My husband and I recently went on a three day cruise to Nassau, Bahamas. Aboard the ship, the cruise director warned that there would be street after street of souvenir shops with pretty much the same thing. He stated there was not much variety and that the prices were too high for what you bought. He did however try to push the gold and jewelry. I realized later, that somehow the cruise ship must make some profit off of telling tourists where to shop. When we disembarked, we went out on our own and walked the streets close to the port. We were afraid to venture too far out, not knowing the island. We ran across some wonderful and unique shops that you might want to visit if you should ever go to Nassau, Bahamas.
The cruise director was right.There was row after row and street after street of the same sort of shop. It resembles what you will find on any boardwalk on any beach in America- gift shops with the same sorts of items in each one. Also, the items are overpriced. But we were determined that before we got back on the ship, we were going to purchase gifts for everyone in our family.
About the fourth shop we went in was a little shop called Panama Joe’s. It seemed to have a little different feel about it. We noticed that the shirts were of a better quality, especially the shirts with their name on them. They even had Bahama novelty shirts of a better quality. They were on sale for three shirts for $9! We purchased six to bring back home to friends. There was one problem though. They only had large and extra larges. My husband also wanted to purchase a cross while he was there, nothing gold or expensive, but something he could wear for all occasions. He found a cross and necklace made out of some sort of jade looking material, however it was grayish black. It was beautiful and he purchased two for $6 a piece.
We were told to stay away from the straw market as things were overpriced. The straw market is basically an open air large type flea market. It was as large as we all have been lead to believe and I learned later that there are over 500 merchants that sell their wares at the market. I am always hearing about the Straw market. I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of merchandise and the cost. We purchased two beautiful straw hats on sale for $15 each. We had priced these at the other shops we went to on the island and most were running around twenty dollars. They appeared to be a higher quality product. Many of the vendors make a large quantity of their products on site in the Straw market. They of course had straw baskets, mats, and almost anything else you can think of that is made of straw. They also have other items such as glasses, photo albums, t-shirts, wrap skirts and even jewelry. Their prices seemed to be a bit cheaper than what you would find at other shops on Bay Street. Also, you can bargain with the merchants there for a better price.
Tortuga Rum Factory. this was on a side street off of Bay Street close to the Straw market. Their rum cake was probably better than the rum cake I had in the Grand Caymans. You can literally get drunk just from a few pieces. Having made that mistake in the Caymans, I limited myself to two samples. They also offered a sample of the rum flavor of the day, which was Banana Rum. I passed on that one. They have many gifts you can purchase to bring home, but probably the best buy is their six ounce rum cake in a small hexagon box. It was only $6.95.
Probably the most important part is to advise people to avoid the Cruise Ship Welcome Center Festival Place shops. You will have to go through the shops to get to Bay street and Charlotte street. We found that most of the merchandise in the Festival Place was overpriced
The Bahamas is a wonderful place to go visit for a short vacation. Remember to only spend $200 as anything over that is taxable when you disembark when you return to the states.
Reference:
- Experience shopping there.
