Where in the world...
Bahamas Take 2...The Kids Edition
The last time I was in the Bahamas it was in March of 2011. I
went with some friends. We stayed at Atlantis but at The Cove which is considered 'adult only'. We saw no kids and drank rum punch all day. (Click here for blog from that trip!)
This time I went with my 2 year old and husband! A
completely different trip. We stayed at Atlantis for the first half of our trip and although I had been to the Atlantis before, I had
stuck to the adults only pool at the Cove. Now I was to venture to the kids
only areas. I thought I was prepared.
A bit of background is in order at this point. The entire Atlantis Paradise Island Resort has over 3,600 guestrooms! It is broken up into 6 areas:
- Coral Towers
- Royal Towers
- Beach Tower
- Harborside ( Residential-style villas)
- The Reef (Virtuoso)
- The Cove (Virtuoso)
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| Pool at the Reef. One of many pools. |
The place is massive. No other place in the Caribbean really compares. It has tons of activities for both adults (think Nobu, casino and nightclubs) and children (from dolphin encounters to ‘splish splash’ areas for the little ones). The water park is amazing and guests have free access. There are over 20 restaurants.
Obviously this leads to a lot of crowds and add to it that you even have non-guest people that come for the day (from other hotels or cruises), you could wait quite a while to get on to some of the slides.
The Reef (where we stayed) was nice overall. It is discrete and quiet. You have a lot of kids at the hotel but it is well managed. I think the secrete here though is if you want to stay at Atlantis and do a bit more luxury, you stay at the Cove (remember…it's the Pool that’s adult only!) and just go to different pools.
You have to be very careful of what kind of room size you request and especially the view. Just look at the difference between these two:
One thing I noticed about the Bahamas is that it is incredibly expensive. Insanely so. From a bottle of water to dinner or a simple pack of gum, everything is off the charts. There are some meal packages that Atlantis offers and I would look into that if going again with family. Just to give you an idea, WiFi was about $20 a day extra (a pet peeve of mine when hotels charge)
The service was very extreme. Some excellent, some horrible. You would have some wonderful people with the biggest smiles that could not do enough to help you whilst at times you would encounter some people that you knew did not want to be there.
The second half of our time in the Bahamas we stayed at the
One & Only Resort – Ocean Club. This is a lot more of how we like to travel
as we like quiet, understated luxury. I think if my daughter was older then
perhaps Atlantis would be perfect but even then, the two resorts are so close
that you can stay at One & Only and spend the day at the waterpark at
Atlantis.
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| Welcome to One & Only |
It is very quiet but the good thing is they have two seperate pools. One for kids only and the other for adults. This makes it nice for parents with screaming kids as you don't really bother anyone. They also have a kids "fun zone" which is indoors (in case it gets too hot) with computers, crafts etc. The service was good and the rooms spacious with nice amenities. Although I would say that it is in need of a refurbishment soon given it's a bit old.
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| My kind of childcare |
The interesting news is that there is a huge complex being
built in Nassau (so closer to the airport) where you will have 4 hotels in one
area. With over 400
hectares along the beach, Baha Mar will be home to:
- Rosewood
- SLS Hotel (originally the Mondrian)
- Grand Hyatt
- The Baha Mar Casino & Hotel (new concept)
It is slated to be open in December 2014. I’m looking forward to this!
