I woke on the morning of 1st April, before it was getting light outside, and I could hear rain. Not just any old rain, a torrential downpour. The windows of our room were steamed up on the outside, so it must have been to do with the humidity, the lush tropical gardens below and the rain combined.

We went for a quick session at the gym. Well, it should have been longer but I think everyone had the same idea because of the rain. A quarter of an hour on the step machine gave me my daily fix before our buffet breakfast. It was still raining as we walked, but a lot less than earlier. We decided to try a different restaurant for breakfast so went for the Italian restaurant, Tesoro. We were greeted by a lovely lady who found us a nice table. We ordered a pot of tea then went to the buffet. A Buck’s Fizz was waiting for us when we returned, which was a nice gesture.

We ate and left fairly quickly, as I was feeling a bit sticky after going to the gym. I showered, slapped on the sun cream and headed for Cable Beach. It was quiet down there, which was nice. The only disturbance we had was one of the bar staff offering us a cocktail which was “drink of the day”. We laid in the morning sun, it was just perfect.

After a few dips in the beautiful azure waters, we dried off and went for lunch. Calico Cafe was somewhere we hadn’t tried before and it looked pretty good. I opted for a chicken, cheese and pesto panini which was lovely.

We then headed back to our room to get changed, after another quick shower. Next, it was time to contact Dominique to arrange for us to get a taxi to downtown Nassau. We met him at the front concierge where a taxi was waiting for us.

The taxi driver was great. He showed us different landmarks along the way and even slowed down to let me take photos.

He dropped us off at Nassau’s world famous Straw Market. This was established in the early 1940s and so-called because it was were straw items such as baskets and bowls were handmade. There was also a lot of stuff that was made in China, designed to attract buyers from the cruise liners who stop at Nassau everyday.

After we’d seen enough of the Straw Market we headed down Bay Street to suss out a few places. There were a lot of jewellery shops, make up shops and bars. Wherever we went, shop owners were trying to entice us in. We weren’t interested so just moved on.

https://www.nassauparadiseisland.com/experiences/straw-market

We stopped at a bar called Smugglers, the theme was obviously pirates. We had a quick drink there before leaving. We passed a Norman style church which stood out amongst the more colonial buildings around it. We popped inside to see the huge stained glass window at the other end: it was beautiful.

Back towards Bay Street we passed the high end stores before visiting a second bar, Pirate Republic, on Woodes Roger’s Walk. Service was slow in there – nobody was in any rush and all the draft beer was off. We decided on an IPA in a can, called Island Pirate Ale. That was the only drink we had in there and it took as long again to get the bill paid.

We then called our cab driver to arrange for him to collect us and take us back to Sandals. It really was Bahama time as he was late too. However, he took us to the area where there are lots of Fish Fry restaurants, and is very well known in Nassau for locals and visitors alike.

Back at Sandals, we headed to the beach for a chill out and dip in the water. Dominique came to say hello and we talked for a while. Our crabby friend came out to visit us again, digging more holes and throwing sand about.

Later in the evening we were ready to eat at Kimonos, a Japanese restaurant at the resort. Dominique collected us to walk is round and got us settled on a table for twelve. At one side there was a large stainless steel hot plate ready for the chef to cook our food on. The chef was from the Philippines and showed us great cooking skills with a few tricks along the way. He cooked our whole meal in front of us, whilst we started with shrimp gyozo that was pre-prepared. He cooked egg fried rice, chicken, beef, fish and prawns. It was a great experience and we hope to do it again before we leave.

As we were heading out on a day trip the day after, we didn’t hang around and instead headed back to our room.