Island Living
It’s true that some things – okay, most things – cost more on the island than they do in the States. Grand Bahama imports a lot of its goods from the US, so household items here can be more expensive due to the added charges from shipping and import taxes. Still, don’t forget that the Bahamas is tax-free, so the price difference will hardly bankrupt you. All in all, most Grand Bahama residents will probably agree that the slightly higher cost of living is made up for by the wonderful quality of life on the island.
Also, unlike any of the other Bahamian islands, the Freeport (GBPA) area, which spans over 250 square miles, offers property tax exemptions for all foreigners. Additionally, those doing business in the GBPA area are also exempt from import duties directly associated with their businesses (cars, office furniture, technology items, etc.). They can build their first home duty-free as well, a feature that’s unique to Freeport.
The Freeport area also has privately-owned water and power, which is more efficient than faulty and expensive government-run utilities.
Life on Grand Bahama Island is governed largely by the rhythms of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Which is not to say that hurricanes are a daily occurrence – they are, in fact, not as frequent as you’d think – it’s only that, historically, Grand Bahamians have looked to the water to provide them with their needs. Until now, what with the beaches acting as the primary draw for tourists, it’s still the water that ensures the island’s prosperity. Indeed, the quickest-selling Grand Bahama Island real estate is that which is located along the water.
Life’s a beach here, but that doesn’t mean that everybody’s on a perpetual vacation. Though the pace may be a bit slower than the hectic rush we’re accustomed to, things still get done on the island – just don’t expect them to get it done in a New York minute!
Where (Else) to Go
Grand Bahama is home to a number of mostly coastal villages, towns and settlements strewn along its length like pearls on a sandy seabed. The most popular destination is, of course, Freeport/Lucaya, home to a great many luxury resorts and to the newly constructed transshipment port. A lot of the new Grand Bahama Island homes that were just built and are still being built are more or less located in and around its environs.
The capital, West End, which evolved back into a fishing village after the Jack Tar resort and marina closed shop in the ‘80s, is slowly waking up again as the $5 billion Ginn Sur Mer project takes shape. If you want to explore less frequented areas, however, there are still plenty of those tucked away here and there.
A nice, quiet day in the sun can be had in Paradise Cove in intriguingly named Deadman’s Reef. The identity of the dead man, if ever there was one, is lost to history, but archaeologists have recently unearthed a significant amount of artifacts that belong to the Lucayan Indians who once inhabited the island. You can go snorkeling and kayaking or you can go check out the dig and the wildlife in the still-unspoiled reef.
If you want to see what Grand Bahama was like before the advent of Wallace Groves and the Freeport boom, just go seven miles east of the International Bazaar. Eventually, sleek, modern Grand Bahama Island homes will give way to the clapboard and un-manicured gardens of Pinder’s Point. Home to the oldest Catholic parish in the island, this tranquil community of four towns offers a respite from all the excitement in Freeport.
Other Interesting Destinations
Grand Bahama Island has a lot of surprises to offer visitors and newly-transplanted residents. If you’re holed up in your new Grand Bahama Island home hankering for a bit of change, look beyond the glittering resorts to the many hidden treasures of the island. There are lots of other things to see on the island apart from the beach.
Well known only to a select group of people, Deep Water Cay near the eastern tip of Grand Bahama has quiet, pristine white beaches and bluer than blue waters. People don’t come here for the sand and surf, however, they come here in pursuit of fish – a fish, in fact – albula vulpes, commonly known as bonefish. Fishing enthusiasts consider it one of the most elusive and hardest-to-catch game fish in all the seven seas and they think Deep Water Cay is the best place to get one (for at least a few minutes, as its unsporting to actually kill it). The Deep Water Cay Club, which is the only place of accommodation in the area, is one of the most exclusive fishing resorts on earth. For the lucky few who can get them, there’s also a limited amount of waterfront properties that remains for sale in Deep Water Cay.
If the thought of hooking fish doesn’t appeal, then hop back to McLean’s Town, your last stop before Deep Water Cay. The easternmost settlement that’s reachable by road, the town looks unremarkably like a sleepy fishing village. Come back in Heroes’ Day in October, however, and the residents will teach you a thing or two about partying as they host, among other things, a Conch Cracking Contest, a beer sucking contest, a quadrille and a Junkanoo (a colorful, celebratory parade).
Not to be missed is the village of High Rock which has beautiful beaches and is the location of Bishop’s Place, a small inn and watering hole that serves great food. If you are lucky enough, you might even get to meet Bishop, a colorful character with an interesting past. Tell him Lanelle sent you and he might open up for conversation and share many stories of “the old days.”
The Practical Side: Facilities and Utilities on Grand Bahama
So now you’ve fallen in love with the place and decided that you’re definitely going to get yourself a Grand Bahama Island vacation home. But, wait, isn’t the Bahamas just a little bit, well, rustic? That is to say, can an individual household here actually run as smooth as a well-provisioned hotel? But of course.
True, the majority of the islands that comprise the Bahamas are still largely undeveloped (of the 700, only approximately 30 are even inhabited), but New Providence and Grand Bahama have been undergoing extensive development through the decades and their facilities and utilities aren’t something you need to worry about.
Grand Bahama has an abundance of fresh water, 7 million gallons of which are pumped daily by The Grand Bahama Utility Company, Ltd. There’s nothing else quite like it in the entire Caribbean. With an average of 58 inches of rain a year, the island’s ground aquifer is continuously and naturally replenished, and the system can in fact serve a population of around 250,000.
Bahama Island vacation homes don’t have to contend with electrical outages as well. The Grand Bahama Power Company has more than 800 miles of lines and generates, transmits and distributes electricity throughout the entire island.
Communications
As for communications services, the 100 year-old Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTC) provides high-speed, up-to-date service with digital switching networks throughout homes and businesses in the entire Bahamas. Most US cell services do operate on the island so there’s no need for switching services.
If you need a working phone line set up immediately, however, and the service isn’t included in your Bahama Island vacation home, you might run into a few delays as the BTC is currently undergoing improvements to its system. Still, this hardly means that you’ll be forced to remain incommunicado to the rest of the world.
Those who have cell phones that are on in the States can get reconnected to their service for a fee of $75. Rates during the day are 40 cents per minute, and 20 cents per minute at night. Those who don’t have mobiles can get one for $199, and it comes with minutes worth $45. The service is clear and uninterrupted; you’ll have no problems with it at all. Lanelle Philips Real Estate often offers clients phones for use on the island, but does request that the clients purchase their own minutes.
Cable Bahamas Ltd, a publicly held and traded company, is another telecom provider, though it specializes in supplying CoralWave broadband internet, cable TV channels and digital music services. Both commercial and residential clients can choose connection speeds that range from 512Kb/s to 1Gb/s.
There’s also a National Postal Service that delivers inter-island mail, as well as mail to all other countries. Boxes can be rented at reasonable rates from the same service. In addition, there are numerous international courier services available.
Transportation
Going to and from your Grand Bahama Island vacation home is as easy as pie. There are public buses with operating hours from 7 a.m. to sunset, with a regular route that goes from downtown Freeport to the two major shopping areas, Port Lucaya Marketplace and the International Bazaar. There are also services to West End and East End. If you want to drive yourself, you can take your pick of car rental companies. The Mail boat provides regular almost-daily services to and from Nassau and Grand Bahama, and national carrier Bahamasair flies to the country’s major islands.
There are also smaller private airlines that offer direct service to many of the out-islands, including Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay in Abaco, Bimini, North Eleuthera, Rock Sound and Governors Harbour in Eleuthera. Private charter services are also abundant. Jet service can be arranged out of South Florida, and many residents own their own planes as well.
Living on the Marina
The best and certainly most fashionable way to travel in the Caribbean is, of course, by boat. Imagine how convenient it would be to steer your vessel home and dock it right in your own Grand Bahama dock. That’s what you call traveling in style and arriving in style.
Grand Bahama Island dock properties offer this unmatchable feature, which is why they’re practically the most in demand real estate on the island. Picture yourself waking up in the morning, stepping onto your boat and enjoying an al fresco breakfast in the middle of the glittering waters of the Atlantic whilst watching the sun rise over Grand Bahama. Or deciding on impulse to go on a leisurely cruise and acting on it – all without having to drive to a marina. After which all you would have to do is to steer your boat back home to your Freeport or Lucaya dock, get off, and slip back into bed if you wanted to.
Grand Bahama docks come in a variety of sizes that will suit the needs of your particular vessel. Freeport docks and Lucaya docks can usually accommodate smaller sized boats starting at 36 to 40 feet. Not all Bahamas docks can fit super or mega-yachts (which usually measure upwards of 100 to 200 feet), but quite a few Grand Bahama Island dock properties can.
Some homes even have direct access to harbors that are designated Ports of Entry. So you can actually take your boat from Florida, for example, and sail straight to your home on Grand Bahama. This is one of the many advantages that living on the marina can bring. What’s more, Grand Bahama Island dock properties aren’t just convenient for boat-owners, they also offer escape in its sweetest form. You can literally run away to sea, with the means for it just sitting outside your own front or back door.
A Lot for Your Floating Home
The one thing that Grand Bahama will never run out of is a place to dock a boat. The island has been a port throughout most of its history. Once it gave refuge to privateers and bootleggers, but now it plays the admittedly less thrilling though definitely un-criminal role of harboring the sleek or stately floating homes of the affluent that we call yachts.
The island’s many marinas – Port Lucaya Marina and Marketplace, Lucayan Marina Village, Old Bahama Bay, Running Mon Marina and Resort, and the Ocean Reef Yacht Club – offer first-rate facilities and well-trained staffs who know just how to take care of these floating aristocrats. Owners keep their yachts berthed in Grand Bahama, confident that no harm will befall their pampered vessels. And those lucky enough to have Grand Bahama Island dock properties can keep an even closer eye on their babies.
All of the abovementioned marinas are located in the central town of Freeport/Lucaya, except for Old Bahama Bay which is in the town of West End. Now owned by the Grand Bahama Yacht Club, Port Lucaya Marina can accommodate yachts up to 190 feet long. Lucayan Marina Village combines old world charm with state-of-the-art facilities, and can service yachts from 30 to 150 feet long. The Running Mon Marina has 70 slips and is only ten minutes from the Grand Bahama International Airport. The Ocean Reef Marina has 50 docking slips available, and can hold vessels up to 120 feet long.
With more and more people owning boats these days, particularly in South Florida, dock space is at a premium. In South Florida, the supply of dock space has been diminishing and the prices have been steadily rising, making it more and more of a headache to find a berth for one’s boat. That certainly pales in comparison to the abundance of much more affordable dock space in the modern, state-of-the-art marinas on Grand Bahama, as well as to the availability of prime Grand Bahama Island dock properties. In fact, you can even buy a condo with dockage on Grand Bahama for less than what it would cost you to buy a dock alone in Florida.