Freeport/Nassau

[fireman's flame]

I have two questions maybe some of you can answer.

 

The first one is in regards to haggling. I don't know how to do it.

Do you determine a price you will pay and offer that and stick to it, or do you offer half of what you will pay and let them bargain you up, or what?

 

The other is about these van/taxi/shuttles, how they wait until full before going anywhere. How many people do they hold? There are 11 in our group. I wonder if we'll fill a taxi-van or would we spill over into another one and end up split up?

 

Oh and one other question, if we take a taxi-van from Port Freeport to the Int'l Bazaar, will there be taxi-vans there we can catch to Port Lucaya Marketplace afterwards?

 

Thanks!

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

In answer to your questions:

 

1) Bargaining is not part of American culture so we're not very good at it. Keep in mind that most Bahamians are not wealthy and they depend on the income from selling trinkets to you for their income. If you're buying inexpensive shot glasses, post cards, etc try to get a 10% reduction off the first price quoted. If you'e buying the 3 t-shirts for $10 why try to knock the vendor any lower? Certainly if you're buying something expensive you should try to end up with a 25% discount by perhaps beginning at 50% off. But there are not a whole lot of expensive items to be had. And bargaining is only for the Straw Markets and similar vendor booths; not for regular stores.

 

2) The vans I recall in Freeport hold the driver plus 10 passengers in a 2-3-3-3 seating arrangement. If you have 11 in your group the driver is going to try very hard to squeeze in that 11th person. At $5 per person, that's a great run for him. You won't need to wait for a van to fill up before leaving because your group will fill the van. Hopefully your group members are not very large. My group had 11 members when we were there last summer and we fit into one van.

 

3) If you're at the International Bazaar you could take a taxi to Port Lucaya but you'd save money by taking a local jitney. These are small busses. The fare is just $1 per person and the bus stop is adjacent the Bazaar; ask a shopkeeper for the exact location. The bus stop for the Lucaya area is about a block away from the Port Lucaya Marketplace and a 5-minute walk. If the destination is not marked, ask a driver which bus is heading to Port Lucaya. If you go from the cruise port to the Intl Bazaar first the taxi fare might be $4 per person rather than the above-discussed $5 per person; the Bazaar is about half-way between the cruise port and Port Lucaya.

 

Island layout:

 

**Cruise Port*******Downtown Freeport*******Port Lucaya

*****************International Bazaar*******Our Lucaya

 

 

BobK/Orlando

[fireman's flame]

Thank you very much for the helpful answers KingBob. Tshirts and trinket-y junk is generally what I buy. I wasn't sure about haggling over that kind of stuff.

 

We aren't large, and 5 of the group are kids, so we should fit in the taxi-vans fine.

 

I think the plan is to go from the ship to Int'l Bazaar to Port Lucaya Marketplace/Beach.

 

If I understand you rightly, we should take a taxi-van from ship to Int'l Bazaar at $4-5.00pp, then a jitney to PLM, then I assume we'll need to take a taxi-van back to the ship, right?

 

Thanks again, you've been very helpful.