Bahamas
The Bahamas are the closest warm water to the U.S. East Coast: 700 islands strung across turquoise shallows, some just a 30-minute flight from Florida. The big-resort, casino-and-mega-pool scene on Nassau and Paradise Island runs mostly on room-only rates, but the true all-inclusives here (plus the barefoot quiet of the Out Islands) give the plan-minded traveler a warm-water week with almost no travel time.
- Main airport
- Nassau (NAS)
- Out Islands have their own small strips
- Closest warm water to the U.S.
- As little as 30 minutes from Florida
- Two moods
- Nassau/Paradise Island (big resorts, casino) vs quiet Out Islands
- Passport
- Required, but entry from the U.S. is quick and simple
- Season
- December–April prime
- hurricane season June–November
Where Bahamas splits
The resort areas are not interchangeable. What each one is actually for.
Nassau, Paradise Island, or the Out Islands?
New Providence (Nassau) and the causeway-linked Paradise Island are the hub: the biggest resorts, the water parks and casinos, the most flights, and Cable Beach's long sweep. This is the easy, do-everything base, and where most of the islands' all-inclusive resorts sit.
The Out Islands (Exuma, Eleuthera and Harbour Island, the Abacos) trade scale for character: pink sand, swimming pigs, settlement-sized villages, and near-empty beaches. They cost a short hop more to reach and offer fewer all-inclusive options, but deliver the quiet the main island can't.
When to go
December to April is the dry, breezy prime, and the busiest and priciest stretch. Summer is hotter and greener, and hurricane season (June–November, peaking August–October) is a real factor this far north in the Atlantic, so fall trips are worth insuring. Late spring, May into early June, is the value sweet spot: warm, mostly dry, and ahead of the storm risk.
Beyond the resort
Swim with the Exuma pigs, snorkel Thunderball Grotto, dive blue holes and wrecks, and boat out to sandbars that appear at low tide. Nassau itself has the straw market, Fort Charlotte, and the Queen's Staircase; Harbour Island's Dunmore Town is the barefoot-chic day trip. The shallow banks make for some of the clearest, calmest snorkeling anywhere.
Good to know
A passport is required, but the Bahamas are one of the simplest international trips an American can take, and U.S. dollars work everywhere at par. Driving is on the left. Tipping follows the U.S. norm (15–20%). Departure often includes U.S. customs pre-clearance at Nassau, so you land back home as a domestic arrival. Sargassum can reach some Atlantic-facing beaches in summer; the bank-side shores stay clearer.
Where the Bahamas resorts are
6 resorts mapped stars are five-star properties
6 mapped · marks five-star
The best all-inclusive resorts in Bahamas
The Bahamas properties we would actually book.
Where to stay in Bahamas
The resort areas we cover, and which properties sit in each.
New Providence
2Andros
1San Salvador
1Paradise Island
1New Providence Island
1Resort chains in Bahamas
The brands operating here. The ones we rank in full link through to the chain, what its plan really covers, and every resort of theirs we track.
Where these companies came from
Almost nobody in this category publishes it. Read oldest first and the list is a short history of how Bahamas came to look the way it does.
Bahamas, head to head
Price, flights, sand, food and safety, compared honestly.
Bahamas vs JamaicaMexicoDominican RepublicMaldivesGreeceSpainTurks & CaicosArubaBarbadosSt. LuciaItalyPortugalTurkeyAntiguaCuraçaoBrazilCosta RicaPhilippinesFrench PolynesiaMoroccoEgyptSouth AfricaMauritiusKenyaTanzaniaMozambiqueThailandIndonesiaMalaysiaPunta CanaCancúnRiviera MayaLos CabosPuerto VallartaMontego BayNegrilOcho RiosGuanacasteCreteBahiaBora BoraMalé AtollsRodney BayBarbados South CoastBarbados West CoastViti LevuVanua LevuFijiCroatiaU.S. Virgin IslandsSri LankaSeychellesChileArgentinaUnited States
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a passport for the Bahamas?
Yes. The Bahamas are an independent country, so a valid passport is required even though the trip is short and simple from the U.S. Nassau also offers U.S. customs pre-clearance, so many travelers fly home as a domestic arrival.
Are there all-inclusive resorts in the Bahamas?
Yes, though many of the biggest Nassau and Paradise Island resorts run on room-only or partial plans rather than full all-inclusive. If the wristband model is the requirement, check the specific properties in our ranking; the Out Islands have fewer all-inclusive options than the main island.