the U.S. Virgin Islands are highest on my list 🙂
Visiting the Bahamas as an American is pretty standard, so I’m going to keep this post more laid-back and just share the information you might not know already. Ever since moving back to the midwest, I’ve found the best way to cope with the long winter is to break it up with a warm vacation in February. Here’s what doing that for 4 nights in the Bahamas could look like!
Overview
When picturing the Bahamas, I really just knew about Nassau and the famous Atlantis Resort. I didn’t realize this country was made up of 700 islands (16 major islands)! We spent the majority of our time in Nassau, which is where the main airport is, but I just wanted to point out that the Bahamas is much more than that. It’s something to keep in mind if you have more time to play with or if you’ve been there before and wanted to experience something new.
The only other Caribbean island I’ve been to is Turks and Caicos, but I still think it would be helpful to do a little comparison of the two. Turks and Caicos was stunning, with incredible snorkeling and beaches. There were some luxurious resorts that I didn’t stay at, so I can’t speak to what those are like, but they seemed to be a bit more upscale and adult friendly. Whereas Nassau felt very family friendly. There were lots of children around, but we were staying somewhere with a waterpark so that makes sense. The Atlantis felt similar to Vegas, but it was super fun because of the casinos, dining options, and waterpark. There are ways to do Nassau in a more adults-only way, but in general there were kids everywhere. Just something to keep in mind when planning your dream trip to the Caribbean.
*When visiting, you will use US dollars and plugs. You will experience warm weather year round (77-90 degrees Fahrenheit).*
4 Nights in the Bahamas: Getting There/ COVID
From Chicago, the flight was less than 3 hours–I could not believe how quick it was to get there. Things are changing rapidly with COVID restrictions, but at the time of writing, if you are vaccinated you have to submit a negative test within 72 hours (but it can be an antigen test). Once you have your results you go onto Bahamas.com and apply for a travel authorization. You pay $40 which covers your costs if you get COVID while you’re there. Then you get a QR code to present to your airline at check in. Coming home to the U.S., you still have to present a negative antigen test within 1 day.
Where to Stay
For our 4 nights in the Bahamas, we knew we wanted to experience The Atlantis. That being said, we didn’t want to pay to stay at The Atlantis, haha. I ended up finding a hotel called Comfort Suites Paradise Island that is right across the street from The Atlantis. A stay at Comfort Suites gets you access to all The Atlantis amenities– you could use their pools, beaches, and waterpark for no additional fees. At about $250 per night, this was a steal. We also got a $100 food credit, so essentially one of our dinners was free. They had a promotion on at the time of our visit, Buy 3 Nights Get The 4th Night Free, which saved us even more money. So we were able to experience the perks of The Atlantis for a fraction of the cost.
We did consider booking an all-inclusive for our stay and just buying a day pass to visit The Atlantis one day (I think that’s around $100 each). But there aren’t many all-inclusives to choose from, and we figured we wouldn’t drink enough alcohol to really get our money worth. Plus, we wanted to have amazing dining experiences, and it didn’t seem like the food at these resorts would live up to what we wanted. So we decided to stay at a more affordable hotel and spend our money on nice dinners at The Atlantis.
Comfort Suites was quite basic but perfect for what we needed. It was a really cute pink building surrounded by palms, and it was in a great location. The staff was so nice. The free breakfast saved us even more money and was actually tasty and very filling.
Travel Hack: Pick a bottle of vodka up from duty-free at the airport upon arrival. Bring some in a water bottle when you’re laying by the pool/beach all day. That way you only have to buy a juice and you can save money by mixing your own drinks.
What To Do for 4 Nights in the Bahamas
It really depends what sort of vibe you’re looking for. I was personally there on a girls trip, and we wanted lots of time in the sun, nice dinners, and a bit of adventure. Here’s what we got up to.
Thursday: We got to the airport and got straight on the mimosas. It was such a funny and perfect way to get us into vacation mode!
Once we arrived in the Bahamas and cleared Immigration, we were pretty tired. We decided to have a chill night and had dinner at our resort.
Friday: We wanted this day to be all about relaxing by the many pools and beaches at The Atlantis. We had some drinks, read our books, pool hopped, and chilled on the beach. We really enjoyed the convenience of spending the day at The Atlantis.
For dinner, we managed to snag seats at the bar at Nobu. We knew we wanted to have a few nice dinners, and the options at The Atlantis were really great. After dinner we hit the casino for a bit. It was such a good day 🙂
Saturday: This was the day we set aside to do the water slides at The Atlantis. It was so fun getting to spend the afternoon being a kid with my childhood bestie. We laughed way too much and had the best time! There’s quite a lot to do… even doing all the slides just once took us a few hours.
We had a small bite to eat for lunch then headed to the beach that we hadn’t done yet. It was so beautiful, so we spent the rest of the day there in total relaxation mode.
For dinner we headed back to The Atlantis and got a table at Olive. We were in the mood for steak and lobster, yummmmm. The joy of having a nice meal with good company truly fills my soul.
Sunday: We booked one excursion during our 4 nights in the Bahamas with a company called Born Free Charters. We spent the whole day on a boat with them, stopping off to see piggies, go snorkeling, and walk along incredible beaches. One of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen anywhere in all my travels was a stop on this tour. It was heaven. And the vibes were so good with fun music all day and drinks too. This was our only time to see something other than The Atlantis, so I’m so glad we decided to do this! For our last dinner, we went to Pirate Republic Taproom down at the marina. It was soooooo good as well.
Monday: Sadly it was time to leave paradise and head home. We spent the rest of our time chilling by the pool at Comfort Suites for that last minute relaxation. The one weird thing was we cleared U.S. Customs before boarding our flight when we were still in the Bahamas. So once we landed in Chicago we didn’t have to do anything. I just bring that up because you do need to factor in time for that before your flight.
Conclusion
We loved every minute we had in the Bahamas and thought it was the perfect spot for a girls trip! It was so convenient to not need a car in the area we stayed. There were so many nice options for dinner as well as so many amazing spots to relax during the day. If you grew up watching “Holiday in the Sun” with Mary-Kate and Ashley and you want to visit The Atlantis because of that, you will not be disappointed even as an adult!
You might also like: Solo Female Travel in Turks and Caicos, randomly the best performing post on my blog! I think Turks and Caicos is also an amazing spot for a girls trip, but to make it more affordable you will have to stay in an Airbnb and rent a car. So just a bit of a different vibe from hotel life.
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