Saying you’ve been to Nassau after a boozy port call at Señor Frog’s is like claiming you’ve “done” Manhattan after hitting Times Square. And the fantasy landscape of the sprawling Atlantis resort on Paradise Island isn’t so much Nassau as it is its own self-contained universe. The opening of the even larger Baha Mar complex (along Cable Beach, or what developers have exuberantly re-dubbed “the Bahamian Riviera”), slated for late next year, will only bring more tourists to the Bahamas’ capital city.
But there’s a lot more to the 21-mile-long New Providence Island than most visitors get the chance — or take the time, for that matter — to discover. Here’s our guide to hanging out with Nassau locals, hand-feeding stingrays and sipping on daiquiris far from the tourist crowds.
EAT CONCH
The Bahamas’ national dish is deliciously sustainable and flopping fresh. Queen conch are bountiful in Bahamian waters, and when their mild flesh is pulled ceremoniously from their sunset-hued shells — then sliced, diced and spiced up with Scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes and a generous squeeze of orange juice — the taste is like ceviche with more sass. The Fish Fry at Arawak Cay, a collection of colorful wooden shack-style restaurants just west of downtown, draws locals on weekend nights, in particular for conch salad and sky juice (gin blended with coconut water and condensed milk). It’s worth venturing farther west to the village of Gambier, near Compass Point Beach Resort, to find a small conch salad stand on the side of the road that’s perpetually packed, thanks to the addition of mango and pineapple to the standard recipe. A local named Clint Higgs is usually manning his barrel barbecue here, too (he calls his grill Clint’s Smokehouse), proffering delicious ribs and lobster platters from $12 a pop.
PARTY ON THURSDAYS
Nassau’s ex-pat community — mostly Brits and Canadians, with some Europeans and Americans in the mix — converges on Thursday nights for live music in a small outdoor tapas and burger bar called La Hipica (Nelson Road, 242-376-5554). Surrounded by horse pastures in the bucolic inland setting of Mt. Pleasant Village, the place, run by a Spaniard, features an excellent blue-cheese burger and the occasional whole roasted pig cooked on the wood-fired grill. The oven-roasted pulled pork sandwich is a perpetual winner, too. Snag a picnic table bench to listen to acoustic guitar music and local crooners.
DRINK DAIQUIRIS
Sequined masks and costumes from the Bahamas’ favorite annual festival, Junkanoo, decorate the small wooden outdoor bar with a “Tropical Daiquiris” sign, located a few miles west of popular Cable Beach along West Bay Road. Here, proprietor Andy Jones plays Bahamian music through the speakers and powers his blenders with a generator tucked into a nearby cave while he churns out the most delicious and potent daiquiris on the island. Handfuls of fresh fruit (papaya, melon, strawberries) meet Bahamian Fire in de Hole rum for a concoction the same sherbet-orange color as the sun sinking into the ocean across the street. And don’t be surprised if an enterprising local tells you about the nearby small cave flickering with bats where, the story goes, pirates once stashed their booty.
TAKE A DAY TRIP
If the sea is blue in Nassau, it’s a shade more electric in the Northern Exumas. And you can visit the islands during day trips that leave from Paradise Island. Powerboat Adventures offers high-speed boats that make the crossing in about an hour (powerboatadventures.com, 242-323-8888). The day includes a stop to feed iguanas on Allen’s Cay (put a grape on a stick and proffer it, campfire-style, to the reptiles). Then you’ll pull some James Bond-boat moves close to the limestone islands before docking at Ship Channel Cay to bask on a deserted beach, kneel to hand-feed huge stingrays in the sand (the piece of grouper between your fingers gets hoovered up in a nanosecond) and watch shark wranglers lure nurse sharks and lemon sharks upwards of 6 feet long into the shallows for feedings.
WHERE TO STAY
The colorful wooden bungalows perched right at the water’s edge at Compass Point Beach Resort in Nassau’s west side were opened by famed music producer Chris Blackwell of Island Records (from $300, including $30 breakfast credit and all taxes and fees, compasspointbeachresort.com). He’s since sold the property, but it’s still full of character — rooms are dedicated to musicians who have recorded at the studio across the street — and characters who prefer the intimate vibe and easy access to beautiful Love Beach, Nassau’s nicest stretch of sand, over any tourist-packed Paradise Island hotel.