Green Turtle Club Resort & Marina

Founded in 1964 and still family-run, Green Turtle Club Resort & Marina is built around the water rather than merely looking at it from a distance. The resort sits on a private harbour on Green Turtle Cay, with rooms, a marina, pools, a restaurant and a pub gathered into one working holiday base. You arrive by boat, settle into island time and keep the evening uncomplicated: dinner, a drink, perhaps some live music under the buttonwood tree.

The place suits divers who want more than a bed between boat trips, but who do not need a large, busy resort. You have a private beach area, a freshwater pool, a second outdoor pool, a restaurant serving every main meal and a historic pub where the walls carry signed dollar bills left by visiting sailors and travellers. English-speaking management is available, so you can deal with the practical details of your stay in English.

Green Turtle Cay belongs to the Abaco islands in the Bahamas and is only about three miles long. The resort is on the island's harbour, in Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas Out Islands, with the water directly beside the property. This is an island reached by boat, not a mainland hotel with a beach added to the brochure.

White Sound Beach is less than a ten-minute walk from your door, while Ocean Beach is about ten minutes on foot or reachable by golf cart. Coco Bay Beach is close to the pool-side rooms and offers calm, shallow water; Bita Bay Beach is a short golf-cart ride away, with two small reefs suited to easy snorkelling. Gillam Bay Beach is about 1.7 miles away by road, useful for a longer white-sand walk, a swim or an afternoon picnic.

New Plymouth, the historic village, is a short golf-cart ride away and gives you galleries, restaurants, shops, museums, the Loyalist Memorial Statue Garden, Albert Lowe Museum, Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar and Ye Olde Jail to explore. Pineapples Bar and Grill is about 1.1 miles away by road, but the Club Restaurant keeps dinner close at hand.

The room choice is mainly about how you want to use the space. The larger room with two queen beds works for a family or a small group who would rather not negotiate every square inch of luggage and wet-weather clothing. The double room with a view suits up to four guests who want the outlook to do more of the talking. Family rooms are available, and children of any age are welcome; children aged 12 and over are charged as adults.

Every room gives you air conditioning, a fan, a small fridge, a private bathroom with shower and hairdryer, a flat-screen TV and a DVD player. The patio with chairs is the useful detail here: somewhere to sit outside without turning the bed into a drying and unpacking station. A fridge also earns its keep when you return hot, thirsty and not remotely interested in searching for ice.

Some waterfront rooms have a private dock, which changes the feel of the stay if stepping outside to the harbour matters to you. Soundproof rooms are available, and daily housekeeping keeps the practical side of a diving week under control. Wi-Fi is available throughout the resort, including in the rooms.

The Club Restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, so the basic rhythm of a diving day does not require a food expedition. The kitchen combines Caribbean cooking with global influences and works with fresh seafood from Abaco. The menu changes each evening, with lobster, fish and exotic-fruit dishes among the ingredients that give dinner a proper sense of place rather than a generic resort feel.

You can eat inside in air conditioning or on the patio. Chef Michael Howell oversees the global-Caribbean fusion menu and the wine selection, while special-diet menus and children’s meals are available on request. Packed lunches are also available when the boat schedule wins the argument.

There is one named bar: The Dollar Bar, also known as The Yacht Club Pub. It is the social headquarters, decorated with sailing pennants and signed dollar bills, including a special one connected with former US president Jimmy Carter. Order the house Tipsy Turtle Rum Punch if that is your sort of post-dive recovery plan; Esquire magazine named it the best rum punch in the Caribbean. Live music by the Gully Roosters takes place on Wednesday evenings under the buttonwood tree, with original songs and reggae classics.

Two outdoor pools give you an easy way to spend the surface interval between one day and the next. The freshwater pool sits higher up in a sheltered, peaceful position, while the Main Club Pool keeps you close to the centre of the resort. Pool and beach towels are available, and the private beach area has sun loungers and parasols for those moments when lying still is the only sensible activity.

The water beyond the harbour offers more than diving. You can arrange snorkelling, fishing, boat excursions, paddleboarding and other on-site water sports, with equipment rental available. The resort also lists wakeboarding, while a nearby golf course is within 3 km. A massage can be arranged on the quiet harbour beach, which is a fairly direct answer to shoulders that have spent the day carrying a cylinder.

On land, the pace stays informal: board games, puzzles, giant Jenga, table tennis, cornhole and hermit-crab races are available. You can hire a golf cart nearby for New Plymouth, island shopping and its galleries, restaurants, boutiques and museums. Wildlife observation and cultural excursions add something to do when the weather, the dive plan or your knees vote for a day above water.

Green Turtle Cay is accessible only by boat. From Treasure Cay International Airport, the journey combines a taxi with a ferry crossing of about 15 minutes, with the resort reached directly at its dock. From Marsh Harbour International Airport, a taxi takes you to the ferry dock for the crossing to Green Turtle Cay. The resort can help arrange airport transfers, and a concierge is available for transport, activities and local planning.

Check-in starts at 15:00 and check-out is by 11:00. You need to show photo identification and a credit card at check-in, and the resort needs your expected arrival time in advance. Cash is accepted as a payment method. The nearby golf-cart hire is particularly useful for reaching New Plymouth and the more distant beaches, since the island is compact but not designed around a conventional mainland road network.

You have free Wi-Fi, daily housekeeping, luggage storage, a tour desk, packed lunches and a shared lounge with television. A minimarket, Gift Shop, Chandlery & Grog Shoppe and Resort Shop cover the small essentials and the inevitable browsing. Laundry facilities are available, and pets are not allowed.