Freeport: Having it your way in the Bahamas
Ambassadair’s Journey, January 2001
Copyright 2001 Dale Leatherman

     Tropical vacations need not start off with tough choices, not when the solution is as simple as swirling chocolate and vanilla ice cream together. Freeport is one of those have-it-all destinations that can satisfy every taste – or combination of tastes. Solitary beaches. Quiet parks. Adrenalin-pumping activities. Fine dining. Gambling. Great bargain-hunting.

    This "banana split" of tropical destinations is on Grand Bahama Island, only 52 miles east of Florida at the top of the Bahamas archipelago. The Bahamians speak English, accept American dollars, and have a ready smile for tourists. The island had little to offer other than fishing villages and pine forests until the 1950s, when a group of American and British industrialists created the Caribbean’s first planned city, Freeport.

    In time the city melded with the suburb of Lucaya, so that the region is usually called Freeport/Lucaya. Beyond this lively tourist center, to the east and west, the pre-1950s era lives on. Every fishing village has a restaurant where you can have a plate of steamed fresh fish and peas ‘n rice and a free lesson in local history.

Beaches and Water sports

    Grand Bahama Island is fortunate in that it has miles of sheltered south-facing beaches on warm Gulf Stream waters. Beaches near all of the big hotels are cleaned regularly of seaweed and debris and have food and sports concessions. "Guest only" restrictions are not strictly enforced unless you misbehave. Bahamians tend to be tolerant but frown on topless sunbathing; skinny-dipping is against the law.