Nassau
Bahamas
Pastel colonial streets and impossibly clear water
Photo by Fernando Jorge on Unsplash
Photos by Gary Cole, Steve Matthews, Renato Marzan and Matt Benson on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Bahamas
December to April
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 215mm in Jun
Where it is
25.06°N, 77.35°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Swim at Cable Beach
- Climb the Queen’s Staircase
- Eat conch at Arawak Cay
- Snorkel at Blue Lagoon Island
- Tour the Pirates of Nassau museum
- Day trip to the Exuma swimming pigs
Nassau travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Bahamas
Very expensiveThe Bahamian dollar is pegged one-to-one with the US dollar and both circulate interchangeably. There is no reason to exchange if you are carrying US dollars.
ATMs & cards
Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and CIBC machines are the reliable ones in Nassau. They dispense Bahamian dollars, and machines outside the main island are scarce. Decline conversion.
Avoid these
- machines on the cruise terminal side of Bay Street
- hotel lobby ATMs
Use these instead
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Scotiabank
- CIBC FirstCaribbean
Bahamian and US dollars circulate at parity, so there is no reason to accept a conversion offer. Machines are scarce outside New Providence.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Bahamas
Reasonably safeTourist areas are well policed but Nassau has real crime in some neighbourhoods away from the strip. Stick to Cable Beach, Paradise Island and downtown, and avoid quiet streets after dark. Hurricane season runs June to November.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Paradise Island
- Cable Beach
- Downtown Nassau — by day
Worth more attention
- Over-the-Hill — south of downtown
- Downtown Nassau — after the cruise ships leave
- Jet-ski rentals, which have a long record of damage claims and worse
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Bahamas visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
Other passports
Visa required in advance
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Bahamas
LimitedRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Tetanus up to date
Getting treated
Nassau has a hospital and private clinics that handle everyday problems; anything serious is flown to Florida, which is expensive and makes evacuation cover the part of the insurance that actually matters here.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodConch is the national obsession — cracked conch and conch salad. Arawak Cay, known as the Fish Fry, is where locals eat and costs far less than the hotel strip.
Nightlife
Cruise-ship bars by day, resort bars by night, and one street of Bahamian ones in between.
- Arawak Cay — the Fish Fry, and the local evening
- Paradise Island — the casino and the resort bars
- Bay Street — the downtown strip, busy when ships are in
Closing: 02:00–04:00.
A beer in a bar: $6–9
The Fish Fry at Arawak Cay is where Bahamians eat and drink, and it is a twenty-minute walk west of downtown.
Getting around
Limited- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- Nassau airport to Cable Beach $22, to downtown $32 — government-set rates, per two people
No ride-hailing. Taxi fares are fixed by the government and posted; agree which zone you are going to before setting off.
Time zone and your working day
America/Nassau — the same time as you
8 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 09:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 09:00–17:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Bahamas
Why these are Bahamas's numbers and not Nassau's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 71% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 40% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Nassau, so these are medians for all of Bahamas. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Bahamas, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Caribbean English — local usage
- HelloGood morning / Good afternoon
- Everything is fineEverything irie
- No problemNo problem, man
- Thank youGive thanks
4 more phrases
- The bill, pleaseThe bill, please
- FriendBredren / Sistren
- LaterSoon come
- GoodbyeWalk good
Religion
Protestant
One of the most churched countries per capita anywhere. Sunday is genuinely quiet and many businesses close.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Greet properly before any transaction — good morning first, then the question
- Dress smartly in the evening; Bahamians dress well
- Tip 15%, checking first whether a service charge is already on the bill
- Drive on the left, though cars are mostly left-hand drive
Don't
- Do not wear swimwear away from the beach or pool
- Do not haggle at established shops; only at straw markets
- Do not wander far from tourist areas at night in Nassau
- Do not be brusque — skipping the greeting reads as genuinely rude
Where to stay in Nassau
No Holistay rentals in Nassau yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Nassau on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Lynden Pindling NAS
20 minfrom the airport· 12 km as the crow flies
20 min to Cable Beach.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
