Shopping

Shopping hours in Freeport/Lucaya are generally Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm. However, in the International Bazaar, hours vary widely, with shops usually closing a bit earlier. Most places are open Monday through Saturday. Some begin business daily at 9:30am; others don't open until 10am, and closing time ranges from 5:30 to 6pm.

Port Lucaya Marketplace -- Port Lucaya and its Marketplace supplanted the International Bazaar in the mid-1990s, when it became clear that the future of merchandising on Grand Bahama Island had moved. Today Port Lucaya Marketplace on Seahorse Road rocks and rolls with a spankingly well-maintained physical plant that's set within a shopping, dining, and marina complex on 2.4 hectares (6 acres) of low-lying, seafronting land. Regular bouts of free entertainment, such as steel-drum bands and strolling musicians, as well as recorded music that plays throughout the evening hours, add to a festival atmosphere.

The complex emulates the 19th-century clapboard-sided construction style of the Old Bahamas, all within a short walk of the most cutting-edge and desirable hotel accommodations on Grand Bahama Island, including the Westin & Sheraton at Our Lucaya. It's also within a minute's walk of the island's only casino, the Isle of Capri. The development rose on the site of a former Bahamian straw market. Today, in addition to dozens of restaurants and upscale shops, the Market incorporates rows of brightly painted clapboard-sided huts out of which local merchants sell handicrafts and souvenirs.

The waterfront location is a distinct advantage. Lots of the business that fuels this place derives from the expensive yachts and motor craft that tie up at the marina here. Most of those watercraft are owned by residents of nearby Florida. You might get the sense that many of them just arrived from the U.S. mainland, disgorging their passengers out onto the docks that immediately flank the Marketplace.

International Bazaar -- The older and less glamorous of Grand Bahama Island's two main shopping venues, the International Bazaar has steadily declined since the collapse of the megaresort Crowne Plaza Hotel, immediately next door. Originally conceived as a warren of alleyways loaded with upscale, tax-free boutiques, and still plugging away valiantly at its location at East Mall Drive and East Sunrise Highway, it encompasses 4 hectares (10 acres) in the heart of Freeport. Frankly, today it's a pale shadow of what it was during its peak in the mid-1980s, when it boasted 130 purveyors of luxury goods, when the Marketplace at Port Lucaya was still a dream, and when busloads of cruise ship passengers would be unloaded in front of its gates at regular intervals. Today it's a bit tarnished and gives off a sense of dusty redolence in the streaming sunlight, with many shops permanently closed and with cracks in its masonry. Its aggressively touted role as an "international" venue seems a bit theme-driven and tired. Even worse, its rising competitor, the Port Lucaya Marketplace, is looking better every day.

Buses at the entrance of the complex aren't numbered, but those marked INTERNATIONAL BAZAAR will take you right to the gateway at the Torii Gate on West Sunrise Highway. The fare is $1 (55p). Visitors walk through this much-photographed gate, a Japanese symbol of welcome, into a miniature World's Fair setting (think of it as a kitschy and somewhat run-down version of Epcot). The bazaar blends architecture and cultures from some 25 countries, each re-created with cobblestones, narrow alleys, and a layout that evokes a theme-driven, somewhat dusty casbah in North Africa. In the approximately 34 shops that remain in business today, you might find something that is both unique and a bargain. You'll see African handicrafts, Chinese jade, British china, Swiss watches, Irish linens, and Colombian emeralds. Many of the enterprises represented here also maintain branches within the Port Lucaya Marketplace. Various sections evoke the architecture of the Ginza in Tokyo, with merchandise -- electronic goods, art objects, and luxury products -- from Asia. Other subdivisions evoke the Left Bank of Paris, various regions of India and Africa, Latin America, and Spain.

Some merchants claim their prices are 40% less than comparable costs in the United States, but don't count on that. If you're contemplating a big purchase, it's best to compare prices before you leave home. Most of the merchants can ship your purchases back home at relatively reasonable rates.

A straw market next door to the International Bazaar contains items with a special Bahamian touch -- colorful baskets, hats, handbags, and place mats, and an endless array of T-shirts -- some of which make worthwhile gifts or souvenirs from your trip. (Be aware that some items sold here are actually made in Asia, and expect goodly amounts of the tacky and tasteless as well.)