Well let me first say this was our first time to GBI, and my personal rating of the island from 1-10 would be around a 6-7 I’d say. We were only there for 4 nights/5 Days, but we seem to have got a lot in and it felt as if we were there a lot longer. I do apologize for this being so lengthy, but I had a couple requests that I leave some detailed reviews on everything, so not only is this my full trip report but I’ve also elaborated on what my thoughts/personal reviews were on everything. I hope the ones who asked me to do this, and others interested may find this useful for any of there upcoming trips. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions/comments or concerns. Thanks again

We arrived on a Wednesday in GBI around 1:30pm into FPO…. We caught a taxi (older limo) to our resort (Pelican Bay) and our fare was exactly $20. I will say riding on the left side of the road felt extremely weird! After arriving at the resort, the people there were very nice and when I inquired about upgrading my standard room they gave us the deluxe king but not the suite. Even though they were available so not sure why they couldn’t give us that but it was fine. We actually asked what it would cost to upgrade to the suite and they said $30 extra per night. We toured it, but didn’t feel it was near worth it being the only main difference was it was some bigger and it had a fully stocked fridge in which that stuff I’m sure was very expensive to take out and if we had that we might’ve be tempted to use it. Right after we checked in our room we walked down to Pieces for lunch, but unfortunately it was not open which stunk because we were both in the mood for some good pizza. It was already getting late for lunch, so we walked back to Unexso for a late lunch in where I got a cheeseburger and my wife got a club sandwich. We both really liked it, and my burger was excellent. For the rest of the day we walked around the market area, walked to the Westin to check out the ocean and that was really it. Later that evening we went to the casino around 7ish, and that place was dead. May have been 6 people in there playing slots, which was it. We played for about 30-45min on $10 on slots, and ended up winning over $30. We stopped and took that money and ate supper at Zorbas. It was great as well. We both got the chicken souvlaki dinner which is what the waitress recommended and it was really good. We originally had planned to have supper at the Pub but of course it was not open as well. We turned in early since it didn’t look like much to do and the market area was just dead, plus I booked the dolphin swim for early next morning.

Thursday we woke up early and went to the continental breakfast at the Pelican Bay in which I’ve heard was great, but it was not. My wife tried some cereal, and tried 2 different boxes because both tasted stale. Wasn’t much to choose from, so I settled for some grits and coffee with a slice of cantaloupe in which even it wasn’t that good. They had some bread/muffins/cinnamon rolls that we tried one of each but all was very hard and just tasted stale. On that note we knew from then on we had to find else where to eat. After eating we went on the dolphin swim which was really cool. VERY expensive ($169/pp) but you know, it was once in a lifetime experience I guess plus my wife has ALWAYS wanted to do it so this was her anniversary gift from me! I asked around several places the day before if there was anywhere to get a discount somehow and the only response I got was they had a coupon book out that costs about $10 you could buy that may have one in it. I asked the guy at my hotel about it and he actually gave me one, which was nice and it did have a 10% off coupon for the dolphin swim so that saved me about $35 or so…I’d highly recommend finding one because there were numerous coupons in there, even for Zorbas and all the major tours were in there for the most part (usually either 10-15% off). I will say I’d never do it again because personally I didn’t feel it was worth that much money, but if you’ve never done it, it’s nice to do once. After we got done, we ate at the Dive Bar for lunch again which once again it was great, then we headed to Taino beach for the rest of the day. We were able to grab us a little tiki umbrella with some chairs, and that was just very nice and relaxing. Snorkeled a bit, and it was just very nice and relaxing. My wife for some reason started getting sick later in the evening (must’ve ate/drank something bad) because she had a bad upset stomach and was nauseous feeling. She didn’t feel like going out, and she said she was in the mood for pizza so I had to settle for Dominos since Pisces was closed. If you order Dominos for delivery they say it’ll take 45min-1hr but you can pick it up in 15min so I did that since I was right there at it.

Friday we woke up and ate breakfast at Zorbas. MUCH better than the breakfast we had at the resort for sure. They had great breakfast food, it was cheap, and service was great. Now when we had supper at Zorbas our waitress wasn’t that great, she took forever and wasn’t friendly but for breakfast the lady was great. After breakfast I had booked the Paradise Cove tour in which several others came along to so that was cool. We met a couple from London so it was nice hanging out some with another couple. I must say the drive to/from Paradise Cove made me realize how fortunate we are where we live! Being in the Bahamas is cool and all, but everywhere we looked it just seems run down and a lot of poverty. I’m sure there are parts of the island that are nicer (where some of the million dollar homes are), but everything I saw was just a poor area. The ride was about 20-25min and our driver (Nathan) was very nice. He told us a lot about how things are in the Bahamas, and we all asked numerous questions on the ride he was able to answer so we learned a lot! Far as that snorkeling tour went and going to Paradise Cove, it was a MUST do. I’d highly recommend it, and for only $35/pp including transportation it was way worth it. Getting to snorkel around Deadmans Reef was an awesome experience. We got to see so many tropical fish, a stingray, and even one couple saw a huge nurse shark but it didn’t bother anyone. Once you get out toward the reef where the water is like 35-50ft deep is where it’s the coolest! Even with it being that deep you can still see to the bottom. The food there at the Red Bar wasn’t bad, it had mixed reviews but I mean we had hot dogs and fries and me and my wife thought it was really good. After all we weren’t there for a nice meal, so anything decent would’ve been fine with us. Once you’re there you pretty much take your time, you can lay out on the beach, go in/out to snorkel when you want to and they will take you back to your resort every 2 hours starting at 12:30-4:30…..

After coming back we got showers, laid around the hotel room a bit (all that swimming and snorkeling wore us out!!!) then we walked to the market to look for somewhere to eat. I will say all day Wednesday and Thursday the market area was sooooo dead. So many great places I heard that was good to eat (like Pisces) and even Rum Runners was closed down, and so many shops were down….Now, with it being Friday night it was unbelievable of all the people! Maybe a cruise may have docked in I’m not sure, but places like Rum Runners which was normally dead or closed were jammed packed!! My wife and I were both in the mood for Italian (we are big on Italian food) and we both love chicken parmesan….We stumbled on Giovanni’s (I read the reviews for this place and they were very mixed). We could’ve ordered chicken parmesan from Zorbas but we were looking for a more authentic Italian place…When we got there only a couple people were there and it seemed like once we sat down, within 10 minutes the whole place got packed! We found it to be rather pricey, and out of all places I’ve ate Italian it was not that great. We would never go back. Now I saw some other people with some dishes that looked decent, but the chicken parmesan wasn’t and we weren’t crazy of the flavor of their marinara sauce. When we got done we figured we’d order some cheesecake and even it was $4.50/slice…we LOVE cheesecake, it’s one of our favorite deserts and but I’ll say it was awful. First off the piece was WAY small, and it literally tasted like one of those “no-bake” cheesecakes you can buy in the store and make it in like 5 minutes! After dinner we went back to the casino and I’ll say it looked much different than on Wednesday night! Amazing of the people! Almost all the table games had people on them, and tons on slots along with a lot of people at the bar and people singing karaoke. It then reminded me more like in Vegas, just way smaller. We gambled for about an hour, lost some money and everything I won on Poker I played it and lost it right back so we got frustrated and left. After we left we wanted to go get some drinks at Rum Runners but it was packed so we decided to pass and go grab a drink at the Dive Bar because we had some free tickets for a Bahama Mama drink. They were OK, nothing special. They normally cost $7 each and I’ll say if having to buy them you’re much better off going to Rum Runners because it was much better and prices not quite as bad. By then it was around 11 so we decided to call it a night.