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Active vacation options
WELCOME BAHAMAS - GRAND BAHAMA - 2005
Active vacation options
Grand Bahama adventures abound
The great outdoors is just brimming with opportunities for visitors to get active in Grand Bahama. Being active can be as simple as a brisk stroll on a long, white beach with a blue-green ocean backdrop. For more active visitors, deep-sea fishing, snorkelling, sailing, parasailing, scuba diving, windsurfing, kayaking, cycling and running are there for the doing.
If you're really competitive you might consider the annual Grand Bahama Conchman Triathlon with a 1/2-mile swim, 20-mile bike ride and 3-1/2-mile run. (See the Calendar of events, pg 27, for details.)
Paddle, snorkel, sunbathe
Paradise Cove offers a day of adventure or tranquillity. Just 50 yards off the beach is Deadman's Reef. Snorkellers have access to this unspoiled home of hundreds of species of tropical and reef fish and other marine life. Ashore, explorers will find a wild assortment of bird life, egrets, blue herons, snipes and rich foliage at Duck Pond.
You can wade, swim or paddle a kayak out to the reef. Snorkelling gear is available to get a great view of the marine life harboured in and around the reef. If you prefer to stay dry, sunbathing and volleyball are options. The Red Bar serves drinks and snacks and there's a sunset bonfire.
Ocean pursuits are tops
Reef Tours at Port Lucaya Marketplace has been offering a host of ocean sports and leisure activities since 1960. Glass-bottom boat rides, sailing, snorkelling and cocktail cruises aboard Freeport's only sailing catamaran, bottom-fishing excursions and half-day or full-day deep sea fishing trips are available.
Owner Doug Silvera Jr has operated the company for about 30 years, with the largest deep-sea and bottom-fishing fleet in the northern Bahamas. His boats range from 32 to 47 feet. Experienced captains and crew ensure a serious fishing adventure.
Fantasea is the island's only custom sailing catamaran and is used for morning sail cruises and afternoon sailing and snorkelling trips.
Island Princess and Lucayan Princess are large powered cats running daily snorkelling tours, and Ocean Wonder is Reef Tours? 60-foot glass bottom boat, the largest on the island with room for 50 people for a unique brand of sightseeing.
Silvera has a versatile array of deep sea fishing craft including the 32-foot Sundance Kid and a pair of 42-foot Hatteras sportfishermen, Lady B and Chasin Tail.
A different view
Experience Grand Bahama from a different angle - on top of a horse. Trikk Pony Adventures offers an exhilarating way to fill a few hours in the company of Mother Nature - horseback riding through forest trails or splashing along a deserted beach on horseback. Participants can choose from several different excursions. No experience is necessary and transportation is provided.
Adventures of the deep
Xanadu Undersea Adventures offers divers a wide range of programmes and state-of-the-art facilities. Highly qualified instructors teach everything from three-hour resort diving courses to fully recognized PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) certification and advanced TDI (Technical Dive International) specialized training courses.
Daily dive trips include cave and cavern diving, shark feeding, reef and tunnel dives, underwater photography, drop-offs and wreck dives. Manager Chris Gjersvik says Theo's Wreck, a 230-foot cement freighter in 100 feet of water is the most popular wreck dive.
Xanadu also conducts night dives and is the only facility offering nitrox certification and nitrox dives in Grand Bahama. Nitrox is a gas mixture with a higher concentration of oxygen than regular compressed air. It allows divers longer bottom time with a decreased risk of decompression sickness.
Fun for the family
UNEXSO offers a host of family-related activities that include shallow reef adventures and eco-experiences in the canal system when the outside water is too rough, as well as diving.
The company also offers the mini-breather, called Mini-B, a simplified underwater breathing device. The Mini-B is a lightweight (about 25 lb) compact and versatile unit and an ideal tool for helping introduce families into scuba diving activities.
The complexity and expense of scuba equipment steers many people away from scuba diving. The Mini-B overcomes these obstacles by packing all the necessary components inside a sturdy polyester knapsack.
UNEXSO has curtailed its NAUI, PADI and SSI training and certification programmes but has reinstated its popular shark-feeding dives.
Family recreation activities are centred around the new easy-access 75-foot by 30-foot swimming pool which slopes from three feet to 17 feet deep. A large retail shop offers dive and recreation gear, swimwear and resort clothing.
UNEXSO also offers the popular Dolphin Experience with friendly Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Participants can interact with dolphins while standing in the water on a shallow wading platform or swim with the mammals in a protected lagoon. In the Open Ocean Dolphin Experience participants get an open ocean training session and a swim with the dolphins. UNEXSO's signature dive is a scuba diving session with dolphins in the open ocean along a coral reef.
More ocean adventure
Paradise Watersports operates from two locations, providing ocean adventure for all ages. With operations at Island Seas Beach, and Club Fortuna Beach, they offer a variety of watersports options including deep-sea fishing, jet ski rentals, parasailing, reef and wreck snorkelling cruises or exciting glass-bottom boat cruises to view reefs and wrecks and feed tropical fish.
Deep sea fishing aboard the 36-foot Chris-Craft sports fisherman Lil Paradise is offered as half-day trips or on full-day charters. A free bus ride from most hotels to one of the beach locations is part of the Paradise Watersports package.
Pat & Diane/Fantasia Tours offers day excursions to Peterson Cay aboard a 45-foot catamaran, Sunshine. The 4-1/2-hour tour features a birdwatching expedition, snorkelling (gear is provided) and access to a beautiful beach. Lunch and beverages are included.
Guests can also enjoy two-hour tours aboard Fantasia, a 72-foot, double-deck catamaran with a 30-foot waterslide and 30-foot rock climbing wall.
Evening excursions are also available, including dinner cruises on the Lucayan Canal and along the shoreline.
Whatever your energy level, interests or budget, Grand Bahama offers adventures to fit every need.
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