Where to Stay in Freeport & Lucaya — What Is Actually Open
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated August 2026
Written in August 2026. Every hotel named here was checked against the operator’s own information this month — and the closed ones are named, because the booking sites are still selling them.
This is the most cautionary page in our Bahamas book, and we would rather you read it before you book than after you arrive. Grand Bahama has not had an easy decade. Hurricane Matthew took one resort in 2016, Hurricane Dorian flattened the airport and much else in September 2019, and in October 2025 the Grand Lucayan — the island’s flagship, and its last luxury hotel — closed for good. Demolition of the site began in April 2026.
What remains is a small, friendly, inexpensive island with about eight genuinely trading hotels, no luxury tier, no adults-only property, no pet-friendly hotel, and exactly one all-inclusive. That is not a reason to write it off — Port Lucaya Marketplace is lively and walkable, the diving is superb, the beaches are long and empty, and a room here costs a third of what Nassau charges. It is a reason to choose deliberately.
The one warning we would underline: the booking websites for this island are unusually unreliable. Lighthouse Pointe and Memories Grand Bahama are both closed and both still bookable online. Before you pay for any hotel in Freeport, telephone the property and hear someone confirm your dates.
Everything below was checked against the operator’s own information this month. Where a category has one honest answer, or none at all, we say so and point you to the island where the answer does exist.
Luxury
We have to be straight with you: there is no luxury hotel in Freeport or Lucaya in 2026. The one property that qualified has closed. We are not going to dress up a three-star resort as something it is not.
There is no luxury hotel here any more — and here is why
The Grand Lucayan — including Lighthouse Pointe, its last operating wing — stopped taking guests on 20 October 2025. Staff were let go through the winter, the power was disconnected in March 2026, and demolition of the fifty-six-acre site began on 14 April 2026. A large redevelopment is planned in its place, including a five-hundred-and-fifty-room Hilton and an MSC beach club, with completion talked about for early 2028; that project has slipped repeatedly since 2019 and we would treat the date with caution. Until then, the best hotels on this island are comfortable, friendly and modest, and we have listed them honestly below. If luxury is what you are after this year, Nassau, Paradise Island, Exuma or Harbour Island are the right islands and Freeport is not.
See luxury hotels in Nassau instead ›The nearest thing, forty minutes away
For completeness: Old Bahama Bay Resort & Yacht Harbour at West End, twenty-five miles and about forty minutes west of Freeport, is the most upmarket address still trading on Grand Bahama — seventy-three beachfront suites and a marina. We include it with a caveat rather than a recommendation: guests this year have reported damp, broken furniture and water-quality problems. Go in with your eyes open, or go elsewhere.
Browse West End hotels on Trip.com ›Boutique
Two genuinely small, genuinely open hotels — the best-run place on the island, and a thirty-two-room inn on the waterfront.
Pelican Bay Hotel
The best-run hotel on Grand Bahama and consistently the highest-rated: low-rise waterside villas on Bell Channel Bay, three to five minutes’ flat walk from Port Lucaya Marketplace, which is where the island’s restaurants, shops and live music are. Three pools, one of them deliberately kept as a quiet adult retreat away from the bar. Two restaurants on site. Two honest notes: it is not beachfront — there is a free hourly ferry across to Taino Beach, or an eight-minute walk to Lucaya Beach — and Wi-Fi is charged at around $15 a day per device, which in 2026 is a little galling.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Bell Channel Inn
Thirty-two rooms on the Bell Channel waterfront — small, family-run and warmly reviewed, with its own restaurant and bar upstairs, live music on Fridays, a pool and a free beach shuttle. Caribbean Divers operates from the hotel’s own canal, which makes it the obvious base if diving is the point of the trip. This is a modest inn rather than a designed boutique hotel, and there have been some housekeeping complaints this year; we include it because it is genuinely small, genuinely local and genuinely good value.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Budget & Value
Grand Bahama’s one clear advantage over Nassau: it is cheap. Rooms start around ninety-five dollars.
Castaways Resort and Suites
A hundred and eighteen rooms with balconies a short walk from the centre of Freeport, with a pool, a poolside bar, the Flamingo restaurant, a fitness room and a tour desk. It is not on the water, so the free beach shuttle is not a nicety but a necessity. Straightforward, inexpensive and perfectly pleasant for what it is. One thing to note if it applies to you: Castaways permits no pets and no service animals. Call the hotel a day or two before you travel — the booking listings still ask guests to confirm in advance.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Bell Channel Inn
The other genuine value on the island, and the better of the two if you would rather be on the water than in the town. Rooms from around a hundred and nineteen dollars, children stay free, and Port Lucaya is close enough to walk to for dinner.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Family-friendly
Two workable answers, one all-inclusive and one self-catering, and each with a real caveat we would want a grandparent to know.
Viva Fortuna Beach by Wyndham
The only all-inclusive resort on the island: two hundred and seventy-odd rooms on twelve hundred feet of private beach, five places to eat, two bars, a supervised children’s club, nightly shows, tennis, pickleball, kayaks and paddleboards, and introductory scuba. It is the only property in Freeport we found explicitly advertising accessible rooms with roll-in showers, which is worth a great deal to some readers. Three honest cautions: the ocean entry here is rocky and water shoes are a genuinely good idea; this year’s reviews mention damp and dated décor; and at twenty minutes from Port Lucaya you are somewhat captive to the resort, which is fine if that is what you wanted.
Book Me on Trip.com ›The Marlin at Taino Beach Resort & Clubs
A hundred and fifty-seven units with full kitchens and private balconies on Taino Beach — good for a family that wants to spread out and not eat every meal in a restaurant. It has the biggest pool on the island with a lazy river, children’s activities, and a free water taxi across to Port Lucaya Marketplace, which is the single most useful thing about staying here. Be aware of three things: the Ocean building remains closed from earlier storm damage, the pool and lazy river are often out for maintenance, and the on-site restaurant shuts at six, so dinner is an outing. It also operates on a timeshare model — you will be offered a presentation. Decline it politely and enjoy your holiday.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Adults-only
The honest answer is none. There is no adults-only hotel anywhere on Grand Bahama, and we will not pretend otherwise.
No adults-only hotel operates on Grand Bahama
We checked the whole island, not just Freeport. Nothing here operates an adults-only policy. The closest thing available is the quiet adult pool at Pelican Bay, which is atmosphere rather than policy — children are not barred from the hotel. If a child-free week is what you are after in the Bahamas, the honest options are Sandals Royal Bahamian or Breezes in Nassau, or the Riu Palace and the Warwick on Paradise Island. All four are covered in our Nassau and Paradise Island guides.
Browse adults-only hotels in Nassau ›Pet-friendly
Also none, in Freeport or Lucaya. This is a firm negative, and it matters enough to say clearly.
No pet-friendly hotel in Freeport or Lucaya
Filtering the whole of Grand Bahama for pet-friendly accommodation returns four properties and not one of them is a Freeport or Lucaya hotel — they are Old Bahama Bay at West End twenty-five miles away, a remote fishing lodge at the East End, and two tiny guesthouses. Castaways states plainly that it accepts neither pets nor service animals. If you are travelling with a dog, Freeport does not work; Nassau does, with at least eight pet-friendly hotels including the Courtyard by Marriott, which takes dogs up to about 130 pounds. One useful footnote if you are determined to reach Grand Bahama with an animal: the Baleària ferry from Fort Lauderdale does carry pets. You will still need the Bahamian import permit described below.
Browse pet-friendly Nassau hotels ›Beachfront
The beaches on Grand Bahama are the best thing about it — long, empty and pale. Two hotels put you directly on them.
Viva Fortuna Beach by Wyndham
True beachfront on twelve hundred feet of private sand, and all-inclusive, so there is no beach-bar tab running all afternoon. Bring water shoes: the entry to the sea here is rocky in places.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Island Seas Resort
A hundred and sixty-eight units directly on soft sand about two miles from Port Lucaya, all with kitchenettes, plus a pool, a bar, a fitness room and a small day spa. The beach itself is lovely. We would rather you heard the drawbacks from us than discovered them: the on-site grocery, the shuttle and the swim-up bar no longer exist whatever older listings say, the hot tub has been out of action, the Wi-Fi is poor, seaweed can be heavy in season, and this too is a timeshare property with a sales presentation attached. At the price, and for the beach, it still has its admirers.
Book Me on Trip.com ›All-inclusive
There is exactly one all-inclusive resort on Grand Bahama. The other one closed. If a website is selling you an all-inclusive package at the Grand Lucayan or at Memories, it is selling something that does not exist.
Viva Fortuna Beach by Wyndham
Twenty-four-hour all-inclusive: unlimited meals across five venues, drinks, entertainment, non-motorised watersports and the children’s club, typically somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty-five dollars per person per night. That is remarkable value by Bahamian standards and it is the reason most people who holiday on Grand Bahama choose it. Spa treatments are extra.
Book Me on Trip.com ›There is no second all-inclusive — and two names to avoid
Lighthouse Pointe was the island’s other all-inclusive; it closed with the Grand Lucayan in October 2025 and the site is being demolished. Memories Grand Bahama has been shut since Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and never reopened. Both are still bookable on major travel websites, which is a real hazard rather than a curiosity — people arrive at a locked gate. If a rate on either name looks unmissable, that is why. Verify by telephone before you pay for any Freeport hotel; the listings on this island are the least reliable we have encountered anywhere.
Browse hotels that are actually open ›Spa & Pool
Honestly: there is no true spa hotel left on Grand Bahama. The island’s proper resort spa closed with the Grand Lucayan. What follows is the best of what remains.
Pelican Bay Hotel
The strongest pool offering on the island — three distinct pools, one social by the bar, one by the restaurant, and one kept deliberately quiet for adults. There is no spa on the property. The practical plan we would suggest is to stay here for the pools and the walkable position and book treatments at one of the independent spas around Port Lucaya Marketplace, five minutes away.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Island Seas Resort
Island Seas has a day spa on the property, which makes it the only hotel in Freeport that can claim one. We are flagging it with a caution rather than a recommendation: the spa’s own web page has not been updated since 2022. Telephone the resort and confirm the spa is operating before you book on that basis.
Book Me on Trip.com ›What You Need to Know Before You Book
The honest verdict: should you come at all?
We would rather answer this plainly than sell you a week. Grand Bahama in 2026 is principally a cruise stop with a small residual holiday market. There is no luxury hotel, no adults-only hotel, no pet-friendly hotel and one all-inclusive. Roughly eight hotels are genuinely trading; only two of them rate above four out of five. The old Lucaya resort core is an active demolition site, and the airport is still working out of temporary facilities.
And yet. Port Lucaya Marketplace is open, lively and safe, with real restaurants, shops and live music on flat ground you can walk. The diving and snorkelling are excellent — Deadman’s Reef and the reefs off Paradise Cove — the Lucayan National Park is beautiful, the food is Bahamian rather than resort-manufactured, and rooms cost a third of what Nassau charges. If you want a quiet, inexpensive, unpolished week with good water and good local food, book Pelican Bay and walk to Port Lucaya every evening. If you want an all-inclusive on a beach, book Viva Fortuna. If you want luxury, a spa, an adults-only resort or to bring a dog, go to Nassau, Paradise Island, Exuma or Harbour Island, and look at Grand Bahama again in 2028.
Do not trust the booking sites here
We say this on no other page in the Guild library. On Grand Bahama, the major travel websites are still selling Lighthouse Pointe and Memories Grand Bahama, both of which are closed — Memories since 2016. Before you pay for any Freeport hotel, telephone the property and hear a human being confirm your dates. It takes four minutes and it is the single most valuable thing on this page.
What is being built, and when
Three large projects are under way and none of them is a hotel you can book this year. Carnival’s Celebration Key opened in July 2025 at Sharp Rocks, twenty miles east of Port Lucaya — a six-hundred-million-dollar private beach destination for Carnival ships, with a pier expansion finishing in July 2026. It brings day visitors, not overnight guests, and there is no accommodation there. Royal Caribbean bought the shuttered Xanadu Beach Resort in May 2026 and is building a private beach club on the site; Xanadu will not reopen as a hotel, and completion is unlikely before 2028. And the Grand Lucayan site is being cleared for a redevelopment that is meant to include a five-hundred-and-fifty-room Hilton, an MSC beach club, two casinos and a marina, targeted at early 2028. That is where new hotel rooms will come from. Treat every date with healthy scepticism.
Getting there
Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO) was very badly damaged by Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 and has been operating out of temporary facilities ever since; reconstruction finally mobilised in January 2026, so expect a building site and an unglamorous arrival for the next year or two. Flights are thin but useful: Miami with American, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando with Bahamasair and others, seasonal Charlotte, and frequent thirty-minute hops from Nassau. There is also the Baleària fast ferry from Fort Lauderdale, about three hours, fares from around $235 — a pleasant alternative, and the one option that carries pets. There is no passenger ferry from Nassau.
Getting around
Port Lucaya and its immediate hotels are walkable; nothing else is. Taxis are the sensible way to move between Freeport town, Lucaya and the beaches, and fares are set by zone rather than metered — agree the price before you get in. A rental car makes more sense here than in Nassau if you intend to see the Lucayan National Park or drive out to West End, but remember the Bahamas drives on the left while most rental cars are left-hand-drive American models. Roads outside town are unlit at night.
Money and safety
The Bahamian dollar is pegged one-for-one to the US dollar, both circulate, and there is nothing to change. VAT is ten per cent. The US State Department advisory of 28 July 2026 places the Bahamas at Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, and names Freeport alongside Nassau as where crime concentrates — in practice that means the ordinary sense you would use in any unfamiliar town: stay in the tourist districts, do not walk deserted beaches after dark, and use licensed taxis. Firearms and ammunition are absolutely prohibited, including a stray round in a bag.
Entry paperwork
Americans, Canadians and Britons need no visa; a valid passport is the practical requirement for arriving by air. A Digital Arrival Card entered a soft launch on 5 May 2026 on selected flights and runs alongside the paper form for now. Freeport, like Nassau, offers US preclearance when it is staffed, so allow extra time for your flight home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Grand Lucayan open?
No. The Grand Lucayan — including Lighthouse Pointe, its last operating wing — stopped taking guests on 20 October 2025. Staff were let go over the following winter, the electricity was disconnected in March 2026, and demolition of the site began on 14 April 2026. A large redevelopment including a 550-room Hilton and an MSC beach club is planned, with completion talked about for early 2028; that project has slipped repeatedly and we would not book around the date. Several major travel websites still sell Lighthouse Pointe rooms. Those listings are dead.
How many hotels are actually open in Freeport?
About eight that we would call genuinely trading: Pelican Bay, Bell Channel Inn, Castaways, Viva Fortuna Beach, The Marlin at Taino Beach, Flamingo Bay, Ocean Reef and Island Seas. Only two of them — Pelican Bay and Bell Channel Inn — rate above four out of five. The rest cluster around three, with recurring complaints this year about damp, maintenance and amenities that no longer work. That is the honest state of the island's hotel stock.
Is there an all-inclusive resort on Grand Bahama?
One: Viva Fortuna Beach by Wyndham, on twelve hundred feet of private beach at Fortuna Beach, with five dining venues, drinks, entertainment, non-motorised watersports and a children's club included, typically $80–$125 per person per night. There is no second one. Lighthouse Pointe closed in October 2025 and Memories Grand Bahama has been shut since Hurricane Matthew in 2016 — both are still, wrongly, bookable online.
Is Freeport worth a holiday, or is it just a cruise stop?
Both answers are true and it depends what you want. If you want luxury, a spa, an adults-only resort, a wide choice of restaurants inside your hotel, or to bring a dog, Freeport cannot give you those in 2026 and Nassau, Paradise Island, Exuma or Harbour Island can. If you want a quiet, genuinely inexpensive week with superb diving and snorkelling, empty beaches, the Lucayan National Park, real Bahamian food and a walkable evening at Port Lucaya Marketplace, it is very good value indeed and much less crowded than Nassau.
What is Celebration Key and does it affect my stay?
Celebration Key is Carnival's six-hundred-million-dollar private beach destination at Sharp Rocks, on the eastern end of Grand Bahama, which opened in July 2025 and is expanding to four berths in July 2026. It is twenty miles from Port Lucaya, it is exclusive to Carnival passengers, and it has no hotels — guests sleep on the ship. So it will not affect a stay in Freeport or Lucaya directly. What it does mean is a great many more day visitors on the island as a whole, and rather more construction traffic.
Can I bring my dog to Freeport?
Not practically. No hotel in Freeport or Lucaya accepts pets, and Castaways states that it takes neither pets nor service animals. The only pet-friendly accommodation on the whole of Grand Bahama is at West End, twenty-five miles away, at a remote East End fishing lodge, or in two very small guesthouses. Nassau has at least eight pet-friendly hotels and is the sensible alternative. Whichever island you choose, every animal entering the Bahamas needs an import permit from the Department of Agriculture, obtained in advance, plus a veterinary health certificate issued within ten days of travel.
How do I get to Freeport?
By air, mainly from Miami with American, from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando with Bahamasair and smaller carriers, seasonally from Charlotte, and by frequent thirty-minute hop from Nassau. Grand Bahama International Airport is still working from temporary facilities after Hurricane Dorian in 2019 — reconstruction only mobilised in January 2026 — so arrivals are functional rather than comfortable. There is also the Baleària fast ferry from Fort Lauderdale, roughly three hours, from about $235, which is the only option that carries pets. There is no passenger ferry from Nassau.
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