Romantic Getaway: Deep Water Cay

The Bahamas is one of my new top five favorite countries. When I jetted off there for an island-hopping two weeks back in October, I stayed at some of the most romantic places I’ve ever been. As couples strolled down beaches hand-in-hand and dined over candlelit dinner, I was missing Tim more than ever. Lucky for us, a mere six months later I was back in The Bahamas and this time with Tim at Deep Water Cay.

Adventures are always better with the one you love

It was bittersweet since it was the last trip we’ll be taking together for a while. Though our primary purpose for visiting Deep Water Cay was to complete our dive certification and check a major item off our bucket list, there was plenty of time for romance during our week long trip on the private Bahamian island. It was perfect way for us to get a bit of relaxation in and just just enjoy our time together before Tim moved to South Korea for  work and I moved to Bordeaux.

Deep Water Cay is its own private island located off the east end of Grand Bahama Island. I don’t want to call it a resort because Deep Water Cay is more like you’ve jetted off to visit your friends who just happen to own a fabulous island in The Bahamas. It’s a world class bone fishing lodge, but you certainly don’t have to be in to fishing to enjoy all this beautiful island has to offer.

Couples That Adventure Together, Stay Together

For a private island just over two miles long, there’s a lot to do for the non-angler.

Enjoying the colorful underwater world at Deep Water Cay

Like I mentioned, our primary purpose for visiting Deep Water Cay was to complete our NAUI open water dive certification. The island is situated close to excellent dive sites and blue holes. Our private dive certification course coupled with the gorgeous setting we got to complete it in couldn’t have been more perfect. Just looking at the photos again, we’re itching to go back and put our new NAUI diver cards to use!

If you’re already dive certified, you can take advantage of the excellent diving and swim throughs like my friends Kristin and Scott from Camels & Chocolate did when they visited Deep Water Cay just a few months before. See why we want to go back for more diving?

We saw starfish of all colors on our drift snorkel

If diving isn’t your thing but you love snorkeling, you won’t want to miss drift snorkeling. I’d never heard of drift snorkeling until I visited Ship Channel Cay in the Exumas a few months before, but it was such an awesome experience that I couldn’t wait to do it again off of Deep Water Cay.

It was even better than the drift snorkel I did in the Exumas! Drift snorkeling is snorkeling in a current that carries you along. While the drift snorkeling I did in the Exumas carried me along the beach, it only lasted about five minutes. You could get out, make the trek down the beach and do it again.

At Deep Water Cay though, the drift snorkel carried us for a good 20 minutes and we could have kept going had we not been having a picnic lunch on an uninhabited island we let the current carry us to. We saw so many starfish in all varieties of colors that I lost count. I was thrilled, especially since I didn’t see a single starfish during my entire two week trip a few months before. We also saw a ton of colorful reef fish, including a lionfish. I’d been dying to see a lionfish in the ocean ever since Tim got me one for our salt water aquarium for my birthday years ago.

Biking around the completely unspoiled Deep Water Cay

When we needed to let our fingers de-prune, we grabbed some bikes and pedaled to the secluded beach at the opposite end of the island…

If you ask nicely, the staff will pull coconuts right out of the palm trees and chill them for a refreshing poolside treat!

…or sipped chilled coconuts poolside while getting our tan on.

Getting competitive with each other over cornhole

We got a little competitive over games of cornhole…

Collecting sand dollars on the flats when the tide is out

…and over who could collect the most sand dollars from the flats when the tide goes out.

Deep Water Cay also has kayaks and paddle boards that guests can use. We wanted to kayak around the island, but we’d actually gotten a little too much sun during our week in the pool and out on the dive boat. You tend to forget about sunscreen when you’re focused on setting up your tank, BC and regulator. Oops!

Our home for our week on Deep Water Cay

Romantic Cottages

I already said that Deep Water Cay isn’t like a resort, and that’s a good thing. At Deep Water Cay, private houses dot the island and afford guests the ultimate privacy.

Each house is painted its own candy color, reminding me of the colorful houses that adorably dot Hope Town in the Abacos. Our home for our week long stay was the two-bedroom Founders House with a wrap around porch and full kitchen situated steps away from the sandy beach that stretches all along Deep Water Cay’s backside.

Our living room in Founder’s House

How would you like to wake up to this view every day?

It’s a split style house with each of the bedrooms, both of which have their own full ensuite bathroom, located on either side of the living room. This layout offers plenty of privacy if you’re sharing the house with another couple or with your family.

Romance is not having wifi or a tv. There are no distractions what-so-ever; just the two of us enjoying each others company and the pristine waters that lap at Deep Water Cay.

We had our own private stretch of beach

The houses are spaced a fair distance apart, so when you’re hanging out in your house or on the stretch of beach in front of your house, it definitely feels like you’re the only ones on the island. And you very well may be during the daytime if you’re not there to bone fish!

Romantic Dinners

Each nice we’d put on our best island casual and join the other guests for sunset cocktails and appetizers in the bar. The notes of island tunes danced across the infinity pool and if your fella is the romantic type, you might convince him to take you for a spin around the dance floor (err, pool deck) before dinner.

Dinner each evening is a group affair in the Clubhouse where you have the chance to chat with Deep Water Cay’s other guests. Of course, if you desire a more intimate dining experience, there is a private dining room and the staff can arrange for you to dine in your cottage upon request.

Locally caught stone crab, lobster and key lime pie

There’s a set menu each night and the three-course dinner typically features the freshest local catch, though the prime rib was also delicious. Stone crab, which have a much shorter season than lobster, just happened to be in season during our May visit. I don’t know what it is about crab and lobster, but they’re always an aphrodisiac.

The tan will fade, but the memories will last a lifetime! That’s it for us and we hope that you’ve enjoyed this look at Deep Water Cay through our eyes over the last week. ?: @luxeadventuretrvlr #ItsBetterinTheBahamas #explorethebahamas #traveltuesday

A photo posted by Deep Water Cay (@deepwatercay) on May 24, 2016 at 6:17pm PDT

Deep Water Cay might just be a world class bone fishing lodge, but they certainly proved to us that you don’t need to be a fisherman to enjoy this private Bahamian Out Island. Between the gorgeous dive sites, plenty to do between dives, waves lapping at the beach just outside our cozy cottage and the excellent food, we couldn’t have spent our last trip together anywhere better.

Our trip and NAUI Open Water Diver certification program was provided by Deep Water Cay in order to bring you this story. However, Luxe Adventure Traveler maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and enthusiasm for travel are entirely our own.