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GUIDES

A Guide to Scuba Diving Certifications You Can Earn on Vacation

The water off San Salvador Island is so clear you can see the sandy bottom 40 feet below before you even put your mask on. PADI, the world’s largest scuba training organization, has been certifying divers since 1966, and earning your Open Water Diver certification on vacation is one of the most rewarding ways to spend a few days. This guide covers the certification process, costs, and exactly where in the Bahamas to do it — whether you’re a solo traveler, a couple, or a family with kids aged 10 and up. Visibility in San Salvador regularly exceeds 100

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A Guide to Freediving Competitions on Long Island

Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island, Bahamas, drops to 150 metres (492 feet) — deep enough to make it the planet’s deepest known blue hole. Every July (and occasionally June) it hosts Vertical Blue, a freediving competition that athletes routinely call “the Wimbledon of Freediving.” This guide covers what Vertical Blue is, how to see it in person, and what you need to know about safety, etiquette, and logistics if you’re planning a trip to watch — or simply want to understand why this remote spot draws record-breakers from 16 countries. Vertical Blue at Dean’s Blue Hole has seen

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A Beginner’s Guide to Kiteboarding in the Bahamas

The trade winds deliver 15 to 25 knots across the Bahamas from November through April, and nowhere is that more useful than on the ten-kilometer Atlantic beach at Greenwood Beach Resort on Cat Island. This is the one place in the country with a proper kiteboarding school, and it’s where most beginners get their start. Most students achieve their first water starts within three to five days of lessons. If you’ve been eyeing kiteboarding but felt intimidated, the Bahamas offers forgiving flat-water spots and a direct learning path. This guide covers the lesson experience at Greenwood Beach, the gear

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Watching the Family Island Regatta Like a Local

The first time I watched the 69th National Family Island Regatta from the harbour wall in George Town, I understood why people fly in from all over the Bahamas for this week. Elizabeth Harbour, normally a quiet stretch of water, was packed with hundreds of boats, and the air carried the sound of reggae from a stage set up in the park. Thousands of people had arrived for the national championship of Bahamian sailing — a five-day event where traditional wooden sloops with towering masts race for the Prime Minister’s Cup. This article covers how to watch the regatta

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How to Join a Coral Restoration Dive in the Bahamas

Coral fragments grow 2–4 times faster in nurseries than on the natural reef — restoration diving accelerates recovery that would otherwise take decades. Under the surface off Green Turtle Cay, the reef should have been a graveyard. Instead, staghorn coral branches stretched toward the sun in thickets so dense they blocked the light. That difference is what a decade of active restoration looks like. The Perry Institute for Marine Science has planted over 15,000 corals across the Caribbean, and their long-term monitoring shows measurable increases in both coral cover and fish populations. This article walks you through how to

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A Beginner’s Guide to Lobster Diving Season in the Out Islands

A pod of dolphins cruised past our skiff as we anchored off a small cay in the Abacos. Michael was already in the water, mask down, scanning the sandy patches between coral heads for the telltale antennae of a spiny lobster. The Bahamas spiny lobster open season runs from August 1 to March 31 each year, and we had timed it right. This guide covers everything a beginner needs to know about lobster diving in the Out Islands — permits, gear, techniques, locations, and the rules that keep it sustainable. Spiny lobster season in the Bahamas runs August 1

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Freediving Lessons in the Bahamas for People Who’ve Never Held Their Breath

It sounds counterintuitive — traveling to a place famous for a 663-foot-deep underwater hole when you can barely hold your breath for 30 seconds. But Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island is actually one of the most beginner-friendly freediving spots in the Bahamas, with zero current, shore access, and year-round visibility that often exceeds 100 feet. Dean’s Blue Hole plunges 663 feet — the second-deepest saltwater blue hole in the world — yet beginners regularly reach 30 to 50 feet after a single course. This article covers everything you need to know about taking your first freediving lesson in

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How to Try Paddleboarding Through Mangrove Creeks

On Shroud Cay in the Exumas, the water is so still at slack tide that the only sound is a turtle surfacing for air. Then the tide turns, and the same creek that looked like a lagoon becomes a fast-moving channel. That shift is the whole trick to paddleboarding through mangrove creeks in the Bahamas — and why getting the timing right matters more than your balance. This article covers the best places to SUP through mangrove systems across the Bahamas, from the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park to the Abacos and Eleuthera. It’s written for anyone who

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Chasing the Green Flash at Sunset Across the Bahamas

I’ve spent a lot of evenings on Bahamas beaches, but the one that sticks with me most is the night we tried to catch the green flash. It lasts only a fleeting second or two — a sharp emerald wink right as the sun vanishes below the horizon. The green flash is an optical phenomenon caused by atmospheric refraction, and the Bahamas, with its clean ocean air and countless western-facing beaches, is one of the best places in the Caribbean to try and spot it. This article walks through what the green flash is, the conditions you need to

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How to Try Free Diving Instead of Scuba for the First Time

You’re floating face-down over a white sand bottom, the surface thirty feet above you, no tank strapped to your back, no regulator in your mouth — just one breath and the quiet hum of your own heartbeat. That’s the moment freediving separates itself from scuba. You swap complicated gear for a single skill: staying calm underwater on the air you already have. The Bahamas is the best place on earth to try it, largely because of Dean’s Blue Hole, which plunges 663 feet into limestone bedrock. This article covers how to go from zero breath-hold experience to your first

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