Paradise Island Vacation

For many of those who read my other traveling blogs, you know I booked this trip through cheap Caribbean for around $1,000 all-inclusive with air transportation and island transportation.

Nassau Airport

I ended up booking round trip flights with Delta. Unfortunately, the website didn’t have non stop flights, so I ended up with one stop each. My flight left from Philadelphia international airport at 1:00 pm and I flew into Atlanta. From Atlanta I had about a 3 hour lay over which worked out perfect for me. The terminal I needed to be turned out to be on the other side of the airport so I ended up having to take the subway to the concourse, and then I still had enough time to get some food before the flight. I left Atlanta around 6:40 pm and arrived at Nassau Airport around 8:30 pm. Once you get off the plane you notice it’s a smaller airport (when arriving), you literally just follow the hall to get out of the building. But before exiting you must fill out customs paper and then present that, and your passport to them. Then you can leave.

When leaving the Island, there is about seven different buildings all for different places. I ended up going into three different buildings. Turns out I just needed to go into the United States Building and not International. Once there you get your tickets go through security, and you get to go through customs while your there too! So, you don’t have to do it in the US. All in all it took about 20 mins for security AND customs together. I left Nassau at 1:00 pm arrived in Atlanta at 3:15 pm. Then I only had a one hour lay over (so we got Wendy’s), left Atlanta at 4:15 pm and arrived back in Philadelphia at 6:30 pm.

Majestic Tours

With the website I booked with, I added on round trip transportation for $50 a person. They met me at the airport loaded into the shuttle and made sure I got to my resort. The whole staff were very nice and helpful. The day before I left Paradise Island I met with the Majestic Tours lady at the resort who arranged for my airport pickup from the resort.

The Warwick on Paradise Island

I ended up staying at the Warwick on Paradise Island. Out of all the resorts this was one of my favorites. Great location, you can walk around to the shopping centers. It is also right on the harbor, so you can see Nassau Island. The resort itself had free activites everyday you could do. If you wanted to do an excursion, that cost money, they would book it for you through majestic tours. This hotel is All inclusive, food, alcohol, etc. On top of that they had FIVE restaurants to choose from to eat at. A buffet that was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner til 10 pm. Then they had Tings on a Stick, Asian, opened for dinner from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm. Italian place opened from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm. They also had a Pizzeria and Grill opened from 10:00 am-6:00 pm. Then they would reopen at 10:00 pm til 2:00 am for a late night menu. They also had a bar at the pool open all day and a bar inside open all day and night as well.

Cabbage Beach

If you go to the Majestic Tours lady, the day before and book the cabbage beach excursion its FREE. Also, they provided lunch at the beach with lounge chairs and umbrellas. Cabbage beach is one of the most beautiful beaches there.

Exuma Escapes

I ventured out on my own and booked an excursion through Exuma Escapes. To get to the excursion boarding area I literally just walked maybe 5 minutes from our resort to Margaritaville, and the boat was at their ferry terminal waiting.  The staff is wonderful and the crew and captain on the boat we took were wonderful as well. I paid $718 for both myself and one other person. We did an all-day trip, 100 miles off shore to Exuma Cays, both food and drinks included. We went to feed rock iguanas, feed and swim with pigs that are HUGE, and swam with the sharks. We also stopped on another island to have lunch with locals and participate in a Junkanoo Parade. Then stopped at a sand bar as well before we headed back.

Allens Cay

This was our first stop. Allens Cay is home to the iguanas. Once there we unloaded off the boat and walked to shore. Slowly the iguanas started to come out knowing they were going to get fed. There were super small ones, and super large ones. Iguanas with white X’s on their back are known to be slow.

Big Major Cay

Our second stop was Pig Beach Island. We unloaded off the boat again and not even three seconds later I heard an oink from a pig and then my butt was bit.

Needless to say, I stayed over with the baby piglet’s. However, I did enjoy seeing them and would do it all again. All of the other pigs were nice, and if you told them to sit they sat like dogs.

Guana Cay

We stopped at Guana Cay to have lunch with the locals at Scorpios. Here we also participated in the Junkanoo Parade, and road around in the back of pickups like the locals do.

Compass Cay

Compass Cay was the main reason I booked this excursion! I love sharks! So, I was stoked to be able to swim with sharks. This was the island I enjoyed the most! Once we arrived at the dock the crew said well you can either jump off the boat or go down the ladder from the other side of the dock. There were no sharks near the boat, so we walked over to the other side on the dock, then we jumped in. As I was swimming around with the sharks something was being thrown around me. Finally, I realized the local was chopping up fish and throwing the fish around me to start a feeding frenzy which was very cool to watch. Eventually we had to leave, and I was sad.

Sand Bar

Our last stop before going back to Paradise Island was a sand bar in the middle of the ocean. We jumped off the boat this time! There the waters were crystal clear still, white shells everywhere. I even found a sand dollar. The rest of the time we just swam around and enjoyed the last bit of our day.