Bahamas Out Islands: Staniel Cay Thunderball Grotto, Cat Island, Long Island Beach, Bimini Fishing, and Columbus San Salvador
The Bahamas Out Islands accessible from Nassau include the James Bond Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay, the Sidney Poitier birthplace on Cat Island, the world-class Cape Santa Maria Beach on Long Island, Hemingway's Bimini fishing heritage, and the first Columbus landfall on San Salvador.
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Private Island Bahamas: The Luxury Charter
The Bahamas private island charter market, in which wealthy visitors rent uninhabited or privately owned cays in the Exumas and the Out Islands for exclusive use, is one of the most exclusive luxury travel experiences in the Caribbean, combining the genuine wilderness beach environment of the uninhabited Bahamian cay with the full service of a private charter crew and yacht. The Exuma Cays provide the finest private island experience in the Atlantic.
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Staniel Cay: The Thunderball Grotto
Staniel Cay in the Exuma Cays, accessible by seaplane from Nassau, is the location of the Thunderball Grotto underwater cave where the James Bond film Thunderball and the Splash film were shot, with snorkeling in the cave providing the experience of the extraordinary underwater light show created by the sun shining through the cave openings into the crystal clear water. Staniel Cay Yacht Club is the most charming small island resort in the Bahamas.
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Cat Island: The Arthur's Town Connection
Cat Island, the long thin Out Island known as the birthplace of Sidney Poitier, the first Black Academy Award winner for acting whose origins in the Arthur's Town settlement of Cat Island represent the upward trajectory possible from the most isolated Bahamian community, is one of the least visited but most beautiful of the major Bahamian islands with the highest point in the Bahamas at Mount Alvernia.
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Long Island: The Cape Santa Maria Beach
Long Island in the central Bahamas has the Cape Santa Maria Beach, consistently rated among the finest beaches in the world, in a completely undeveloped setting at the northern tip of the island accessible by the small resort that takes its name from the beach. The dramatic Atlantic cliffs on the eastern side of Long Island contrast with the calm Bahamian sound on the western side in a landscape that exemplifies the geographic division of the Bahamian archipelago.
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Bimini: The Hemingway Connection and the Shark Dive
Bimini, the island closest to the US mainland at 50 miles from Miami accessible by seaplane or ferry, is most associated with Ernest Hemingway who lived and fished here in the 1930s and the tradition of big game fishing for marlin and tuna that continues in the Bimini tournaments. The hammerhead shark aggregation accessible by dive excursion from Bimini in winter is one of the most intense marine wildlife experiences in the Atlantic.
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San Salvador: The First Landfall
San Salvador island, identified by most historians as the first Caribbean island where Columbus landed on October 12, 1492, is the most historically significant island in the Bahamas and one of the most isolated, accessible by weekly flight from Nassau. The Columbus monument and the underwater museum of shipwrecks make San Salvador the most historically rich single destination in the Bahamian archipelago despite its remoteness.