After several days at Piggyville, we were excited to head back to our favorite Cay so far – Green Turtle. We had tried to make reservations at Other Yacht Club, the marina associated with Pineapples Bar, because we heard a 40 knot storm might pass through on Monday, but they don’t take reservations. As we approached, we tried to call but there was no response on the radio. We headed into Black Sound anyway and tied up to the end of Other shore Club’s fuel dock. We were told they were out of fuel so the dockmaster Kevin was taking the day off, but Paul found Kevin still nearby.
“Do you want us to move to another part of the dock?” Paul asked him.
Kevin replied, “Do you need electric?”
“No.”
“Do you need water?”
“No.”
“You can stay there as long as you like!”
Sounded good to us! We took the short walk down the dirt road from Pineapples to town to explore a bit more. (Our reviews of the places we’ve gone in are in our guide, below).
At Sundowners that evening, we met up with Other Paul and Jamie. We had a few rounds of beers, talked loudly over Sax Man and the DJ, and inevitably I started dancing. Our friend from our previous visit, Mr. Z, was there with his wife – when she realized who we were, she exclaimed, “Oh, I recognized your husband on the street earlier today, but I thought he was a Conchy Joe!” After my inquisitive look, she explained that means a white Bahamian. I pulled Paul over to tell him his new nickname, which he loved. I then complained to Mrs. Z that Paul doesn’t dance, and she told him she’d teach him – she broke out some Zumba-like moves that he could mimic and it might have been the highlight (for me) of the whole Bahamas experience. Meanwhile, a lady who was bending and twisting every which way without spilling her wine, told me I was “too stiff” and tried to show me some moves. Who knew people were still having such a good time to “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
Over the next 2 days we became the Turtle Whispers. It turned out Paul and Jamie hadn’t heard about swimming with the turtles, nor had the other people we met on the Pineapples dock – Phil and Marjorie of Tanager and two guys John and Matt who were helping move each other’s boats – so we made multiple trips there so we could show everyone else how cool it was. If you want to have this adventure yourself, all the details are below.
We ended up staying in Green Turtle a night or two longer than originally planned. Paul, Jamie, Phil and Marjorie were the first sailors close to our age that we’d met since NC back in November, plus John and Matt were just cool guys, so it was wonderful to actually get to hang out with people for multiple days and not say goodbye within a few minutes or hours of meeting! The first night we were all in Green Turtle was the first time we’d ever put all our new cockpit cushions to use, with 6 people piled in and chatting. I wish I had taken a picture!
Another evening, Tanager hosted dinner, and we stayed up late laughing, contemplating, and story telling. We heard about a boat John and Matt worked on decades ago, but the job ended when someone else used the boat to move drugs. We heard about all the mistakes Phil made his first day on his boat – so many it took him and Marjorie more than an hour to tell the stories as we all laughed hysterically. It’s hard to convey how overdue we were to just hang out with friends. Most of them were heading back to the US soon, so after a few days we said our goodbyes and see-you-next-years. While everyone else was using the calm-as-can-be weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, we readied ourselves for our next remote island adventure.
If you’re thinking of exploring the Bahamas, we highly recommend Green Turtle Cay as a start. Here are our reviews and tips for checking it out.
Our Guide to Green Turtle Cay
How to Get to Green Turtle Cay:
Green Turtle is easy to get to from the US. If you’ve come to the Abacos by boat, you can anchor on the west side of the cay, possibly anchor in White Sound (though it’ll be tight with the moorings), take a mooring or a slip in either White Sound (the northern sound, the more touristy area) or Black Sound (the southern sound, close to town and the local hangouts).
If you’re not a boater, it’s still easy as you can fly into Great Abaco through the airports at either Marsh Harbour or Treasure Cay, then taxi and take a ferry to Green Turtle – the Treasure Cay airport is much closer to the ferry dock. Rather than rewrite the book on this, I’ll point to GTC’s excellent information here.
Coco Bay – Swim with the Turtles
One of the best parts of Green Turtle! If you need to tie up your dinghy, there is a dock next to the Brendal’s Dive Center dock. We generally adopt a don’t-feed-the-wildlife policy, but if you want to feed the turtles, stop in the Green Turtle Club convenience store (near the fuel pumps) for some squid. Take the narrow road to the right of the convenience store to walk a path behind the GTC. You should see signs for Coco Bay and/or Ocean beach – first sending you left, then a right. When you meet the paved road, turn left. Then take the first path on the right to walk to the docks (if you miss the path, you’ll soon see the water and can climb down over a short wall to get there instead). The first dock if you come to is public if you want to walk out on it.
The bottom is just sandy here, so try to avoid kicking it up to maintain visibility. Swim out in front of the docks and, unless they recently got a big feeding, the curious turtles should arrive within minutes. We saw up to 3 at a time. Watch your fingers and your toes! They seem to be unsure of the difference between digits and squid. They’ll sneak up behind you and pop out of the water and breathe in your face – they are aggressive little devils!
This is by far one of the most magical experiences of the Bahamas. We’ve seen a lot of sea turtles on the trip, but we can’t imagine there are many places where they are willing to interact with you like this.
In addition, we saw nurse sharks, lobster, barracuda, needle fish and others swimming around – fun to view from the dock.
Ocean Beach
This is the beach on the northeast side of Green Turtle. When we were there, the ocean was really pretty rough and the water was cloudy. But our friends said they had a great time body surfing on the beach, and some had luck spearfishing at the reef that was an easy swim from shore. Careful where you go in, as there are some rocks really close to the beach.
Bita Beach
This is the Atlantic side beach at the bay in the middle of Green Turtle. We didn’t get a chance to spend time here, but we were told it’s a favorite for snorkeling. Honestly, I’m not sure if the good snorkeling is in the actual bay, or at one of the Atlantic access points to the north of the bay. If someone knows, please let us know! Side note: nearer the southern end of the Atlantic-facing beaches our friends found lots of sand dollars in the shallow waters at low tide – the little flat sand dollars, while we saw only the fat “sea biscuit” variety elsewhere.
Green Turtle Club
GTC was the first marina we stayed at in the Bahamas and were pleasantly surprised to find out it’s less than $2/ft. It’s located in White Sound, which is the more resort-ish side of the island, though it’s far from town. A possibly wet dinghy ride or golf cart is need to get to town, unless you can find a ride from a local. Staff is insanely friendly. They have the biggest laundry room we saw on our trip and you can use it even if you’re not a guest there. They have a sweet old bar where the walls are covered in money, and behind the bar there is an air conditioned lounge with leather couches and really nice bathrooms, if you need somewhere to chill down on a hot day. There’s a dining room we didn’t try since we didn’t feel like meeting the dress code. If you’re not sleeping on a boat, there are rooms and homes for rent. Brendal’s Dive Center is right next door for scuba diving, tours and golf cart rentals, plus there is another golf cart rental and a realtor on site.
Bluff House
Bluff House is another White Sound marina at under $2/ft, with restaurant options on both the sound and sea sides. Tranquil Turtle bar is open until dinner time with an excellent beach facing the sea of Abaco, complete with hammocks and chairs, which made this our favorite beach, especially if we hit it on a late afternoon when no one else happened to be around. We didn’t eat at Ballyhoo Bar & Grill, which is open for dinner, but we did walk around the very nice pool and shop area. They also have rooms, cottages, and golf cart rentals.
Fresh Greens
If you’ve spent time outside the cities of the Bahamas, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of trying to buy half decent vegetables – many are frozen during transport and variety is seriously lacking. We were pretty excited to hear there was a place advertising “fresh greens.” They’re only open for a few hours 2 days a week – Saturday and Tuesday 10am – 1pm if I remember correctly. This hydroponic setup is on the road near Leeward Yacht Club on the Black Sound end of the cay. By dinghy, there is a small sandy patch to the right of Abaco Yacht Services where you can beach and walk to the road, turn left, and take a short walk to the greens. Various greens, peppers, and tomatoes are available. It is $8/lbs – a pound of lettuce fills a big bag, but I certainly wouldn’t want to pay that much for a pound of tomatoes.
Abaco Yacht Services
This Black Sound facility has a boat yard that was very busy when I went over to do laundry. The laundry room here is outside to those not staying here, though they do close about an hour before the marina office closes and there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers. The people I met here tell me there’s a laundry facility in town somewhere near Laure’s Kitchen that is slightly cheaper, but I haven’t yet seen it for myself.
Laure’s Kitchen
Asian food! This place is great for when you’ve tired of standard Bahamian and American fare, and the food is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, since we were there, they’ve announced that they’ve moved to Marsh Harbour, though their Facebook page mentions they still have a food van and deliveries in Green Turtle.
Robertha’s Faith Grocery
There are flyers around town advertising homemade ice cream, but once we reached this grocery store (across the street from Wrecking Tree) we were told the guy who makes the ice cream stopped making it but hasn’t taken down his signs! Feeling a bit disappointed and maybe even tricked, I instead bought coconut cake to console myself. A little boy standing in the store told me, “You’ll want to eat it right away cause it’s really good!” The kid was right!
Wrecking Tree
We’ll definitely be going back to this restaurant next year. This was the most flavorful fried grouper and conch we had. Nuff said.
Pineapples Bar / Other Yacht Club
Pineapples is down a dirt road from town – the bar is across the water from town while the docks are behd the bar in Black Sound. Nothin’ like having a 10 foot deep pool mere steps from the bar. During the day you can find both adults and kids hanging out and swimming here. They serve food at the bar (we didn’t try it but saw good reviews online). This place seems to quiet down at night, except for on nights when they have live music.
If you don’t require fancy accommodations, Other Yacht Club is your best deal at under $1/ft, with a friendly dockmaster and proximity to town. The restrooms may have cracks in the floor with grass coming through, but they have hot water showers, which is a luxury to us! They don’t take reservations, but just call on the radio when you’re approaching. The entrance to Black Sound is known for being shallow when the tide is down, and we saw as shallow as 5 feet inside the sound even when above mid-tide.
Sundowners
We love to go here for drinks. It overlooks the sea, with a great view of sunset. With live music or a DJ on the stage, this place attracts both locals and tourists. There is a pool table and other games to play. The food is so-so – it’s bar food and we’ve had pizzas that were both over- and under-cooked, and a friend ate some questionable conch. But we love this place anyway for the atmosphere. We’ve tried but failed multiple times to close this bar down… suffice if to say its open late.
2 Shorty’s Take Out
This food stand has the best prices in the Abacos with great quality. Long term residents love them for putting the most conch in their conch fritters. We met one of the owners (two sisters) who was super cool.
Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar
This is the home of the goombay smash, a most famous Bahamian cocktail first served by the current owner’s mother. We haven’t figured out the best time to hit this place – we’ve seen it with a line down the street and when it was nearly empty – so good luck. The original secret recipe is available by the glass or by the gallon, no joke! They have a nice looking dining room in the back part of the bar, but we didn’t try the food.
McIntosh Restaurant & Bakery
We didn’t go inside, but we had a slice of cake from here and it was to die for. We’ll definitely hit it up next time if that’s any representation of all their other food!
Papa Pete’s Bakery
I only ran in here looking for a loaf of bread and walked out with coconut bread, which was the only thing in their display cases at the time. However, they advertise some pretty good sounding food including an all-lobster night, and they list a lot of specials on their Facebook page.
Turtle Crawl Cafe
This place , located between 2 Shortys and Sundowners, was nice for a “fresh” cafe style salad, sandwich or wrap. They had recently opened when we arrived and still seemed to be dialing in their menu. They re-open in the evenings to serve dessert and the line for ice cream was out the door when we walked past.
Harvey’s Grill
The restaurant looked nice and we heard good things, but we haven’t made it in yet. They do advertise ice cream, which will be my reason to check it out next time.
Sid’s, Lowe’s and Curry’s Grocery Stores
The grocery stores have similar items and similar prices. People recommended Sid’s to us for variety and Curry’s for seafood. We didn’t find much difference between them and would recommend if you are doing a big grocery run here to spend some time comparing first (or travel to Marsh Harbour instead). They all seemed to be out of something – particular veggies, meats – at any given time. A lot of people time their shopping for mailboat day to get the best selection, but as one local said, “They always have the same old shit.” Marsh Harbor is only a day sail away with a much better selection quality and prices if you need a lot of groceries.
Plymouth Rock Liquors
The liquor store where you can eat breakfast! We didn’t get to experience the highly recommended morning meal, but you can sit at the bar for drinks and food throughout the day – or unlike in the USA you can take your drinks with you on a walk around town.
Bronze Sculpture Garden, old jail, Albert Lowe museum, library, shops
We scoped out the busts and sculptures to help us learn about Green Turtle Cay’s history, including the American colonists who came to the Bahamas because they were loyal to the British Crown.
We walked through the old jail just for fun. We didn’t get around to checking out the museum or library, and only briefly stopped in some other shops in town. Paul did find reasonably priced sunglasses in one gift shop and not-so-reasonably priced Cuban cigars in another (cigars were overpriced everywhere we checked). There was a home decor place and a hardware store that we didn’t go inside.
Island Roots Heritage Festival
We attended this festival in May with some friends. Near town they set up tents with food and craft vendors plus a stage for music and games. We got to see the Royal Bahamas police band perform, which was cool. We also attended a presentation about the early history of Green Turtle Cay that talked about the days of sponge and pineapple exports, the booming boat building business, the fashionable Victorian ladies who lived here, and the fact that people from Miami used to come to Green Turtle for provisions because it was the easier and closest place to go!
There is another festival called Cheeseburger in Paradise that occurs in July on a nearby unpopulated island. It looks like a ton of fun!
This list doesn’t capture every business available on Green Turtle – there are a few additional marinas, marine services, golf cart rentals, restaurants and shops. With plenty to explore and a much-sought-after islandy vibe, this is our top recommendation for anyone wanting to visit the Abacos.
