The Bahamas

The Bahamas is not one destination but an archipelago of 700 islands and 2,400 cays stretching 760 miles from Florida to Haiti — each with its own character, water color and reason to visit. The water here is the clearest on earth: shades of turquoise, aquamarine and electric blue that seem physically impossible until you see them.

Nassau and Paradise Island offer the full resort experience — Atlantis, cable beach, the colonial architecture of downtown Nassau and the vibrant straw market. But the real Bahamas is found in the Out Islands: the Exumas with their swimming pigs and swimming sharks, the Abacos with their loyalist colonial villages, Eleuthera's pink sand beaches and Long Island's dramatic cliffs dropping into impossibly clear water.

The Bahamas hosts the world's third largest barrier reef, some of the finest bonefishing on earth, blue holes of extraordinary depth and beauty, and a Junkanoo culture that rivals Trinidad Carnival in its creativity and energy. It is the Caribbean destination that rewards those who leave Nassau behind.