Talking Safety in Nassau - What I would and Would NOT do in Nassau, Bahamas - Level 2 Travel Warning

Nassau Bahamas has received a level two travel warning from the US state department and I wanted to come on here and talk a little bit about what that means what is a travel warning what is level two what is it issued for why did the government feel the need to tell us to exercise increased caution when traveling to Nassau Bahamas and tell you some of the areas that I feel safe after visiting Nassau about 84 times I'm even here today hey everybody it's Brandon the weekend Cruiser where I go on a weekend Cruise just about every weekend so I am in the Bahamas very frequently and wanted to talk about what I think is a fairly sensitive subject to a lot of people and bring some light or hopefully some clarity on what it means that Nassau has a level two travel advisory because I know a lot of you are worried about coming to nasau with this new advisory that has come out now the first thing that I want to talk about is what is a travel advisory so this is issued from the US state dep Department every government for the most part is going to have some kind of a body that will warn their citizens if they looking at traveling abroad because there's something going on in that country that is what the US state department does for us American citizens there are four different levels that the US travel advisory issues the first one is just exercise caution when you are traveling to this country I think as a tourist we should do that in every country we probably should even do that in our normal daily lives it's just be vigilant be cautious look around and be aware of your surroundings the second travel level here level two is going to be exercise increased caution so there's been some incidents there's been some things going on that you know makes the government even Morey that you are traveling there this is what the Bahamas has received if you go up to level three that is a reconsider travel so the issues have gotten so bad that US Government wants American citizens to reconsider going to that country that has a level three warning and then level four is a do not travel this is probably going to be most countries that you cannot get into that our passports will not allow us to enter because we don't have good relation at all because of the various issues that have happened with that country now as I mentioned nasau received the level two travel advisory and unfortunately this isn't new for nasau they have had travel advisories in the past they received another one in April of 2022 but they date back all the way to 2018 and you can find all this data on the US state Department's website I'll link to it down below in the comments to make it easy for you to find and read up on what the department is actually telling you specifically now the reason that they issued this travel warning for Nassau this time is three-fold the first is to avoid south of Shirley Street or over the hill as it's called in Nassau this will include the Queen's staircase that is one place I know a lot of people like and it is included in this travel advisory the second one that you're going to want to make sure that you're you know paying attention to is the watercraft there are not maintained I know the cruise lines also warn us about this if you are renting a jet ski an ATV of some kind they are not wellmaintained all the time you don't know what device you're getting on there's no regulatory body to it and it could malfunction and cause you bodily harm or injury the third thing that NASA's made the news for recently that also made it into this travel advisory is incidents involving sharks in their Open Water this is definitely something that no one wants to think about but it has had an increase here in Nassau um with people going on tours and unfortunately having those incidents with sharks in thinking through this level two travel warning with NASA I try to be pragmatic with it the first thing that I wanted to know is well gosh who else has a level two like I hadn't even really been thinking about it what other countries have a level two so let's go through just a few that I pulled out and there's close to 40 I think there's 37 of them if I counted correctly that are at a level two by our US Department so some of them that jumped out at to me Germany Dominican Republic Peru South Africa Biz is going to be on there so if you're going to biz on a cruise you also need to exercise increased caution one that hasn't gotten a lot of talk I think nasau gets a lot of talk because cruise ships are coming here by the droves these days and it Nassau gets an amazing number of tourists every single day but Jamaica unfortunately is at a level three so that is a reconsidered travel so the state department deems them to be worst not that it is a competition by any stretch that anyone's trying to win but Jamaica does have a higher travel advisory than Nassau Bahamas does now my personal opinion and this is my personal opinion the first thing that I'll say here is I'm not going to guarantee your safety if you go on a trip I'm not going to guarantee your safety if you walk out your front door I can't do that so I can say something is amazingly safe and something can still happen so always exercise increase caution I wish that I could control that I don't but where I personally have felt safe in coming to Nassau 84 different times is a lot of the walking tour and so I'll link to the video here it's a self-guided walking tour that you can go on I only recommend going out of Nassau at this point though if you're in a group so if you're not doing a walking tour with a group of people I would then recommend going with a tour there's plenty of Tours that are listed here get your guide through your cruise ship there's certainly something you can find that you and the entire family are going to enjoy that will keep you in a group if you are a Solo Traveler like myself I would recommend staying close to the ship even if you're in a group stay within about a 15minute radius of the ship and you probably will be okay because there's tons of people the cruise ships are bringing in like I think 15 to 25,000 people every single day and with that volume of people there it's more diff difficult in my opinion for Crime to occur so make sure that you're staying Vigilant I think majority of the walking tour is good so if you're going over to greycliffe you're going to the art museum you're going to John watling's Brewery you're going over to junino those are all within 15 minutes of the cruise ship what I'll say though is that the queen staircase does fall squarely in what they call over the hill which is south of Shirley Street so if you do go there and I think that it's fine to go there there's lots of people especially during the day make sure that you are going with a group and exercise iing increased caution while you were there what I would not recommend you doing and I have been guilty of doing this in the past when I was younger and More Adventurous is I have walked to um Atlantis and I've walked to bajamar a few times and that's a heck of a walk by the way I think that walk is about two hours I do not recommend anybody else doing that and I personally do not do that anymore myself alternative options to that are take one of the water taxis they've got a taxi that water taxi that'll pick you up right from the port to take you over to Atlantis or jump in one of the shuttle vans that are going to be operating from the port to take you exactly where you want to go nasau is known for some beautiful beaches that are not within 15 minutes walking that you still maybe maybe want to get to Cabbage Beach Cable Beach just to name a few popular ones but make sure you're not getting an unregistered taxi that is not registered with the port and picking you up directly from there now let's talk about the worst part of Nassau and this is one that I know everybody will agree with me let me know down the comments actually if you agree with this is the worst part of Nassau and that is going to be your first 30 seconds when you are exiting the Port Terminal now first of all their Port Terminal is beautiful if you haven't seen the video on it I'll link to it right here so you can check out how beautiful the port author is done with their new terminal here their New Port area but when you go to leave this terminal that is where you're going to see people trying to sell you and in a different fashion than what many of us used to I mean I necessarily don't always like somebody saying hello how can I help you when I walk into their store in this case you're going to be walking outside of the gates of the port and people are going to be yelling at you hollering at you trying to get your attention in some kind of fashion to sell you an ATV some kind of a tour they may even be selling you some recreational drugs um and a lot of us just aren't accustomed to that especially if we didn't come or if you're not traveling on a cruise from an urban environment where it may be more prevalent my solution to everybody yelling at you cat calling and trying to sell you something in a more aggressive fashion than we're accustomed to is to just say no don't say no thank you that'll mean that hey I'm a nice person I'm up for a conversation no keep on on walking don't stop don't slow down don't say anything else other than no they will get the hint and if you walk for 30 seconds they'll be staying at the terminal exit where everybody else is because if you don't want to buy something from them maybe the next person will so just keep pushing through there is still more to see and do in NASA you just got to make it through the worst 30 seconds as I call it and from there you're hopefully going to have an amazing time make sure per the US Travel Department that you are exercising increased caution doesn't mean that you should not go to Nassau in my opinion it just means people a little bit more Vigilant be aware of your surroundings make sure that you're going places during the day and if you are it's going to be on a cruise ship and enjoy what Nassau has to offer all right everybody this is Brandon the weekend Cruiser hoping to see you on a weekend Cruise soon

Channel: The Weekend Cruiser

Views: 23,163

Keywords: nassau bahamas, cruise news, travel advisory, travel warning, nassau bahamas cruise port, nassau bahamas cruise, weekend cruise, is nassau bahamas safe, is nassau safe, level 2 travel warning, nassau bahamas things to do

Id: gAYXAp3pkmE

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024