We went to Breezes Bahamas for a weekend getaway; just three nights to get out of our heads. I highly recommend an all-inclusive resort when the aforementioned is your modus operandi. Not thinking an iota about money or even calculating a tip can be a real relief for those of us who tire of daily math. Don’t get me started on timezones. Every week I am confused at least once about what time it is, or whether my computer’s calendar is telling me the right time, or whether I just scheduled a meeting in Eastern Time instead of Central Standard… and so on. I digress.
The Breezes is about 10 minutes from the Nassau airport, and we arrived just in time to get in the water by midnight. When we told the desk clerk that that was our goal, she kindly sped up our checkin, allowing us to hit the beach in time to see the fireworks for Bahamanian Independence Day (July 10).
At first, Breezes put us in a room where the air conditioning didn’t work, but when we complained the next day, they moved us without issue. The air conditioning worked GREAT in our next room. We had an ocean view if you stood in the right place.
The food isn’t amazing, but it is unlimited and free. Anything you’re craving, from fried chicken to ice cream, is available. It won’t be the BEST ice cream or fried chicken, but that didn’t bother us too much over a short stay. The hot dogs at the pool bar are quite tasty. We ferried over to Atlantis to swim with dolphins one day and paid about $80 for a very simple lunch — it was the perfect reminder of why we chose an all-inclusive.
Be sure to call and make dinner reservations right away at 9am for dining in the evening; the nice restaurants book up quickly. If you get a busy signal, just hang up, send someone to get you a mimosa and keep retrying.
The drinks are awesome. We wish there had been a cocktail list, as we came up with most of our orders based on what we saw and overheard other guests requesting. I came around to enjoying something called Blue Balls, though I hated ordering it (gross), and kept hearing people ordering Yellow Birds and other things. My husband really liked the pina colada. Ask for top shelf liquor in your drink or you won’t get it. (Fair.)
The beach was seductively swimmable and great, but the best part of staying at the Breezes Bahamas was that everyone was so easy to talk with, from the staff to the other guests. Impromptu pool volleyball broke out frequently, and if you were sitting at one of the bars, you usually made new friends. The Piano Bar in particular was pretty special, and usually erupted in singalongs.
GET A MASSAGE. The masseuses we had, Rocky and Marcel, were fab. We’ve had massages just about everywhere we’ve been, and quite surprisingly, these ranked up there with SoulSpace in Florence, Italy — our favorite ever. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.
Lastly, someone will always be running around the resort taking photos of you and then they’ll attempt to sell them to you for $15 a pop in the gift shop. We thought that was needlessly steep, especially considering that they could be offering free digital copies stamped “Breezes Bahamas” as free advertising for themselves, but I don’t work for their marketing department and we had terrific service from Ms. Williams.
All in all, I would not say that the Breezes Bahamas is somewhere you have to go before you die, but we had a terrific time unplugging there. I wouldn’t recommend it for singles, and kids aren’t allowed. If you find a good deal and have somebody you like enough to endure a worn but well-loved resort with, and who won’t complain about the food, go for it. We’re glad we did.
Joshua
November 21, 2012
Atlantis is beettr BY FAR 100% beettr. it has a water park, clubs, restuarants,,,heck,,they even have clubs for the kids!..they have interactive dolphin activities, u can feed sharks(if ur into that sorta thing)..the rooms are breathtaking..its simply wonderful. its not cheaper than sandals though but the extra cash is definately worth it..only the best of the best stay at atlantis..you WONT be disappointed. even though atlantis may be a bit pricey..they have a bout 4 or 5 diff parts of the hotel n according to which part you want to stay in.you can get a cheaper price. there are some rooms that you can get at an affordable price so dont fret you will still have access to all the rides and clubs for free regardless of if you stay in a cheap room..or a top knotch suite. seriously though..sandals is a joke compared to atlantis. theres a suite in atlantis that only micheal jackson was allowed to stay in..he’d never stay at any other hotel. ive visited sandals atleast 5 times and atlantis atleast 16 times in my lifetime .trust me its awesome..never run out of things to do.
Andrew M
January 29, 2013
Thanks for your terrific review. My wife and I just came back from a stay there (Jan 22-26 2013), had read your review beforehand, and everything you said was spot-on (except the piano bar, which was dead-quiet, but that was fine with us!). We didn’t end up doing the massages, but Marcel came up to us a couple times – friendly guy, and when you ask him how he’s doing, he always says he’s “just smashing!”
Lots of people around the resort trying to get you to go jet-skiing, parasailing, buy cuban cigars. They all take no for an answer very happily. The Bahamian people are friendly and fun, not coercive and pushy. When the jetskiing guy asked my wife, she said ‘No thanks,’ and he gleefully said, “That’s how you say no to drugs, not jetskiing!” but merrily walked on his way.
We had the experience that the housekeeping was a bit careless: a couple small things went missing – tweezers, and a pen – but they might have been caught in the bedsheets, so we can’t really lay 100% blame on that one…
We definitely agree about coming with a cocktail list. But make sure you have the ingredients for the drinks too, because some of the drinks I named, they’d never heard of. Easy just to tell them what’s in it, and they make it though. Was sad that, at least when we went, they couldn’t make a Mojito.
Free wireless internet access, for techno-junkies like me, was also a plus.
Pool tables in the lounge had seen better days; one of them had a broken pocket, and another had a loose beam that rocked when the balls hit against it. Backgammon tables were awesome, and a good assortment of board games available too. On most nights, we could easily shoot pool or hang around the lounge without being distracted by the noise of the nightly entertainment. In fact, it was nice to be a part of it without being a part of it – just to take it in without having to be in the middle of it.
Other comments on the web make reference to a bleach smell in the rooms. They definitely use a fair bit of bleach to clean/sanitize the place, but it was easy enough to open the balcony doors to air the rooms out in a mattter of seconds. It’s not like the place was soaked in it or anything.
We’ve been back for three days, and we’re already jonesing for a trip back. I can definitely say that you and your husband probably had the exact same experience as me and my wife: a great vacation for a middle-of-the-road price. We will be back!
~play2win
May 11, 2013
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