Hey babes (or dudes)! I’m finally getting to writing this blog post after being home for a few days after our amazing trip to The Bahamas! We stayed at The Baha Mar resort in The Bahamas after hearing about it a lot on social media. Apparently, it is only a few years old. We didn’t know that until we got there, but you can definitely tell because the entire resort is BEAUTIFUL and it looks brand new. It was TRULY paradise, BUT it came at a cost. The resort was very expensive to eat and drink at. We did figure out a few ways we could have (and did) save more money in the end and I will share that in this post for sure.
Recently, hurricane Dorian just hit the northern Bahama islands and sadly, it devastated them. This happened a week before our trip and we weren’t sure if we would be able to go on vacation. However, The Baha Mar Resort is on the island of Nassau, which is more South and it was not effected. The staff at The Baha Mar and the other locals we talked to said they need people to vacation in The Bahamas now more than ever to help the economy & recover from the devastation. You can tell a lot of people did cancel their trip because the resort was basically EMPTY when we went, which was great for us. We did vlog our trip and I posted that on my YouTube channel, so if you want to watch just the fun stuff, click play below. If you want to hear more about the resort, the experience, the cost & more.. keep scrolling to read!!
Okay so a few things to know about the Baha Mar:
- It is NOT all inclusive and there is no option to do so
- It offers 6 amazing pools & a few hot tubs
- It offers a ton of restaurant & bars indoors and out
- The whole main floor is a big casino
- The room price is not bad but the drinks & food are PRICEY because..
- They add a 15% service charge + a 12% VAT on EVERY food/beverage purchase
- BUT… you don’t HAVE to tip any extra
- There are THREE hotels that make up the resort
- The Grand Hyatt– this is where we stayed. The most “basic” and popular hotel, still very nice though!!
- The SLS- although I wasn’t inside of one of the rooms, I heard this one has that more lively “Miami” feel and features a party pool right outside of it
- The Rosewood- this, I believe, is the most upscale hotel and feels very quiet and secluded. The pools are very relaxed and it is surrounded by a lot of lush gardens.
- You can use all the pools in the whole resort no matter which building you are staying in.
- They offer complimentary non-motorized sports (kayaking, paddle boarding, etc).
- Anywhere on the resort, you can charge anything to your room. From dinner to drinks to Starbucks so that you don’t need to carry your wallet around with you.
Okay, so with all that being said, it was an amazing resort, the pools were clean, and the beaches were GORGEOUS. The staff was very nice too and I loved the fact that it was a completely different culture but everyone speaks English so there is no language barrier. Compared to an all inclusive resort we went to last year in Punta Cana (they were rude there, it was so crazy and unorganized and the drinks were horrible), this vacation seemed like a DREAM.. except for the price.
Here is what we did and what to expect:
When we flew in and were at the airport, it was really easy to grab a taxi (no Uber there, lol) to the resort and they charge you about $25-$30. You can use the USD in The Bahamas and again, no tip necessary. We also took a taxi downtown one night and it was $30 there and $30 back (later we found out there was a bus we could have taken for $1 each but I think it stops running at 6pm anyway). Our hotel room was so pretty, clean and relaxing. Right downstairs, there was a Starbucks (which is probably the cheapest place to get food on the whole resort… seriously). But we loved that because we are coffee addicts. There are a ton of amazing food and drink options and the cuisine is AMAZING. But you will definitely pay the price for it. For example, 2 burgers & 1 order of fries (no drinks) at one of the “food truck” restaurants outside was $49😳. That being said, dinners usually cost around $90-$150 depending on which place you go to on the resort and if you drink or not.
Food:
- BREAKFAST: We mostly just ate breakfast at Starbucks or granola bars in our room for breakfast. BUT I heard there was an amazing breakfast place just a quick bus ride away called Compass Rose.
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LUNCH:
- Umami Burger-We ate there twice even though it was expensive (see price above) but it was nice because it was right on the beach and the burgers were actually amazing.
- Stix- We ate here for lunch one day and it was really good but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it because it was $80 for our lunch there!! And for dinner, it doesn’t have the best atheistic. The food WAS good though.
- Drift Bar & Grill- This is a sports bar right by the pool. The food was great and the price was decently expensive but this was worth it for a yummy lunch!
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DINNER:
- The first night we ate out at a place downtown called Lukka Kairi. It was good and there was live music but it wasn’t MUCH cheaper than the resort.
- THE SWIMMING PIG- This place had our favorite type of food- bar food. The nachos and flatbread pizza were amazing. We ate here twice! Dinner & drinks was probably around $90 here.
- COSTA-this is where we ate on Cody’s birthday. It was surrounded by a Koi Pond and the atmosphere was seriously one of the best experiences ever. This is a Mexican Seafood restaurant. The food was pretty good and we got margaritas here as well. The birthday dinner was around $150 for 2 drinks, guac, 2 orders of tacos and churros. I would highly recommend this place though!
- SHUANG BA- we ate here on our last night and by that point I was so over drinking and spending a ton of money on food. We spent around $120 for 2 diet cokes, an appetizer and 2 orders of chicken plates. It was good but I kinda regret spending that much money there.
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DRINKS:
- Drinks were so, so, so expensive at the hotel. On average, 2 cocktails came to $38-$48 with all the fees. This is honestly probably where we spent the majority of all our money on vacation.
- DAQS- This is a little shack near the beach and they serve really good daiquiris and margaritas. You can even blend it yourself by peddling on a bike!! Do it once, but it is too expensive to continuously go there (at least for us 🤪).
- H20- This is the swim up bar in one of the pools. Obviously convenient and super fun!
- THE SKY BAR- This bar is on the roof of the SLS and is very nice and has an amazing view. We only went up there at night one time but I wish we had gone during the day to be able to see more while grabbing a drink!
- THE CIGAR BAR- Neither of us smoke cigars but this place had REALLY good Mojitos and you can sit outside on the outdoor patio and enjoy the fire and the cool beach breeze. We went here a lot at night just to relax and have a drink.
- THE DAIQUIRI SHACK- This is NOT on the Baha Mar resort, it is about a 5 min walk and they literally only serve Daiquiris (I think… there isn’t really a menu, lol). BUT the guys who work there are so nice & fun and the drinks are only $10 compared to $16-$20 on the resort. You are allowed to walk back to the resort with them and drink them there too!
What to do:
Basically we went to the beach, the pools, gym, ate, drank and gambled at night! 😂 It was amazing because there is not a worry in the world while you are there and enjoying the beautiful resort. I was upset we didn’t get to do the complimentary paddle boarding because the day we went to do it, it was too windy to go. There is also a lot of day excursions to go on (for more $) but we really didn’t feel like doing any of them. The gym was super nice if you work out on vacation. There is also a spa on the property as well. I believe there is some sort of nightclub there as well but that isn’t really our thing. So at night after dinner, playing a few rounds of black jack and getting a mojito at the Cigar Bar, we went up to our cozy hotel bed to watch a movie on Netflix!
Here is the biggest question I got…. HOW TO SAVE MONEY? IS IT WORTH IT?
Although the food & drink there is extremely pricey, it is SO WORTH it if you want to splurge!! We have both been working really hard this year (me on my business + blog and Cody with work, school and so many other things) so we really wanted to do something special. We think it was worth it and would definitely do it again. We figured out some EASY ways to save money so here they are:
- Now that you’ve read my blog, you know you don’t need to tip (we tipped for the first 2 days).
- DO NOT. I REPEAT, do NOT buy anteing from the little mini mart in the resort. We went in to get Advil one day and ended up grabbing 2 bags of chips for the room. The Advil (which was one little pack of TWO pills) and two bags of chips came to almost $30 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
- You HAVE to take a taxi from the airport and back, but if you go anywhere else off the resort, use the bus!
- DRINK AT THE DAIQUIRI SHACK!
- Bring as many snacks as you can in your suitcase. There wasn’t many other options around the resort for snack foods.
- Buy alcohol at the airport when you land (we are dumb and forgot to do this) so we got it downtown. Either way, get alcohol and mixers and/ or beer before you get to the resort so that you have it for your room and you can also take it down to the pool/ beach with you- they don’t care!! We also brought our Yeti cups with us so we had something to drink it with.
- The food trucks are a little less expensive then the restaurants so for lunch, eat at those!!
- There are these guys walking around on the beach offering you a Coconut and putting a drink in there for you for $15 with $7 refills. I was skeptical at first but WOAH they really put alcohol in there and they make a super cute pic for the gram 😂🤷🏽♀️
Overall, it was amazing and we had so much fun. I am sure I missed a ton of taking points and might edit this later to add them. If you have any specific questions about anything I missed! Feel free to DM me on Instagram.
Thanks so much for reading guys!!