Active Pursuits

One of the great sports centers of the world, Nassau and the islands that surround it are marvelous places for swimming, sunning, snorkeling, scuba diving, boating, water-skiing, and deep-sea fishing, as well as playing tennis and golf.

You can learn more about available activities by calling The Bahamas Sports Tourist Office (tel. 800/32-SPORT or 954/236-9292) from anywhere in the continental United States. Call Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, Eastern Standard Time (EST). Or write the center at 1200 South Pine Island Rd., Suite 750, Plantation, FL 33324.

Biking

A half-day bicycle tour with Bahamas Outdoors Ltd. (tel. 242/362-1574 or 242/457-0329; www.bahamasoutdoors.com) can take you on a 5km (3-mile) bike ride along some scenic forest and shoreline trails in the Coral Harbour area on the southwestern coast of New Providence, under the tutelage and with the ongoing commentary of long-time New Providence resident Carolyn Wardle, an expert in the ecology, bird life, and history of the region. The itinerary follows a series of easy trails, usually hard-packed earth, along seashores and through pink forests. Visited en route are sleepy Adelaide Village (settled by freed slaves in the 1830s) and views, with the naked eye or with binoculars, of local birds. Shorts and a T-shirt are the recommended attire, and tours rarely include more than a half-dozen participants at a time; most are morning events that rarely last for more than 4 hours each. The cost for the tour is around $70 (£37) per person. Some of the major hotels on Paradise Beach and Cable Beach rent bikes to their guests. You can bike along Cable Beach or along the beachfront at Paradise Island, but roads through downtown Nassau are too narrow and traffic is too congested to be genuinely pleasant or even particularly safe.

Boat Cruises

Cruises from the harbors around New Providence Island are offered by a number of operators, with trips ranging from daytime voyages for snorkeling, picnicking, sunning, and swimming, to sunset and moonlight cruises.

Barefoot Sailing Cruises, Bay Shore Marina, on East Bay Street (tel. 242/393-0820; www.barefootsailingcruises.com), runs the 41-foot Wind Dance, which leaves for all-day cruises from this dock, offering many sailing and snorkeling possibilities. This is your best bet if you're seeking a more romantic cruise and don't want 100 people aboard. The cruises usually stop at Rose Island, a charming, picture-perfect spot with an uncrowded beach and palm trees. You can also sail on a ketch, the 56-foot Riding High. Cruise options are plentiful, including a half-day of sailing, snorkeling, and exploring for $65 (£34) per person for a half-day and $99 (£52) for a full day. A 2-hour sunset cruise, departing between 5pm and 8pm two to three times a week, depending on the season, the weather forecast, and advance bookings, costs $55 (£29) per person.

Flying Cloud, Paradise Island West Dock (tel. 242/363-4430), is a twin-hulled sailing catamaran carrying 50 people on day and sunset trips. It's a good bet for people who want a more intimate cruise and shy away from the heavy volume carried aboard Majestic Tours catamarans . Snorkeling equipment is provided free. Monday to Saturday half-day charters cost $50 (£27) per person; a 2 1/2-hour sunset cruise goes for $60 (£32). Evening bookings are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A 5-hour cruise leaves on Sunday at 10am and costs $75 (£40) per person.

Majestic Tours Ltd., Hillside Manor (tel. 242/322-2606), will book 3-hour cruises on two of the biggest catamarans in the Atlantic, offering views of the water, sun, sand, and outlying reefs. This is the biggest and most professionally run of the cruise boats, and it's an affordable option, but we find that there are just too many other passengers aboard. An on-board cash bar keeps the drinks flowing. The Yellow Bird is suitable for up to 110 passengers. It departs from Prince George's Dock in downtown Nassau, just behind the tented location of the Straw Market; ask for the exact departure point when you make your reservation. The cost is $25 (£13) per adult, half-price for children under 10 years, and snorkeling equipment is $12 (£6.35) extra. The outfitter has also added another boat, the Robinson Crusoe, holding 200 passengers. On Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, there are cruises from 10am to 4:30pm, costing $50 (£27) for adults and half-price for children 10 and under. Sunset dinner cruises from 7 to 10pm on Tuesday and Friday cost $65 (£35) per adult, again half-price for children.

Fishing

May to August are the best months for the oceanic bonito and the blackfin tuna, June and July for blue marlin, and November through February for the wahoo found in reefy areas.

Arrangements can be made at any of the big hotels, but unfortunately, there's a hefty price tag. With equipment included for parties of between two and six, prices usually begin at around $500 (£265) for a half-day and from $1,000 (£530) for a full day's fishing.

One of the most reliable companies, Born Free Charters (tel. 242/393-4144) offers a fleet of three vessels, each between 11 and 14m (35-48 ft.) long, that can seat six comfortably; they can be rented for a half-day ($500-$700/£265-£371) or a full day ($1,000-$1,400/£530-£742). Each additional person is charged $50 (£27). Fishing choices are plentiful: You can troll for wahoo, tuna, and marlin in the deep sea, or cast in the shallows for snapper, grouper, and yellowtail. Anchoring and bottom-fishing are calmer options. We recommend this charter because Born Free offers so many types of fishing and gives you a lot of leeway regarding where you want to fish and how much time you want to spend.

Occasionally, boat owners will configure themselves and their boats as businesses for deep-sea fishing. Unless you're dealing with a genuinely experienced guide, your fishing trip may or may not be a success. John Pratt has emerged over the years as one of the most consistently reliable deep-sea fishermen. He maintains a 14m (45-ft.) fishing boat, making it available for full- or half-day deep-sea fishing excursions. It docks every night at the island's largest marina, the 150-slip Nassau Yacht Haven, on East Bay Street (tel. 242/393-8173 or 242/422-0364), where a member of the staff will direct you. Alternatively, you can call tel. 242/422-0364 to speak to Mr. Pratt directly. It takes about 20 minutes of boat travel to reach an offshore point where dolphin and wahoo may or may not be biting, depending on a raft of complicated seasonable factors. These trips need to be booked several weeks in advance.

Golf

Some of the best golfing in The Bahamas is found in Nassau and on nearby Paradise Island. Although "dormant," or storm-damaged courses, on the extreme western end of New Providence might one day be rejuvenated, at the time of this writing, the only functioning golf course on New Providence Island that was open to nonmembers was the Cable Beach Golf Course on West Bay Street, Cable Beach (tel. 242/327-1741). An intricately designed 18-hole, 6,453-yard, par-71 championship golf course, it benefited from a major redesign between 2000 and 2003. The makeover reshaped the fairways, repositioned putting greens, and introduced new hazards and water-lined holes throughout two-thirds of its layout. Better year-round playing conditions were ensured by introducing a salt-tolerant grass known as paspalum that is greener, firmer, and more upright, withstanding the salty breezes and tropical heat while providing a premium putting surface. The golf course's alterations were overseen by veteran designer and consultant Fred M. Settle, Jr., of International Golf Design, Inc.

Many of the players who tee off are guests of hotels on Cable Beach. Between November and April, greens fees cost $145 (£77) for guests of Cable Beach hotels, $180 (£95) for people staying anywhere else. In the off season (May-Oct), residents of the Cable Beach properties pay $95 (£50); people staying at other venues pay $120 (£64). Greens fees include the use of an electric golf cart.

During the lifetime of this edition, the Cable Beach course will gravitate into the orbit of Baha Mar Resorts Limited. As such, it will eventually benefit from massive amounts of capital available for additional improvements and reconfigurations. Along with rebuilding at the Cable Beach megaresort slated for completion in 2010, the golf course might become more Disney-esque and lavish. It's likely that work on the golf course won't begin until late 2008, and it will then remain closed for a full 2 years after that. Transformations will be massive and, in some cases, awe-inspiring. They'll include the addition of dozens of ponds and water traps. Until reconstruction begins, things are likely to remain unchanged from the description as noted here: in other words, a desirable, high-quality golf course that impresses but doesn't necessary blow a golfer's mind.

Horseback Riding

Windsor Equestrian Centre & Happy Trails Stables, Coral Harbour, on the southwest shore (tel. 242/362-1820; www.bahamahorse.com), offers a 90-minute horseback trail ride, which is limited to a maximum of eight riders at a time, for $110 (£58). The price includes free transportation to and from your hotel. Riders must weigh less than 91kg (200 lb.). The stables are signposted from the Nassau International Airport, which is 3km (2 miles) away. Children must be 12 or older, and reservations are required.

Snorkeling, Scuba Diving & Underwater Walks

There's great snorkeling off most of the beaches on New Providence, especially Love Beach. Most hotels and resorts will rent or loan guests snorkeling equipment. Several of the companies mentioned above under "Boat Cruises" also offer snorkel trips, as does Bahamas Divers, below.

Our favorite site for snorkeling is Goulding Cay, lying off the western tip of New Providence. Underwater you'll find a field of hard corals, especially the elegant elkhorn. The clear waters here and the shallow coral heads make it ideal for filmmakers. In fact, it's been featured in many films, ranging from a number of James Bond movies to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. More elkhorn coral is found to the south at Southwest Reef, which also has stunning star coral in water less than 2.4m (8 ft.) deep. To the north is Fish Hotel, which is not much on coral but is graced with large schools of fish, especially red snapper, jacks, and grunts.

There are more dive sites around New Providence than you can see in one visit, so we've included a few of our favorites. Shark Wall is the most intriguing, which is a diving excursion 16km (10 miles) off the coast; others include the Rose Island Reefs, the Southwest Reef, the Razorback, and Booby Rock Reef. Dive outfitters can also lead you to many old shipwrecks off the coast, along with caves and cliffs. Wrecks include Mahoney and Alcora, plus the wreck used in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Divers also explore the airplane propeller used in another Bond film, Thunderball. All dive outfitters feature one or more of these sites.

Bahamas Divers, East Bay Street (tel. 242/393-5644), has packages that include both a half-day of snorkeling at offshore reefs for $39 (£21) per person and a half-day scuba trip with experienced certified divers, for between $89 (£47) and $109 (£58), depending on the destination. Half-day excursions for certified divers to deeper outlying reefs, drop-offs, and blue holes can be arranged, usually for a fee of $89 (£47) for a two-tank dive and $55 (£29) for a one-tank dive. Novice divers sometimes sign up for a carefully supervised "resort course" which includes instruction with scuba equipment in a swimming pool, followed by a shallow shorefront dive, accompanied with an instructor, for a fee of $89 (£47) per person.

Participants receive free transportation from their hotel to the boats. Children must be 10 or older, and reservations are required, especially during the holiday season.

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas, Southwest Bay Street, South Ocean (tel. 242/362-4171; www.stuartcove.com), is about 10 minutes from top dive sites, including the coral reefs, wrecks, and an underwater airplane structure used in filming James Bond thrillers. For the island's most exciting underwater adventure, divers head to the wreck of the Caribe Breeze, depicted in the film Open Water. Here the staff feeds reef sharks some 15m (49 ft.) below the water; from a position of safety, divers in full scuba gear can witness the show. Steep sea walls and the Porpoise Pen Reefs (named for Flipper) are also on the diving agenda. A two-tank dive in the morning costs $99 (£52); an all-day program goes for $150 (£80). All prices for boat dives include tanks, weights, and belts. An open-water certification course starts at $950 (£504). Bring along two friends, and the price drops to $490 (£260) per person. Three-hour escorted boat snorkeling trips cost $55 (£29); children under 12 are included for $30 (£16) each. A special feature is a series of shark-dive experiences priced from $145 (£77). At Shark Arena, divers kneel while a dive master feeds the toothsome predators off a long pole. On the Shark Buoy dive at about 9m (30 ft.), sharks swim among the divers while the dive master feeds them.

The outfitter has generated much excitement with its introduction of yellow "submarines," actually jet bikes called Scenic Underwater Bubbles. An air-fed bubble covers your head as these self-contained and battery-powered jet bikes propel you through an underwater wonderland. The subs are popular with nondivers, and they're viewed as safe for kids as well (that is, those older than 12). An underwater armada is escorted along to view the reefs, all for a cost of $110 (£58). The whole experience, from pickup at your hotel or cruise ship to return, takes about 3 hours.