advice about grand bahamas????

[txscubagirl]

Hi,
My family is getting ready to take a trip to the Freeport at the end of this month. We have 6 dives booked with Sun Oddessey. I was wondering if anyone had been diving with them before, or if y'all have any suggestions on good dives. Half of our group are experienced divers, but the other half of us our brand new to the sport.

Also, I had heard that Pier One was a great place to eat, but we will be there for 5 days. So, I wanted to see if anyone knew of any other fabulous places we must eat. We have a large group, (9 people) so we are up for anywhere fun.

Hope y'all have some fun places to share. Thanks in advance for y'alls help!

txscubagirl

 

[LWith58]

Txscubagirl,

My wife and I were in Grand Bahama in December of 02 and dove with Sunn Odyssey Divers. We had a great time; Nick and Karen are very nice people. Sunn Odyssey is a small no frills op, one good-sized boat with lots of space, Nick was our Captain/DM all week. There were no more than 6 or 8 divers per trip and the boat could have easily taken 12. Some of the diving highlights were Wreck of Sea Star, Theo's Wreck and Shark Junction, here we were visited by 8 - 10 reef sharks, pretty cool. If we were to go back to Grand Bahama, we would definitely dive with Sunn Odyssey again; Nick and Karen really make you feel like a part of their family.

We also did a dolphin dive with Unexso where they bring you out in the open water to interact with a couple of their trained dolphins.

We spent an afternoon at Paradise Cove (Dead Man’s Reef) after our dive was canceled due to rough seas, it’s a decent spot to do some snorkeling and grab lunch, its on the opposite (east) side of the island and the conditions were a little better.

The Port Lucaya Marina area is a nice and has a handful of good places to eat and shop. We spent a good amount of time there.

Have a great time!
Lee

 

[DocVikingo]

That would be Grand Bahama Island.

A few quick suggestions:

1. Visit Gold Rock Beach & National Park. Park is so-so, but the caves are cool & a very nice beach.
2. Horseback ride with Pinetree Stables.
3. Fish with Lil’ B.
4. For local flavor, hang out & drink at Black Beards over on Coral Beach.
5. Visit Club Caribe & The Sand Box for an afternoon of fun & sun.
6. Do a fish fry or 2; Sun-West End, Wed-Taino Beach; Sat-Club Caribe (pig roast, too).
7. Spend a day at Banana Bay--nice view.
8. Go golfing. Lots of choices, although I hate Bermuda grass & I haven't found any of them very exciting.
9. Plenty of places to play tennis.
10. Go shopping at the International Baazar
11. Go gambling. Our Lucaya finally has its casino open, and the Royal Oasis is still happening.
12. Do the catamaran sail out of Port Lucaya.
13. Go dancing in Count Basie Sq. aftre dark. Also, Ruby Swiss at the Royal Oasis goes late & draws a nice crowd.
14. Lots places to eat, but check out Lucianos, La Dolce Vita & The Ferry House (intimate & atmospheric) for upscale dining. Also like Pier One Restaurant out by the cruise ship dock. They do an evening shark feed & have some tasty seafood dishes, but the cab ride e/w is the price of a good entree. Somewhat touristy.
15. Dive Spritely_Mermaid at Grand Bahama Scuba (tell her I sent you).
16. Tour Garden of the Groves if you like botanical preserves.
17. JC Tours does a trip out to the undeveloped eastern end of the island, although I prefer renting a scooter and going with a date as there’s great skinny dipping & sunning, although I do wonder about the big white drug interdiction blimp.
18. Try the trips thru Kayak Nature Tours. Offers some neat stuff, including a kayak/snorkel tour to Peterson Cay & bike trips.
19. All kinds of organized party action if that is your thing, including bashes of various types aboard the Bahama Mama, bonfire night at Villa Sand Bar, Goombaya show at Holiday Inn Sunspree, Thursdays from about mid-Jun to mid-Aug there’s a Junkanoo festival near the International Bazaar.
20. Go to the Sir Winston Churchill Pub & get happy on Back-to-Backs while grooving to the Caribbean tunage.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

 

[sharky60]

Hi,
My family is getting ready to take a trip to the Freeport at the end of this month. We have 6 dives booked with Sun Oddessey. I was wondering if anyone had been diving with them before, or if y'all have any suggestions on good dives. Half of our group are experienced divers, but the other half of us our brand new to the sport.

Also, I had heard that Pier One was a great place to eat, but we will be there for 5 days. So, I wanted to see if anyone knew of any other fabulous places we must eat. We have a large group, (9 people) so we are up for anywhere fun.

Hope y'all have some fun places to share. Thanks in advance for y'alls help!

txscubagirl

hey! me again, like i said in my wet suit reply, you'll have a good time with Nick and Karen, their son and daughter, Patrick and Erica are part of the crew with dive leader Davido.
if the conditions are good have them take you to "fish farm" it's very shallow, 20' and less but FULL of fish!!!!!!!!!!!
tell them the Volkman's say 'howdy'

we also ate at Pier One, the food was very good and you need to go for one of the nightly sharky feedings at 7, 8, 9pm,
make reservations. it is located in a funny place, it's a ways from Freeport and Lacaya but it's worth the cab fare, which are high there. i think it was $11 to go from Freeport to the Harbor area where the restaurant is.
also eat at Pieces in Lacaya, it was very good, i lived off of grouper most of the time i was there and they had a really good grouper dish.
those were the best restarants we ate at, the International Bazzar has some less expencive places to eat at that aren't too bad either, Micheal' has good food and drinks, there's a place with a french name just around the corner from there that's name escapes me right now that's pretty good, we ate there for breakfast a couple of times. also visit the chocolate place at the I.B.


HAVE A GREAT TRIP,
SHARKY