Home Cruise ports Nassau
Nassau Cruise Port: What Can You Walk To?
Nassau is the easiest walkable port in the Caribbean and the most crowded one, because up to six ships berth within a few hundred metres of the main shopping street.
- Can you walk it?
- Yes — walkable from the ship — yes
- Where ships dock
- Prince George Wharf, in the middle of downtown.
- Pier to town
- You are already there — the wharf exit puts you on Bay Street.
- Typical time ashore
- Typically 8am–5pm, often with several ships in at once.
Everything most passengers want is inside a one-mile square: Bay Street, the Straw Market, Parliament Square, the Queen's Staircase and a swimmable beach. That is also the problem — several thousand people walk the same four blocks at the same time. A route that goes uphill early, before the crowd works its way inland, gets you the same sights nearly alone.
Tell it how many hours you have ashore and it plans a route that fits — Nassau is already filled in.
What to see on foot in Nassau
Parliament Square
Pink Georgian buildings from the 1810s, built by Loyalists who arrived from the Carolinas after the American Revolution and copied what they had left.
The Queen's Staircase
65 steps cut by hand out of solid limestone in the 1790s, said to have taken enslaved labourers sixteen years. It is shaded, which matters more than it sounds.
Fort Fincastle
Shaped like a paddle-wheel steamer, built 1793 on the highest point in the town. Never fired a shot in anger.
The Straw Market
Genuinely Bahamian straw work sits alongside a great deal that is not. Ask where a piece was plaited.
Junkanoo Beach
A ten-minute walk west of the wharf, free, and the only decent beach you can reach on foot without a taxi.
Planning the day
Walk uphill to the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle first — it is the steepest part of the day and much better done before eleven. Come down through Parliament Square, do Bay Street and the Straw Market on the way back, and finish at Junkanoo Beach with an hour to spare.
What to watch out for
It is hot and there is little shade on Bay Street. Beach vendors and hair-braiders are persistent. Anything east of the bridge or south of the ridge is a taxi trip, not a walk.
All-aboard is not the departure time. It is usually 30 to 60 minutes earlier, and a ship waits only for its own excursions. Plan any route to be back at the pier with an hour in hand.
Questions about the Nassau port day
Can you walk from the Nassau cruise port to a beach?
Yes. Junkanoo Beach is about a ten-minute flat walk west along the waterfront from Prince George Wharf, and it is free. Cable Beach and Paradise Island both need a taxi.
Do you need an excursion in Nassau?
For the town, no — the historic sights are all within a mile of the ship and self-guided walking covers them comfortably. Excursions earn their money for swimming with pigs, Blue Lagoon and the Exuma day trips, none of which are walkable.
What is a self-guided walking tour?
A route you walk on your own schedule, with the commentary delivered to your phone instead of by a guide. There is no meeting point and no group — you start when you want, stop as long as you like at anything that interests you, and skip anything that does not.
How long are the tours?
You choose: 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, or three and more. The route is planned to fit the time, including how long you say you want to spend at each stop.
Does it work offline?
You need a connection to plan the tour and to stream the narration for each stop. Once a stop's audio has played it is cached by your browser, but plan for having data where you are walking.
Other ports
- Cozumel cruise port
- George Town cruise port
- Charlotte Amalie cruise port
- San Juan cruise port
- Philipsburg cruise port
- All 59 cruise port guides
A 24-hour pass is $6.95 and covers unlimited tours. Joining someone else’s is free.