Good family beach close to port?

After skipping several ports and having a very expensive beach day on St Thomas I’m looking for a low cost low key option as we make attempt #2 to stop at Nassau. Are there any free/cheap family beaches we can go to for a few hours? Or anything else good to do with a 6 year old that doesn’t cost a fortune?

Thanks!!

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it is a low-cost / free option:

When we went to Nassau on Divina in 2016, we took the water taxi to Paradise Island, explored the massive hotel with the aquarium, and then walked to Cabbage Beach - there is a path from Casino Drive. Here is a Google Maps link if this forum will let me post it:

https://goo.gl/maps/YkUheMwvzEL2

The path is to the right of the building in the centre of the picture.

We felt safe enough - the path seemed a bit sketchy - but the beach itself was packed, and also had a never-ending line of beach vendors.

We are returning to Nassau this August and we are looking at other options: possibly one of the day passes to a resort, or perhaps one of the private island excursions. However, if there are other free, public beach options other than Cabbage, I'm all ears as well!

Good luck! As I re-read your post I see that you may be on your cruise now so this message may be too late. If so, what did you end up doing?

Junkanoo is a short walk from the ship, harbor beach, nothing fancy, hit or miss.

Junkanoo Beach is free, an easy walk, and I saw plenty of families there when we were in port last month, my own included. You will get the usual approaches about renting a chair, buying an item, etc; but not nearly as bad as other beaches. It can get lievely depending on the crowd and how many ships are in port.

We have traveled to Bahamas a couple of different times, and have explored different areas....as far as Junkanoo Beach, ummm, we have done it, we wouldn't do it again, simply because it isn't for us. Not to say we are prestige or anything however my teen son and husband felt uncomfortable there, a little on the lower end, but it is free and the people are very nice, so you get what you get.

Another time, we explored Paradise Island on our own, we took the ferry next to the port, walked through Atlantis, and if you walk to the right of their 'private area' the beach there is free. The water is very choppy and waves are on the larger side, however we had a fantastic day there on our own. No one bothered or touched our belongings. At the end of the day, we walked through Atlantis again to their entrance and took a taxi back to the port, we traveled through the city....both the ferry and taxi are $4.00 per person.

I do remember doing a tour of the city, on our own....we are walkers so it was fine for us. We walked around, and had a couple of questions about the area, and the people that lived there so sweet and kind to give us information and answer questions about the history of Bahamas.

Good luck, and just remember, you can really have a lot of fun with the right people and don't have to spend a lot!

Before you make plans to "walk through and explore" Atlantis, do some more research. They have become more strict about where people who have not paid fees are able to walk.