Bahamas vacations are some of the most coveted tropical island vacations around the world, with 700 islands and cays offering visitors an array of delights. Of all the many islands, nearly 300,000 Bahamian people, who are as welcoming as the gorgeous islands are inviting, populate 40. Stunningly clear, turquoise waters surround each island to touch white sandy beaches in most areas.

Nassau

Nassau, the nation's capital, is steeped in modern American ways but has an undeniable quasi-Caribbean flavor. It exudes a special charm, imparted by a blend of Old World architecture and contemporary vitality. It's a far cry from the rustic and rowdy village once favored by pirates. The center of touristic affairs is the waterfront, a beehive of activity when the ships disgorge their hordes. The historic downtown has many well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings. The country's major government buildings surround Parliament Square.

Paradise Island is connected to Nassau with a bridge. It has great beaches and over-the-top resorts. Tropical plant fanciers can browse over 300 species at the lush Royal Victoria Garden. The heart of the shopping district is Bay Street, where you can shop at the largest straw market in the world. The Queen's Staircase, dating from the late 18th century, was built by over 500 slaves who labored for 16 years to carve a gorge-like roadway through the limestone ridge south of downtown Nassau until abandoning it, unfinished, with the abolition of slavery in 1834.

Grand Bahama

Grand Bahama is the second most popular destination in The Bahamas - meaning that it's largely overrun with North American snowbirds and its attractions are geared appropriately. Unless you come for the smattering of natural attractions, you'd better be sure that gambling, duty-free shopping and beach lounging are your thing. Luckily, the island's few natural assets are worth the trip: sugar-white beaches, thick forests of Cuban pine and abundant wildlife.

The island's most popular area, Freeport/Lucaya, is a modern, planned affair with little charm and less that's authentically Bahamian. On the western end of the southern shore, Freeport is home to the Rand Memorial Nature Center, which boasts excellent horticultural displays and nature trails, and the Garden of the Groves, a lush Eden filled with 5000 species of exotic plants and shrubs from around the world. The Gardens also contain the Grand Bahama Museum, dedicated to the history of the island from the time of the Lucayans. Lucaya, the district just south of Freeport, is in the midst of a ritzy upgrade. Lucayan National Park is a 40-acre treasure. It encompasses the world's largest known underwater cave system, complete with bats and blue holes; a mangrove swamp; kayakable estuaries; and great beaches. You can get here by car, or you can hire a boat at any Freeport/Lucaya marina.

Eleuthera

This slender wisp of an island has traditionally been the destination of choice for hobnobbing socialites, drawn here by chic club resorts and sands the delicate hue of Crystal Rosé. The mainland has declined in recent years. The happening scene is now the offshore cay of Harbor Island, one of the choicest places in The Bahamas, boasting Dunmore Town, a Loyalist village with 200-year-old architecture; Pink Sands Beach; and great diving and snorkeling. Eleuthera also offers scenic headlands and seascapes and interesting towns along its nearly 100 mile (160km) length. Harbor Island lies just a few miles east of the northwestern tip of the mainland; it's about 50 miles (95km) northeast of Nassau.

Abacus

The boomerang-shaped Abacus chain is the second-largest landmass in the country and comprises Abaco (the main island) and the Abaco Cays, a necklace of dozens of smaller cays. The Sea of Abaco, the protected waters in the cays' lee, is a hot spot for yachters, and the chain has earned the nickname 'The Sailing Capital of the World.' Abaco technically consists of Great Abaco, the lower part of the island, and Little Abaco, its northwestern extension. Most folks live in Marsh Harbor (the largest town in the Abacus) or on one of the four Loyalist Cays (the name comes from these cays' early settlers, who arrived here after fleeing persecution during and after the American Revolution). Instead of large, showy hotel resorts, the Abacus boast homey cottages and inns on talcum-fine beaches or alongside the many marinas. Walker's Cay, on the edge of the Gulf Stream, is one of The Bahamas' prime sport-fishing sites. Coral reef gardens fringing the Atlantic beckon divers and snorkelers. Ashore, most of Abaco is smothered with scrub and pine forest, good for bird watching and nature hikes.

Elbow Cay, 6 miles (10km) east of Marsh Harbors, is a scrub-and-pine-covered islet favored by lizards and feral cats, with a solitary hamlet called Hope Town. It's a quaint place that appears pinned to the ground by a 120ft (37m) candy-striped lighthouse. Although the town is one of the most visited places in The Bahamas, it has taken care to minimize the effects of tourism, boasting nearly 100 well preserved, gaily painted old homes and all of two narrow, car-free lanes circling the village. You can wander around and enjoy the quiet, or climb the 100 steps of the lighthouse and take in the picture-perfect view. There are several museums in town, including the Wyannie Malone Museum, with displays on Lucayan Indians and Loyalist settlers; and the Cetacean Museum, a tiny place devoted to whales.

Biminis

Ernest Hemingway's 'islands in the stream' perch on the edge of the Gulf Stream, just 50mi (80km) east of Miami. The Bimini group is barely 10 sq mi (26 sq km) and flat as a flounder. North Bimini (locally referred to as simply 'Bimini') is shaped like an inverted crab's claw, 7mi (11km) long and no more than 400yd (366m) across at the main island's widest point. Below it and separated by only 150yd (137m) of water lies South Bimini, a chunkier and virtually uninhabited plot of land. Most everything happens in Alice Town on Bimini, especially in midsummer, when visitors arrive in flocks to putter along in the slow lane - it's the kind of place to fish, relax, sit around drinking beer, and tell big-fish stories. The scene gets a little crazier during spring break, when college students whoop it up with wet-T-shirt contests and drunken good times.

The islands are well known for their good fishing, and you'll be spoiled for choice: wahoo, tuna, sailfish, mako shark, barracuda, and, above all, blue marlin and other billfish put up a bruising battle. They're all waiting for you to cast your lure and notch up a record catch that would make 'Papa' Hemingway jealous. Scuba divers are lured to the islands' crystal-clear waters. There's the Bimini Road off Bimini, alluringly claimed to be part of the 'lost city' of Atlantis. And there's the famous Bimini Wall, plummeting over 4000ft (1219m). The Biminis are also famous for dives with wild dolphins. Pods of rare Atlantic spotted dolphins are regularly seen, and they like nothing better than to cavort and swim nose to nose with humans.

Activities

The diverse heritage of The Bahamas has left behind an equally diverse culture rich with customs that continually remind travelers of the Bahamian love for celebration and community

Many Bahamians have an artistic side, which they express through their colorful art, infectious music or exuberant dancing. When you visit The Bahamas, take time to view the local artwork. Not surprisingly, you'll see brightly colored art that reflects the beauty of the people and their islands.

The traditional music of The Bahamas is goombay, which combines the musical traditions from Africa with that of the European colonial influence. Goombay, the Bantu word for "rhythm," also refers to the type of goatskin drum used to produce the rolling rhythm of this type of music.

Rake and scrape bands have been playing goombay music since the time of slavery, when African slaves had few resources to create musical instruments. Typically, rake and scrape bands had a drum fashioned out of a pork barrel and goatskin, a carpenter's saw that was scraped with a metal file, maracas, rhythm sticks and a homemade bass violin (a washtub with a string through it that was tied to a three-foot stick).

Traditionally, rake and scrape music is used to accompany the Bahamian Quadrille and the Heel and Toe Polka dances -- another example of how African and European influences have blended together.

Today's rake and scrape bands use saxophones, electric guitars or other instruments in addition to saws and goombay drums. However, they still retain the original rake and scrape style.

If you attend a Junkanoo parade, you'll hear a louder, more boisterous version of goombay music. You'll also get to watch the parade participants rushin'. Not quite a dance, rushin' is more of a lively parade march consisting of two steps forward followed by one step back.

Like rushin', the Jump-In-Dance has its origins in West Africa. Dancers -- led by one person -- dance in a circle while a solo dancer performs in the center. There is clapping, singing and sometimes drum rhythms. After a few minutes, the center dancer chooses someone else (usually of the opposite sex) to take his or her place in the center and the spirited dancing continues in this fashion.