Rosewood Baha Mar

The telegraph cable that first linked Nassau with Florida came ashore in 1892 on a long beach west of the town, and the beach has carried its name ever since. More than a century later Cable Beach became the site of Baha Mar, a development of three hotels, a casino, a golf course and a convention centre on the north shore of New Providence. Rosewood Baha Mar is the smallest of those hotels, a luxury hotel in Nassau with its own stretch of sand and its own pools, set apart from the casino floor.

History

Baha Mar was conceived by the developer Sarkis Izmirlian, who assembled land and older hotels along Cable Beach in the 2000s. Construction began in 2011, financed largely by the Export-Import Bank of China, with China State Construction as the main contractor. The opening was set for December 2014, then slipped, and in June 2015 the developer filed for bankruptcy amid a dispute with the contractor over delays.

The buildings then stood almost complete for two years. In 2016 the project passed to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the Hong Kong group controlled by the Cheng family, which also owns Rosewood Hotel Group. Baha Mar opened in stages from April 2017, with the Grand Hyatt first, and Rosewood Baha Mar took its first guests later that year. The Rosewood name goes back to Dallas, where Caroline Rose Hunt founded the company in 1979.

Architecture and design

The hotel stands to one side of the Grand Hyatt towers, arranged around gardens and pools that open towards the sea. What sets it apart hangs on the walls. Baha Mar decided early to assemble the largest collection of Bahamian art anywhere, buying and commissioning paintings, sculpture, photography and textiles from artists of the islands, and the Rosewood carries a large share of it in its rooms, corridors and public spaces. The Current, an art centre and gallery within the resort, shows the work of Bahamian artists and runs classes and studio sessions for guests. For a visitor who has only seen Nassau from a cruise pier, it is a quick education in the painters of the islands.

Rooms and suites

Accommodation is divided between rooms, suites and a small number of beachfront villas with private pools. Most rooms look out to sea from balconies or terraces, over the shallow turquoise water of the bay. Rosewood Explorers, the brand's programme for children, has its own club on site, so families can use the beach without crossing into the busier parts of the resort.

Dining

The hotel runs its own restaurants and bars, including a restaurant at the edge of the beach. Guests can also eat across the wider Baha Mar estate, where dozens of restaurants and bars are spread among the three hotels and the casino. Conch, grouper and spiny lobster, the staples of Bahamian cooking, appear on most menus along Cable Beach.

Wellness

Sense, A Rosewood Spa, is the hotel's own spa. ESPA at Baha Mar, the larger spa of the resort, is shared with the other hotels. The Rosewood's pools face the sea and are kept for its own guests, while the wider estate adds more pools, fitness rooms and the water sports of the beach.

Weddings and events

Ceremonies are held on the beach and on lawns facing the sea, and the hotel has its own function rooms for receptions and dinners. Larger conferences and gala events use the Baha Mar Convention Centre, which serves all three hotels and is one of the largest meeting venues in the Caribbean.

Location

Cable Beach lies on the north coast of New Providence, about fifteen minutes by road west of downtown Nassau and about ten minutes from Lynden Pindling International Airport, which makes it one of the easiest Caribbean resorts to reach from the eastern United States. Royal Blue, the 18-hole golf course of Baha Mar, was designed by Jack Nicklaus. In the old town, Bay Street, the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle are the usual first stops, and Paradise Island lies across the harbour. The water off Cable Beach is calm for much of the year. The hurricane season runs from June to November, and the winter months, with dry weather and cooler nights, are the high season.