28 Best Hotels in Bahamas

Run by exceptionally friendly and attentive owners and staff, this intimate compound has six spacious villas with pool or garden views. Kitchens are fully equipped, and the supermarket is about a 10-minute walk away. Restaurants, marinas, bars, and a dive shop are just outside the front door. For families or groups on a budget, this is a great option.

Close to the beach, with rooms overlooking the Port Lucaya Marina or the waterfront along the canal, Pelican Bay has a funky modern appeal, and suites overflow with character and decorative elements collected from around the world. The deluxe staterooms have extras like rain showers, espresso machines, and kitchenettes, making them perfect for longer stays. On-site amenities include two great restaurants and two trendy bars, three pools and a hot tub, and a small playground. The hotel is a quick and easy walk to Lucaya Beach and the Port Lucaya Marketplace, and it's next door to UNEXSO—a plus for divers. Taino Beach is accessible via ferry.

Facing east on long, pristine Nicholls Town Beach, this palm tree–festooned property offers three secluded beachfront cottages, four villas, and a beachside tiki bar and restaurant with beautiful views. Villas have well-appointed kitchenettes. Modern amenities include satellite TV, air-conditioning, free Wi-Fi, and a gym, with biking, snorkeling, kayaking, and nature trails. Visit Uncle Charlie's Blue Hole and bonefish with Bahama Bob. The petite resort also has a business center and group facilities for 200 persons. Nicholls Town has many take-out outlets, but for sit-down dining on the beach, this is the place to enjoy tasty, well-cooked food. Locals love it, too.

This 4-acre condominium resort has a lush, intimate character, and guests can socialize around three pools that are surrounded by tropical plants, including several hibiscus and bougainvillea varieties. Choose between one- or two-bedroom suites, villas, and town houses, all of which are spacious, fully equipped, and with enough closet space for a long visit. All rooms have private balconies or garden terraces. Cabbage Beach is a 10-minute walk away. The property includes a coin-operated laundry facility, small fitness room, tennis court, and basic convenience store.

Right on the water and a short walk from the Port Lucaya Marketplace, this charming family-run (through three generations) inn with simple-yet-spacious rooms has quick and easy access to the island's best underwater sites, making it perfect for scuba-oriented and budget-minded travelers. The hotel's quaint, convivial restaurant bar serves seafood and good spirits, and both locals and guests gather for nightly happy hours and live music on Thursday evening. 

These quaint, self-catering full-kitchen suites sit just steps away from a quiet private beach on Salt Pond with a large grassy garden space—perfect for family picnics, naps in the hammock, and a vacation without the bustle of a busy resort. Units are simple but well maintained and nicely decorated, and include air-conditioning, cable TV, and Wi-Fi. Kayaks and beach toys/gear are available for use.

In Freeport, this property is one of the nicer budget options in the area. The coral rock–accented lobby introduces four stories of rooms in rattan and earth-and-floral tones. Family friendliness is underscored by a playground next to the pool, and a beach shuttle is provided. The basic Bahamian restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Six modern cottages sit on a half-mile stretch of white-sand beach between Landrail Point and Pittstown Point Landings. Each has a full kitchen, free Wi-Fi, satellite TV, and a western-facing deck to watch the magnificent sunsets. A local market, gas station, and two restaurants are 2 miles away in Landrail Point. The management will treat you like family and can arrange meals in your cottage with advance notice, find you a rental car, or set up a diving excursion. They will also book you with the top fly-fishing guides on the island.

Lining lovely Millers Bay beach, this rustic, remote resort has six simple cabins on stilts right on the beach, making it a real "get-away-from-it-all" place (guests should be self-sufficient and adventurous). Room rates include two meals daily—and Chef Pierre is touted by many as the island's best. Explore nearby cays in available sea kayaks, wade the adjacent flats for bonefish, or just enjoy the peaceful solitude relaxing on a lounge chair (but bring bug repellent). Fishing guides, diving, car rentals, and airport transfers can be arranged. The oceanfront restaurant is worth dining at, even if you're staying elsewhere.

This affordable inn is a block from the sea and consists of three brightly colored, two-story Bahamian-colonial-style cottages with five guest rooms in each. They all have front porches and one building has a full kitchen shared by guests; the other has a meeting room. Rooms are spacious, modern, and exceptionally tidy with air-conditioning, bathrooms, refrigerators, microwaves, and flat-screen cable TVs. Across the street is Champ's Chicken takeout and RJ's convenience store. On-site laundry facilities are available as are free airport transfers, and the manager will arrange meals on-site for breakfast, lunch, or dinner upon request.

Situated on 16 acres of pink-sand beachfront property, overlooking low-lying Clem Cay and the Atlantic Ocean as far as the eye can see, this resort occupies a rare and superb site. All balcony rooms and condos are sea-view and have either king, queen, or two twin beds. The condos have full kitchens, and although there is no restaurant on-site, there is an honor liquor and snack bar, and you can also prebook a meal plan through the hotel in conjunction with one of the three restaurants less than a mile away. Diving, kayaks, and deep-sea, reef, and bonefishing are available. It is highly recommended that you rent a car if you stay here.

Perched above the marina in Great Harbour Cay, this inn is basic but conveniently located to the marina, about 3/4 mile from the beach. The suites, clean and neat but in need of renovation, range in size from 450 to 900 square feet, and have private baths, mini-kitchens, and laundry facilities. The larger water-view suites have decks and porches. To make a reservation you must be persistent, as the owners don't always answer the phone. But hey, this laid-back style is one of the main reasons people go to Great Harbour. The owner has a boat and runs snorkeling and scenic island tours to neighboring cays. A rather scrappy 9-hole golf course is also mantained by the property owners, but it has weedy greens.

Set on an 8-mile stretch of pink shell-strewn sand, this remote resort is about 35 minutes from the Bight airport, but the peaceful solitude is what brings regulars back. The large clubhouse, with its yellow-and-white walls and vivid tropical paintings, is the center of activity, and you can relax at the attractive stonework honor bar or on the veranda, where you can decorate your own piece of driftwood for display. The on-site restaurant serves three meals a day, and many guests praise the food. Greenwood is a dive center noted for its dives and research with oceanic white-tip sharks. When dive clubs descend (mid-March–late April), there's no room for others. Dive equipment and guided dives are available on request, or divers can go out right from shore (snorkelers will also enjoy the coral heads just in front of the resort).

In the settlement of Salt Pond is this small private hideaway, a labor of love for owners Kris and Jean, who offer two lovely guest rooms with sweeping decks facing the ocean on the lower level of their home, along with a newer beach house that sleeps five guests. Rooms are spacious and comfortable, each with a microwave, refrigerator, and coffeemaker. This is a perfect place for water-sports enthusiasts as the owners are professional divers and can arrange all sorts of great experiences for their guests. Both have worked on underwater scenes in movies such as Sphere. Grotto Bay practically sits on top of the Salt Pond cave, one of the largest dry caves in The Bahamas, with two enormous chambers featuring stalagmites and stalactites and six documented species of bats. Guests also have exclusive use of the beach, hammocks, horseshoe pit, beach volleyball, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, and an open-air guest kitchen.

Long Island's newest luxury villas are nestled among garden pathways atop a hillside, each with private balconies affording views of Clarence Town Harbour and the Atlantic Ocean. Both one- and two-bedroom or one- and two-story layouts are available, each individually decorated with bright colors for a chic island feel. Wi-Fi is complimentary, and each villa features two flat-screen TVs with access to DIRECTV. Bicycles, kayaks, and snorkeling gear are available for use.

Catering to private pilots, yachties, and serious fishers, this small laid-back resort at Cat Island's southwestern tip has its own 3,100-foot runway and a 28-slip full-service marina with a dive shop for guests. The marina is the best in the area for deep-sea sportfishing, and visitors can see sharks, rays, and other marine life regularly swimming around the marina docks. The rooms are standard but clean and well-maintained seaside cabanas. A nice pool by the clubhouse, surrounded by umbrellas and lounges, makes up for the lack of good swimming near the club, though there's a nice swimming beach a few steps away. They also rent bicycles, paddleboards, and snorkeling equipment. Usually quiet, this resort is booked and bustling during major fishing tournaments that take place every two months or so. At those times, the partying fishing crowd have a dining room and bar at the marina, leaving the rest of the resort in relative peace.

This simple, no-frills motel is ideal if you plan to spend your days exploring the mainland by car or the surrounding cays by ferry or boat and just need a place for a shower and a good sleep before starting all over the next day. It's about the only thing left on what was once a bustling tourist strip following Hurricane Dorian's direct hit. Clean and spacious rooms include two full beds or a queen and single bed and all the basic amenities you'll need for your home base. Outside the rooms is a shared deck with outdoor furniture. You won't find a less expensive room in such a prime spot.

At the mouth of Stafford Creek, self-sufficient anglers and do-it-yourself vacationers can sit on the sundeck or at the bar, sip a cold local beer or a cocktail, and contemplate the superb fishing and diving in Central Andros. Bright pink motel-style rooms are $150/night for doubles. Clean and comfortable, they offer double beds, private baths, air-conditioning, small refrigerators, and coffeemakers. The Turning Tides restaurant overlooks Stafford Creek and serves Bahamian seafood, steaks, chicken, and pork. Sit at one of the outside tables and feed the resident fish, and you're likely to see tarpon and even sharks swimming by. Bonefishing, diving, and nature excursions can be arranged. Fly into either Andros Town airport (26 miles) or San Andros (20 miles). Sheila, the owner, is charming and obliging.

These quaint cottages are nestled into a hillside with an extraordinary view of the Atlantic. Each unit comes with a small kitchenette, satellite TV, and a deck, perfect for watching the sunrise. Proprietor Rose Gibson also runs a restaurant steps from the cottages, where you'll find Bahamian specialties like fresh grouper and conch.

If you prefer down-home coziness over slick glamour, then this basic hotel—on the site of a former orange plantation perched on a hilltop overlooking the ocean—is the place to stay. Irish transplant Judy Lowe, who's owned the inn since the 1980s, and her son Brendan treat guests like family. Orange Hill is across the road from the beach, a half-hour drive from town, and 15 minutes from the Baha Mar resort complex. Rooms and apartments vary considerably in size and are all decorated with simple pine furniture and tropical bedding. Some of the larger poolside rooms lack an ocean view, so be sure to state your preference when booking. There's a small restaurant on-site serving Bahamian and continental fare, and you can help yourself at an honor bar set up in the cozy living room. The inn provides daily trips to a nearby grocery store for guests who want to stock their in-room refrigerator.

This truly one-of-a-kind, eye-popping plot of land fits in 17 rooms, a petting zoo, a small disco, a movie theater, a bar, and a DIY gift shop—made mostly of recycled materials such as tires, reclaimed wood, and seashells. Room interiors also surprise with ecofriendly themes—floors adorned with driftwood, corals, and sand, and beds made from fallen trees. The single rooms are $65 per night, and the suites, which can accommodate up to six people, all have TVs and full kitchens, ideal for self-catering guests, at $150 per night. Pineville is eccentric to say the least, and the enthusiasm of owner/manager Eugene is incredible. The ecotourism motel mainly caters to group buyouts and field trips from neighboring settlements. Individual visitors, however, are also welcome, and it's ideal for backpackers on a budget. Pineville can set up an entire itinerary of activities, from crabbing to fishing, to your own private movie screenings. Eugene also welcomes nonguests (with advance notice) for tours, including wild boar hunting and an enthralling explanation of his vision. During Saturday night happy hour, it's one of the only places you can catch regular Rake 'n' Scrape live music.

Good for serious divers, this modest motel-style resort is a long-standing property on San Salvador and has a restaurant on-site serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner (included with the all-inclusive dive package). The resort's three buildings have rooms facing either the ocean or the freshwater pool. The marina is in a unique location for boaters accessing offshore fishing and San Salvador's famous diving. Affordable weekly packages include meals, dive trips, and airport transfers. Rental cars are available at reception.

Amenities without the sticker shock: this two-story, tin-roof, motel-style property offers simple rooms with light-wood and rattan furnishings, lively tropical fabrics, framed pastel prints, and tile floors on the lower level. You'll find carpeted floors upstairs, where nonsmoking rooms are available. An inviting white-and-floral lobby faces the spacious pool area.

Near Radio Beach, this small marina has two buildings: one with three stories, down a little lane leading to the beach, and one with two stories, on the marina. Both offer comfortable, simply furnished rooms with air-conditioning, mini-refrigerators, fans, tile floors, cable TV, and balconies, with one of the island's friendliest and most helpful owner–management teams. Pick a room or suite on the third floor; they have lofty, open-beam ceilings and lovely sea or marina views. There's free Wi-Fi at the marina. Diving, snorkeling, and fishing charters can be arranged. The hotel can also arrange amazing marine life encounters—swimming with wild dolphins, stingray encounters, and shark dives. They have 13-foot Boston Whalers for rent.

One of Andros's few lodging options catering to more than fishermen, Seascape Inn is a small, rustic beachfront gem; five individual, well-maintained cottages with private decks overlook the glass-clear ocean. Many repeat guests, who come two or three times a year, say this is the most relaxing place in the world. The elevated restaurant and beachfront bar is an idyllic place to relax, swap stories, and enjoy cocktails with the locals. Rates also include use of bikes, kayaks, water floats, and Wi-Fi. On-site owners Mickey and Joan McGowan are great cooks and make guests feel like family. Mickey can arrange fishing guides, nature tours, and dives.

These two spacious apartments seated on a rocky shoreline on Matthew Town's southern side are your only option for a room with a water view—and a great place to watch sunsets. The cement units all have modern Caribbean-style terra-cotta tile floors, new furniture, small terraces, a picnic area, and a gas grill. At low tide, there's a nice sandy beach next to the apartments, and about a five-minute walk away is a small secluded beach called The Swimming Hole. Ezzard Cartwright, the owner, is the only fly-fishing guide on the island. He's usually out working, so calling after 7 pm is the best chance to reach him. The apartments are usually fully booked September to June so reserve early.

Treasure Cay is known for its 18-hole golf course, one of the few open to the public in Abaco; its first-class 150-slip marina; and its location across the street from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The property has town house–style accommodations set along the marina's boardwalk that can be blocked off into one-, two-, or three-bedroom units. Depending on the configuration, you may have full-size refrigerators, toaster ovens, and small dining counters or an upstairs town house with vaulted ceilings, spacious living–dining area, full kitchens, loft bedroom, and a balcony. New furnishings and other upgrades have given this resort a breath of fresh air. The indoor-outdoor Spinnaker's Ocean Grille & Wine Bar serves Bahamian and Continental cuisine. A more casual, kid-friendly option is pizza night on Thursday at the Tipsy Seagull Pool Bar, also a popular happy-hour destination, and there's live music and dancing three times a week. The resort can arrange fishing, diving, and island excursions.

Just south of Governor's Harbour near North Palmetto Point on marvelous pink Poponi Beach, this resort has large, tropical-style rooms with French doors opening to private balconies. Second-floor rooms have better views of the ocean. The Unique is probably the best bargain on the beach, with a great Bahamian restaurant and large pool steps away. At night you can hear the lapping waves and watch a full moon rise over the ocean. The resort is efficiently run, with a friendly staff who will be happy to organize fishing trips and tours.