At the southern tip of North Bimini, ramshackle Alice Town is all that many visitors ever see of the islands, since the major hotels are found here. You can see the whole town in an hour or two. The Bimini Big Game Resort & Marina, King's Highway, has some of the best duty-free liquor buys in town. If you're a souvenir collector, ask at the front office for T-shirts, sunglasses, coffee mugs, and Big Game hats.
As you're exploring the island, you may want to stop off at the Bimini Straw Market, located next door to the Bahamas Customs Building. You'll usually find two dozen vendors here. Strike up a conversation with some islanders, and perhaps pick up a souvenir.
If you're curious, drop into the little Bimini Museum (tel. 242/347-3038) on King's Highway, a sort of grab bag of mementos left behind by visiting celebrities. The museum owns the 1964 immigration card of Martin Luther King, Jr., a domino set left by frequent visitor Adam Clayton Powell (the former congressman from New York), and Ernest Hemingway's fishing log and vintage fishing films. Other island artifacts such as rum kegs are also exhibited. The location in a two-story 1920s house is a 4-minute walk from the seaplane ramp. Charging $2 (£1.05), the museum is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 9pm, Sunday noon to 9pm. Elementary-school-age children are admitted free.
The Queen's Highway runs up the western side of North Bimini, and as you head north along it, you'll find it lined with beautiful beachfront. King's Highway runs through the town and continues north. It's bordered by houses painted gold, lime, buttercup yellow, and pink that gleam in the bright sunshine.
At some point, you may notice the ruins of Bimini's first hotel, the Bimini Bay Rod and Gun Club, sitting unfinished on its own beach. Built in the early 1920s, it did a flourishing business until a hurricane wiped it out later in that decade. It was never rebuilt, though developers once made a never-finished attempt.
If you want to visit South Bimini, you can hire a taxi for about $18 (£9.55) to see the island's limited attractions, which, at least to our knowledge, do not include Ponce de León's legendary Fountain of Youth. There's not a lot to see, but you are likely to hear tall tales worth the cab fare. You can also stop off at some lovely, uncrowded beaches.
Fire Guts Hemingway's Favorite Bar -- A fire in January 2006 destroyed the Ernest Hemingway Museum and the Compleat Angler Bar, Bimini's number-one tourist attraction. The early-morning blaze leveled the wood structure in Alice Town and destroyed photographs and other Papa memorabilia. Hemingway made the Compleat Angler his headquarters on and off from 1935 to 1937 when he was fishing for marlin. He penned parts of To Have and Have Not on the site.
