Grand Bahama

Lucaya is the main visitor area, with a marketplace, a marina, beaches and most of the island's hotels. East along the coast, Lucayan National Park protects one of the longest known underwater cave systems in the world; two of its caves, Ben's Cave and Burial Mound Cave, are accessible to visitors by stairs and walkways, and a boardwalk through mangroves leads to Gold Rock Beach, a wide, shallow beach at low tide. The park is managed by the Bahamas National Trust.

West End, at the far western tip, is the island's oldest settlement and a centre for fishing and boating. Grand Bahama's proximity to Florida makes it popular for diving, including dives with reef sharks at the sites off the south coast, and for anglers.

Like Abaco, Grand Bahama was badly damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and parts of the island, especially the eastern settlements, were still rebuilding in the years that followed. Some hotels and attractions have reopened under new ownership or names. Confirm current details before you travel.

Freeport owes its existence to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement of 1955, which granted the American financier Wallace Groves land and tax concessions to build a free port and a planned city; the Grand Bahama Port Authority still administers the area. Nature is close to town: the Rand Nature Centre on its edge, the Garden of the Groves, and Peterson Cay National Park, a tiny cay with good snorkelling a short paddle off the south shore.