Discover the best of the Bahamian capital beyond its new $330 million cruise port with Yolanda Zappaterra’s tips
1. Educulture Junkanoo Museum
This exuberant celebration of the Bahamian Junkanoo parade, complete with colourful floats, costumes and textiles, is the brainchild of Arlene Nash Ferguson, who set the space up as an educational heritage centre with interactive experiences including dancing, drumming and traditional mask-making.
The new cruise port’s own Junkanoo Museum, incorporating a 30ft-high atrium housing a 20ft Junkanoo sculpture, should prove a great addition to this absorbing original.
2. Baha Bay Water Park
There’s something for all ages at this water park, whether it’s whizzing along the slides and bucket rides of Stingray Cove, hurtling through the dips and dives of the Duelling Riptide Coaster, or floating serenely along the waters of The River.
3. Government House
This 1932 neoclassical mansion has been the official residence of the governor general of the Bahamas since 1801. The Bahamian British architectural style, with its rose walls and white louvre shutters, contrasts nicely with the American colonial style of graceful columns and a broad staircase (complete with a statue of Christopher Columbus), while the nearby shops and restaurants make for a great urban stroll.
4. Ardastra Gardens, Zoo and Conservation Centre
This wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility is a delight for young – and young at heart – visitors, who can feed lory parrots and experience up-close encounters with flamingos. Watch the Bahamas’ national bird march imperiously around, their pink feathers as dazzling as the brightest flowers on the lush site.
5. Graycliff Cigar Company
What better souvenir to take to a cigar lover than a hand-rolled sample, made in a lesson with an expert cigar craftsman, or torcedor? From a single roller in the foyer of a restaurant in 1997, the Graycliff Cigar Company is now an award-winning company with 16 master rollers and five cigar brands.
PICTURE: Shutterstock/Trae Rollins
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