About Bahamas. Permits in Bahamas, country boards, campings.

Officially Commonwealth of the Bahamas, archipelago and state on the northwestern edge of the West Indies. The group occupies an irregular submarine tableland that rises out of the Atlantic depths and is separated from nearby lands to the south and west by deepwater channels.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an English-speaking nation consisting of two thousand cays and seven hundred islands that form an archipelago. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida and the United States, north of Cuba and the Caribbean, and northwest of the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The name comes from the Spanish bajamar, meaning “shallow water.” Formerly a British colony, in 1973 The Bahamas became an independent nation within the Commonwealth.

The capital city, Nassau, is located on the small but important New Providence Island. Other islands, known collectively as the Family Islands, include Grand Bahama, which contains the major settlements of Freeport and West End. In spite of the concentration of the population in urban centres (especially Nassau and Freeport) devoted to tourism, the traditional pattern of small farming and fishing prevails in many villages, notably in the southeastern islands.

An island chain beginning a mere 55 miles east of Miami, Florida, the Bahamas offer an array of tourist hotels, all-inclusive resorts, rustic lodges and cottage rentals. More than three million travellers each year choose the islands as their holiday destination for watersports, sun worship, casino gambling and, on some of the slightly more remote spots, eco-tourism.