We just got back from the most amazing vacation in Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. We had such a wonderful stay and today I wanted to break down the different parts of the resort in case you’re also planning a visit in the future. We saw all sorts of groups during our time at the resort - families, bachelorette/bachelor parties, couples, etc. We traveled with our almost 7 month old and our friends who have a 2 year old. This post is not sponsored in anyway - just wanted to share my thoughts with you since I got so many questions about our trip!

GETTING THERE

Baha Mar is located on the island of New Providence (Nassau), the main island in The Bahamas. There is a large airport in Nassau, which makes getting there pretty easy. We like Bahamas because it’s not too far from Philadelphia (about a 3 hour flight to Nassau) and it has some of the most amazing clear waters that I’ve ever seen. Many of you asked if we would visit again and I for sure say YES! The resort has something for everyone and if you’re bringing the kids, it’s also kid friendly.

We had booked a round trip car service from the airport to the resort and back. What was great is that the car service provided car seats so we did not have to lug ours all the way from Philadelphia and instead we just brought our travel stroller instead of our UppaBaby stroller.

THE RESORT

There are three places to stay at Baha Mar - Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt because we were traveling with our baby and I thought that it was the most kid-friendly out of the three. Check in was pretty seamless and the room was spacious. In Grand Hyatt there are the East and West towers. The blue rooms pictured in this post are located in the East tower and the West tower is filled with creamy neutrals.

What I loved about the room was the bathroom. It had a double sink feature, a huge tub and shower and Balmain bath products. What I found a little odd in the rooms were the sliding doors next to the tub, but since we had our baby with us it was nice that we were able to look into the room from the bathroom and check on him. We also had a large balcony with ocean views and it was nice to be able to sit outside.

Instead of room keys you get a wristband (each hotel has it’s own different one) which also acts as your room key and entrance into Baha Bay which is the new waterpark.

Just walking through the resort was has a total vibe. The casino floor is stunning with giant chandeliers and large windows to the outdoors. The resort grounds are immaculate, lush and no detail is spared.

We also noticed that it was much quieter on the weekdays versus the weekend so if I was traveling with family I would prefer the weekday but if I was going with friends the weekend would be more fun. Really depends on what you are looking to do!

WHERE TO EAT

The resort has so many different places to eat. The restaurants are split up within the three hotels - Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and SLS. You are able to go to any of the restaurants in any of the hotels! For the three nights we were there we had reservations at Swimming Pig (American), Katsuya (Japanese) and Cleo (Mediterranean). My favorite dinner was a toss up between Katsuya and Cleo. The best advice I can give is to reserve dinners beforehand. Reservations can be made easily through OpenTable or the Baha Mar website. I made our dinner reservations three weeks in advance. All restaurants were booked up by the time we arrived and the wait for walk ups was REALLY long.

Food and drinks were the most costly part of the trip - more than our flight and hotel room combined. I think you just have to go into the vacation knowing that and being OK with it. For breakfast we would grab food from Madeline’s or Pizza Lab (there is also a Starbucks onsite). Lunch was at the food trucks and one day at the Umami Burger at Baha Bay (which was SO GOOD! Better than Shake Shack and In and Out Burger). Dinner was Swimming Pig, Katsuya and Cleo as I said above. Baha Mar does a great job in providing a variety of food and next time we go we’ll check out the other restaurants! One thing to note is that if you are traveling on a weekday some restaurants don’t open in the evening until Thursday (i.e. Cleo).

Restaurants:
CLEO
KATSUYA
CAFE MADELINE
MARCUS
SUGAR FACTORY
25N
FILIA
PIZZA LAB
SHUANG BA
STIX NOODLE BAR
SWIMMING PIG
STREETBIRD
3 TIDES
CAFE BOULUD
CARNA
COSTA
STARBUCKS
SCOOPS (Ice Cream)

Beach/Pool Area:
EL JEFE
DA POKE BOWL SHACK
UMAMI BURGER

POOLS/BEACH

The beach was stunning and the water was the most clearest I have seen.

All the pools we went too were stunning and there were several of them sprinkled throughout the property.

We mostly spent our time at the Fortune Pool at the H2O swim up pool bar since we were with our little one but if we were traveling without kids I would recommend the Privilege Pool at SLS which is the adults only pool with parties on the weekends. The Dean’s Blue Hole pool is a large pool with a huge cave with sea life. It has the zero-entry so you could walk right into it and also had rocks you could walk up and jump off into. There were tons of big kids at this pool so we didn’t spend too much time here.

What I also liked were there were places to get food and drinks around the property so you never felt like you had to go out of your way to get something to eat/drink. During the day we would grab food near the pool/beach areas.

One piece of advice is to book a cabana beforehand especially if you are traveling with kids or a group - the cabanas come with fan / tv / fridge and it’s nice to have somewhere to park the stroller for the day. You can book the cabana in advance through the Baha Mar website.

There is also the new Beach Club which is located near Baha Bay. We didn’t have time to check this out but it sounds wonderful!

WHAT TO DO

Besides the pool/beach there are many other things to do!

BAHA BAY - Baha Bay is the newly opened waterpark. We loved the fact that there is something for everyone here! Adults, kids and babies we all had tons of fun! Baby Veer had so much fun that he fell asleep in the lazy river. It was the cutest thing EVER! I also liked that towels were easy to find and it was spotless.

WATER ACTIVITIES - There are stand-up paddleboards, single and double kayaks, water hammocks, floating lounges, personal floats, snorkels, and masks.

CASINO - Baha Mar has a beautiful casino with slot machines and table games. The tables opened later than we liked (around noon) but the casino at Baha Bay opens earlier. I actually preferred the casino at Baha Bay which is brand new.

SPA - I went to the ESPA on a prior trip to the Bahamas and had an amazing massage. The spa is designed beautifully and it’s nice that before and after your service you can lounge and have tea/light snacks.

SHOPPING - There is high end shopping - we didn’t really go into much of the store because the hours were weird during the weekdays - I think they open around 2PM but we did go into Cartier and Rolex.(inventory is extremely low due to covid).

AVIARY & SANCTUARY - There are birds which you can feed in the Aviary and also in the Sanctuary there is small ocean life petting zoo with stingrays, starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins. There are also flamingos onsite.

GOLF & TENNIS

FITNESS CENTER - State of the art gym and classes

NIGHTLIFE - After dinner there is alot to do to keep the party going. There is the Rooftop Bar at SLS & Bond Nightclub, Monkey Bar, Blue Note - Piano Bar, Manor and Library Bar. SLS Hotel is the most “adult” friendly out of the three hotels.

TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN

Traveling with a baby was great for this type of resort. Veer is little so he was able to go with the flow. If he was tired he would nap in his stroller and I made sure to bring the portable fan that we hook onto the stroller. We did also bring the stroller onto the beach which was nice - for this trip we did not bring our Uppababy stroller we brought a travel stroller instead.

If you have kids make sure to check out the Aviary and Sanctuary. There are also flamingos on the property which are so beautiful! Each day at 9:30AM and 3:30PM the flamingos take a walk around the property and you can hang out with them! It was such a fun sight to see.

Also (not that this applied to us) but if your child is between 3-12 years of age you can put them in the Explorer’s Club for the day! They have an entire itinerary which I think is awesome.

Some of the items we brought for baby include fan, floatie, sunscreen, swimsuits, etc (blog post HERE).

WHAT TO WEAR

Resort wear, in my opinion, is the best way to go for an island vacation. For daytime I lived in swimsuits and cute cover-ups and in the evenings I dressed up each night. I’ll be doing a separate blog post linking all my outfit details next week so stay tuned!

OVERALL THOUGHTS

In terms of traveling during the pandemic, before traveling you need to complete a health visa for everyone in your party (if you are fully vaccinated you need to show your proof of vaccination or get a covid test done prior). To come back, Baha Mar offers covid testing onsite at the resort. They really make things easy which is great and it was nice to not have to leave the resort for any reason.

Overall, we LOVED our time at Baha Mar and can’t wait to come back!