Which Island?

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rhwestfall

Woof!
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Location
"La Grande Ile"
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Wife is asking about the Bahamas for a possible next destination for our family (3 divers). Looking for recommendations for land based opportunities. Don't specifically need the "royal treatment"..... Don't have any interest in "shark feed/dives". Prefer to see what nature offers naturally....

FWIW - I done San Salvador nearly 30 years ago (pre Club Med) and loved it. I know it is different now..

Any suggestions?

TIA,
 
I had a great time diving with Grand Bahama Scuba in Freeport last month, but there is relatively little to do in Freeport other than diving and eating. Sadly, Freeport is feeling really hard times after Hurricane Matthew in Nov 2016. No big hotels are open, high unemployment, etc. They are rebuilding, slowly, but I think tourism there is in a downward death-spiral.

OTOH, I dove with several families with their kids, and they seemed to be finding something to do after the dives.
 
I highly recommend Small Hope Bay Lodge on Andros Island. They have wall dives, ocean blue hole dives,inland blue hole dives, and cave diving. The reefs are pristine and they seem to be the only people diving there. Most of their dive sites are only a 10 minute boat ride from their dock. The staff is very friendly. The food is wonderful. They also offer fishing trips and other tours for non-divers. It is off the beaten path so it is very relaxing.
 
I agree with dberry on the sad state of affairs in Freeport because of the hurricane but it is recovering and you can get some great deals on lodging. My husband and I did two really great dives there with Unexso. We saw tons of sharks without feeding them and although we don't normally support dolphins in captivity (we thought we were going to see wild dolphins on a dive) we did a fantastic dolphin dive with a trained dolphin that was born in captivity to a rescued dolphin that follows the trainer boat a couple of miles out of his lagoon. This dolphin is free to leave but prefers his life he knows in the large lagoon and regular interaction with humans. We sat on the bottom at about 60 feet and interacted with him. He gave us hugs and kisses and we watched him do some fantastic bursts to the surface with a dive back to the trainer. He then willingly follows the boat back to his lagoon. I don't need any other "things to do" besides diving and relaxing so it was a great time for us. We've also been to several other Bahamas Islands to dive this past winter but got skunked twice due to weather in the Exumas. We did get to dive the wall at Conception Island out of Stella Maris and that was incredible. We spent some time having lunch and lying in the gorgeous blue green water there. There's a small one man dive op there that I can't recall the name of but I'm going to try and find it and will post here again if I do.
 
I have stayed at a small family run hotel on Cable Beach in Nassau called the Orange Hill Inn. It is a quaint little place and they will not only know your name but you will be greeted by name every time they see you. The last time I was there, they still had an "Honour Bar". Their theory was that they would lose less doing that than it would cost them to hire a bartender to just stand around if nobody was at the bar.

They are on the Stuart Cove pick up list, so you can dive with Stuart Cove whenever you want and they will pick you up right at the hotel. While Stuart Cove does do a lot of shark feeding dives, they also do a wide variety of other dives including walls, reefs, wrecks and some locations that are pretty sharky without feeding.

The Orange Hill is too far from downtown Nassau to walk, but there is a bus that runs right past the hotel. I'm not sure if this is going to meet your needs, but I just thought that I'd mention it.
 
Is the Orange Hill Inn still in operation? I had heard they were seriously damaged in a storm last year.
 
Is the Orange Hill Inn still in operation? I had heard they were seriously damaged in a storm last year.
I think that they were back up and running relatively quickly. I have friends who are staying there in October.
 
It has been years since my last visit but Chub Cay was outstanding ! Not sure if they still have
a dive shop there or not .
Sea Dwellers
 
Looking for recommendations for land based opportunities.
That probably has to be Nassau now. Freeport was not very exciting before ut was storm damaged. All the Out Islands are very similar to San Salvador in terms of size/population/things to do.And some have very limited dive operations so book well in advance if ypu pick one of them. This may help: Bahamas Government Portal - Welcome to Bahamas Diving

Maybe Bimini? but it's real quiet there also. Some interesting natural shark dives can be done there.Even though the O'Keefe's moved back to Oz I think their snorkel with the wild dolphins still continues. IDK when but certain times of year there's a lot of Lemon Sharks in pretty shallow water. Also they hype "The Strip" which is a pretty parallel reef structure but it's not as interesting as they say, We did see quite a few natural sharks there.

Cove's on Nassau is two things you likely don't want. One is the shark feed dives - the sharks hang around the nearby weecks waiting for it. I don't consider that natural either. Also unless you stay at Orabge Hill or the other B&B on their pickup list - all the Cable Beach/downtown/Paradise Island properties are a good 45min shuttle ride to Cove's on the south side.

Bahama Divers is the only other dive option - they're just across the bridge from Paradise Island so a lot closer. Also their shuttle picks up at both PI and Cable Beach, If they still do it, the Lost Blue Hole is a good dive - at one time Hammerheads hung around there.

Most of the other things to do on Nassau are either near Cable Beach (including it) or at the Atlantis Megaresort on Paradise Island. Some of the properties there like Comfort Suites have guest privileges at Atlantis a short distance away.

hth
 
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