What I Loved About the Bahamas, and What You Will Too

Bahamian Parliament Building

One of the things people are surprised to learn I have in common with our lead culinary host Chef Irie, is a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture. Whether it’s art, food or television, creativity finds its way out of the same person in many forms I suppose. A great perk of having been an architecture student in Jamaica was the benefit of traveling to other Caribbean countries to study their building vernacular. That’s how I first ended up in the Bahamas.

On our research trip to Nassau, I camped out with a number of classmates, hung out by the pool and by the beach, and enjoyed some of the local cuisine. Oh yeah, we got some work done too :-). Some of the things I remember vividly are my classmates drinking Kalik, the local Bahamian beer, and enjoying conch made in every imaginable way. There was a strip they called “Fish Fry” where the tourists and the locals enjoyed local food and drink together. It reminded me of Oistins in Barbados, only it was smaller.

Find recipes for:
Bahamian Conch Salad, Bahamian Conch Fritters, Bahamian Cocktails

Bahamas Fish Fry

Traditional Bahamian Home

We visited the traditional neighborhoods which were characterized by pretty little wooden houses on stilts. They were painted in a rainbow of pastel colors, and they had gorgeously elaborate fretwork and simple wraparound verandahs. Search for Bahamian homes on google images and you’ll see that the newer homes maintain a more upscale version of that same, traditional aesthetic, and it’s lovely!

We studied population growth patterns and grid systems, blah blah blah. But as fascinating as all that stuff was, the thing we all wanted to do the most was to visit the then newly built Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.

Paradise in the Bahamas

On our tour of the hotel complex we saw comfy guest rooms, including the very lavish Michael Jackson suite. We saw family friendly water features like that slide they show on the TV commercials. My personal favorite thing was the glass sided undercroft where we could make direct eye contact with a variety of sea creatures swimming by.

Atlantis Paradise Island

Atlantis Undercroft

I’ve only been back to the Bahamas once since that first trip, but we hope to visit with the show in the near future. Certainly whenever I have a family of my own it is certainly something I intend to do again. It looks like Atlantis has been expanding and if the beginning was any indication, they’ve definitely been on the right track. Here’s a link to a special deal they have going right now. If you do happen to head out there, have fun for me too!

Book by December to enjoy 40% Off and up to a $500 credit from Atlantis, Paradise Island 

About the Author
Calibe Thompson is the Executive Producer of Taste the Islands TV show and Editor of tastetheislandstv.com.