The Bahamas

The Bahamas are the stuff of the tropics: fine white sand and swaying palms, blue skies and sunshine, warm waters with schools of rainbow-colored fish, resort hotels that cater to every taste and whim, and, oh, those offshore bank accounts so close to home. There are duty-free shops and delectable seafood restaurants, and a rollicking nightlife in the capital city of Nassau. There are remote beaches and rocky shorelines for solitude on the Out Islands. There are actually more than 700 islands and cays and over 2,000 islets in the Bahamas archipelago, and yet it is one of the smallest nations in the world, and the richest in the Caribbean, all but a stone's throw from mainland USA.

The Bahamas lie scattered across more than 100,000 square miles of the western Atlantic Ocean. From a point roughly 70 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, the great archipelago extends some 750 miles southward toward the northern Caribbean, almost to the island of Hispaniola.

The Bahamas archipelago comprises approximately 700 islands and 2,000 islets, of which some 30 are inhabited. The total combined land mass of the Bahamas is less than 5,400 square miles, which makes it one of the smallest countries in the world.

The language spoken on the islands is English – at least it’s called English. The old language has been shaped and reshaped over more than 300 years by a potpourri of cultures, of which the British and Caribbean have had no small influence. Some say the Bahamian accent is decidedly West Indian, others
say it has a sound all its own. If it’s spoken quickly, it’s almost impossible for an outsider to understand.

Legal tender is the Bahamian dollar, which is always equivalent in value to the US dollar. Both US and Bahamian dollars are accepted interchangeably throughout the islands, and visitors are likely to receive change in mixed American and Bahamian currency.

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