Nassau Activities: Reef Snorkeling, the Graycliff Cigar Hotel, Arawak Cay Fish Fry, Shark Diving, and Dolphin Cay
The Nassau activity circuit covers the reef snorkeling excursions, the Graycliff colonial hotel and cigar factory, the Arawak Cay fish fry as the most authentic local food experience, the Caribbean reef shark diving at Stuart Cove, and the Atlantis Dolphin Cay marine habitat.
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Snorkeling Trips: The Nassau Reef Circuit
The Nassau reef snorkeling circuit accessible by catamaran excursion from the Nassau harbor covers the shallow reef systems of the Southwestern Providence Channel and the dive sites around Paradise Island, where the coral gardens, the tropical fish populations, and the occasional nurse shark sightings provide the standard Caribbean snorkeling experience in the protected and relatively warm water of the Nassau inner channels.
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Graycliff Hotel and Cigar Factory
The Graycliff Hotel in the 1740s colonial mansion on West Hill Street in Nassau, adjacent to Government House, combines the finest boutique hotel accommodation in Nassau with a restaurant of long-standing reputation and the on-site Graycliff Cigar Company factory where Cuban exile rollers produce premium cigars using aged Cuban seed tobacco grown in Honduras. The Graycliff wine cellar, containing more than 200,000 bottles, is the finest in the Caribbean.
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Nassau Fish Fry: The Arawak Cay Evening
The Arawak Cay fish fry on the Nassau western waterfront, the collection of local food stalls that serves the Nassau population and visitors with the full range of Bahamian seafood on weekend evenings, is the most democratic and most authentically local food experience in the capital, where the cracked conch, the lobster tails, the steamed fish, and the Kalik beer consumed at the picnic tables beside the harbor provide the Bahamian social experience without the tourist premium of the resort restaurants.
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Swim with Sharks: Stuart Cove's
Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas operates the most established shark diving experience in the Caribbean from the Nassau harbor, with the Caribbean reef shark and bull shark encounters at the Shark Arena dive site and the silhouette dive available to certified divers as one of the most adrenaline-intense activities accessible from the Nassau resort area. The Nassau shark diving is conducted without cages.
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The Queen's Staircase: The Slave-Built Heritage
The Queen's Staircase, the 65-step staircase carved from solid limestone by enslaved workers between 1793 and 1794 to connect the Fort Fincastle on the ridge above the city with the central Nassau settlement below, is the most significant historical monument of the enslaved African labor that built the colonial Bahamas and is named after Queen Victoria whose reign saw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834. The fort at the top of the staircase provides the panoramic view over Nassau harbor.
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Dolphin Cay Atlantis: The Marine Habitat
Dolphin Cay at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, the largest marine habitat in the world and the home of a resident population of bottlenose dolphins, Caribbean reef sharks, sea lions, and rays in a 14-acre open saltwater lagoon, provides the marine encounter experiences including dolphin swims, shark dives, and sea lion interactions that are the secondary tourism economy of the Atlantis resort after the casino and waterpark.