Bahamas Trip Recap + Hurricane Relief and How You Can Help

Last month, Richard & I visited the Abaco islands in the Bahamas to celebrate our 13-year wedding anniversary. I initially planned on writing a travel guide and giving you recommendations on where to stay, eat, play, etc. based on our experiences there, but as you all know, the Abaco islands were hit by Hurricane Dorian two weeks after our trip. The damage done by this storm has been absolutely devastating, leaving the Abacos in utter ruins. If you have watched any of the coverage on the news or social media, then you know how bad it is. Locals who have lived on the islands their entire lives are having to relocate because everything is gone. It will take YEARS to rebuild. Tragedy and devastating events tend to get our attention while they’re happening and in the days immediately following, but then we slowly start to move on and forget, while the people impacted by these events struggle to figure out how to rebuild their entire lives. I want to ask that you consider donating to the relief efforts – even if it is only $5…every little bit will help! I would recommend donating to the Global Empowerment Mission, which is who Bethenny Frankel has partnered with for her “BStrong” disaster relief initiative. I have been following along with their Bahamas coverage and relief efforts and they were among some of the first to respond and put feet on the ground in the Abacos. They are do AMAZING things. You can read more about their organization, what they have done thus far for the Bahamas, and provide your donation here.

Trip Recap

I am writing this trip recap with a heavy heart. Looking back on our photos makes me so sad for the Bahamas, but I am also glad we had the opportunity to visit the Abacos and create memories there. This was our first time visiting the Bahamas. A good friend and her family have traveled to the Abacos many times, and she inspired us to give it a go for our anniversary trip. Prior to planning this trip, I never realized just how big the Bahamas is. It is made up of over 700 islands! The Abacos are a group of islands and cays that are in the northern Bahamas, not far off the coast of southern Florida. We flew into Marsh Harbor (about a 2 hour flight from Charlotte), and then drove about 40 minutes to Treasure Cay. Treasure Cay is very small – I heard somewhere that only around 500 people live there full-time. There are mostly homes and condos in Treasure Cay, but there was one small, beachfront resort. Friends from our hometown actually own a condo on Treasure Cay, so we rented from them and it was perfect. The condo was on the marina side of the island, and the beach was right across the street. Everyone there rides around the island on golf carts, so that was our method of transportation while there…we rode that thing all over the place! The beach in Treasure Cay was so beautiful. The sand was like powder and the water was crystal clear – just what you envision for a tropical vacation!

The cool thing about the Abacos is that it is super easy to island hop and check out some of the other Cays. On our first full day there, we took a boat over to Guana Cay to visit the famous Nippers Beach Bar. This is the place to be on Guana! After a couple of frozen nippers and playing around on the beach, we went to the Orchid Bay Marina and had lunch at the most charming waterfront restaurant.

On the day of our anniversary, we kept it low-key and spent most of the day on the beach, then ended the day with a fabulous dinner. Since Treasure Cay is so small, there are only 5 or 6 restaurants on the whole island from which to choose!

We spent another day on an excursion that started out at No Name Cay to hang out with the swimming pigs. I was dying to do this and it was so wild to see in person! As soon as they saw our boat coming, the pigs were running to the water because they knew we would be feeding them. Once we ran out of bread, they chilled out and were just walking around with us like pets, lol! I have been worried about the pigs since the storm – last I checked, they were not sure yet if the pigs survived 🙁 (there are articles floating around saying the pigs are okay, but they are referencing the pigs in Exuma, which is an island in the Bahamas that was not impacted by the hurricane). After the pigs, we went over to Manjack Cay to see the stingrays. There were tons and some were huge! They would swim all around you and rub up against your legs – Richard and I were both weirded out by them…I preferred to watch them from the boat! We also saw a sea turtle while there and we were able to jump in and swim with him – that was my favorite part of the day!

At the end of the beach in Treasure Cay, there is a sandbar that forms every day. We went there on our last day and we were the only two people there. It was so pretty!

All in all, this was a much-needed vacation for both of us. It was a great, low-key place to get some R&R, with a bit of fun thrown in! I can only hope and pray that the beautiful Abaco islands will be rebuilt and come back stronger than ever.

If you are looking to plan a tropical vacation, be sure to check out my Turks & Caicos Travel Guide here on the blog. It is our absolute favorite vacation destination!