Day 2,860 of Traveling the World | Nassau, Bahamas | December 1, 2025

Jan and Mike

The last time we visited Nassau, in 2011, we walked along a walkway with riprap reaching down into the ocean. The riprap was full of iguanas taking in the rays. (See the second photo.) In the 14 years since then, the port constructed a faux village when you disembark the ship, which you arrive in after a 10-minute tram ride and five minutes of walking. It was filled with restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops. That in itself is a disappointment, but the true horror came when we walked out and discovered there were six gigantic cruise ships in Nassau that day, discharging around 20,000 passengers into the small town. Truly, this was overkill – crowded and LOUD. If we ever dock again here, we decided we would just stay on the ship.

In the faux port village, we heard an announcement mimicking a 1990s K-Mart store. It began: “Attention shoppers.” We didn’t listen, so we didn’t get the message! It seemed a bit anachronistic. Once we left that circus, the streets of the town were equally crowded. There were more jewelry and diamond stores than could ever make a profit. It is a wonder that anyone purchases Caribbean jewelry, since it can’t easily be returned if it breaks apart, for example. Several years ago, Mike went scuba diving on one of the islands and Jan walked around the downtown, passing many jewelers. One man tried to hand her a flyer for his store with a discount on a purchase. Jan said, “No, thanks. I’m not into jewelry.” He looked at her coolly and asked, “Then why are you here?”

Generally, port cities are great for walking around, even aimlessly wandering if you haven’t planned a tour or anything special. This was a special kind of hell. We lasted about two hours and returned to the relative quiet and serenity of the ship, minus a good number of its passengers. It was heaven after being jostled by 20,000 people. Nassau was almost – almost – as busy as Rome! – and not in a good way!

Approaching the tiny sliver of land in the Caribbean – Nassau. It looks gorgeous from this vantage point.
Here is one of our photos from 2011, with three iguanas sunning themselves.
Getting to the faux village, where everyone was hawking something.
We have never heard of a single one of these drinks. Are they exotically named so they can charge $12.50?
Part of the main drag, a long slog you have to walk through to get into town.
Several selfie extravaganzas were set up, but the lines were long.
They call it the “World Famous” Straw Market, but we had never heard of it. (Not like it’s the Eiffel Tower or anything.)
Inside, it was just crowded, disorganized stuff that looked the same from shop to shop.
Out in town, some colorful street art.
Most all Caribbean ports have a Senor Frog’s.
A Sidewalk Sale along the main street!
Most of the jewelry stores were as empty as this one – no takers.
Don’t we all?
A small mall on the main street was beautifully decked out for Christmas, unusual for a Caribbean island.
Traffic was congested, likely due to the huge number of people using taxis and traveling on excursions.
We noticed the fronds of these unusual palm trees, a dusky silver-green rather than the usual dark green.
The town has a lot of vibrant, colorful storefronts.
Again – world famous? Don’t know about that, particularly Cracked Conch and Chicken.
A view of four of the six cruise ships in port. One photo couldn’t fit all of them!
Ah! The truth, at last!

🔹🔹 If you enjoyed reading our post, you can subscribe to our website to automatically receive every blog we publish. Just go to our “Contact” tab. In the gray box at the very bottom, it says – SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL. Just put in your email address, and we will appear in your Inbox! Also, right above it, there is a small form to send us a message, if you wish. (But please note, you cannot hit “Reply” on the post emailed to you to send us a message. You must use the Contact tab.)