170 Best Sights in Bahamas

A superb example of a historic Bahamian colonial building, The South Eleuthera Mission, also called Mission House, sits on the Rock Sound waterfront and is open to visitors during regular business hours. Originally built in the 1850s, the reconstruction of a Methodist manse was overseen by volunteer Patricia Rose Maclean, a British designer highly experienced in period restoration. The facility now houses a library and Internet café and offers free tours to visitors who want to view the historical house. They also offer after-school programs for kids, a summer youth program, and other community-based programs.

North of Radio Beach and named for its proximity to the local cemetery and Bimini's memorial park, Spook Hill Beach is quieter than Radio and Blister Bay Beaches and caters mostly to families looking for quiet sands and calm waters. Shallow shores are ideal for wading, and the crystal-clear waters make for great snorkeling. There is a permanent snack bar here, and usually, a few pop-up beach bars add to the fun. The beach is heavily lined with pine trees and is narrow at high tide. Amenities: food and drink. Best for: solitude; snorkeling; swimming.

The twin, towered Moorish churches of St. Paul's (Anglican) and St. Peter's (Catholic) are two of the island's most celebrated landmarks. Father Jerome, often referred to as the hermit of Cat Island, built St. Paul's when he was Anglican; later, after converting to Catholicism, he built St. Peter's. The architecture of the two churches is similar to the Spanish missions in California. The churches are open sporadically, but tours are available through the Ministry of Tourism.

Sand banks that turn gold at low tide lie off the northern tip of Staniard Creek, a small island settlement 9 miles north of Fresh Creek, accessed by a bridge off the main highway. Coconut palms and casuarinas shade the ocean-side beaches, and offshore breezes are pleasantly cooling. Kamalame Cove, part of nearby luxurious resort and private Kamalame Cay, is at the northern end of the settlement. Three creeks snake into the mainland, forming extensive mangrove-lined back bays and flats, good for wading and bonefishing.

Sugar Beach is the northernmost of the island's beaches, where rock bluffs divide the sand into romantic "private" coves of various lengths. Explore the caves or snorkel in calm waters. On top of one of the hills are the ghostly remains of the Sugar Beach Hotel, a 1950s lair built by the Hollywood Rat Pack—Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Female stars invited there included Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, Angie Dickinson, and Judy Garland. This was their scenic escape from paparazzi. The hilltop ruins are decrepit and surrounded by bush and cliffs, so explore with caution. Amenities: none. Best for: swimming; walking; snorkeling; solitude.

This is Gregory Town's claim to fame and one of the few beaches in The Bahamas known for surfing. Serious surfers have gathered here since the 1960s for decent waves from December to April. If you don't have a jeep, you can walk the ¾ mile to this Atlantic-side beach—take a right onto the paved road past the Hatchet Bay silos, just south of Gregory Town. Look for a young crowd sitting around bonfires at night. Amenities: water sports. Best for: surfing.

Along this beautiful stretch of beach, you'll find the famed restaurant The Stoned Crab and their photo-worthy swings over the shallow sea. A few steps farther is Outriggers Beach Club, home to the popular fish fry held every Wednesday night. This is also where you'll find the legendary Tony Macaroni's beach shack; be sure to give his roast conch a try. Plenty of green space edges the beach, and there's also a playground. Amenities: food and drink; parking (no fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: partiers; sunset; swimming; walking.

Steps from historical Preacher's Cave, this beach offers a long expanse of powdery white sand. The area is remote, so you're likely to have the beach to yourself. There are plenty of palmetto trees to relax underneath for a quiet afternoon. Just offshore is Devil's Backbone, where the Eleutheran Adventurers shipwrecked and sought shelter in the cave. Amenities: none. Best for: solitude; walking.

From the top of Mt. Thompson, rising from Three Sisters Beach, there is a pleasing view of the Three Sisters Rocks jutting above the water just offshore. Legend has it that the rocks were formed when three sisters, all unwittingly in love with the same English sailor, waded out into deep water upon his departure, drowned, and turned into stone. If you look carefully next to each "sister," you'll see smaller boulders. These represent the "children" who the fickle sailor left with the three sisters. This site is also a great snorkeling and diving spot.

You'll need a car or at least a bicycle to visit this natural wonder, but it's worth the trek. Scientists believe the Treasure Cay Blue Hole is 200 feet deep, but feel free to dip your toes into the crystal-clear blue waters or make a splash swinging from one of the rope swings tied to surrounding pine trees. The water is both salt and fresh, and there is no known marine life in the blue hole.

This unique beach got its name because of its interesting geography: being split into two coves by a narrow sand bridge. Frequent sightings of nurse sharks, lobster, various kinds of fish, rays, and other marine life are what you'll find on either side of the beach. Not many people visit here during the week, so it's the perfect place to relax and go swimming or snorkeling. Amenities: parking (free). Best for: swimming; snorkeling; solitude.

Mystical and mesmerizing, blue holes pock Andros's marine landscape in greater concentration than anywhere else on Earth—an estimated 160-plus—and provide entry into the islands' network of coral-rock caves. Offshore, some holes drop off to 200 feet or more. Inland blue holes reach depths of 120 feet, layered with fresh, brackish, and salt water. Uncle Charlie's Blue Hole, with a 40-feet diameter, is one of Andros’s most popular and is lined with picnic benches and a ladder.

Fountains and statues of luminaries and legends (Napoléon and Josephine, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, David Livingstone, Hercules, and Mephistopheles) adorn Versailles Gardens, the terraced lawn at The Ocean Club, formerly the private hideaway of A&P supermarket heir Huntington Hartford. At the top of the gardens stand the Cloisters, the remains of a stone monastery built by Augustinian monks in France in the 13th century. They were imported to the United States in the 1920s by newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. (The cloister is one of four to have ever been removed from French soil.) Forty years later, Hartford bought the Cloisters and had them rebuilt on their present commanding site. At the center is a graceful, contemporary white marble statue called Silence, by Scottish sculptor William Reid Dick. Nearly every day, tourists take or renew wedding vows under the delicately wrought gazebo overlooking Nassau Harbour. The garden is owned by The Ocean Club Four Seasons Resort.

On an island known for magical blue holes, the Victoria Point Blue Hole is Mangrove Cay's superb ocean hole for snorkeling and diving. Just ask the folks at Swain's Cay Lodge or Seascape Inn—or any local—where to find it.

Once a rowdy, good-time resort area, West End was nearly leveled by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and is still rebuilding. It still attracts small crowds on Sunday evening for friendly, casual street gatherings and on weekend afternoons for small fish-fry shacks offering up some of the island's best traditional Bahamian fare. Today's visitors stop at Paradise Cove for snorkeling and farther west at the bay-front conch shacks for conch salad straight from the shell (try Tanya's) or at other tiny eateries along the way, like Chicken's Nest, known for having the best conch fritters on island. Overnighters stay at Old Bahama Bay Resort & Yacht Harbour, an upscale gated resort. Nonguests are welcome at the hotel's beachside Teaser's Tiki Bar for breakfast and lunch, or at the Dockside Bar & Grill for dinner.

The long, bumpy road is worth driving on just to get to this beautiful secluded beach located on the Atlantic side of the island. Whiteland Beach features an incredible stretch of clear, white sands with beautiful blue waters. The beach is never crowded, so it's a great place to relax privately. There are also reef and rock formations close to the shore, which make it a great place for snorkeling. Amenities: none. Best for: solitude; snorkeling; walking.

When the tide is high, this 1.9-mile slice of relatively hidden beach (from East Sunrise Highway, take Coral Road south, turn right onto Bahama Reef Boulevard, then left on Beachway Drive) can get a little narrow, but there's a wide area at its east end on Silver Point Beach near Island Seas Resort. Just west of here, a sidewalk runs the length of the beach along the road, and at low tide the beach expands far and wide for easy walking on the shore. Island Seas Resort has its own modern interpretation of the local beach shack, called Coconuts. Amenities: food and drink; parking (no fee); water sports. Best for: solitude; swimming; walking.

The old Xanadu Resort of Howard Hughes fame has been abandoned and is all but crumbling, and even the surrounding buildings look depressed, but there is local talk that the day will come when the area will be restored and renovated. There are no longer amenities nor flocks of tourists on this beach. However, the mile-long stretch of sand is still serene and worth a walk at sunset, especially when cruise ships depart into the twilight. Amenities: parking (no fee). Best for: solitude; sunset; walking.

If you enter Fresh Creek by boat or ferry, you'll see this old white lighthouse (circa 1892) east of the Andros Lighthouse Yacht Club & Marina. Walk through the marina and you'll see that the tower overlooks two rusty cannons and big shipwreck. To the east lies a quiet beach.

This one-third-mile-long crescent beach is a place to relax when touring North Andros. You might see a few locals enjoying it and the adjacent park with its colorful stalls that only come alive in June when the All Andros & Berry Islands Regatta is held. Nearby is the government dock, a public marina, and a bar and restaurant popular with the locals and boat captains. Amenities: none. Best for: solitude, swimming, walking.