About The Bahamas

Cross a vividly-colored emerald ocean, add a tropical landscape which contains everything from ultramodern resorts to deserted sands, and you have arrived in Grand Bahama Island. Shop at the International Bazaar, explore underwater caves, stroll an exotic nature land in search of flamingos, swim with dolphins, or hit the irons, Grand Bahama has everything you need for a spectacular Caribbean vacation. You’ll certainly want to take advantage of the East End’s deserted beaches for an extended period of tropical relaxation. After all, it was the native Bahamians, the Arawaks, who invented the ultimate relaxation tool, the hammock.

Ponce de Leon’s quest for the “Fountain of Youth” in 1513 led to the discovery of Grand Bahama Island. It is believed that the Spanish explorer described the areas around the Little Bahama Bank as being “baja mar” (literally ‘shallow sea’). And, it is from this that the name, Gran Bajamar, or ‘Great Shallows,’ evolved and eventually became the name of this island nation. Grand Bahama is the home of Freeport/Lucaya, the nation’s second largest city, with a faster pace and a more cosmopolitan atmosphere. Forty years ago Freeport/Lucaya didn’t exist; today, it’s a fantasy vacation made real on the shores of Grand Bahama. In fact, it was built for tropical fun. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier, who had been on the island since the mid-1940’s, designed and built Freeport/Lucaya. He approached the Bahamian government with his idea to build a town that catered to both industry and tourists. It is now the second most populated city in the Islands of The Bahamas.

Freeport/Lucaya is a sportsman’s paradise, with championship golf, tennis, scuba diving, and fishing. In fact, it was designed especially for your pleasure. The hotels, dive shops, rental shops and beaches near the town are superbly equipped to deliver just about every kind of water sport imaginable.

Along with diving, windsurfing, parasailing, and other activities, you can also swim and safely interact with dolphins. Other pursuits include casinos, duty-free shopping at both the International Bazaar and Port Lucaya Marketplace, championship golf courses, and a large variety of restaurants in town that are limited only to your taste. Relaxation is king in Freeport. There are so many isolated beaches that you can easily wander away from the crowd for peace and quiet, or you can take a stroll in the Garden of the Groves, Freeport’s botanical garden.

Outside the city is an entire island filled with gorgeous beaches, natural wonders, including one of the world’s largest underwater cave systems, three national parks, and an incredible resource of marine life. There are small towns that hide a history unlike any other in the Caribbean. The towns of the West End have an old world charm. During prohibition, there were many hideouts here for rum-runners. In the parks of the island, one can find remnants of the island’s earliest Arawak civilizations as well as the intrusion of pirates.

The locals on Grand Bahama Island are probably among the most easygoing people on Earth. Many of the 50,000 people on Grand Bahama Island were not born here. They hail from all over The Islands of The Bahamas.

Grand Bahamians in particular, however, are probably best known for their entrepreneurship and a devotion to the great outdoors. Freeport/Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island is now a community completely tailored to the getaway tourist, a premeditated paradise offering almost every kind of vacation activity imaginable.