Requirements for Our Trip to the Atlantis Resort Bahamas

In June of 2011, my family and I took a trip to Atlantis Resort Bahamas. After a great deal of deliberation and research using Expedia Atlantis and TripAdvisor, we decided Atlantis Resort Bahamas was one of the best family fun vacation packages we were looking for.

Our Trip Requirements

When researching family fun vacation packages, we were after a few very specific things. Some requirements dealt with availability of time, cost, and activities for the kids. Perhaps it will be helpful for anyone researching the Atlantis Resort Bahamas as a vacation destination to see the criteria we used to identify this as one of the key family fun vacation packages we identified:

1. No Red Eye Flight

We have two kids 10 and under and even though both of them have been on at least 30 flights in their lives, the last thing we wanted to do was put everyone through a red eye flight. I have seen this too many times – people research family fun vacation packages and don’t think that the red eye flight is a factor. Seems like a quick and easy way to get to your destination! However, our experience is that everyone gets so run down by this that it takes 2 to 3 days to recover.

The downside to choosing not taking a red eye for us was that we need to do an overnight in Toronto on our way to Atlantis Resort Bahamas. We left late in the afternoon, arriving in Toronto around 8:00 pm. This allowed us to check into the Sheraton Airport Hotel, get a good night sleep and catch the first flight out to the Atlantis Resort Bahamas.

2. One Location Where We Had Everything in One Resort

Many family fun vacation packages are designed so that you need to do some extra travelling to really experience an area. We really wanted to relax and this meant that we would hunker down in one location and really enjoy that location. One of the beauties of Atlantis Resort Bahamas is that everything is accessible on the resort so if you really want, you never need to leave the resort.

3. Lots of Water Activities Available

Atlantis Resort Bahamas is all about water activities – well almost all about water activities. Essentially the whole resort is based around a large waterpark that includes a number of water slides, rivers where you ride on tubes and travel through rapids, and great big pools. Pretty much all of our days were spent in the water on the resort. There is also a couple of beaches available where you can swim in the ocean. There are many family fun vacation packages available that revolve around water, but Atlantis is a really good choice.

4. Access to Snorkelling

Although my whole family is not big snorkelers, I am and I was keen to get my son into it as well. As a 10 year old, he is old enough to swim in the ocean and breath through a snorkel at the same time. For our trip is was important that we had snorkelling as an option. As Atlantis Resort Bahamas is on the island of Nassau, which is world renowned for the scuba and snorkelling options. We chose Stuart Cove’s snorkelling adventure, and actually got to snorkel with sharks (more on that in future posts).

5. A Hotel Room with a Kitchenette

Atlantis on a budget is not something you will hear said very often. It is an expensive resort. That being said, we had a budget and needed to stick to that. One of the best ways to deal with vacation costs is to find a family fun vacation packages where hotels have a kitchenette. In our research we identified that The Reef Atlantis had very nice rooms with a kitchenette that included a stove, fridge, toaster, coffee maker, pots, pans, etc. This allowed us to top at a grocery store before arriving at The Reef Atlantis to stock up and eat a number of our meals (mainly breakfast and lunch) in the room. The cost savings were huge, even at an expensive place like Atlantis Resort Bahamas.

Summary

Picking a vacation destination is hard. However, we approached it with some specific criteria in mind an that helped us narrow our choice down to Atlantis Resort Bahamas. With all the family fun vacation packages available, this was one place we wanted to try. We were not disappointed.

Have you stayed at the Atlantis Resort Bahamas? If so, how did you decide to make the trip? Please use the comments below to let us all know.