Where to Stay in Bimini, Matched to the Trip You're Actually Taking

Pick the dock, then the bed. On an island this narrow the marina you walk out of decides more about your week than the room does, and the four properties every comparison page covers are the four with booking programmes rather than the four that suit most trips. We hold 13 places to stay and 9 separate marina facilities —every place to stay on the island is in the directory, and this piece is about choosing between them.

One thing to get out the way: there are no prices on this page. Not a band, not a “from”. We have not been quoted a rate by a single property and we are not going to estimate one, because a wrong price is the fastest way to lose a reader’s trust.

The decision tree

Four questions, in order. Thats the whole method.

• Are you here to fish? Then the Bimini Big Game Club, in Alice Town, with its own marina and the dive centre on site. The bonefish world record was caught about 300 yards from it. It is the fishing address and has been since 1936.
• Are you bringing people who are not fishing? The Hilton at Resorts World Bimini, which is the largest property on the island with pools, a lazy river and a casino complex attached. It is also the least Bahamian-feeling option here, and whether that is a criticism depends entirely on who you are travelling with.
• Are you bringing a boat, or a group? A condo at Bimini Bay, or Bimini Cove on South Bimini if you want quiet over convenience. Kitchens matter more here than people expect, because a cooler of yellowtail is the best meal on the island.
• Do you just want a bed near the bars? Sea Crest, Big John’s or one of the small Alice Town rooms. Walkable, plain, and you are ten minutes from everything that is open.

Every property, side by side

Two things that table shows and no marketing page will. The largest property on the island does not have the highest rating. And several listings carry no review history at all, which is not the same as being bad — it usually means small, or new, or not on Google properly.

The largest property on the island does not have the highest rating.

Where the settlements actually are

North Bimini is a hook about seven and a half miles long. Alice Town sits at the southern tip and is the historic centre: most of the bars, most of the small hotels, the Big Game Club, Blue Water, Sea Crest, Brown’s and Weech’s. It is narrow enough to walk from the ocean beach to the harbour in a couple of minutes.

Bailey Town is next, more residential, and it is where the conch stands are. Porgy Bay is northernmost, near the Resorts World complex and the grocery with the best produce selection. The boundaries between all three are signage only — nothing changes underfoot.

South Bimini is a separate island with the airport on it, about 182 people, and a short ferry hop between the two. Staying there is a genuine trade: quieter and greener, and every trip to a bar or a conch stand involves a boat. Work forward from the settlement, or pick by dock instead and let the marina decide the island for you, which is what most people arriving on their own hull end up doing anyway.

The marina naming mess

What we could not confirm

Four properties in the table carry a status flag. That means we could not confirm from our sources that they are currently trading and taking guests — in one case the marina is still listed in cruising guides while the hotel side is uncertain, and in the others there is simply almost no review history to go on. Phone before you send money. That advice applies to small-island properties generally, but it applies to those four specifically.

We also hold no rate information for any property here, which is why the “cheap” branch of the decision tree above is phrased around what a place is rather than what it costs. And before you book anything at all, its worth reading the case for not coming at all, because the commonest booking mistake on this island is length of stay rather than choice of hotel.

As the dock-by-dock pieces land they will sit in the marina-by-marina section alongside this one, each tied to the property listings at or within walking distance of that dock.