I’ve always wanted to visit Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas because of all the great reviews I’ve read on this forum and others.

I will preface this review by saying it’s a major pain in the ... getting there now with COVID testing requirements. You have to apply for a visa (https://travel.gov.bs ) to get to the Bahamas which was $60 per person if you’re staying over 4 days. To apply for the visa you have to upload a negative COVID test. And the test can’t be more than 72 hours before you arrive. We uploaded our tests and it was a bit stressful waiting for the visa to come back. We got it 2 days before we left for the trip but I read on TripAdvisor of many people that didn’t get it until 12 hours or so before their plane took off.

I read in several trip reports that you can go to Baha Mar in a taxi for $36 + tip for a family of 5 but I always like having a driver ready and if possible to stop at a grocery store for some snacks and drinks. I used Sandra’s Transportation - https://sandrastransportationbahamas.com which was great. She charged $100 for a round trip airport transfer for 5 people and charged $15 extra to stop at the grocery store or liquor store. The driver, Jade was awesome and stopped at the store. Food here is REALLY expensive. I just got some drinks (water, sodas, chips, etc) and it was expensive. I didn’t know about the VIP lounge and if I did I wouldn’t have stopped by the store).

We had to immediately take another COVID test before checking into our room. Doctor’s Hospital of Bahamas had set up near the Club Lounge and had many nurses giving tests. They did the nasal swab rapid antigen tests and then someone from the hotel checked us into our room. They didn’t give us the keys yet. They said we could wait in our room until the results came back. Within 30 minutes, I got the email that all tests were negative and someone brought us our room bracelets that served as room keys.

Then we had to get another test on Day 5. And luckily that test worked for our test to get back into the USA as they required one too. But if we stayed another day we would have had to get yet another COVID test.

My Globalist concierge, C.E. is fabulous. I asked her when I booked the room 6 weeks prior if she could request a connecting room as my wife and I (both Globalists) were traveling with our 3 children. We each booked a normal room. She booked a 2 Queen room and I booked a King bed room. People complain about their concierges but we are really lucky as we’ve had great luck with great concierges. Our other one K.W. was also great but retired. (We do Amazon gift cards at Christmas, etc and I think that really helps).

C.E. said since we were both Globalists (and booking separate bookings so we both got credit for the stays) she would request an upgrade. We both had Suite upgrade certificates in our account and were happy to use them for the stay but she proactively contacted the hotel and to our surprise they confirmed with C.E. that they would upgrade us to a 2 bedroom suite which was over 100% more expensive. This is all without having to use our certificates. Of course YMMV.

Our room was FABULOUS! The Reserve East Tower is really nice. The Club Lounge is closed but if you are staying in the Reserve Tower you are allowed access to a private VIP lounge in the back. They had private butlers that would help you. Ours was Vincent and he was AMAZING! Globalists get free unlimited breakfast in the 3 Tides Restaurant. I had a family of 5 and our bill was routinely around $200 or a bit under/over most mornings. Breakfast was from 8 AM to 11 AM.

But the VIP lounge also had an assortment of pastries, coffees, teas in the morning from 8 AM to 10 AM. And during the day you could get unlimited water or sodas. From 6 PM to 7 PM they had wine, champagne and small appetizers. They aren’t supposed to offer alcohol outside of those hours but Vincent was awesome. He is really the best! I tipped him every day although he never requested it and the first day he didn’t accept it until my son said he had to take it. The VIP lounge was a great score.

There was VAT taxes and tip included on all bills in the restaurants so things add up quick. I really wish they would just list the all in price on all the menus because when you see the actual bill it always felt like a bait and switch. Haha.

In some of the restaurants, they didn’t offer tap water and bottled water with the various fees was like $17 per bottle! Vincent would tell us to stop in the VIP lounge before dinner and he would give us all bottled waters to bring to dinner. The tap water there which I’m told is safe to drink tastes horrible so we didn’t drink it at all.

We got rooms #2446 and #2448 in the Reserve East Tower. The Reserve Tower is where the high rollers mostly stay. It was cool that one day while my wife was going to pick up lunch for the kids on the beach she went to go get some drinks in the VIP Lounge and she heard all this commotion and Rob Gronkowski was checking in. He was staying in the Reserve Tower and we ran into him and his entourage several times in the hotel and next to us on the beach.

The Club Lounge wasn’t open anyway and having access to the VIP Lounge was great. Plus you could take a shortcut to the pool by going to the 7th floor and then walking down the side stairs which took you to the pool area if you didn’t want to walk through the casino.

At check-in they said they didn’t offer daily maid service unless you requested it so we did request it and they cleaned our room daily. Our room was amazing. View was incredible, shower pressure was probably the best of any Hyatt we’ve been in. Bathroom products were Balmain Paris in the Reserve Tower. Our room had a living room and bedroom had a King bed and our kids room which had a separate entrance off the main entrance had 2 queen beds.

The only thing that I didn’t like was the bathroom door had see through glass in the toilet which is ok if you’re traveling just with your partner/spouse but not if you’re also traveling with kids.

We requested a fridge and microwave but we never used the microwave oven at all. We ate out for every meal. And let me tell you food here is really expensive. At least the maid left 8 bottles of water daily between the 2 rooms but we also used several more from the VIP Lounge daily.

As a Globalist, they also give you a voucher for 2 free alcohol drinks each night of your stay since the Club Lounge is closed. These were worth around $50 per day with various taxes/tips.
The hotel was fairly dead at the beginning of our stay. They said occupancy was around 25% but it looked empty. We had no problem at all with pool chairs or chairs on the beach. Employees ranged from really great to really bad.

I think COVID just has a bunch of employees depressed as there were a bunch that didn’t seem that friendly and since the 15% tax is automatically built in to EVERY bill, not many of the employees seem to offer great service. Vincent told me all the tips are pooled together and they share it. But one waiter actually asked us to put more as he said they didn’t get any of that. Vincent said that isn’t true.

I’d highly recommend going on the main website for the hotel - https://bahamar.com/culinary/ and making reservations ahead of time. It lists all the restaurants currently open. Many are closed and we didn’t know this before we arrived but many aren’t open every day. Plus add to the fact that many people from outside hotels come to eat here and it creates a situation where if you don’t book ahead of time, you probably won’t get in. Luckily we booked all our meals ahead of time. Better to book it and you can always cancel up until arrival time vs. not being able to get in.

We ate at Katsuya, Cleo, Swimming Pig, Filia, Pizza Lab, Stix, and some of the food trucks and also by the pool. The food outside by the pool I thought was HORRIBLE. Expensive and the quality of food was pretty bad. You’d see a bunch of tables with tons of left over food. Plus it took forever to get. We did that the first day and then never ordered outside again. I didn’t think the food trucks were good either. Instead we went into Stix or Pizza Lab and put in an order to go and brought it out by the pool. Much better quality.

Several of the restaurants had kids menus which helped save a bit but portions were fairly small. (And my kids eat adult sized portions). Katsuya, Cleo, Swimming Pig, Filia all had kids menus. The food in Katsuya, Filia and Cleo were great. The pizza at Pizza Lab I thought was good too. The same company owns Pizza Lab and Swimming Pig. Swimming Pig was easier to get into vs. the others as it was bigger.

They have some smoothie places outside but again things are expensive. I think 2 smoothies for my kids was around $38 with the various fees. But on the plus side, a pro-tip is to walk over to the Rosewood from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM they have free ice cream served in a mobile ice cream truck by the pool. They typically had 2 flavors. I’m not sure if this is an offered service for all members of the Bahamar. We saw people with wristbands at all 3 hotels (Rosewood, Grand Hyatt and SLS) all walking over.
There is a gate by the sidewalk and there is a sign that says pool area is for Rosewood guests only. No one ever hassled us but one day a guard standing at the gate saw our wristbands and asked if we were going over to the pool area. We said we were only going for the ice cream. She said we could go for ice cream but we had to walk around the lobby. Huh?? We said no thanks and just walked down from the beach and walked over there as the beach is open. That’s what I mean, some employees just seemed to be in a bad mood.

Another tip is to use your drink certificates at night. We used ours each night in the Jazz Bar. They have really fabulous live jazz music playing starting at 8 PM each night. Sometimes they were late and start at 8:30. They don’t take reservations and first come first served. Cheryl there was fabulous and always got us a good table each night. Typically after dinner we’d walk over a bit before they started and she would save a table for us. Then we’d go play billiards at the SLS lobby with the kids and then walk back over. No problem with kids sitting at the tables in the bar here and tons of little kids dancing to the music.

The beach area was FABULOUS. Cable Beach has pristine clear blue water and gentle waves due to the artificial reef area set up which break up the waves. We travel a LOT (typically 100+ days per year) and the kids said this was their favorite beach of all time. They had a bunch of free activities like paddle boarding, canoeing and floating little mini pools set up on the ocean.

They also had several pools including Dean’s Blue Hole where kids could jump off a cliff into the pool. Our kids really loved it. They don’t advertise it but they will give you sunscreen (Sun Bum 30 SPF) in little disposable plastic cups. The only place they really seemed to have it is at the main towel hut. So ask in the morning as by the afternoon they would run out. A bottle of sunscreen in the hotel was $30.

Our kids wanted to go to Atlantis. They aren’t selling passes for non-hotel guests so we actually had to get rooms at the Atlantis to access the park. I’m a Caesers Diamond member and a great perk that I’ve never taken advantage of and almost forgot was they give you up to 4 nights of “free” nights at Atlantis each year. You just pay the room taxes + hotel cleaning fee which came to $69.30 per night.

I have 3 kids. My youngest is 5 and when I called they said she would need a bracelet too and you could only have a maximum of 4 people per room. So I had to book 2 rooms and they don’t allow 1 night bookings. They have a minimum of 2 nights they said. So I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights to access the park. If you’re a Caeser’s Diamond member definitely take advantage of this. The # to call is 1-800-752-9711 to set up the booking.
We never stayed in the rooms at all. The park has some slides closed on alternating days so we went back 2 days to the park and the kids loved it. And it turns out if your kid is less than 48’ they don’t need a bracelet anyway so I ended up booking an extra room for 2 nights for nothing. We all could have accessed the park on 1 room.

Out of curiosity I asked several locals how they get by as food is so expensive. Several told me the minimum wage is only $5 / hour there. They said usually they pool money together with their families and buy food at Costco in Miami and ship it over.

We had a fabulous time and other than the hassles of having to get so many COVID tests and food/drink costs being so expensive, we’d go back. Globalist recognition was fabulous and I’d love to stay in the Reserve Tower again.
Although I think I prefer other places like Mexico where service is great, employees are friendlier and you don’t feel like you got raped on food costs. And amazing food at a bargain. I thought food was just ok quality here.

The only thing that was really cheap was the jitney (bus) that runs into town. You can take the #1 bus that runs every 15 minutes or so. It’s only $1 per person. We only did that one day but took taxis to Atlantis which were pricey around $40 each way.