PELICAN BAY HOTEL

Pelican Bay is the best-kept address on Grand Bahama, and the only one of the four we sell in Freeport whose recent reviews do not describe decline. It holds first place among the town's hotels, with 4.1 out of 5 across more than eleven hundred reviews.

It sits on Bell Channel Bay, at the heart of Port Lucaya, a ten-minute walk from the marketplace, the restaurants and the life of the district. One hundred and eighty-six rooms and suites, three pools and a swim-up bar.

One limit to know up front: there is no beach on site. The hotel makes up for it with a free ferry, and we explain how that works below.

The beach question, settled honestly

The hotel faces a channel, not the ocean. So it has no sand outside the door, and that is its main limit.

Two solutions exist, and they work well. First: a free hourly ferry to Taino Beach, one of the island's fine beaches. Second: Lucaya Beach is about an eight-minute walk away.

Put another way, you will have the beach every day if you want it, but you will not have it from your balcony. For sand at the hotel itself, look at Viva Fortuna Beach or Island Seas, with the maintenance trade-offs we describe on their pages.

The best location on Grand Bahama

This is the decisive argument. The Port Lucaya Marketplace is a ten-minute walk away, about five hundred metres. It holds the restaurants, the shops, the bars, the evening music and the excursion operators. You need neither a taxi nor a car to go out for dinner, which no other hotel on the island allows.

Freeport airport sits about fifteen minutes away, roughly ten kilometres.

The rooms

One hundred and eighty-six units: ninety Waterside rooms and ninety-six Waterside Suites. The suites add space and pastries in the morning.

One thing to know: the stock is uneven. Part has been renovated, part remains dated. Recent reviews describe clean, well-maintained rooms while noting that some look old-fashioned. Ask your advisor to note a preference for a renovated unit at 1 866 628-6241.

Eating on site and nearby

Sabor, in an open pavilion over the water, serves American, Bahamian and Asian fusion cooking. The Garden Delite handles breakfast on the fourth floor. Bones Bar is the swim-up bar.

The hotel runs on the European plan: no meals are included, and the buffet breakfast costs extra. That fits the location, since Port Lucaya offers dozens of tables five minutes away on foot. Anyone wanting the wristband formula should look at Viva Fortuna Beach, the island's only all-inclusive.

Three pools, one for peace

Three basins, one of them quieter and away from the activity, plus the Bones Bar swim-up. It is a layout appreciated by couples and by travellers who do not want music all day.

What to know before booking

Three reservations come out of recent reviews, and none is disqualifying.

Noise from a neighbouring construction site, on the north side, disturbs the pool surroundings on weekdays. The Wi-Fi, though free in the rooms, is described as temperamental. And some rooms, as noted above, need refreshing.

The minimum check-in age is twenty-one. Children are welcome, cribs are free and a rollaway bed is charged daily. Parking is free.

Freeport in 2026

Grand Bahama passed one million visitors in 2025 for the first time in more than twenty-two years, carried by the opening of a major cruise destination on the island's east side. Air arrivals grew about twenty percent and now exceed pre-Dorian levels.

The hotel stock, however, remains tiny: a few hundred rooms for the whole island. The major Lucaya redevelopment project began demolition in April 2026, with a 2028 opening target that remains to be confirmed. The full overview sits on Freeport travel.

Who this address suits

It suits travellers who want to go out on foot in the evening, couples, divers and anglers heading out from Port Lucaya, business visitors, and anyone who prefers a clean, well-kept hotel to a tired resort with a beach.

It suits less well anyone who wants to wake up facing the ocean, anyone after an all-inclusive, and families who want sand in sight. The whole archipelago sits on Bahamas travel, and other sun destinations on all-inclusive vacations.