Freeport, Grand Bahama

Our last stop was on Grand Bahama Island. We knew that this would be a smaller stop and without an excursion, it wouldn't be worth getting off the boat. We had planned on renting a car and traveling around the island ourselves. Krista and Michael were going to come with us, but since Krista wasn't feeling well, we were on our own little adventure for the day.

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

We secured a rental car through Avis. We had to call them to come pick us up from the cruise port and then they shuttled us to the airport to get the rental car. From there, it was a pretty easy drive to get to where we wanted to go, we just had to drive on the left side of the road. The roads are not marked very clearly but there also aren't many of them. We also knew that where we were headed was right off the main highway.

Once we got our car, we headed out to the Lucayan National Park. It's not very big, but they have a couple of underwater caves to look at, short trails through the mangroves and a beach that you have access to all of with a $5 entrance fee.

We started by walking to the see the two caves. We had been to Mexico recently and went swimming in the cenotes, which are similar to these two caves we saw. The caves here were inaccessible to swimmers though we did see some divers go into them {requires a permit}.

It was hard to get a picture with the lighting and the stuff sitting on top of the water...

After seeing the caves, we went through the mangrove trail to Gold Rock Beach. It was high tide when we got there, which is the opposite of the time you want to try and be there, but it was how timing worked out for us. Even though it was high tide, the beach was still very nice. The sand was white, it was relatively quiet, and there was plenty of space for us to sit on the sand and lounge. The biggest draw back to the day was that the sun was covered by lots of clouds!

Walking through the mangroves. Wishing I hadn't worn flip flops!

Gold Rock Beach at high tide - and lots of clouds.

We stayed for a bit and then ventured off to find some lunch on the island. We had to ask the man working at the national park where to go to find food. We did end up using Google Maps {hooray for free data plan!} to help us make sure we were on the right path because like I said, the roads are not clearly marked! The place we found was small but had a table to sit at right on the beach. They took credit cards, but as it turned out their machine was broken {second time this happened to us while on the islands}. If we had only had enough cash to cover a real meal & drinks it may have been that much more fabulous!

We stayed there a bit and then headed back to go to the beach. Low tide, which is when it is recommended you visit this beach, was supposed to be at 5:30 pm or so on this particular day. We needed to be back at the ship before then, but the later in the day it was, the lower the tide went. We sunbathed awhile and watched the beach reveal more and more as the tide lowered.

Gorgeous! Justin was trying to mess with the clams or crabs or 

whatever was making bubbles under the sand...

Gold Rock Beach at low{er} tide.

Playing on the sand bar.

It really was a beautiful beach when the water retreated. The water was shallow for yards and yards and you could walk along the sand the length of the whole beach. Coupled with the clear blue water, it was amazing. And, as you can see there was hardly anyone else there with us! One of the highlights of the trip for sure! We really would have loved to see what happened after a couple more hours, since we had to leave before the true low tide.

A side by side comparison of high tide & lower tide.

But, we did have to head back. We returned the car and got our shuttle back to the cruise port with plenty of time to have another mudslide by the pool. We definitely enjoyed our last port of call on the cruise!