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Nassau, The Bahamas, has long ranked high as a playground for the rich and famous. Beyond pleasure and relaxation, it's no accident that the chartered banks of Nassau make The Bahamas one of the most favored tax havens in the world. Where else can business and pleasure be so comfortably and discreetly blended?
The centerpiece of Nassau is Paradise Island, connected by a bridge to the city core. The bridge can be walked or cabbed, but speedy boat taxis are available to connect with dockside limo services in minutes.
Paradise Island has its own small international airport with its own Customs office. Mostly, it caters to private planes and its 3,000-foot runway can accommodate most of them.
From there, if glitz beyond the best of Las Vegas is the objective, the pampered traveller can be whisked cross-island to Atlantis. Sol Kerzner, who built South Africa's renowned Sun City, acquired Atlantis from Merv Griffin in 1994 and, nearly $200 million of additional investment later, transformed it into one of the most hedonistic pleasure domes in the world.
Here is the glamor of a huge casino to rival Vegas; all lights; click of the roulette ball; clatter of dice, bells and whistles of the slots. Here too are the cordoned quiet alcoves for very serious poker, blackjack, baccarat, which easily rival the Old Worldliness of Monaco's casinos.
Atlantis provides fine dining, Vegas-style revues, pools, beaches, a cavernous aquarium that puts the observer up close and personal with sharks, lumbering sea turtles, sullen groupers, and myriad lesser sea creatures. Service is as one would expect. Excellence is taken for granted. An added frill: nannies can capture a day off because Atlantis provides a year-round day camp for 4-12 year olds.
Also on Paradise Island, a walk if you wish from Atlantis, is the island's most exclusive resort, the Ocean Club. Small and secluded, the club features nine tennis courts and a full-time pro. The Ocean Club hosts two major pro tennis tournaments annually, attracting many of the top seeded tennis professionals.
The Ocean Club is surrounded by thirty-five acres of formal gardens and terraced waterfalls. The gardens were designed by Huntington Hartford, original owner of Paradise Island. Appropriately, the gardens are called the "Versailles Gardens". In keeping with the theme, an authentic twelfth century cloister is also on the property. This was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst and was shipped from France and re-erected stone by stone.
Truly to get away from the madding crowd, some tourists head for the comforts and seclusion on the main island.
Graycliff Manor stands out for elegance and Old World hospitality. That it was built some 250 years ago by the pirate, Captain John Howard Graysmith, can be put aside; modernization has been undertaken. Winston Churchill has swum in the Graycliff pool. Even the Beatles and Aristotle Onassis. The Ocean Club offers villas with individual pools; Graycliff has cottages.
Another main island hideaway is Silver Cay, which offers primarily small self-contained villas, also with their own pools, and all opening onto the ocean front. For golf, think Clarion Hotel, well off the beaten track. The resort offers both on-the-beach and inland units spread over 130 acres, including a world class golf course and lighted tennis courts.
To food, and, foremost, one must return to Graycliff for the best of the best. Have aides reserve well in advance, especially if a dinner party is planned.
Fine international gourmet dining is, of course, ready for you on Paradise Island. For a French flavor and a wine cellar to complement it, there is the Café Martinique, which gained modest fame in the James Bond thriller, "Thunderball." Also, within the Atlantis complex, are at least three other specialty restaurants. A short stroll from Atlantis, for breakfast, is the Blue Lagoon, which treats it as spendidly as the meal of the day.
The Ocean Club features its Courtyard Terrace; dining exquisitely among palms, flowering shrubs and water fountains. Beef, lamb, lobster, grouper; prepared by chefs who understand individual tastes.
Beyond all this: the concierge at any of these resort complexes can quickly arrange scuba, snorkeling, fishing, golf, tennis, excursions. Just put in your request; one of the best of the frills, to be treated like royalty.
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