My first travel blog post ever featuring our vacation at Baha Mar! I have not stopped thinking about the Baha Mar since my husband and I returned over 3 weeks ago! I cannot wait to go back! The Baha Mar is a resort located in Nassau, Bahamas. It is made up of three hotels; Rosewood Baha Mar, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar & SLS Baha Mar. We stayed at the SLS and just WOW. Everything about the resort as a whole and our hotel was top notch and I would highly recommend it over and over again. (THIS IS NOT SPONSORED)
Getting there
We left out of Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. We actually had this same exact trip booked last year, but it was cancelled due to Covid. Anyways, last year they had direct flights out of Boston to Nassau, however, this time, there were no direct flights. With a direct flight, it would probably take about 3.5 hours to 4 hours to go from Boston to Nassau. It is a quick trip! Since there were no direct flights, we had a layover in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was only an hour layover which was actually perfect! I was nervous that we wouldn’t make our connecting flight because of such a short timeframe but the gate was literally the next gate over from the one we flew in on!
Once we left North Carolina, we were on our way to Nassau! Overall, our travel time was about 5 hours (still a pretty quick trip). For the flight home, we had a layover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The flight from Nassau to Fort Lauderdale is only 30 minutes! It is a super short flight.
Tip – When coming back home through the Nassau airport, we found that many of the restaurants were closed or were closing. Our flight was at 7 PM. There were not a ton of food options so we just ended up with snacks (2 bags of chex mix, oreos and 2 waters). The stores also close pretty early as well! If you have a later flight you might want to grab dinner or snacks prior to heading to the airport.
Once we arrived in Nassau, we took a taxi ($35) to the Baha Mar. It was a short ride, only about 15 minutes. Each hotel individually did have car services that needed to be booked ahead of time. We did not book one ahead of time so a taxi it was. Once we left the airport, the taxi stand was right outside. We did not have to wait at all. It was super easy.
The Resort
As I mentioned above, the Baha Mar is actually the name of the resort as a whole. It is made up of 3 individual hotels; Rosewood, Grand Hyatt and SLS. The Grand Hyatt is the largest of the three hotels and is 2 buildings. The Rosewood is actually private and if you are not staying there, you cannot use their pools or even enter their outdoor space (security stands at the entrance of their outdoor area). The SLS is the Pink building (to the right in the above photo) and is a very modern and swanky hotel, which I loved! If you have ever stayed at the SLS in Miami, the SLS Baha Mar has the same feel!
All three hotels connect inside the resort. Some of the restaurants are inside Rosewood, others are inside the Hyatt and others are inside SLS. You are able to go to any of the restaurants in any of the hotels! I am going to do a whole separate blog post on the food since its a lot to cover! The food was delicious!
Resort Pools
Aside from the Rosewood pools, you are able to use any of the 7 pools you wish! They are all so different and we tried out almost all of them! I broke down each pool below –
Dean’s Blue Hole Pool – Located at the Hyatt and closest to the beach! This pool was huge and even had a grotto for viewing an underwater aquarium with sharks, fish & turtles! The picture above is from the grotto! This pool is super popular with families and kids! The pools were easy to walk into and shallow. At the deeper end of this pool, there is a rock jump. My husband jumped off many times as I watched from my lounge chair 🙂
Drift Pool – Located at the Hyatt. This pool had lounge chairs in the pool which I loved! It was great for cooling off just a little bit but not getting completely soaked! This pool also had lots of cabanas, with some of them being rain cabanas. In the rain cabanas, you could hit a switch to turn on some misting rain to fall from the edges of the cabana. Great to cool off!
Elixir Pool – We did not go to this pool but it is located at the Hyatt. It was more of a smaller and secluded pool.
Fortune Pool – Another pool we did not frequent often but this pool has a swim up bar which we did enjoy a couple times! This pool is quite large and surrounded by lots of gorgeous palm trees! The palm trees give off lots of shade which is nice to escape the heat.
Out Island Pool – Located at the Hyatt and directly next to Dean’s Blue Hole Pool. This is another great family pool for kids!
Reflections Pool – We did not go to this pool since it was more for guests who had a cabana. It has 6 cabanas total for a more intimate setting. (Pictured below)
Bungalow Pool – OUR FAVORITE POOL located at the SLS. This was my favorite pool by far! We started at this pool every day. This pool, I felt, was much more glamorous and relaxing. It gave off an adults only vibe although it was not adults only. There were not many children here though. We saw maybe 5 children at this pool over 9 days! (Pool pictured below)
Privilege Pool – This pool is located at the SLS but unfortunately was closed during our stay. It is an adults only pool with a live DJ! (Similar to SLS Miami)
SLS Baha Mar
If I was to go back to the Baha Mar, I 100% would stay at the SLS again. I loved everything about it. I loved how modern the rooms were with a very swanky vibe! It was so clean also, which is a huge factor for me whenever I go away. Beds were very comfortable as well as the pillows which can really make or break a stay! The standard rooms had a good amount of space as well as the bathroom. Nothing felt cramped.
I loved that our balcony had a little couch and table on it so you could eat breakfast, have coffee, order room service or just relax! We had coffee on the balcony and would eat dessert out there after dinner! It was perfect. (below photo shot from our balcony)
Food & Drinks
Every single place we ate at was absolutely delicious! We never once had a bad meal even at the pool bars! I will note that food and drinks are a little more on the pricey side. We knew this going in so it was not such a huge shock but just something to note! I am also such a snacker! I snack all day so I always bring snacks from home when I travel. I highly suggest bringing snacks to the Bahamas! Although there are so many places to eat, there are not many “snacks” or “snack food”. When I want a snack, I just want something quick and easy and there was not anything like that. I brought lots of granola bars, individual peanut butter, goldfish, chex mix, and just lots of picky foods!
For breakfast on most days, we ate breakfast bars or other snacks from home since I am not starving in the morning. A couple times we did grab breakfast and a MUST spot for breakfast is Cleo. It was amazing. It is a Mediterranean restaurant and so delicious. I got the avocado toast and it was so so good!
There are 2 Starbucks on the property! The one located in the SLS closes at 12:00 p.m. and the one in the Hyatt is open much later! We did grab coffee every morning but the SLS rooms come with Lavazza espresso and an espresso maker! My husband had it a few times and really liked it! I do love Lavazza but I do not drink hot coffee (there are no ice machines in the hotel, you have to ask for ice and they will bring it to you). If you are looking for a quick breakfast, Starbucks had their typical breakfast sandwiches and pastry!
For lunch we just ate at the pool bars! We mostly ate at Bungalow Pool bar and the Cobb salad is so good! Also, the chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries! We got those items almost daily! We also loved El Jefe, which was a food truck! The resort has food trucks scattered around near the beach and El Jefe was our favorite. It was tacos and burritos. I recommend the tacos but they are small so get a few! My husband loved the burrito bowl.
Our favorite dinner spots were the Swimming Pig, Stix and Fi’Lia. The Swimming Pig was more of a sports bar/pub atmosphere but the chicken club and crispy chicken sandwich were huge and delicious. I highly recommend them both and with sweet potato fries! Stix was a noodle bar and we seriously went 3 times! We both got the Pad Thai each time and with boba tea! Fi’Lia was the Italian restaurant. I highly recommend the prosciutto pizza, chicken parmesan, gnocchi (very small portion), and rigatoni alla carbonara! I had the gnocchi one night for my meal but it was more of an appetizer size.
Beach
I love the beach. The beach is my absolute favorite spot whether I am home or away! Typically when I am on vacation, I prefer the beach over the pool but on this trip, I preferred the pools. The water is gorgeous and crystal clear but the beach itself was just okay. They do have lounge chairs on the beach and drink stands. I did love that they had floating day beds in the ocean that were anchored down! Anyone could use them! They were great to float in. You could also snorkel, kayak or do other water sports too!
Night Life
After dinner, you must go to the Jazz bar! They have live music, drinks and apps! It was such a fun atmosphere. We also went to Sky Bar which is the rooftop bar/lounge and it is outside. It is only open on the weekend though and if you go too late, you will be waiting in line to get in! There is also a huge casino! I love that the casino was a non-smoking casino also. We did walk by a nightclub as well, called Bond, but it was not open during our stay. There are also lots of bars you can just grab a drink and hang out such as the SLS lobby bar! There are lots of couches which makes it feel like a lounge and even a pool table.
Tips
SLS is the only public pool that has cushioned lounge chairs. It may not seem like a huge thing but when you’re sitting in a non-cushioned chair for many hours, you want that cushion! Every pool also has as many towels as you need.
The resort as a whole is cash-less. You can charge your room or use a credit card.
Each pool bar sells different items and has their own menus! I was craving a coconut water in a coconut and only one pool bar had it! The pool bar at Deans Blue Hole had them. They also sell out quickly.
Daq’s is amazing for daiquiris or even non-alcholic drinks! You can get them inside of a pineapple too. But, they are not open daily. I noticed they were open Thursday to Sunday. The same schedule went for the stand that sells Poke bowls but I cannot think of their name. (Daq’s drink pictured below)
To snag a good lounge chair at SLS you will have to beat the crowd down there! If you want to lay in the sun for most of the day, grab a chair in the front row, closest to the SLS building. At about 2:00 pm the sun moves to the other side of the pool. At that point, I would switch sides to be in the sun again! At 3-3:30 pm the sun is completely hidden behind the SLS hotel and the whole pool is in the shade. At that point, we moved to another pool to chase the sun!
Make reservations in advance for dinner especially on the weekends. It gets much more crowded on the weekends and dinner times are harder to come by.
Take a stroll onto the pier. The pier extends from the beach out into the ocean. It is absolutely gorgeous! I want to say the pier closes at about 6:00 pm so make sure to get there before then!
Take a walk around the whole resort both inside and outside. On the first day we arrived, we walked around the whole property to see what was around but also just look at how gorgeous everything was.
Bring a water bottle of some sort from home that keeps your drinks cold. I forgot to bring mine and being outside all day, our waters got hot very quickly!
The Best Vacation Ever
We never left the resort! There is so much to do and see that we didn’t have a reason to leave!
Phew that was a lot I just threw at you all! I am also going to do a Baha Mar restaurant guide as well as a vacation outfit guide! Stay tuned!
xoxo Jess
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