Two days after our wedding, we flew to the Bahamas to spend a week soaking up the sun and just enjoy our new status as husband and wife. It was one of the best trips we’ve ever taken (see all trips here), and I’m so glad we went away immediately after the wedding.
I have a ton of photos I’d love to share if you’d like to see…
OUTFIT ABOVE: LEATHER JACKET | SUNGLASSES | WHITE JEANS | METALLIC SNEAKERS | DYNAMITE SCARF — OLD (SIMILAR) | ALDO BAG — OLD (SIMILAR)
We split our honeymoon between two resorts: Atlantis & Sandals. Both were great experiences and both quite different so I’m breaking this post into two to share all the details about each place below + the excursion we did: swimming with the pigs.
THE ATLANTIS
WALMART TANK (SIMILAR) | NORDSTROM RUFFLE SHORTS (SIMILAR, SIMILAR ROMPER) | ZARA SLIDES (SIMILAR)
TUBE TOP | BLACK JEANS | SNEAKERS
Atlantis was a dream, and a massive property that we really enjoyed. We told them we were on our honeymoon and they upgraded us to a room on the highest floor with a gorgeous view of the harbor and ocean.
The property houses multiple hotels, and the Royal is the one you see most in photos with the bridge between the two, tall structures. We stayed at The Reef, which was walk-able to The Royal and The Cove (the hotel in between the two), but they also had a free shuttle service running every 10 minutes or so between them (which we would take advantage of at nighttime to go to dinner).
We spent our days exploring, enjoying the beaches and pools, and one day we went and did some of the water park slides and lazy river. We loved the aquarium at the Royal, and walked through it multiple times. There are also tons of restaurants to choose from and a great little outdoor spot called Marina Village that is attached to the Royal where you can find little shops, more budget-friendly restaurants and live music on patios.
The resort/property itself is stunning–absolutely gorgeous and so well maintained. Everything was pristine. There was never a shortage of beach or pool chairs and I loved that some of the pool loungers had shade visors on them! Additionally, there were hammocks scattered around the property and getting towels or snacks/drinks while outside was always very easy. Since the resort is so large, there is plenty to do and see if you were to stay for a week, and lots of options as far as pools and beach access goes (ie. it’s not just one pool and one beach).
I do want to note that Atlantis is not an all-inclusive, and it’s very expensive. We loved the food, the location and the amenities, but you are definitely paying for what you get. I will say, they make their drinks quite strong 😉 so that’s a plus!
SANDALS ROYAL BAHAMIAN
H&M ROMPER — OLD (SIMILAR TWO-PIECE SET) | SNEAKERS
SWIMSUIT TOP | BOTTOMS | F21 SARONG — OLD (SIMILAR) | ZARA SLIDES (SIMILAR) | SUNGLASSES
H&M OFF SHOULDER TOP (SIMILAR SLEEVELESS) | H&M SKIRT (SIMILAR) | STEVE MADDEN HEELS
DOLLARAMA HAT (SIMILAR) | ONE PIECE SWIMSUIT | NORDSTROM RUFFLE SHORTS (SIMILAR, SIMILAR ROMPER) | ZARA SLIDES (SIMILAR) | SUNGLASSES | F21 BAG (SIMILAR)
SWIMSUIT TOP | BOTTOMS | F21 SARONG — OLD (SIMILAR) | ZARA SLIDES (SIMILAR) | SUNGLASSES
DOLLARAMA HAT (SIMILAR) | F21 CROCHET COVER UP (SIMILAR)
Halfway through the week, we moved over to the Sandals Royal Bahamian resort, which was only about 10kms away, but is located on the mainland in Nassau. We took a taxi and had no problem getting there.
Sandals is a much smaller property, with one beach, six restaurants and two pools. The vibe is quite romantic (of course, it’s Sandals!), and it’s all couples. The resort is very walk-able and there are cute spots to fall upon like an area for high tea each day, a tucked away spot with a couple pool tables, self-serve ice cream, and an awesome wood oven pizza place that’s open between lunch and dinner for that perfect mid-day snack!
We absolutely loved the private island that is owned by Sandals as well. There was a boat that shuttled people back and forth every 30 minutes and the island housed a full restaurant, bar, tons of beach chairs, cabanas, towel service, in water-hammocks, a spa, snorkling and more. We spent a couple full days over there and then went over one evening in the dark for one of the dinner seatings. The island was definitely one of the highlights of this place and to be taken advantage of!
On the mainland, there were great restaurants to choose from, including a fine dining spot they opened on the pier each night. They have lights in the ocean floor just off the pier so we had the pleasure of watching fish and even stingrays swimming by as we enjoyed dinner–very cool.
As for activities, there are a bunch that are including like sailing, stand-up paddle boarding (I made Marco try it with me. Verdict: harder than it looks!), and more. Overall the resort was busy but there were lots of seats/loungers to accommodate people, and there was also beautiful weddings happening almost daily.
SWIMMING WITH THE PIGS
DOLLARAMA HAT (SIMILAR) | TUBE TOP | DIY SHORTS — OLD (SIMILAR)
DOLLARAMA HAT (SIMILAR) | SWIMSUIT TOP | OYSHO BOTTOMS (SIMILAR, SIMILAR)
If there is one excursion you must do in the Bahamas, it’s swimming with the pigs!
There are a few different places you can go to do this, but essentially these are wild boars that have inhabited various remote islands in the Bahamas and you can go and swim with them. It was so cool!
We booked our excursion through Harbor Safaris and it was awesome. Would highly recommend this once in a lifetime excursion, so I’m going to break down the day to give you an idea of what you get for the price.
The day started around 8am where we taxied to the marina to check in at the Harbor Safaris office. We then waited on the dock with eight other people to our two Captains to arrive. We boarded a medium sized speedboat, which was very comfortable for the 12 of us, and we were off!
The sun was shining, they were playing music on the boat and offered us all waters. It was a beautiful day on the water–but be sure to pack lots of SPF, a hat, towel, sunglasses, water and a sweater for the ride back because it does get a little chilly.
Our excursion took us to the Spanish Wells islands, and we chose that over Exuma because it was 80 kms away (about an hour and half boat ride) versus 200 kms away. The boat ride was long, not going to lie, so if you’re prone to seasickness (like me), I would highly suggest some non-drowsy Graval.
Once we arrived at the island, everyone hopped out of the boat (into the water) and waded up to shore. The pigs were around, laying underneath a little shelter, but not in the water yet. The pigs are kind of lazy, to be honest, they are relaxing and don’t want to get in the water without a little food coaxing 😉 Can you blame them? So our guides chopped up chicken hot dogs, and would put them on the end of skewers and convince the pigs to get into the water.
The reasoning of having them in the water is that they could potentially jump up on you if you’re on the sand and have food, and also if the food you’re feeling falls on the ground and then they ingest sand, it could eventually be fatal. Once our guides got a few pigs in the water, we could feed the pigs as much as we wanted with our skewers–it was cute, but also a little startling at first because the pigs are quite big! Over time though, you get used to them and it’s pretty fun/cute.
We also saw the babies, piglets! Running around the island. They were quick and didn’t want to be touched nor go in the water, but they were so sweet.
We spent about an hour and a half on the island, hanging out, exploring and feeding the pigs. There were no other tourists/tours there when we went which was awesome, and it was a very small and private island. The beach was quite nice and the water was gorgeous with a sandy bottom–easy to walk into and enjoy with the pigs. There were also chickens, ducks and roosters running around.
Once everyone had their fix, we all piled back on the boat and headed to a restaurant about 10 minutes away, on a pier. We had pre-selected our food and sat at a big table–it was delicious! I had the mahi mahi burger and it was amazing, and it was a really picturesque place. I didn’t snap and photos there because I was ready to pass out from the Gravol I took (ugh!) but food and coffee helped me come around 😉
From there, back on the boat, we took a 20 minute ride to a gorgeous sandbar in the middle of the ocean! This was such a highlight of the day–it was massive! Our Captains gave us beer and we spent a solid hour there just exploring. It was so big that the people we were with were so spread out, they looked tiny across the sandbar–it was very cool. It was also really interesting to see how the tide came in and covered the majority of the sandbar just within the hour that we were there. This is the perfect spot to swim or just sit in the water, chit chat, take photos and enjoy the sunshine. This part was possibly the highlight of the day–the pigs were cool, but this was just stunning and quite something to see.
Then, it was back on the boat where we were offered snacks and water, and it was time to make the trek back to the marina. We got back around 4:30pm, totally exhausted and happy. We were able to use the washrooms at the marina and grab a taxi back to our hotel, big smiles on our faces. It was a fantastic day.
So that wraps up our honeymoon! We had initially thought we might take our honeymoon in February instead of immediately after the wedding, but I’m so glad we were able to scoot away. Coming down from the high of such an amazing day and being someplace so relaxing without and timelines, checklists, contracts, to-dos, or anything to think about, plan or coordinate was the best feeling. Pure and utter relaxation!
Hope you girls enjoyed this post, if you made it this far, and I’ll be back with more from our wedding this week. xo
