Our family, which includes a 16-yr-old boy and 12-yr-old girl, is staying at the Atlantis for 7 days in early June. We're looking for some advice/ideas on 1 or 2 possible day trips to out islands, sightseeing, mini-excursions (we like to snorkel, see dolphins, hike/bike, general exploring, etc.). Several posts have suggested heading into Naussa, so we'll probably do that. Just want to know what else we should check out while we are in the area. What is convenient to Paradise Island, so we can go in the day and head back to Atlantis at night? Thanks.

There's tons of fun things to do.. 3 Forts to Explore, the Queens Staircase and Water Tower to Explore, pirates museum, a small zoo, dolphins, scuba lessons, Snorkeling with sharks, Powerboat to the exumas (www.powerboatadventures.com) Sailboat racing, stingrays, snorkeling, private island getaways, helicopter rides, etc.
You can find some of these links at
www.majesticholidays.com
www.dolphinencounters.com
www.stuartcove.com
www.sailnassau

You'll even find better food choices in Nassau. Cafe Mattise, Lucianos, Athenas, Poop Deck, and many more. Even a Churricharia at the Humidor.
Senor Frogs in downtown, Conch Fritters causal Dining, Clay Oven Indian, and local food at the Fish Fry.
Don't forget the Junkanoo festival at Arawak Cay on Saturdays in June. Fun cultural and musical events.

Nassau and it's tours are all convenient day trips. You can even get to Harbour Island and back again in a day if you want to discover the outislands.
www.bahamasferries.com

Enjoy your stay.

You can also take a day trip by ferry to Harbour Island.

Very close to the Ardastra Zoo and Garden is the formal Queens GArden, which is nice for a walk through, several spots for overseeing the island there as well. Last time I was there, there was a thunderstrom over Cable Beach and sunshine on the GArden, beautiful rainbows after the storm that were amazing from the Garden.

Your teens may not want to leave Atlantis, there is so much to do right there.

Have a GREAT time.

My kids enjoyed swimming with the dolphins and Hartley's Undersea Walk. The walk is where you wear a helmut that is attached to an air tank and walk on the bottom of the sea. You are about 12 feet under. The guide points out some interesting fish and coral formations. Very unique!!

Oh yeah, another interesting thing we did was a people-to-people exchange where we were matched up with a similar family from Nassau. We got together with them a couple of times, once at their home. This was very interesting and educational. I could give you the name of the program and contact number if you are interested.

Before committing to participating with a Swim With the Dolphins program, I would urge you to do a small bit of reading right here on Fodor's about these "encounters" and then make an *informed* decision about whether you want to participate or not.

My 13 year old granddaughter was dying to do one of these encounters until we gave her a little reading on them, at which point she decided she didn't want to support that kind of cruelty to animals.

Please, at least do a little research here "type "Swim with the Dolphins" in the search box and read a little bit about these programs. You may change your mind about perpetuating them.

I would agree with ejcrowe to avoid the dolphin swims. Dolphins are free-roaming wild mammals. The captive dolphin capatalistic ventures are for money-making enterprises only. They capture wild dolphins as more and more people pay money to see these wild creatures do things only to obtain food. Everything you see dolphins do for "entertainment" while under captivity, they do in the wild. That's right: leaping high into the air, doing several flips, then entering the water without a splash; walking backwards on their tails; hitting the water with their flippers; etc. The wild dolphin pod is a very complex social system, where baby dolphins must be with their mothers for at least 3 years before they totally understand the cooperative efforts to find food and to avoid shark attacks. Captive dolphins do not perform "tricks" for tourists to make them laugh; they perform only for food. Being higher-level cognitive processing mammals, like apes and dogs, they suffer from depression and live less longer than those living in the wild. By paying money to see captive dolphins, you are promoting the continued indiscriminate capture of adult dolphins, including mothers, leaving the babies and juveniles to somehow fend for themselves in the complex social pod structure and increasing their chances of becoming prey to sharks.
I believe there is a "sting ray" encounter; you may try that one. You cab visit Stuart Cove's Aqua Adventure on South Beach for great snorkeling to Goulding Reef, and maybe see some dolphins in the wild. Robert59

This may or may not interest you but....a short walk from Atlantis will get you to the Potters Cay (dock area) where they will prepare a fresh conch salad before your very eyes. I mean pull the conch out of the shell, dice it up along with vegies and then sqeeze the fresh lime over the top.(might have been orange) Anyway it a cheep lunch with some built in entertaiment. VERY casual and very "local". Have fun!

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas, thoughts and perspective. We'll take everything into consideration and are looking forward to a great family vacation.

MichaelP is so right! I enjoyed walking through Potter's Cay and eating the conch salads. You never know what you'll see. Boats bring in land crabs from all the outer islands. We stared at a 4x4x4 foot wire cage crammed to the top with land crabs. The whole thing was jittering like it was a live being. I pulled up the tarp and saw thousands in it. Robert59