Bahamas Scuba Diving
The Bahamas is located near the south coast of Florida, an easy place to venture for those living or visiting the US. Plenty of direct flights are available from most East Coast locations and with the same time zone it makes for a great vacation spot for families with young children. You may know the location for the Atlantis hotel – it’s an impressive hotel but Bahamas scuba diving should be experienced all across the island.
Diving
I’ll never
forget my Bahamas scuba diving experience. It was the first time I dived
in the Caribbean and the first time I saw a shark – and simply fell in love. Coupled
with wrecks, coral reefs and wall dives, it makes for an exciting diving
experience.
For diving in the Bahamas, you can choose from a range of islands to stay and dive at. I went to Nassau and Paradise Island, where the Atlantis Hotel is located. I went scuba diving in Nassau, Bahamas and was not disappointed. Scuba Diving through Atlantis Hotel is likely more expensive than using other dive shops around the island. I found everything quite expensive at the Atlantis.
Wreck Dives
There’s a great variety of wrecks to scuba dive in the Bahamas. From planes to ships there’s some neat things to see. You can literally try and sit in the sunken plane which is just cool to do. I’ve seen a lot of wrecks and what I enjoyed about the Bahamas was that there was good amount of fish live and coral on the wrecks so they felt more ecologically engrained. Lots of corals, barnacles sprinkled with schools of fish, lion fish and the odd shark roaming around.
Reefs
The reefs are also great in the Bahamas. Diving here provides a good balance of nice reefs and fish life. It can get quite windy in the Bahamas which can impact visibility and quality of the scuba diving experience. What’s nice about the reefs is that they cater for the casual or beginner diver to the more advanced dive experience seeker.
Bahamas Scuba Diving: First Ever Shark SightingScubagal Tips for Bahamas Scuba Diving
Paradise Island vs. Nassau – if you have young kids I would recommend staying at the Atlantis, there’s plenty of activities including child minding. While the hotel is big, there’s plenty of security around. The Atlantis has a great aquarium that can be exciting for young kids and a theme park area for entertainment. Nassau is great if you’re looking for a cheaper option and would like to focus on beach, snorkel and diving.
Cruise Ships – possibly the most frustrating thing about Nassau is how many cruise liners stop here for days at a time. This can make the scenery less appealing, but does add a good atmosphere of livelihood. I do feel most people end up at the Atlantis Hotel.
Staying in Nassau – I stayed here because it was a cheaper option, getting around on the island wasn’t difficult. Scuba diving on Paradise Island is still easy to do while you stay in Nassau.
Night Life – in Nassau there’s a strip of local bars and restaurants to check out, but there’s much left to be desired. I would opt for going to the Atlantis hotel, you can spend days exploring everything in this hotel.
