An early June, 2017 visit to Kamalame Cay in the Bahamas

Ever since we returned from a trip to Alphonse Island in the fall of 2016, we've been searching for a roughly comparable resort in the Western Hemisphere that we can get to without the 30 plus hours of flight time it takes to get to the Seychelles from our homes in Colorado or Arizona.  It hasn't happened yet despite having been to three different places in Belize and this one to Andros Island in the Bahamas.

OK. That having been said Kamalame is definitely the closest attempt yet.  The bungalow accommodations were nominally better than those on Alphonse, and the food clearly was comparable, albeit in a different sense.  It's also still not easy to get to the outer island of Andros in a single day as the flights from the Western USA require an overnight stay in Nassau followed by a very early morning or late afternoon flight from there to the resort.

Rather than go into more detail here about this upscale operation, if interested in understanding it better, just click http://www.kamalame.com and check it out for yourself.

Made a short video of the resort itself with lots of pictures of the great food!

 

The whole operation is extremely well put together and run.  We opted for a beach bungalow unit and found it great.  High ceilings with a fan, good air conditioning, both an indoor and outdoor shower, and the building is nicely situated right on the edge of the beach with perfect 180 degree views.  While we were roughly two miles from the main lodge and dining pavilion, the provided golf cart made short work of getting back and forth.

The beach was great for walking - at least three miles long and the walk could be stretched by trekking further around the north shore of the island.  Food was outstanding, definitely gourmet all the way, and there were no misses at all.  We enjoyed having a variety of menu options at all meals, though really only took lunch and dinner in the "great house" due to the quality of the continental breakfast that was delivered to our bungalow every morning.  To put that in more perspective, it was a basket full of goodies, eggs, croissants, fresh o.j., Greek yoghurt, various fresh fruits, and a thermos of good coffee.

And yes it is a pricey place.  Like they say, if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.  Sorry about that.  See the web site above for more info.

Now for the not so good part of this trip, and one which might make a return here a deal killer..........the fishing.  Recognizing that we did not (and do not) use guides and we also had never fished the Bahamas before, the fishing was still marginal from our perspective.  Yes we did catch a number of species each day - a few bones, a variety of snappers, some nice jacks, plenty of barracuda, some juvenile tuna and similar permit, and I did get to hook and play a smallish (maybe 30 pound) nurse shark.  But compared to what we can do at Alphonse, the fishing really didn't come close to meeting our hopes and expectations.  Yup, Alphonse is really the ultimate spoiler that way.

Would we return here.  You bet.  It's a great place with a very nice staff, but we'll first look around for another "nirvana" experience recognizing that we're not likely going to find one outside the Seychelles.

Here's a short video with some clips of what we were catching on the trip: