Vacation Home Crush: Best New Beach Development in the Western Hemisphere: Baha Mar

Do we really want to be here? Just posted the dirt on my newest vacation home crush, Baha Mar, over on SecondShelters.com. Seriously, you have to see this place: near perfect climate, clear and warm water, pristine beaches, 5% of the world’s coral reef and the most laid-back, friendly people ever. Of course they are, it’s Nassau in the Bahamas. If you have been to Atlantis, and who hasn’t, you will know the area. Baha Mar is located on Cable Beach, about a ten-minute drive from Nassau’s sparkling new Lynden Pindling International Airport, the largest airport in The Bahamas. All we have to do is get to Miami, and paradise awaits after a thirty minute flight.

Who lives here? The first person on the list is enough to make me run, swim, paddle board over– Sean Connery, who has a place in Lyford Cay. By the way this is where Thunderball, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace were all filmed. Johnny Depp  fell in love with the Bahamas so much whilst filming Pirates of the Caribbean he bought Little Halls Pond Cay island, about 60 miles from Nassau, for $3.6 million. Nicholas Cage has two islands here, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Eddie Murphy have one. Michael Jordan has a home, well, a spread, near Oprah Winfrey, and John Travolta has a place down here as well. Now we know why our Chuck Norris is selling all his Dallas dirt: Chuck has a place on Nassau right near Oprah’s huge white mansion.

So here’s my good news of the day: you don’t have to be a movie star to live here among them! Baha Mar is rapidly finishing up a $3.6 BILLION dollar second home paradise with major players: Grand Hyatt, Mondrian, and our own Rosewood. Think Vegas meets Monte Carlo: vacation homes, hotels, a 100,000 square foot casino, and Jack Nicklaus designed 18-hole Nicklaus Signature golf course. Look at this:

There will be 284 vacation homes in all prices and varieties. Own, enjoy, rent, retire. Because of the generally low cost of living in the Bahamas and the virtual absence of property or income taxes, this is also becoming a top retirement mecca as well as jet-setter playground.

That may also be why you see so many trophy wives and sexy, silvery men in cigarette boats in all the Baha Mar ads. While waiting for luggage at the airport, I wanted to make a quick lipo appointment before stepping a manicured toe on the beach. But that’s just the marketing image. The reality is a relaxed, gracious and friendly environment. Like sand floors in restaurants. 80 percent of Bahamian beaches are isolated: no motorboats or crowds, just miles of infinitely varied shades of blue, green and turquoise water. That’s the thing about the Bahamas: there is just so much to do if you want to be a maniac, or you can just go be a beach hippie and commune with the sea turtles, Bahamian rock iguana, Cat Island terrapin, and Hawksbill turtles.

What is it, 104 out right now?  I can feel that ocean-cooled air.  Said it before, I’ll say it again. It is every Texan’s birthright to have a second home…