A Perfect Day on Paradise Island: Our Suggested Golf Cart Itinerary

There’s a version of Paradise Island that most visitors never experience.

It’s not the one you find inside the resort. It’s not the pool, the casino, or the waterslide. It’s the version that exists the moment you step outside the gates, turn down a road you haven’t been down before, and realize that this island — just a few kilometres long, surrounded by some of the most beautiful water in the world — has been quietly waiting for you to pay attention to it.

The best way to have that experience is to spend a full day exploring by golf cart.

No taxi schedules. No resort shuttles. No guided tour with seventeen other people following a flag. Just you, the open road, and an island that reveals something new around every turn.

We’ve driven these roads more times than we can count. What follows is our honest, local recommendation for how to spend a perfect day on Paradise Island — hour by hour, from the moment the sun rises to the moment it sets.

Before You Begin: Getting Your Cart

The best mornings start the night before. Reserve your golf cart in advance — either by calling us, sending a message, or filling out our online reservation form — so that when you wake up, your cart is already waiting at your door.

We deliver to hotels, villas, Airbnbs, and private residences across Paradise Island. By the time you’re ready for your first coffee, your cart will be outside, fully charged, cleaned, and ready to go.

No queues. No rental counter. No waiting.

6:30 AM — Sunrise at the Cloisters

Start early. The island belongs to you before the crowds arrive.

The Versailles Gardens and Cloisters on the grounds of the One&Only Ocean Club are, in our honest opinion, the single most beautiful place on Paradise Island to watch the sun come up. A 14th-century French stone cloister transplanted to the Bahamas, surrounded by terraced tropical gardens and looking directly across Nassau Harbour — the light at sunrise here is unlike anything else on the island.

The gardens are accessible in the early morning and the atmosphere at this hour is completely serene. Stone pathways, bougainvillea in every direction, classical sculptures emerging from the warm golden light as the sun rises over Nassau.

Spend 30 to 45 minutes here. Walk slowly. Take photographs. Breathe.

Cart tip: Park along Paradise Island Drive just outside the One&Only Ocean Club entrance. The walk to the gardens takes less than five minutes.

7:30 AM — Breakfast in Nassau

Cross the bridge before the traffic builds.

The Paradise Island Bridge at this hour is almost empty — the morning commute hasn’t started, the cruise ship passengers are still at sea, and the resort guests are still sleeping. In your golf cart, the crossing takes just a few minutes, and what awaits on the other side is one of the great underrated pleasures of visiting Nassau: a proper Bahamian breakfast.

Where to go:

Cafe Matisse in downtown Nassau offers a beautiful garden setting and excellent breakfast options. Cafe Skyline and some of the local spots near the Straw Market serve traditional Bahamian breakfasts — boiled fish and johnnycake, stewed chicken, fresh fruit, and strong Bahamian coffee — at prices that will make you wonder why you ever paid resort rates.

Order the boiled fish if it’s on the menu. It’s a Bahamian breakfast institution and genuinely delicious once you let yourself try it.

Spend an hour here. Eat slowly, people-watch, and enjoy the rhythm of Nassau in the morning.

Cart tip: Golf carts cross the bridge easily. Park near the market area — spaces are generally available early in the morning. Always lock up and keep valuables out of sight.

9:00 AM — A Drive Through Downtown Nassau

Before you head back to Paradise Island, spend an hour exploring on foot.

Downtown Nassau in the morning is vivid, colourful, and genuinely fascinating. The pastel colonial architecture along Bay Street, the old government buildings, the Straw Market warming up for the day — it’s a city with a distinct character and a history that most visitors only glimpse from the window of a taxi.

Park your cart near the waterfront and walk.

A few things worth seeing:

• Parliament Square — three blocks of pink colonial government buildings surrounding a statue of a young Queen Victoria. Quiet and photogenic in the morning light.
• The Queen’s Staircase — 66 steps carved by hand from solid limestone by enslaved people in the late 18th century, leading up to Fort Fincastle. One of the most historically significant sites in the Bahamas, and usually uncrowded before ten o’clock.
• The Waterfront — a stroll along the Nassau Harbour side gives you an extraordinary view back across to Paradise Island. This is where the postcards are made.

Cart tip: Keep your cart parked in one central spot and explore on foot. Downtown Nassau’s streets are narrow and busy by mid-morning — parking becomes more challenging as the day progresses, so the early start works in your favour.

10:30 AM — Back to Paradise Island: Cabbage Beach

Time to hit the water.

Cross back over the bridge and head to Cabbage Beach — the longest and most beautiful beach on Paradise Island. You’ve had a full morning already, and now it’s time to slow down and do what the Bahamas does best.

Our recommendation: Don’t park at the main beach entrance where the crowds gather. Continue along the path toward the eastern end of the beach. Within five minutes of walking from where you park, the sun loungers thin out and the beach opens up into something quieter, wilder, and considerably more beautiful.

The water at Cabbage Beach at this hour is spectacular. Clear, warm, and that particular shade of turquoise that makes you feel slightly unreal. Swim, float, do absolutely nothing.

If you want a sun lounger and some shade, the beach vendors set up early and the service is friendly. If you want solitude, keep walking east.

Spend two hours here. You’ve earned it.

Cart tip: Park along the beach road. Golf cart parking here is easy — this is exactly the kind of terrain where having a cart rather than a rental car makes your life significantly simpler.

12:30 PM — Conch Salad at the Beach

Don’t leave the beach for lunch. Let lunch come to the beach.

By midday, the conch salad vendors are in full operation along the Cabbage Beach area, and there is very little in the Bahamian culinary world that is as purely satisfying as fresh conch salad eaten within sight of the ocean that the conch came from.

What is conch salad? Queen conch — the beautiful pink-shelled mollusc that the Bahamas is famous for — is cleaned, diced, and mixed with fresh tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, sweet pepper, Scotch bonnet, fresh lime juice, and orange juice. It’s bright, tangy, slightly spicy, and eaten cold. It tastes like the Bahamas in a cup.

You’ll see the vendors working at portable stands. Order a cup or a bowl, find a patch of shade, and eat it looking at the water. This is the correct way to eat conch salad.

For something more substantial, several casual beach bars along the main section of Cabbage Beach serve full lunches — fried fish sandwiches, burgers, and cold Kalik beer. Ask which ones are freshest that day.

Cart tip: No driving required for this one. Park up and eat.

2:00 PM — The Lighthouse and the Eastern Tip

After lunch, explore the quieter eastern end of the island.

The afternoon is the perfect time to do some gentle driving and exploring. The wind picks up slightly as the day warms, which makes riding in an open golf cart one of life’s simple pleasures.

Head east from Cabbage Beach along the coastal road toward the eastern tip of Paradise Island. The road narrows and the traffic thins dramatically. You’re in the quiet part of the island now — residential streets, tropical vegetation pressing in from both sides, and the occasional glimpse of deep blue ocean through the trees.

Your destination: the Paradise Island Lighthouse.

Standing at the far eastern end of the island, this working lighthouse has guided ships into Nassau Harbour for well over a century. The area around its base offers some of the most dramatic coastal scenery on the island — raw Atlantic shoreline, ironshore rock, crashing waves, and a horizon that makes you feel properly far from home in the best possible way.

Spend 30 minutes here. Walk around the base, take photographs, and look out at the open ocean. There are no crowds, no vendors, and no noise except the wind and the water.

Cart tip: The road to the lighthouse narrows considerably at the end. A golf cart is the ideal vehicle for this stretch — slow down and enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

3:00 PM — A Drive Through the Residential Streets

See the island the way the people who live here see it.

On your way back from the lighthouse, resist the temptation to take the fastest route. Instead, turn into the residential streets that run through the eastern part of the island.

These quiet, unhurried neighbourhoods are where Paradise Island’s actual community lives. Painted Bahamian homes in coral, yellow, and pale blue. Children home from school in the afternoon. A neighbourhood shop selling cold drinks and snacks. The smell of something cooking through an open window.

It’s not a tourist attraction. It’s just the island — and experiencing it at this gentle pace, from the seat of a golf cart moving at walking speed, gives you a sense of the place that no resort experience can replicate.

Stop at a neighbourhood shop if you see one. Buy a cold drink. Say hello.

Cart tip: Drive slowly and respectfully through residential areas. Be courteous to pedestrians and cyclists. This is someone’s home, and you’re a guest in it.

4:30 PM — Smugglers’ Cove for a Late Afternoon Swim

One more swim before the day turns golden.

On the western side of the island, a small sheltered cove sits quietly off the main road — known locally as Smugglers’ Cove. It faces west, which means the late afternoon light hits the water at an angle that turns it an extraordinary shade of luminous gold-green.

The beach here is narrow and there are no facilities — no vendors, no loungers, no entrance fee. Just clear, calm water, soft sand, and the kind of stillness that makes you want to stay for a very long time.

Bring your snorkel gear if you have it — the rocks at the edges of the cove shelter some interesting marine life. Or simply wade in up to your waist and stand there watching the light change on the water as the afternoon progresses.

This is the swim you’ll remember longest.

Cart tip: Watch for the path off the main western road. It’s easy to spot if you’re moving slowly, easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. Park on the roadside and walk the short path to the cove.

6:00 PM — Nassau Harbour Viewpoint for Sunset

Find your spot before the sun touches the horizon.

As the afternoon light begins to soften into early evening gold, make your way back along the southern road — the one that runs along the Nassau Harbour side of the island. Pull over at one of the natural viewpoints where the harbour opens up below you.

What you’ll see is one of the most beautiful urban views in the Caribbean.

The Nassau skyline across the water — colonial buildings in pastel shades, the green of the surrounding hills, the cruise ships catching the last light in the harbour — reflected in water that has turned from blue to copper to rose as the sun descends. The Paradise Island Bridge curves across the middle distance. Boats move slowly toward their evening moorings.

If you can time this for the ten minutes around actual sunset, the light is extraordinary. The horizon turns amber, then coral, then deep rose, and for a few minutes the entire harbour is lit in a colour that seems too beautiful to be entirely real.

This is the photograph you came to Paradise Island to take. Here it is.

Cart tip: Pull over safely and take your time. This road sees light traffic in the evening and there are several natural pull-ins along the way. Arrive at least 15 minutes before the posted sunset time to find your spot.

7:30 PM — Dinner by the Water

End the day well.

After a sunset like that, the only appropriate thing to do is find somewhere beautiful to eat and spend the evening unwinding properly.

A few recommendations at different price points:

For a special occasion: Dune at the One&Only Ocean Club is consistently considered one of the finest dining experiences in the Bahamas. The setting — an open-air terrace above the beach — is spectacular at night. Reserve well in advance.

For something more relaxed: Grab a table at one of the waterfront restaurants near the bridge. Fresh grilled fish, lobster when it’s in season, cold beer, and the lights of Nassau across the harbour make for an exceptionally good evening.

For casual local food: Head back across the bridge to the fish fry area, where the local stalls serve their best food as the day cools into evening. This is the best value dinner on or around Paradise Island, and the atmosphere — locals, music, warm night air — is genuinely wonderful.

Cart tip: Golf carts are not recommended for late-night driving. After dinner, depending on your accommodation, you may choose to walk back or arrange a taxi for the return if you’ve dined away from the resort area. Park your cart safely at your accommodation and let the evening unfold on foot.

What Made This Day Possible

If you run your eye back over the itinerary, you’ll notice something: almost none of it would have worked without the golf cart.

The sunrise at the Cloisters — reached before the gardens fill with people. The beach road to the quiet eastern end of Cabbage Beach. The narrow road to the lighthouse that would challenge most cars. The slow drive through the residential streets. The turnoff to Smugglers’ Cove that you only spot if you’re moving at the right speed. The viewpoint along the harbour road where you pulled over to watch the light change.

None of that is accessible on foot. None of it is on a resort shuttle route. None of it appears on a taxi driver’s standard tourist itinerary.

It’s accessible because you had a cart, because having a cart meant you were always in motion on your own terms, and because that freedom — simple as it sounds — changes the entire character of a day.

That’s what we try to give every person who rents from us. Not just a vehicle. A different way of being on this island.

Plan Your Day — Practical Details

What to Bring

• Sunscreen — and more sunscreen. The Bahamian sun is strong even in the early morning.
• A dry bag or small cooler — for drinks, snacks, and keeping your phone dry at the beach.
• Cash — several of the best spots (conch salad vendors, local food stalls) are cash only.
• A light layer — the wind on an open golf cart in the evening can be cooler than you expect.
• Your phone fully charged — for navigation, photos, and calling us if you need anything.
• A loose schedule — this itinerary is a suggestion, not a contract. The best moments of the day will be the unplanned ones.

Reserve Your Cart

We deliver to your door anywhere on Paradise Island. No upfront payment. Free delivery and pickup included.

4 Passenger Cart (Club Car Tempo) — $110 per day 6 Passenger Cart (Club Car Onward) — $150 per day

📞 Call or text: (242) 814-2478 · (242) 577-4283 ✉️ Email: info@paradiseislandgolfcartrentals.com

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