things to absolutely love and things that you probably won't really like about nasa bahamas
in this video i'm sharing with you helpful travel tips so you know what to expect
on your beach vacation coming up
and if you're new here yo i'm christine lozada with where in the world is CL
and i make travel videos every week to help you get up get out and go travel
so if you like to travel consider subscribing i've spent a month on this island and there are
a lot of things i've learned about traveling here and i want to help you out so that you
can have the best trip possible so let's dive in with actually start positive something to load
i love how easy it is to travel around the bahamas i mean i spent a month in nassau and the ability
to be able to speak english albeit sometimes some of the bahamians have you know that very bohemian
accent that island accent on top of the english but they speak english you can pay in u.s dollars
everywhere it's one to one with the bohemian dollar but that makes it really easy so yes
you might pay with a u.s 20 bill and get changed back in a mix between bahamian dollars and u.s
dollars but it's so easy to be able to spend money there and it's also easy because in all of your
restaurant bills the 10 that or 10 tax plus the 15 gratuity is already added on there and that's
basically a standard just about everywhere that i went to and if you're curious what restaurants i'm
talking about you can go check out my restaurant video there's a lot of awesome spots on there
but that made it really easy i like to keep it real and i'll say that the thing i didn't love
is that bohemian culture isn't one of amazing customer service it doesn't mean i didn't get
good customer service there are some restaurants in which i had the best waiters and waitresses and
it was amazing but i would say the majority of the time it's just not part of bahamian
culture to be like amazing at customer service and so a lot of times i actually felt like i i
did something wrong or i offended somebody it's just the customer service is not that great but
they definitely expect you to tip on top of the 15 a lot of times especially in the resorts so that's
just something to be aware of it doesn't mean it's going to happen to you but that was my experience
uh from spending an entire month on the island let's talk about getting in and getting around
if you're coming into nassau airport super easy uh there's an entire area with taxi cabs lined up to
take you to wherever you're going most places that tourists are going to are usually a 15-minute ride
from the airport and it's around 25 to 30 dollars to get there so that's really easy the other thing
to know about getting in at the airport is depending on when you're traveling to nasa
you there might be pandemic rules so make sure you check my other video link in the description
below so you know what to expect about that i don't want you to be caught off guard and
another thing is if you're coming in via cruise if you're coming into the port uh you are coming
right into downtown nasa which if you are not there during um a cruise time there's it's
just completely empty like downtown nassau is a ghost town if there are no cruises in port it's
kind of wild by the way if you're getting some value out of this video cheers that like button
consider subscribing and make sure you check the description this is one of many videos about this
amazing island and if you have a helpful tip we're all a community added in the description below so
we can help each other out and let's move on getting around is one that as long as you're
okay with taking taxis and you're staying at a resort where the taxis are lined up you're fine
otherwise it's kind of a project like if you're traveling solo for an entire month
getting around is kind of a challenge so here are your options driving i love using the rental cars
link in the description below it's what i use for rentalcars.com for all my international travel
but it's helpful to know that in the bahamas you drive on the left side of the road so it's the
opposite if you're coming from the united states you're driving on the other side of the road
and there's not a lot of lights there's almost no lights on the island it's mainly roundabouts
so if you're both transitioning to driving on the left-hand side of the road and you're
not used to roundabouts that's just something to be aware of it took me i mean i don't know
i'm a pretty good driver in my opinion uh but it took a little bit of practice to get comfortable
driving in the bahamas plus you know local bahamians oh i drive fast and they want you
to get out of the way so just know that that's the environment you're getting into if you're driving
for me i paid uh six dollars a gallon the first time i filled up and six dollars and 30 cents a
gallon the second time i filled up i don't think it's meant to be this complicated but
i'm like having a really complicated time figuring out how to get gas you do not pump your own
gas they pump it for you it's significantly more of a confusing process than i expected
but that's what you can expect in terms of gas rates the other thing to know is parking can be a
challenge especially in downtown there's basically no meters so anyone who's working
at those places in downtown will go and park there and park there all day and so there's
there's no parking uh so most of the times i would park outside of downtown and walk in which
short distances super easy 10 15 20 minute walks no biggie when it's 96 degrees with 100 humidity
and it's hot outside then it feels a little bit longer than that but it's totally doable
so i would generally park outside of downtown and walk in anytime i was doing that speaking
of walking i looked into bike rentals i will link some of the places i was looking at to rent a bike
um there are definitely amazing triathletes on the island that i would see in the mornings going out
on their long bike rides but this is not the place with bike lanes so i opted out of riding
a bike i wanted to live to see another day um i also did a 12 hour walk inspired by colin o'brady
that's a whole other video link in the description below but the takeaway from that is walking is not
easy around the island or whether it's stray dogs or there's no sidewalks um it's not an easy place
that's very pedestrian friendly there are some areas with amazing walking paths for example
around baja mar and some areas of downtown but generally walking and biking is not easy i did
they had bird scooters i used a bird scooter i also thought that that would be the last day
i had on earth uh because of what i said about there not being sidewalks bahamians driving
pretty fast and even though there are you know pedestrian crosswalks and stuff
by no means do pedestrians or bikers or people on bird scooters have the right of way by any means
um and so a lot of cars are ripping around the corners of those roundabouts and
don't get clipped when you're on a scooter but bird scooters are available not a lot
of people use them but it is an option that is available to you oh and if you want to be sexy
chartering a plane is super fun check out my other video going to kamalamiki to a private
island that was super fun but you can charter a plane a round-trip flight for that one for example
in a nine-seater chartered plane cost us two thousand dollars for a round-trip flight
that's another fun way to get around but speaking of which let's keep it real and let's talk about
prices because that i don't know it depends on where you're traveling from if you're coming
from new york if you're coming from san francisco places that i have lived it's really no different
but relative prices in the bahamas are very expensive and so just something to be aware
of because we all got to know the price right to be able to plan accordingly for our
travel and to have a good trip and one thing to know is i talked about gas prices not being cheap
um the cab prices can be relatively inexpensive i guess it depends on how you look at it but those
you know 10 15 minute rides will cost you around 20 25 30 each way um but things like here let's
just give a few examples of the places i ate at if you want from bon vivants a flat white a hot
toddy and an empanada and again they're adding the 10 tax in the 15 gratuity that cost me 36 or how
about a small sparkling water a sushi roll and a plate of fish at the poop deck which yes i did eat
there because it's called the poop deck which is funny in my opinion they have two locations
by the way i was at the sandy port location that was 64. all in for that meal um so those are just
a couple examples of what things cost um i also posted um a tick tock about how a small random bag
of groceries that included some drink mixers uh some jam and some other random things cost me 160
things on the island it's an island it's expensive and so don't expect to come here for cheap travel
the bahamas was recently named the third most expensive country in the world so just know that
going in let's talk about some other helpful thing to know like the bugs the water and the weather
the bugs expect the bugs primarily mosquitoes i got eaten alive in the bahamas so anytime you are
outside make sure you got plenty of bug spray super important um not everyone gets eaten as
alive as i do so that's up to you um but bug spray was really helpful for me and you also
just find a smattering of other crazy kinds of bugs like these crazy spiders that i found
but in general there's plenty of bugs i mean it's an island so just expect that
let's talk about the water the water is one where oh well the bahamas water is beautiful and
amazing see clear at the bottom some of the most beautiful water in the world but i'm talking about
the water that you drink and i think you should be careful that's my opinion if you're traveling
from the united states i had issues with the water i was never drinking water out of the tap
but simply brushing my teeth with the water was making me sick for the first week i was there
so if you have a softer stomach i don't know how you say it if you have a sensitive stomach you
might consider brushing your teeth with bottled water make sure you always drink bottled water
and you can expect things like the resorts to have filtered water filtered ice etc
um that's just something to be aware of i was really sick
let's talk about the weather the weather in the bahamas i mean this is a tropical island
but there's wet season and dry season and you can basically always expect the weather to be
warmer between 70 and 90 degrees fahrenheit but hurricane season is really june through
november so it's that time frame with the most amount of potential hurricane activity
happening uh between august and october i was there for the entire month of august 2022
i didn't have any issues but it's one of those things where it's like you just never
know um it also means that prices during these times are relatively less expensive than during
peak times like during dry season so let's talk about that so during dry seasons i mean
the temperature can drop even lower like down to the 60s but not guaranteed um there are some
links in the description below if you want to look more into the weather but the dry season which is
cooler and less humid that's between december and may and that's also when you can expect to pay
more at the resorts if that's how you're staying in the bahamas another helpful thing to know about
the weather is that it can change pretty instantly i went paddling stand-up paddling just about every
single day i was in the bahamas and it can be a flat glass beautiful seat at the bottom one second
and it can be rocky and wavy and bringing you out to see the next so things can change very quickly
it can be sunny skies and all of a sudden i'm flying my drone and the weather comes
in and that happens real quick which by the way if you're curious about how to bring a
drone in i have a separate video about that on my drone youtube channel make
sure you check that out if you're interested but the weather can change super quickly both
in the air and also when you're on the water tell me in the comments below when you're
coming to nasa bahamas maybe i'll see you on the island cheers that like button if you had some
fun with me check the videos in the description below and i will see you in next adventure ciao