The Bahamas are considered a very expensive Caribbean Holidays, for natives as well as tourists. In fact the Bahamas are unusual by Caribbean standards insofar as the traveller can live for the same cost as the itinerant native, who suffers the same high prices. The high prices are due mainly to two reasons. Firstly the tourist boom which only subsided with the worldwide economic recession and Bahamian independence, secondly, the Bahamas’ dependence on imports, particularly from the United States. Perhaps as an incentive to increase tourism, there are no excessive prices for visitors, except of course in the obvious tourist traps.
As a generalization it is true to say that the people on Bahamas are very friendly. This is largely natural to them, although there are those who make a special effort. I found friendliness everywhere, but in other respects there are differences in the people on each island you visit, and even in different settlements on the same island. The population is about 200,000, of which 120,000 live on New Providence. I noticed an abundance of young children, particularly on Andros.
By no means the largest of the islands (it ranks about tenth in size) New Providence nevertheless boasts Nassau, the capital. To many tourists New Providence is Nassau. They come, stay and leave without knowing anything of the island outside Nassau. You can even overhear some tourists who thought they were on Grand Bahama. Only twenty one miles long by seven miles wide New Providence can be explored in two days.
The city was named after Prince William of Orange Nassau, the man whom many in Northern Ireland seem unable to forget. He, and his wife Mary, were offered the English crown when the reigning monarch James was deposed for his Roman Catholic beliefs in ‘The Bloodless Revolution’. Discovered first by the rich and famous, Nassau is now visited mainly by the less rich, but in far greater numbers. Americans are of course the largest group, fairly inexpensive excursions can be made by plane or cruise ship from Miami, and many cruise liners call here.
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