Things to do in the Bahamas

Nassau, the capital on New Providence, climbs from a cruise-ship harbour past pastel colonial buildings to Fort Fincastle and the Queen's Staircase, cut into limestone by hand. Junkanoo, the street parade of costumes, cowbells and drums held on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, is the country's great festival.

Grand Bahama, home to Freeport, has Lucayan National Park with its limestone caves and mangrove creeks, and the old settlement of West End at the western tip was a rum-running port during American Prohibition. Further south, Great Exuma and the Exuma Cays have sandbars, grottoes and swimming pigs, while Eleuthera is a long, thin island of pink-tinged beaches, the narrow Glass Window Bridge and a history of pineapple growing.

Conch is everywhere, eaten raw in a salad with lime and pepper, cracked and fried, or in fritters, with johnnycake and peas and rice on the side. Rum, guava duff and Friday-night fish fries finish a day by the sea. The coolest and driest months run from December to April, and hurricane season falls between June and November.