Bahamas- spring break with a kid- — Walking on the board walk, Baha Mar, Nassau, Bahamas

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Why visit the Bahamas for spring break?

We’ve taken our daughter to many cold destinations for trips, Quebec City in winter, the Swiss Alps in the summer, but for the first time, we opted to escape the cold for our holiday, and in March, we headed to the Bahamas. Our daughter, who is four years old, learned to swim just in time for our adventures at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, and was able to enjoy the water park which opened in 2021.

In order to afford this trip during peak travel time, spring break, we used points for our hotel stay. If you, too, are looking for a quick getaway that does not break the bank, and want hear about our experience, then read on.

Where to stay in Nassau? Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar for 3 nights, which is attached to other Hyatt properties (SLS and Rosewood). For a short and easy getaway, the Grand Hyatt was perfect for our family of three. Here’s what we loved about it:

With Hyatt’s Globalist or guest of honor status, the breakfast buffet was free each morning.
The Baha Bay water park is included in all stays at Baha Mar.
There were a variety of outdoor dining options: food trucks by the beach, pool-side restaurants, and formal restaurants in the hotel with both indoor and outdoor seating options.
We could wander down the the pools at 8am and that the entrance to the pool was only 30 feet away from the entrance to the beach. Once we left the room for the day, there was no reason to come back until it was time to shower for dinner.
The hotel allowed us to rent a refrigerator for our room so we could store extra drinks and snacks for our kiddo.

A view of the Hyatt hotels in Nassau from the animal sanctuary.

How to stay at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar for free

Disclosure: When we share links to credit card applications, if you click on that link and are approved, we will be compensated with points at no additional cost to you.

If you are looking to stock up on Hyatt points for a free stay, then you need at least one Chase card. Our favorite starter card to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards is the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which allows you to earn up 60,000-75,000 points. When we booked the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, we did so in 2023, before Hyatt raised the nightly rates, ad we were able to stay for three night with one sign-up bonus. Now the cost per night will be 29,000 points per night (see the points calendar below for 2025). For busy times of year, I recommend booking 11-12 months out to ensure availability. We stayed in March of 2024, and booked in March of 2023.

Restaurants at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

We are not big foodies, and we were also traveling on a budget, so we were a bit reserved with our food purchases.

For breakfast each day, we ate at the Regatta buffet, which was included with our guest of honor status (gifted to us by someone else with globalist status). The buffet includes a wide range of food, and even my breakfast-hating husband found plenty to eat.

For lunch, we usually grabbed a smaller meal from the food trucks by the beach or at the take-away restaurants at the water park. (Think $20 chicken fingers and fries.)

For dinner, we tried two restaurants and could not leave without spending $100 (including tip). It just seemed impossible to get the bill any lower.

Stix Noodle Bar (indoor seating only; kids under 5 eat free here)
Pizza Lab (both indoor and outdoor seating).

For dessert: We opted for ice cream at Sugar Factory. This was also expensive, but luckily our 4-year-old did not eat a lot, so we were able to make it out with less than $15 for dessert. (Do not, I repeat, do not let your kid fill up a bag of candy to be weighed. This is not the grocery store, people, it will cost you $40).

Enjoying sorbet from Sugar Factory, Grand Hyatt, Baha Mar

Water Park: Baha Bay

The pools and water park are one of the main perks of staying the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. The Baha Bay water park is included in your hotel costs, and others can purchase a day pass to the park.

The water park opened each day at 10am, so we would always hit the pool or beach first, and then make our way to the water park upon opening. The water park had separate sections for kids (and adults) of all ages, so if you are a larger family with kids of many ages, you might need to divide and conquer.

Since we only had our 4-year-old, who was just 3 inches shy of being able to go down the big kid slides, we stuck to the smaller areas. We always visited the water park in the morning and usually left before 2pm.

From the lazy river, to the wave pool, to the “surfing,” and the thrilling slides, there is plenty to do at Baha Bay to keep the whole family entertained.

Toddler/ little kid area at Baha Bay waterpark, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Enjoying the lazy river at Baha Bay, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Animal Interactions at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Another reason to visit the Bahamas is to get to interact with all the beautiful creatures who would never survive the cold temperatures of our home state of Pennsylvania.

Your kiddos can and interact with the following animals at Baha Mar:

flamingos
sea turtles
nurse sharks
sting rays
land tortoises
a variety of fish

We took a tour of the sanctuary (which did cost extra) and booked it two days ahead of time; however, from the kid-friendly pool, you can also see the sanctuary and the animals swimming around. It’s not quite as amazing as getting to see them without a wall, but it’s a great way to see the animals swimming about for free.

Unfortunately, we were unable to visit with the Aldabra tortoises during our three days at Baha Mar, but we did peak over the fence to say hi to them.

Flamingos at night a the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Meeting some sea turtles at the sanctuary at Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Swimming next to the sanctuary aquarium at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Grand Total: How much we paid to stay and eat at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar for 3 days:

We spent only $450 for 3 nights and days at the Grand Hyatt. If we had paid cash for our hotel room, and if we did not have a free buffet breakfast each morning, the cost for 3 nights and meals would have been around to $3,100. We never would have paid this for 3 nights of vacation; in fact, that’s usually our budget for two weeks or more of vacation.