6 Best Sights in New Providence and Paradise Islands, Bahamas

From near-vertical slides that plunge through shark tanks to a quarter-mile-long lazy river ride, this 141-acre water park allows you to both unwind and get your adrenaline pumping. Spend the day going from ride to ride, or relax under an umbrella on the white sand of three unique beaches or by one of 14 swimming pools. Three pools are designed especially for the youngest of guests, including Poseidon's Playzone, a Maya-theme water playground. Day passes for non-resort guests are limited, so be sure to plan well ahead.

With luxury shops, a glitzy casino, and seemingly unlimited choices for dining and drinks (40 restaurants, bars, and lounges), Atlantis is as much a tourist attraction as a resort hotel. At Dolphin Cay, you can interact with dolphins, sea lions, and stingrays. The 63-acre Aquaventure water park provides thrilling waterslides and high-intensity rapids as well as a lazy-river tube ride through the sprawling grounds. Celebrity sightings are frequent at both Nobu restaurant and Aura nightclub. The on-site comedy club, Jokers Wild, brings top comedians to the stage. Many of the resort's facilities, including the restaurants and casino, are open to nonguests, but the leisure and sports facilities are open only to resort guests and those who purchase a day pass. Atlantis has the world's largest man-made marine habitat, consisting of 11 lagoons. To see it, take the guided Discover Atlantis tour, which begins near the main lobby at an exhibition called The Dig. This wonderful series of walk-through aquariums, themed around the lost continent and its re-created ruins, brings you face-to-face with sharks, manta rays, and innumerable forms of exotic sea life.

Go behind the scenes at this boutique chocolate factory where you can make your own sweet souvenirs. The tour lasts about an hour, and after watching master chocolatiers in action and learning the history of chocolate production around the world, guests enter the chocolate classroom, where they get to design their own creations, including a signature Graycliff chocolate bar. There is also a chocolate and spirits pairing.

The former Buena Vista Estate, which featured in the James Bond film Casino Royale, has been painstakingly transformed and returned to its glory days, emerging as the new home of John Watling's Distillery. Parts of the estate date back to 1789, and the line of John Watling's artisanal rums, gins, vodkas, and liquors are handmade, hand bottled, and hand labeled just as they would have been in that era. Take a self-guided tour through the grounds and working estate to learn the fascinating history of the home, and then walk out back to watch the rum production line from an overhead mezzanine. Sit in The Red Tavern with an internationally acclaimed Rum Dum or just a great mojito, and pick up a unique Bahamian souvenir in the on-site retail store. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been pumped into expanding and overhauling the cruise port, and it shows. The space that cruise passengers encounter after they tumble off their ships is now a destination in and of itself, complete with exciting local restaurants, a gallery and wine bar, a gelato shop, a Junkanoo museum, an amphitheater with live entertainment, and myriad shops and shacks selling unique Bahamian-made goods. Up to a half-dozen gigantic cruise ships, including the largest in the world, call on Nassau Cruise Port at any one time, and megayachts too large to pull up to any of the island's marinas have a special pier all to themselves. While access to the ship piers is restricted, the new port has been designed to allow open access to all the retail and dining areas.

The building, where slave auctions were held in the 1700s, is named for an enslaved man who led a plantation rebellion on Exuma in 1830. The structure and historic artifacts inside were destroyed by fire in December 2011 but have been painstakingly re-created, and new exhibits have been acquired and produced. The exhibit Struggle for Freedom in The Bahamas: From Slavery to Independence is located on the ground floor, and a separate exhibit that changes from time to time and has its own admission charge is upstairs. A knowledgeable, enthusiastic young staff is on hand to answer questions.