Hotel Paradi$o - Atlantis, Nassau (Atlantis Resort and Casino)

Member Name: Dave_London

Product:	Atlantis Resort and Casino
Date:	11/03/01 (1449 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, friendly warm

Disadvantages: Can be very expensive, Kitch

I spent four nights at the Atlantis resort on Paradise island, Nassau last month, not the kind of place I would normally go but it was free from work, so I went.

This place is a $1bn+ development specifically designed to appeal to US taste and decency - sarcasm right! - it's like wondering onto a film set, imagine Las Vegas in a semi-tropical setting and thats it, everything is just so overdone.

Atlantis is as they claim the 2nd largest aquatic environment in the world, 2nd that is to the sea...they have over 50,000 fish swimming around/through/over the hotel, really nice if your a fish lover i guess.

I suppose I sound ungratefull but everything is so false here, even the walls of this massive (2,000 room) resort are textured to seem as if they are from the lost city of Atlantis.

But it's not all doom and gloom - drinks are not that pricey - around 3 quid for a coctail, food varies - there is a Planet Hollywood type place in the Casion which is reasonable - $50 for a meal for 2 -> American portions, more like meal for 4 in the UK!

Mobile phones don't work here and the hotel phone is $10 per minute!!! so we got our partners to call us at a certain time as from the UK it's like calling the USA.

Big hint...drinks are free if you are playing the Casino tables, I played all four nights on Black Jack - came out $1,000 up and got pissed for free - bargain, my non-gambling friends just bribed the lady bringing my drinks so she gave them free drinks as well i.e. $5 tip for half a dozen drinks.

You can spend a fortune here, the most expensive suite - used by the likes of Michael Jordan, Jackson, Babs Streisand etc goes for $25,000 a night. The most expensive bottle of wine is $17,000 and we got pissed one night and ended up puffing on $27 Havana cigars.

The beach is quite nice, there are massage services, bars and jet bikes for hire - very addictive, 10 of us went out for an hour (you can
bargain them down on price) for $90 each, went around the island - around 10 miles, had a great time - regretted it the next day though, ouch!

Watersports in general are pretty good here, they have a water "slide of death" kind of thing, where you freefall for a split second before going through a plastic tube surrounded by sharks - best done under the influence!

I started this review pessamistically, however I guess like anything this place is what you make it, yes it's over done, very little taste, loads of hype, but the people were at least friendly, it was fun - more than four nights and I would have got boared though. It seemed to be pretty family friendly, just be carefull its not a cheap place, there is a website if you are interested... www.atlantis.com

By the way the airport serving it - Nassau - is a real dump, if you can, take your bags with you in the cabin because they are notorious for loosing baggage.

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