Scuba diving
Diving is extremely popular in the Bahamas with a number of dive centres operating in Nassau, Paradise Island and Grand Bahama and the Out Islands of Abaco, Andros, Bimini, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, Long Island and San Salvadore.
Diving packages and courses are prebookable through specialist UK dive operators such as Harlequin, Hayes and Jarvis, Kuoni Sport Abroad and Goldenjoy.
These range from a resort course, which takes a few hours and aims to give people a introduction to diving, to a full certification course which qualifies people to dive anywhere in the world without an instructor.
The open-water certification course typically takes four to five days and involves full dive training in the sea as well as a final written exam. Specialist dive operators brochure this course in the Bahamas for around £199, adding it to the price of a package holiday – around £500-600 per person for one week including flights.
Alternatively, clients who do not want to waste time studying on holiday can take a referral course where the theory side is completed back home and the open water training takes place in resort.
Prices for a referral course cost around £135 with Kuoni Sport Abroad or £322 with Hayes and Jarvis when combined with a six-day dive package with up to three dives a day.
Experienced divers who do not want to take a course but are attracted by the destination’s reputation for superb reef, wreck and shark diving, can purchase add-on dive packages. Sport Abroad charges £38 for two dives; £189 for 10; or £69 for two shark dives.