A museum inside Nassau Cruise Port showing award-winning Junkanoo costumes up close, opened with the rebuilt port in 2023. Junkanoo is the Bahamas' national festival, a street parade of costumes, goatskin drums, cowbells and horns held on Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
1 min walk · 100 mDaily incl. holidays 8 AM–4 PM; last entry 30 min before closing$15 adults, $10 children under 12
Not the same as the Educulture Junkanoo Museum, a separate museum off the port.
The pink Loyalist-era buildings of the House of Assembly, the Senate and the Supreme Court, with a 1905 marble statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Senate. Rawson Square faces it across Bay Street, right outside the port, with a bust of Sir Milo Butler, the first Bahamian Governor General.
2 min walk · 220 mFree (public square)
If the House of Assembly is sitting you can watch the debate from the gallery (tourism board).
Rawson Square is 'steps from The Port' — the natural meeting point after you walk off the pier.
Downtown Nassau's main shopping street, running along the harbour past the port, Rawson Square, the Straw Market and the Pompey Museum. High-end and boutique shops line it, and it is the route of the Boxing Day and New Year's Junkanoo parades.
4 min walk · 300 mFree
The Junkanoo parades rush along Bay Street in the early hours of Boxing Day (Dec 26) and New Year's Day (port).
Nassau's covered craft market on Bay Street, with hundreds of vendors selling straw hats and bags, wood carvings, conch-shell jewellery, T-shirts and souvenirs. It is one of the first stops for passengers walking off the ships.
5 min walk · 430 mDaily 8 AM–8 PM (varies by season)Free entry
Vendors expect you to bargain (tourism board).
Pay in cash, US or Bahamian dollars (tourism board).
A small museum on slavery and emancipation in the Bahamas, in Vendue House on Bay Street, one of Nassau's oldest surviving buildings. It is named after Pompey, an enslaved man who led a revolt on the Rolle plantation in Exuma; it reopened in 2014 after a 2011 fire.
6 min walk · 560 m
An older Government of The Bahamas listing gave Mon–Wed and Fri–Sat 9:30 AM–4:30 PM, Thu 9:30 AM–1 PM, closed Sun and holidays; that page and the AMMC site could not be loaded to confirm.
Opening not confirmed for 2026: check before you go.
The mother church of the Anglican Church in the Bahamas: the first church here was built in 1670, and the present Gothic limestone building is the fifth on the site. It became a cathedral in 1861, the year Nassau became a city.
9 min walk · 650 m
Sunday services 7 AM and 9 AM (port); visiting hours not published.
It is a working church with daily services (tourism board); dress and behave accordingly.
An interactive, self-guided museum of Nassau's Golden Age of Piracy (1690–1720), when the town was a pirate base. You walk through a moonlit dock scene and board a replica of the pirate ship Revenge; there is a pirate gift shop.
8 min walk · 640 mMon–Fri 9 AM–5 PM; Sat–Sun 9 AM–3 PM; call for holiday hours$14 adults, $7 children 4–17
The pink 1932 Georgian-colonial residence of the Governor General, on the hill above downtown with views over the harbour. The interior was redecorated by the Duchess of Windsor when the Duke of Windsor was governor in 1940–45.
10 min walk · 910 m
An official residence: AAA says neither the interior nor the grounds are open; see it from the gate.
Gregory's Arch, on the walk up, is 10 minutes from the port (port).
A small 1793 limestone fort shaped like a paddle steamer at the top of the Queen's Staircase, beside the 126-ft Water Tower built in 1928. Both were closed from March 2025 for a $3m restoration of the tower; in April 2026 the Works Minister said the tower work was complete but the site had not reopened.
15 min walk · 800 mDaily 8 AM–4 PM (when open)
Opening not confirmed for 2026: check before you go.
Climb the Queen's Staircase to reach the fort (tourism board).
The Water Tower's interior has been closed to the public for over 20 years; reopening its observation deck (with a new elevator) is the aim of the restoration — do not promise a climb.
The straw vendors who traded at the fort were moved to Fort Charlotte during the works.
landmark · Downtown (Bennet's Hill, above Elizabeth Ave)
Queen's Staircase
A staircase cut from solid limestone by enslaved people in the late 1700s, linking downtown Nassau with Fort Fincastle on the hill above. It was restored by the Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board in April 2024 and is one of Nassau's most visited sights.
13 min walk · 890 m
Third-party guides say it is open 24 hours with no charge. On 2026-10-27 the tourism board's Queen's Staircase page no longer shows a closure notice, but its 'Tour local forts' page still says 'The Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle are temporarily closed while renovation work is underway on the historic Water Tower'; no reopening date is published.
Opening not confirmed for 2026: check before you go.
The tourism board counts 64 steps today and the port counts 65 visible: paving has buried the bottom step(s).
You can come down from the Fort Fincastle side for a downhill walk (Caribbean Journal, July 2026).
A historic hotel on West Hill Street with its own chocolate factory, cigar company and one of the Caribbean's first five-star restaurants. The Graycliff Chocolatier runs factory tours and hands-on chocolate-making workshops.
12 min walk · 960 m
No official hours found (graycliff.com and its booking page could not be loaded).
World of Graycliff, a Graycliff shop selling its chocolates, wines and candy, is on the waterfront at the port (port).
The country's leading art museum, in Villa Doyle, an 1860s mansion built for the first Chief Justice, showing historic and contemporary Bahamian art. Outdoor sculptures and murals in the grounds are free to explore.
15 min walk · 1.2 kmTue–Sun 10 AM–5 PM; closed Mon and public holidays; last entry 4:30 PM$10 general admission; children under 12 free
Pedestrian entrance is on West Hill Street, opposite St. Francis Xavier Cathedral (NAGB).
No reservation needed; pay on site (NAGB).
The elevator was under maintenance when checked (NAGB).
A working rum distillery in the restored 18th-century Buena Vista Estate, set in two acres of gardens on the hill above downtown. Free tours cover the estate, the hand-bottling line and the barrel store, with a complimentary cocktail sample.
18 min walk · 1.4 kmDaily 10 AM–6 PM; closed Bahamian national holidaysFree (tour and complimentary cocktail sample)
You do not need to book through a tour or pay to get in, the distillery says — many paid tours include it.
Paid extras (mixology, guided tasting, self-bottling) are sold as the 'We B Learnin' Rum Academy' (tourism board).
The largest of Nassau's three forts, built from 1788 on a hill over the western end of the harbour, with a dry moat, a wooden bridge, dungeons, underground passages and 42 cannons. It has commanding views of the harbour.
30 min walk · 2.2 km
Tourism board: family-friendly tours are conducted throughout the day.
An 8-minute drive from the port (port); Ardastra Gardens and Arawak Cay are close by.
The Fort Fincastle straw vendors have been trading here since March 2025.
food · Under the Paradise Island bridges, east of downtown
Potter's Cay Dock
The working fishing dock under the Paradise Island bridges, lined with brightly painted stalls where vendors chop conch salad to order. It is the place locals send you for conch.
1.8 km · taxi
Watch your conch salad being made and ask a local which stall is their favourite.
A strip of Bahamian seafood restaurants on land built from harbour dredgings in 1969, serving conch salad, cracked conch, fried snapper, lobster and Sky Juice. It is a local hangout, especially at weekends.
30 min walk · 2.1 km
Each restaurant keeps its own hours.
A 10-minute drive or 30-minute walk from the port (port).
Junkanoo groups sometimes practise here before the Boxing Day and New Year parades (tourism board).
Photo: Charles Pluta from Augusta, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
garden · Chippingham (off West Bay St)
Ardastra Gardens & Wildlife Conservation Centre
Four acres of tropical gardens and a small zoo of over 135 animals, best known for its marching Caribbean flamingos, the national bird. It began as a nature preserve in the 1950s and now also rescues and rehabilitates wildlife.
35 min walk · 2.7 kmDaily 9:30 AM–4 PM; last entry 3 PM; closed Dec 25, Dec 26 and Jan 1$35 non-resident adults, $25 children 4–12, free 3 and under (VAT included)
Flamingo shows at 11 AM, 1:30 PM and 3 PM (Ardastra's own schedule; the port's page lists older times).
Tickets at the gate only; every visitor signs a waiver, which you can print and fill in beforehand (Ardastra).
Restrooms are not wheelchair accessible and paths are uneven (Ardastra).
Nassau's oldest surviving fort, built in 1741–42 at the eastern entrance to the harbour, which US Marines captured in 1776. It stands beside Montagu Beach and a waterfront park.
3.4 km · taxi
Opening not confirmed for 2026: check before you go.
landmark · Southwest New Providence (far from port)
Clifton Heritage National Park
A national park on the island's western tip with historic sites, hiking trails, beaches and BREEF's underwater sculpture garden (Ocean Atlas, Lady of the Coral). It is a full taxi ride from Nassau, so it needs most of a port day.
22.3 km · taxiDaily 8:30 AM–4:30 PM; last entry 4 PM$40 non-residents; children 3–11 $5; students 7–18 $10; seniors 65+ $5allow ~120 min
Walk-ins welcome for general tours; arrive 15 minutes before a tour (park).
