Great Abaco
The Abacos island chain is a boating, fishing, and sailing paradise. But it’s not just the sea that attracts travelers from around the world.
Visa Requirements | Visa is not required. |
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Languages Spoken | English |
Currency Used | Bahamian |
The Abacos island chain is a boating, fishing, and sailing paradise. But it’s not just the sea that attracts travelers from around the world.
Visa Requirements | Visa is not required. |
---|---|
Languages Spoken | English |
Currency Used | Bahamian |
Just 165 miles off the coast of Florida, Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbour Marina is a classic Bahamian getaway that captures the true essence of the Out Island spirit.
Boat ride across the sea of Abaco!
Boat ride across the sea of Abaco!
Enjoy the shuttle ride around the town of Marsh Harbour for you to explore, gift shop, and purchase lunch at a restaurant of your choice!
Discover No-Name Cay and take an adventure with the swimming piggies.
Abaco’s first-known inhabitants were the peace-loving Lucayans, who began migrating north from Hispaniola and Cuba as early as 700 AD to escape the brutal, marauding Carib Indians. It’s believed that as many as 10,000 Lucayans lived in Abaco.
The Bahamian Lucayans survived by farming, fishing, and hunting. From the soil, they made Palmettoware, pottery tempered with pieces of shells. They fashioned tools and utensils from coral and conch shells, wove intricate straw baskets, and carved wooden spears, bowls, and even rudimentary chairs called duhos. From solid logs of native horseflesh and cedar, they hand-carved paddles and massive, flat-bottomed canoes.
In October 1492, Christopher Columbus, seeking a direct passage to Asia, landed on the shores of the southern Bahamas. After exploring the Bahamian archipelago for several weeks, Columbus and his Spanish crew sailed south, taking several Lucayans with them.
Later, when they discovered gold in Hispaniola and Cuba and had exhausted the local labor supply, the Spanish returned to the Bahamas and enslaved and carried off the Lucayans, forcing them to labor in gold mines, on plantations, and as pearl divers. Without immunity, many Lucayans succumbed to European diseases such as measles, smallpox, and yellow fever. Thousands were quite simply worked to death.
Within just five years, the entire Lucayan population in the Bahamas — estimated by the Spanish to be about 40,000 – had been wiped out.
Though a handful of Americans and Canadians began buying real estate in Abaco as early as the late 1930s, the region’s tourism industry did not begin in earnest until a decade later.
As travel resumed following World War II, visitors to the Bahamas began venturing beyond Nassau in greater numbers. Small resorts and fishing lodges began to spring up around Abaco. During the 1960s, the Treasure Cay Resort and Treasure Cay Airport were built.
When the Bahamas gained independence from England in 1973, Abaconians commemorated their Loyalist roots in several ways.
In 1976, The Albert Lowe Museum – the country’s first historical museum – was founded on Green Turtle Cay. Hope Town’s Wyannie Malone Museum followed soon after. In 1985, Hope Town residents commemorated the bicentennial of the Loyalist’s arrival with a reenactment, and in 1987, a Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden was established on Green Turtle Cay.
During the mid-1980s, Hope Town celebrated the bicentennial of its founding by Loyalist Wyannie Malone, and a Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden was dedicated to Green Turtle Cay. And more recently, Man-O-War introduced Sojer Day, to commemorate that island’s Loyalist beginnings.
The world’s third largest barrier reef, countless blue holes, thriving coral reefs, and near-forgotten shipwrecks offer endless thrills for experienced and first-time divers. With visibility of up to 200 ft and warm waters through most of the year, The Bahamas stands without much competition as a leading dive destination.
The state-of-the-art marina at Abaco Beach Resort has long served as the island’s most famous stage from which to launch fishing and pleasure boating excursions.
From the Sea of Abaco, a well-marked channel (7′ MLW), leads you into White Sound Harbour’s entrance to our 40-slip marina.
There's always something for you and your family to enjoy here at Conch Inn Resort & Marina.
Our Marina has everything you need for a comfortable stay. From dockage for small and large boats to recreation.
Welcome to Lighthouse Marina, at the base of the historic Elbow Reef Light House in picturesque Hope Town Harbour, Abaco.
Come to The Marsh Harbour Marina in the Abacos on beautiful Pelican Shores.
Schooner Bay is the premier location for island-hopping in the Bahamas – a country made up of nearly 700 islands for you to explore.