Freeport
Travel on an MSC Caribbean and Antilles cruise to Freeport, the second-largest city in the Bahamas after Nassau, and surround yourself with white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. Once the capital of Grand Bahama until it was moved to West End in the 1950s, Freeport today has become a tourist centre par excellence with parks, nature reserves, water sports and its free-trade zone. Freeport’s main commercial district is centred on The Mall, located between Ranfurly Circus and Churchill Square. The cheerful Lucaya district by the port showcases beautiful beachfront hotels, fashionable clubs and pubs, carefully tended lawns and shrubbery, and tidy, candy-coloured shops and houses. Book an MSC excursion and tour the winding trails of Garden of the Groves, an inner-city botanical highlight dominated by a large fig tree. Take a guided walking tour or explore on your own and admire the lush vegetation, birds, cascading waterfalls, fountains and a picturesque chapel. Children will find space to play on the Fern Grove Trail, with leafy shade in between limestone boulders to either side. Or discover an “almost” secret paradise and keep an eye out for wildlife on a guided kayak tour through a 40-acre spread of mangroves, palm and pine trees at Lucayan National Park. The park, established in 1982, is home to caves that are part of the world’s most extended underwater limestone cave systems, with one cave entrance accessible by stairs. If you’re keen on shopping, Freeport is duty free and the perfect place for retail therapy. Don’t miss out on Freeport’s spectacular outdoor market at Port Lucaya Marketplace for its scores of boutiques, restaurants, cafés, Bahamian craft artisans and straw vendors. There’s something here for everyone.
