Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Grand Bahama Highlights
Paddling a kayak through Lucayan National Park with
Grand Bahamas
Nature Tours
(
Click here
)
Vegging out on the powdery sands of
Lucaya Beach
(
Click here
)
shopping for duty-free diamonds, fancy french perfumes and local straw
work at the
Port Lucaya Marketplace
(opposite )
Snorkeling, paddle-boating and sunning at
Junkanoo Beach Club
(
Click
here
) on Taino Beach
Spending an afternoon swimming and wading at secluded
Gold Rock Beach
(
Click here
)
Splashing and playing with a pod of friendly dolphins with UNEXSO's fam-
ous
Dolphin Experience
(
Click here
)
Listening to Junkanoo bands rock out on weekends at
Count Basie Sq
(
Click here
), daiquiri in hand
Mixing up your very own perfume blend at the
Perfume Factory
(
Click
here
)
strolling past waterfalls, tropical birds, labyrinths and historical chapels at
Garden of the Groves
(opposite )
Bonefishing the vodka-clear shallows of the
East End
(
Click here
)
HISTORY
Juan Ponce de León visited Grand Bahama in 1513 while searching for the Fountain of
Youth, and pirates marauded their way around the island during the 17th and 18th centur-
ies. The islanders benefited from the pirates' spoils, and briefly from acting as a supply
depot for the Confederacy during the US Civil War. Another prosperous time came when
Grand Bahama acted as a staging post for rumrunners during Prohibition.
For many decades the islanders then lived meagerly from the proceeds of lumbering,
fishing and diving for sponges, until the 1950s when American Wallace Groves and Brit
Sir Charles Hayward developed the area. This turned a vast, uninhabited area into a town
known as Freeport, complete with an airport and a port with an oil- bunkering storage com-
plex that would prove a bonanza for the Bahamas. (Oil is still purchased, stored and resold
to the US at a handsome profit.)
The British crown then granted permission for these men to buy and develop a further
150,000 acres of the island's middle section, which led to the destruction of the remaining
West Indian and British architecture. Initial plans for tourism floundered, and Freeport was
then (optimistically) promoted as an offshore financial and high-technology industrial cen-
ter.
The city is still overseen by the Grand Bahama Port Authority, which maintains strict
zoning laws and governs which cars can drive in which areas, depending on their tax status.
