I have visited Old Bahama Bay twice this year and look forward to my next visit. I was there in late March and again in late October - four days each stay. Both time, the staff was helpful but unobtrusive. I got exactly the degree of assitance I sought out, and everyone was always pleasant.

ROOMS - The first time I stayed in an oceanview, and the second time in an oceanfront room. Each room was clean and well appointed. The king beds were extremely comfortable and the furnishings are comfortable and on the newer side, so in very good condition. Both of the rooms I stayed in had washer dryers which allowed me to do both of my trips with carry on luggage only. The bathrooms were very nice and had great water pressure and plenty of hot water. Lots of bath towels, plus an extra two beach towels per room. You can also get towels at the beach hut.

I would pick the oceanfront room again, just because I liked the lanai/terrace better than the oceanview balcony. The photos on the OBB website are accurate - the buildings are adorable and the rooms very nice.

ACTIVITIES - The beach cruiser bikes are in good condition and riding was safe in the area. The kayaks were great and I loved kayaking up and down the beachfront. Snorkel excursions to nearby shallow reefs were excellent - good variety of marine life, corals, sponges and other underwater wonders. The visibility is excellent. Snorkeling off the beach was not ideal, mostly because the water is so shallow over the sea grass areas. I recommend aqua shoes because there are some little urchins living in the seagrass areas and you do NOT want to step on one of those fellas (like I did my first trip! live and learn!).

NIGHTLIFE AND DINING - OBB is at the Western most tip of the island, and is wonderfully private and reomte. This is great if, like me, you are trying to get away from it all. To say it's not a late night party place is understaement to the extreme, but that has its own appeal. I used room service and Bonefish Folleys, but never made it to the lovely looking Aqua. Eating is not a rush - it is not fast food, but it is freash and very good.

PROPERTY - The landscaping was beautiful and well manicured. In fact, the Monday morning I was there I was sure the landscapers working on the property outnumber guests two to one!

RESORT STORE - I found the resort store very well stocked with a wide variety of necessities from gifts, clothes, hats, to water, soda, snacks lots of different kinds of sunscreen to choose from, which was nice.

I went both times by myself for quick recharge get-aways. It is safe and secure and it is my place of choice for such a trip.

Was the place perfect? No. The construction areas adjacent to the newest building is understandably dusty and on some days a bit noisy due to activity. But there is plenty of beach available so you can easily move to a more placid area. Sand gnats are an issue ONLY on days when then is no breeze, which is not terribly common, and at dusk. Use the OFF provided in the room and you'll be A-OK. To their credit, they are using enviro-friendly mosquito and sand gnat treatments. For that, a few little nibbles was not a big deal for me.

I really hope that if the new behemoth of a resort Ginn Sur Mer doesn't swlaoow OBB, which Ginn has purchased and is currently operating. I hope they leave it as Old Bahama Bay rather than folding it in the new high rise. The peace and quiet and mellow feel of the resort is so nice.

My husband and I honeymooned at Old Bahama Bay. We had a wonderful time! We were attracted to the hotel because of its seclusion and small size. We weren't looking for a large crowded hotel in the middle of the night life. Old Bahama Bay was exactly what we wanted! Our room was absolutely beautiful. Everything was top of the line and we had a beautiful view of the beach. The hotel offered free DVDs to check out, and we took advantage of this a few nights. Aqua was amazing for dinner, and we went there every night. Advice: Some of the meals and desserts (the ones on the menu...not on display) are prepared table side; order these, it's well worth it!!! We got an all inclusive package, which was wonderful since we could eat whatever we wanted without having to worry about how much it cost. In fact, the more expensive it was the better since it had already been paid for! Every day we went out on the hobie cat and went snorkeling. The water was beautiful and the weather was perfect everyday. We saw some bad reviews about the bugs, but we only had a problem one night. Other than that, it was fine. Definitely not worth missing out on Old Bahama Bay for.
Before we went we had read some bad reviews about the place and we were concerned before we went that it wouldn't be what we wanted. I have to say though, the people who left bad reviews just seem to be very picky people. Yes, the ride to the resort isn't very scenic...but that's what you get when you go to a secluded part of the island. There are a lot of people there who come in on their yachts. All of the people who we met though were very nice, and loved OBB as much as we did. Service is slow at the bar next to the beach, but who cares?!?! We certainly didn't have anywhere else to be! All of the staff were very very friendly to us. We highly recommend OBB to anyone looking to get away and relax.

I had my wedding at Old Bahama Bay resort on August 4th, 2007. It was a great experience and I would recommend this resort to everyone. Although the resort is a little on the pricey side, you get what you pay for. The rooms are all very nice with tile flooring, flat screen televisions, dvd units with free rentals at the front desk, etc. It actually is all the nice free stuff they give you that makes this resort definitely worth the money. There is a washer and dryer in every room, and they give you detergent to do your clothes for free. They give you a big bottle of water complimentary when you check in along with other great items that help you feel like you are getting what you paid for. Additionally, they give snorkeling equipment, rafts, and all sorts of other fun items for any hotel guest to use for free. We had a wedding party of 46 with about 35-38 of them staying at the property, and everyone that we talked to had a great time and thought the resort was lovely.

I also want to mention the wedding specifically if anyone is looking for a place to get married in the islands. My new wife and I thought everything went without a hitch. The food was good, the drinks were great, and the service was top notch. Specifically, I believe it was Ricardo (I think that was his name) who was extremely helpful during the actual reception. He was always in controll and made sure that the groom (me) and my wife were kept aware of any situations.

A special thanks must be given to Carmel Churchill and Ericka Hield who both made our stay and wedding a special thing. Carmel coordinated the initial setup for the wedding and was also there when we got married to make sure that everything ran properly. Ericka was our contact person for the final preparations and when we got to the resort. Both ladies were lovely and their relaxed attitude made our lives much easier and less stressful. Ericka was so helpful to us. She brought us into town to help us get our welcome baskets for our guests. She had great suggestions and also helped negotiate with the locals for our gift baskets. With my wife's ideas and preparation and Ericka's help and negotiations, we were able to make great gift baskets. We were able to leave the baskets up at the front desk so that our guests could grab them as they were checking in. Apparently Ericka and my wife did such a good job, that other guests at the resort wanted to buy the welcome bags.

You definitely get great service at this hotel, and the fact that they only do one wedding per weekend really helps out on your nerves. Also I have to mention that the beach is great and long and there are definitely no hustlers trying to make a quick buck. You do have to watch out for the "no see ums" bugs as they were biting alot. However, they give you some free skin so soft and off bug spray to help combat this problem. Also, I heard that August is the worst month for these bugs so I think that I experienced the prime "no see ems" period. Additionally, the walls are a little thin, as we had security called on us a few times due to a little "reminiscing" with some of our old friends. However, when security would come they were very cordial and just told us to keep it down a little bit. After the first night, we just decided to go enjoy our friends company outside in the pool and beach areas, where, there was a security guard patrolling, but we did not get harrassed.

Overall, I would definitely consider this resort a small luxury resort and gives great bang for your dollar. It is a little tucked away in the west end, but for our situation where we just wanted to hang out with our friends and family, it was perfect. We had a day of disaster at the Cove at Atlantis during our honeymoon, and realized how great that we had it at Old Bahama Bay, for 1/3 of the price we paid at the Cove.

If you have any questions about the property, I would be happy to answer them, as I am proud to help promote the wonderful Old Bahama Bay resort.

We just got back after a 5 night stay at the Old Bahama Bay. When we arrived at the airport and went through customs a driver was there waiting for us, he was very welcoming and friendly. The hotel offers complimentary transportation to and from the airport. It was about a 40 minute ride to resort, the drive getting there was not impressive. The West End of the island has been bulldozed over and very run down looking. When we arrived at the resort it looked like a construction zone, they are building multimillion dollar homes and digging out the waterways for the boat docks. We later found out that they are building a 4.7 billion dollar resort here on the West End just on the other side of this resort. But it’s going to take years before they are finished with it. There are not any structures built yet, so it looks like several years before they start building the resort.
The lobby was very small and nothing grand at all. They first gave us a room that was on the 2nd floor but we asked if they had something on the ground floor facing the ocean. We wanted to be able to walk from our back door to the beach. They were very accommodating and moved us to another room. Rooms were clean with travertine floors, with small kitchenettes (microwave, sink, and small refrigerator). Bathrooms are nice size with shower tub combo. Beds where comfortable and with down blend pillows. Maid service was good. The grounds themselves where not too impressive, the pool was dated along with the Wal-mart furniture; and the pool was not heated. Looks better in the pictures than in person. Didn’t have the feel of luxury anywhere around. We didn’t get a massage but we stopped in and looked at the spa or should I say lack of…it was located in a small room, environment was not something you would relax in.
We ate The Bonefish restaurant mostly and had lunch at Straw Hut once and food the food was very good. Service as a bit slow at Bonefish, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Prices were not too bad. We had snacks and ate that during the day and then had a nice dinner at night. However, that day that we got there we ate at Bonefish. I was asking the waitress where we could buy beer and wine at. She said that they opened a liquor store up just down the road about 10 minutes from the resort. She came right out and offered to make a run to the liquor store for us. So she went and picked us up a case of Kalik (Beer of the Bahamas) for $48 plus 3 bottles of wine for $6.50 a bottle. Great deal, because if you order beer at their restaurants or straw bar its $6.50 a bottle and I got a case for $2.00 a bottle.
As far as activities goes they offered free use of the kayaks, bikes and sail boat. We got on the sail boat and spent a lot of time on that the first day, we have never sailed before but it was really easy to learn and they showed us how to use the equipment. We went way out and I couldn’t believe how swallow the water was even way out. We saw a huge string ray that was about the size of the hood of a car. If you go out don’t go near the rocks or the island or you will get stuck in sand bars, so stay to the right of those. On the 2nd day of our visit we had planned to go snorkeling, but they cancelled the trip because the winds were too strong. So we ended up riding bikes around and looked at the million dollar homes and boats. Day 3 we had scheduled to go out on an island for about 4 hours and have lunch, but again it was too windy so they cancelled the trip. We rented a car and drove into Lucaya where all the shops and other resorts are at. We ate at a great Italian restaurant called La dolce vita. Food was excellent but service was horrible. Every single restaurant that we ate at charged a 15 gratuity to the bill. So I guess that is why they don’t care about the service because they know they are getting paid anyway. If they gave us better service they could have gotten a 20% tip, but never happened. We thought we had a bad waiter and a bad restaurant but just about everyone else was complaining about the service as well.
As far as the service at the resort it was good and didn’t have any complaints. They seemed to go out of their way to ensure that you got service. Also after reading some of the reviews about bug bites we didn’t encounter any bugs around. Well maybe it was because the wind was blowing 15 – 20 mph. One other thing to note was the wind in Lucaya was about 8 -10 mph. Also since we couldn’t go snorkeling we didn’t get to see the reefs but from what we heard from people that did it wasn’t that great because the hurricanes damaged them.
The resort also caters to boaters, they have several boat docks and they were full the whole time we were here. They also have use of the resort as well after a while you can spot the boaters.
We have visited a lot of resorts and this one will not be one that we will ever come back to again, as well as the island it’s self. We’re not that picky of people but we get much better service in our own city than we did in the Grand Bahamas, and we have been in much nicer places for a lot less. If you are looking for a service and luxurious resorts then I wouldn’t recommend coming here to this island.
But if you have no choice but to come to the Grand Bahamas, you have two options. If you want to be absolutely isolated from the rest of the island and about 45 minutes from shopping then this is the place. If you want to a little more action, shopping, and gambling then I would stay in Lucaya at one of the bigger named resorts, we check those out while in Lucaya and checked on out for a night before we left. Had some of the same issues that I spoke of above, however the rooms were nicer in Old Grand Bahamas Bay.