Two major resorts in Nassau are reopening their doors this week, The Bahamas.
The Rosewood Baha Mar and SLS Baha Mar resorts, both set on Nassau’s Cable Beach, will both be reopening on March 4, Caribbean Journal has confirmed.
The 299-room SLS Baha Mar is one of just two SLS hotels in the Caribbean, along with the newly-opened SLS Cancun.
Rosewood Baha Mar.
The 237-room Rosewood Baha Mar is one of just three open Rosewood resorts in the Caribbean, including Rosewood Mayakoba and Rosewood Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands. (A fourth, Rosewood Le Guanahani in St Barth, will likely make its debut later this year).
The relaunch of the two Nassau resorts will complete the reopening of the Baha Mar megaresort; the complex’s largest property, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, officially relaunched in December 2020.
SLS Baha Mar.
The vast majority of the property’s amenities and attractions are open, from its massive casino to the Jack Nicklaus-designed Royal Blue golf course.
The Bahamas is open for tourism; you can find more on the country’s travel protocols for visitors here.
The Baha Mar is providing testing for all travelers on site.
They call it the “Pearl of the Caribbean,” this tiny beach town on the eastern edge of St Maarten.
This is Oyster Pond, a pearl-shaped lagoon framed by green hills, a place long home to one of the island’s signature places to stay: the Oyster Bay Beach Resort.
Set out on the point, the Oyster Bay Beach Resort has for years been one of the most popular, beloved resorts in St Maarten: a hub of energy, a meeting place, a Mecca for the island’s travel aficionados.
And now the resort is back, amid St Maarten’s continued tourism reopening.
It’s another major launch for the hotel, which completed a dramatic transformation project that included a new look for the resort.
That’s along with a number of other upgrades, from a new poolscape to a new beachfront eatery on the way called Veranda Market and Bistro.
There’s a bright, crisp new aesthetic to the resort, and a design that further accentuates the spectacular, panoramic views you enjoy from just about anywhere on the property.
The blue-hued rooms are spacious and comfortable, particularly the suites, all of which come with kitchens and balconies.
And then there’s the centerpiece: the Mainsail Penthouse, a collection of penthouse units with rooftop living spaces that come with their own private pools.
The resort has also reopened with a host of industry-leading safety measures that have already earned a SafeSeal recognition.
Of course, what hasn’t changed is the resort’s primary focus: a well-maintained title as the “friendliest resort on the friendly island,” something the property takes very seriously.
It’s all part of what makes this resort one of the island’s gems.
For travel writers like me, popping open a laptop to work on a Caribbean beach is a familiar occupational hazard. But amid the pandemic, having to work while you’re in paradise seems like a small price to pay to escape the confines of the living rooms and home offices where we’ve been sequestered for the past year.
Our collective cabin fever hasn’t gone unnoticed. With low virus rates, lots of empty hotel rooms, and safety protocols now firmly in place — plus so many people working remotely, anyway — a number of Caribbean destinations and resorts have launched programs for people who want to spend an extended period of time in the islands.
As the pandemic stretches into its second year, here are the places in the Caribbean where you can spend at least a year mixing remote work and play, blissfully distant from your own backyard.
Anguilla.
Anguilla
Anguilla’s remote work program lets digital nomads, students, and families stay on-island for 90 days to one year, at a cost of $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for families. You’ll need proof of employment, a police background check, a passport and copy of your birth certificate, and proof of your relationship to any dependents tagging along.
Antigua and Barbuda
Set up shop in the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda for up to two years with a Nomad Digital Residence (NDR) visa. Applicants must be currently employed or self-employed and able to work away from home with the use of mobile technology. Application fees are 1,500.00 for singles, $2,000 for couples, and $3,000 for families of three or more.
Bahamas
BEATS, or the Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay program, allows digital nomads to alight in the islands of the Bahamas for up to a year for work and play. “At the end of a long day of meetings or classes, you will be rewarded with breathtaking sunsets, a relaxing walk on the beach, or fresh conch salad to feed your soul. It doesn’t get any better than that,” says Dionisio D’Aguilar, Bahamas Minister of Tourism & Aviation. Island-hopping is encouraged, and while remote workers will need to pay a fee of $1,025 for a BEATS permit, it’s discounted to $525 for college students. If you’re impatient to get going, Bahamas tourism officials promise a decision to approve (or deny) your application within 5 days — so get packing!
Since the release of the smash Broadway hit Hamilton, the Caribbean island of Nevis has been in the limelight, with visitors drawn to the Eastern Caribbean destination to see U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace in downtown Charlestown.
Hamilton was born in Nevis and lived there until age nine, before his legendary political career. He also spent a number of years living in St Croix, USVI.
Nevis remains the core of his Caribbean legacy.
But new research shows that another nearby island was also part of Hamilton’s childhood: St Eustatius, commonly known as Statia.
In his recent book Discovering Hamilton, historian Michael E. Newton showed that Hamilton had lived for a time on St Eustatius, which is about 35 miles from Nevis; although it was not clear how much time he had actually spent there.
Local historian Walter Hellebrand.
Local historian Walter Hellebrand, the director of the St Eustatius Monuments organization, began delving into the historical records on the island, and found James Hamilton, Alexander’s father, listed with his wife, Rachel Faucette, and two sons for the years 1763, 1764 and 1766.
“Unfortunately, my plans for further research in the Dutch National Archives in The Hague were frustrated by the outbreak of the covid pandemic, but of course it would be great to find out where exactly the Hamiltons lived here on St. Eustatius,” says Hellebrand.
Statia had a close relationship with the early United States; in fact, on Nov. 16, 1776, the island was the first to acknowledge American independence in saluting the American brig called the Andrew Doria.
“It was known that Alexander was born out of wedlock and Michael E. Newton found out that his father fled from British St. Kitts to Dutch St. Eustatius to escape his debtors. This may explain why he would rather not talk about his youth,” Hellebrand says. “Alexander’s mother had already served jail time on St. Croix (USVI) for an extramarital affair. On Dutch St. Eustatius, the left hand would not know what the right hand was about. Here, the couple even paraded as man and wife long before Rachel’s husband had secured a divorce from her. St. Eustatius was one of the wealthiest and busiest places in the eighteenth century and the Hamiltons would be attracted by its opportunities and anonymity.”
It’s potentially a boon for Statia, an island that’s just a short ferry ride from St Maarten.
Statia.
“Since our visit to St. Eustatius, we have been working behind the scenes with Walter Hellebrand when he made subsequent census discoveries indicating that the Hamilton family lived longer on St. Eustatius than previously thought,” said Sergio Villavicencio, vice president of the New York based Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society.
While Hamilton was “elusive” about his childhood (it’s believed he may have even lied about his birth date), he did share one happy memory with his children: the Jewish teacher who called on him to recite the Ten Commandments in Hebrew.
The island had a flourishing Jewish community at the time; today, Statia is home to one of the oldest extant synagogue structures in the Caribbean.
And now that the island has been open for tourism since the summer, more and more travelers are heading to the destination.
So how do you do it?
Our latest guide to Caribbean travel protocols explains.
All travelers to Grenada need to register online here, upload confirmation of an accommodation booking for a minimum of seven nights and receive the island’s “Pure Safe Travel Authorization Certificate.”
All travelers also need proof of a negative PCR test taken and received within 72 hours of their flight to Grenada.
When you arrive in Grenada, you’ll submit your entry paperwork, show a printed copy of your Safe Travel Authorization Certificate and proof of your negative test result.
Then you head to immigration, get your bags, go through customs and head directly to your hotel.
All travelers need to quarantine at their accommodation until at least the fifth day of their trip, when everyone needs to be tested again.
If your stay is under five days, you have to stay at your accommodation for the duration of your stay.
So where can you stay? The island’s hotels have broadly reopened, meaning you can stay at every kind of resort, from luxury options like Calabash and Silversands to authentic boutique hotels like True Blue and Laluna. (Here’s a full list of approved accommodations in Grenada.
The True Blue Bay resort.
On the island, as elsewhere in the Caribbean, you have to comply with mask mandates, practice social distancing, sanitize your hands frequently and complete contact tracing information.
