GRAYCLIFF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT

Graycliff is not a beach hotel. It is an old stone house on the hill of West Hill Street, facing Government House, run by the same family since 1973, with around twenty rooms furnished in antiques and a AAA Four Diamond rating.

People come for three things: a wine cellar holding more than two hundred and fifty thousand bottles that has held the Wine Spectator Grand Award without interruption since 1988, a cigar factory founded by the man who ran the Cohiba manufactory in Havana, and a building whose history is real, provided you sort what is documented from what is not.

We do that sorting below. It is more interesting than the legend.

The history, sorting fact from legend

The house readily tells of a pirate captain named John Howard Graysmith who built the place in 1740 with the spoils of his schooner. It is a fine story, repeated by the trade press, but no Bahamian record corroborates it. The same goes for the frequently mentioned link between a 1920s owner and Al Capone. Treat these accounts as hotel folklore.

What is solid lies elsewhere, and it is better.

In 1776, during the American naval capture of Nassau, the building served as headquarters and garrison. The West Indian Regiment held prisoners there. The bars on the windows of today's wine cellar come from that prison function: it is the most tangible physical element of the whole story, and you can touch it.

In 1844, the house opened as the first public inn built in Nassau, under Nathaniel French. That is the best-established fact, and the most remarkable.

During the American Civil War the place served as an officers' mess. In the 1940s a Canadian couple, the Waltons, renovated it and added the pool and tropical gardens. In 1966, Lord and Lady Dudley hosted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, he having been Governor of the Bahamas from 1940 to 1945, along with Winston Churchill. Since 1973, the Garzaroli family.

The cellar, and why it genuinely matters

It occupies the former dungeon, beneath the restaurant. More than two hundred and fifty thousand bottles, more than five thousand producers, twenty countries. It is the largest cellar in the Caribbean.

The Wine Spectator Grand Award, held without interruption since 1988, is the magazine's rarest distinction: a handful of establishments worldwide hold it. Three stars from the World of Fine Wine since 2015 sit alongside.

The centrepiece is a Rüdesheimer Apostelwein from 1727, out of the Bremen Ratskeller, presented as the oldest wine bottle in a commercial cellar. An 1865 Château Lafite keeps it company. Next door, La Cognateque gathers nine thousand bottles of cognac, armagnac and port, including fifteen hundred collector pieces.

A wine and cheese tasting runs Monday to Friday in early afternoon: at least eight wines, international cheeses, a cellar tour and a keepsake.

The cigars, and a name that changes everything

The Graycliff Cigar Company was founded in January 1997 behind the hotel. Here is the fact that makes all the difference, and it is documented by the industry's reference publication, not by a marketing department.

The founding master roller was Avelino Lara, first director of the El Laguito manufactory in Havana, the one that produces Cohiba. He was the original maestro of Cohiba production in Cuba. He left the island for Nassau in 1996 and founded the Graycliff brand with the Garzarolis, in the small factory behind the house. He died in Havana in October 2009, aged eighty-eight. His son Abel became a roller here.

Today sixteen master rollers work there, across five house brands. The factory receives visitors daily, for a tour, an hour-long rolling lesson, or a demonstration paired with a rum tasting. A chocolate factory completes the site.

The rooms

Only around twenty units, in the main building or in the gardens, each named and furnished in antiques. Four categories, from the Deluxe at around forty square metres to the presidential suite approaching ninety-two, by way of the Luxury and the Suite with a separate living room. Bulgari toiletries, evening turndown, safe, minibar.

Two outdoor pools accessible around the clock, the main one set with hand-painted tiles. Parking is free, with valet service, and Wi-Fi is provided.

The beach, and the absence of one

Let us be direct: Graycliff has no beach and is not on the water. A paid shuttle runs to Blue Lagoon Island, about twenty minutes away. A traveller who wants to swim every day has to travel every day.

This is a hotel of the city, the table and the past. For a beach week, look instead at Goldwynn or Breezes on Cable Beach, or combine: a few nights here, a few nights on the sand. Your advisor can build that kind of itinerary at 1 866 628-6241.

What to know before booking

The score sits at 4.0 out of 5 across about three hundred reviews, thirteenth among Nassau hotels, and the gap with scores on other platforms suggests the sample mixes restaurant guests with hotel guests.

The complaints are consistent and deserve to be known. The recurring word is tired: several travellers feel the house lives on its reputation. The cooking disappoints some guests relative to the price. Customer service is described as slow to respond. The restaurant dress code was enforced abruptly on at least one guest, turned away in bermuda shorts.

A more structural point: the traffic of outside visitors, in for cigars, the cellar or the restaurant, reduces the privacy of those sleeping on site. The fitness room is small and dark. No resort fee is charged, which is a real advantage against other Nassau addresses.

Continental breakfast is included, served in the morning. Children are accepted, and those under sixteen must be supervised at the pool.

Who this address suits

It suits wine and cigar lovers, travellers drawn to history and old houses, couples who want a singular address in the heart of Nassau, and those combining a few nights in town with a beach stay.

It suits less well families who want daily swimming, travellers who require new, and those seeking absolute quiet. The Nassau overview sits on Nassau all-inclusive, and the archipelago on Bahamas travel.