Best 3-Day & 4-Day Cruises

Bustling Nassau offers an impressive range of activities for every taste. Admire the stately Georgian architecture and 18th-century Fort Montagu. Taste creamy conch chowder and decadent rum cake. Bask under the palms on Blue Lagoon Island, or drift amid rainbow-colored shoals of fish at Pearl Island. You could even join a watercolor class to capture the brilliant white, aquamarine, and sapphire-blue colors surrounding you.

The warm waters around sleepy Bimini beckon, whether you want to snorkel over multicolored reefs, look out for docile sharks from the comfort of a glass-bottomed boat, or head out to sea to learn how the locals fish for conch. While it’s tempting to swing in a hammock with a chilled rum punch in hand, there’s cultural interest here, too. Check out the Dolphin House, a labor of love built over time by a local historian using shells, sea glass, and upcycled materials from the ocean.

Quirky, bohemian Key West is so tiny you can explore it on foot, whether you’re headed for the white sands and colorful reefs of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park or prefer to check out the island’s many art galleries. Writer Ernest Hemingway lived here in the 1930s and his Spanish colonial-style mansion is now a museum. Look out for the six-toed cats that roam the tropical gardens. Whatever you do, be sure to make time for a slice of tangy Key lime pie, which originated here.