[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to two Travel Dads podcast. Here we share our favorite destinations, travel tips, stories from our adventures, and tips for saving money. Be sure to subscribe and check out our detailed show
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[00:00:22] Speaker B: Hey, welcome to another episode of two travel Travel Dads podcast. I'm Rob, your faithful host. And Chris is not with me today, nor is anybody else who normally records with me. But I have one of my super special friends, Miss Angie Orth from Jacksonville to the north of me. She is awesome and fun, and we have lots of fun stories together. And say hi, Angie.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Hi, everyone. Hi, Rob.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Hi. Hi. I'm so excited because we've got two podcast episodes that we get to share with people. And today we're going to be talking about the Bahamas because it seems to really just pull you in and draw you in. And then next month, we get to talk about your upcoming authorial, I don't know, how would you say, your book debut?
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: So, yeah, first, before we dig in, why don't you kind of introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who is Angie Orth?
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Wow, that's such a long and complicated answer. How much time do we have?
[00:01:30] Speaker B: I guess that's why people need to buy your book, right?
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that's where you get all the juicy stuff. This will just be the quick and dirty. I'm Angie. I live in Jacksonville. As Rob said, I've been travel writing, blogging, working in the travel industry for almost 20 years, which seems ridiculous because I'm only 25 years old. That's a lie.
It's a lie. I feel like I'm 25 years old and I have a book coming out. I host a podcast called traveling with AAA. I sometimes do freelance writing, and sometimes I even still travel.
Not all the time like I used to, but fewer and farther between when one owns a home.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the most abbreviated recap of you I've ever heard, which is totally fine, inappropriate. But also, she is a proud parent of the sweetest little pup who just made his way into podcast session. And unfortunately, you can't see him, but he's the cutest. And what's his name?
[00:02:37] Speaker C: His name is Skywalker. He's the cutest boy in the land.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: And what's your other dog's name?
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Leia's household.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: I love know.
[00:02:45] Speaker C: I know. And their cousin is.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Ah. But we're not talking about Star wars today. We're talking about the Bahamas. So tell me, what is the draw of the Bahamas for you? Because I know you've been lots of times you've done some significant life stuff in the Bahamas. What's the scoop? Why do you love it so much?
[00:03:08] Speaker C: So I think for anybody who maybe grew up in Florida, that was the gateway destination to international travel, even though it's just a hop, skip and a jump from Florida. So I think that was the first place I ever went that was a different country. So it kind of held a special place in my heart for that.
But also, I moved to New York in 2006 to work in public relations, and one of my main clients was the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. So in the five years that I was in New York, I was in the Bahamas quite a lot. For press trips, like, I would take journalists down and show them the best of the destination or do like two week video shoots where we'd go to ten different islands and interview all the special people on the island. So I really got to know the destination, maybe even better than some of the people who live there. I've been to more bahamian islands than most Bahamians. They'll tell me that. They're like, I can't believe you've been to that many islands.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: But I have. Islands are there in the Bahamas, so.
[00:04:13] Speaker C: There'S over 700 islands.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Holy cow.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Yes. In the island chain. And the northernmost ones are sort of parallel with, like, west Palm beach, and the southernmost ones are way down by Cuba. So it covers a ton of area, which a lot of people don't know. A lot of people think the Bahamas is Nassau. That's it. It's the cruise port that most people go to, and they think that's sort of the end of it. And it's not. There's just so much more to it. And so there's about 16 major islands that one might want to visit if you had sort of a Bahamas bucket list.
Yeah. And so I worked on that for so long, and years later, even after I didn't work, know, it still holds such a special place in my heart. I really feel like I grew up and kind of came of age in my career in the Bahamas and cut my teeth as a publicist and also got to escape New York Winters for know how lucky is that?
[00:05:14] Speaker B: You know how I feel about New York in general, let alone New York in winter.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: I know. And I would come back in February and I'd be so tan and I'd be so just. Just being able to escape for five or six days, seriously, on somebody else's dime. I really got to see the Bahamas in a way I never would be able to on my own little junior publicist salary.
I know how lucky I am.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah. It's funny because I often think about just in general, how lucky we are with the jobs that we do. But that sounds like next level.
I get to dedicate my life to exploring these very specific niche beaches and that sounds lovely. Little job.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: It was. It was really wonderful for so many reasons. And just because I'm a storyteller and because I really have to believe in whatever it is I'm publicizing, it was easy for me to just fall in love and learn every single thing. I mean, I read every guidebook. I truly became sort of an expert in this destination. And I feel like that has just come with me all throughout the rest of my life. And people ask, know, you've been all around the world. What's your favorite, where's the best beach? And I'm like, it's the Bahamas. It's still the Bahamas, for know. Of course I haven't been to French Polynesia.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: You think? And I haven't been. Our beaches here in North Florida.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: My dude, obviously.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Earl.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Yes. I know you're a huge, like St. Augustine Anastasia kind of beach fan and those are lovely, especially for North Florida. But the Bahamas, like you can have white sand beach, crystal clear water, friendly stingrays, nurse sharks that act like puppies, and you can have it all to yourself. There's no other footprints on the beach. It's just you.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: And you'll just have to show me.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: I'm totally down with that. I really would love to do a group trip to the Bahamas, but it can be kind of complicated to get to some of these further flung.
So got to work on that.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Thinking about complicated in the Bahamas. I know there are. Especially if you live in Florida, there's lots of ways to get run, run through that. How do you get to the Bahamas from Florida? Because I know there's like a ferry, there's cruises you can fly. What's the scoop? How do you get there?
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Like you said, there's a variety of ways. I think probably flying in is maybe the easiest, especially coming from South Florida. There are direct flights into not only Nassau but some of the outer islands that can be a little harder to get to out of, I want to say, like Palm beach and Fort Lauderdale and Miami. You can pretty much get to most of the islands from those airports. So that's great. Makes it easy. There is a ferry that goes out of Fort Lauderdale and it goes to Bimini, which is a pretty small island.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Have you done the ferry before.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: I have not done that ferry. Honestly, I can't find a reason to do it because it takes a little bit longer.
I'm like, I could just fly there. I could just fly there.
But if you don't like to fly or maybe you have a bit more time, then the ferry could be a good option, and then you can take a cruise, which is how the majority of people see the specifically. Say, again, have you done that?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Specifically done the cruise?
[00:08:45] Speaker C: I have. I've been on so many cruises to the Bahamas, and so the majority of them either stop in Nassau or Freeport, Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama was decimated by Hurricane Dorian five or six years ago, seven years. I don't know. It was quite a while ago, but with the pandemic and everything else, they've had a hard time kind of building back. And we were just there earlier this year, and it's fine for a cruise stop, but they've got a lot of infrastructure to fix. Nassau is the capital. There's about 200,000 people living on the island. They get a huge influx of cruise passengers every day. And so that's really how the majority of people see Nassau. And maybe they do a snorkeling excursion or a food tour. They might go stand up paddleboarding. There's a few things that you can do there to kind of explore. They have an incredible pirate museum. It's so fun. Yeah, the boys would love it. It's so fun. It's so cute. Really well done. Some great restaurants. So, yeah, Nassau is a great sort of primer if you're going to the Bahamas, but that's not it.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: So if you hit it with a cruise, you'll get your standard cruise experience.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: But I know that's not my jam.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: No.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: And I'm pretty sure that's not your jam either. So I know you were just there with Alex and you were off exploring. Where were you guys? You seemed like you were on some obscure island.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: We were. We were in Sanyo Key. So Samuel Key is in the Exuma chain. Exuma is one of the 16 larger inhabited islands in the group of 700 islands, and Exuma has 365 islands of its own within that 700. I know it's crazy, but it's the most beautiful place in the world. It's so stunning when you fly in on a little, itty bitty, tiny plane that's the size of my suv into this itty bitty airport, and then you walk over to embrace resort, where we stayed. You literally just walk over there. It's 15 steps from where you just landed and then you're there and Alex's shoes, her flip flops broke on the way over and she just didn't wear shoes the rest of the time. That's sort of the vibe on that island. There's anywhere between 102 hundred people that live on the island. It's really tiny. Like you get a golf cart to cruise around, but you could definitely walk everywhere if you wanted to.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Sounds like.
[00:11:10] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. Very tiny and very insular. And we're like, does anybody do massage here? And the lady comes over because she lives three houses down. We're like, oh, ok. Hey, it's just so Samuel Key is sort of the jumping off point. If you're going to do, if you want to do this like animal safari in the Bahamas, which I like to.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Call it, you know, that's my jam.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: I know. Oh, my gosh, you guys would love it so much. It's so up your alley. So the famous swimming pigs are a seven minute boat ride from Staniel Key. They're very well cared for. They are. They what?
[00:11:51] Speaker B: They're just adorable. The cutest thing.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: They're darling and they do tricks and they actually really do swim. So that's sort of your first stop if you take the tour and then you go to compass key, which is maybe another 20 minutes up the island chain. And that's a marina that has all these friendly nurse sharks swim up on you like they want to be held. They swim up under your hand so you'll pet them just like puppies do. It's just really fun and wild. And you see these folks who are terrified because they're like, oh, sharks. I mean, terrified. They won't even come to the edge of the dock and by the end of it, they've got their hands and feet in the water and they're petting the sharks and it's such a fun experience. And then you go see the iguanas. There's bahamian rock iguanas. They've got their own beach.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Are those the ones that have the little spike that can. I heard about this day that they can, I guess, puncture like a goat's breastbone or breast area or something like that.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: And that's how it. I haven't heard about that. No one told me about the puncturing from these guys.
These are not ones you pet. So, like, you can hug the pigs and you can hug the sharks, but they do not recommend hugging the iguanas. That's not going to go well for you.
So those are sort of like, the three main ones. But then as you're boating around, because you're going from island to island to island, you're seeing the prettiest water you've ever seen. Somebody said once it was like every shade of blue, green, turquoise Gatorade just kind of swirled around, and then it's like, swirled with the sand. If you see it from above, it's these gorgeous patterns and it really looks otherworldly. I think it was the astronauts who said the Bahamas is the most beautiful part of the world to see from space.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: I believe it. I don't want to go to space, but know I would take some drone, right?
[00:13:50] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Alex brought her drone, and we got some excellent footage of us with the piggies. So super fun. Yeah.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: So that place sounds amazing for kind of like an adult escape and a kid escape.
If I were to. Let's just put it out there. If I were going to do a destination wedding in the Bahamas, where would I do that for the best experience? And have you done such a thing?
[00:14:16] Speaker C: Have I ever done such a thing? Listen, we don't have enough time to get into that, but I did get married in the Bahamas, and if I had to say, let me see the worst experience I've ever had in the Bahamas, it was probably the second worst experience I've ever had in the Bahamas. And the worst was when someone was in the book. Yeah, it's in the book a bit, I think, that needs its own story, that needs its own full on screenplay retelling, because that was a big day in my.
Yeah. Alluding to all that. But, yeah, my wedding was a hot mess. We sort of ended up getting married at this place that I'd never worked with before. And I had a lot of confidence because I'd worked with the Bahamas so long, had a lot of confidence that I could just plan anything anywhere. And so I gave them a lot of leeway and didn't sign a lot of contracts, and it was just like, yeah, it's island time. This is how we do things. And then things went very poorly. So I would not recommend that place. And that's all on my blog. I won't say it out loud for defamation purposes, but, yeah, it didn't go great. But, hey, I'm still married, and it's been eight years, so they say the worse the wedding, the better the marriage. So we're doing great.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: There you go, then. Awesome.
So then, for just thinking about us and our family. We've never been Bahamas, but we keep on talking about just kind of plotting.
We decided we want to explore the Caribbean more because we live in Florida. It's so right there. Where would you send us for our first family trip to the Bahamas knowing that we've got a nine year old and a twelve year old. Can you believe Oliver is twelve years old?
[00:16:05] Speaker C: No, I cannot.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: It is ridiculous.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: That does my head in.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: I know.
Where would you send us since you've been to so many different islands?
[00:16:14] Speaker C: This is a very good question. I think I would have to go with the Exumas just for. Which is where I just was. For just sheer amazingness and animal encounters. I think your kids would love it because they're smart and they're well traveled and they don't need to be entertained by, I don't know, traditional methods like water parks. And they like to just be on the beach and explore tide pools and things like that. They really love the outdoors so I think that would be a good spot for them. They don't need like a nightly show kind of situation throughout the Bahamas that.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: There'S a lot of that sort of.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Entertainment not really in Nassau. Yes.
Nassau is the home of Atlantis, which a lot of people know. And Baja Mar, which is sort of a newer version kind of of Atlantis. And you've got your water parks and your 800 swimming pools and your just entertainment and fire shows and casinos.
You've got that. But really the out islands, it's not that at all. It's so quiet. It's so sleepy. When Alex and I were just there, we went to bed at like 09:00 and that was pushing it because there just was not a lot going on. And I'm okay with know I want to spend my energy during the day deep diving and looking for conch shells. That's what I want to spend my energy on. Not really staying up and I don't know, watching a show.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: That's fantastic. So the Exumas is the winner for kind of like that family travel zone of things.
Awesome. Well, a couple other questions and then I will let you go because I know you've got life happening.
So thinking about when is the best time. I know I'm always looking at hurricane season here in Florida and kind of know when I should recommend people come visit us.
I assume that the Bahamas kind of falls in that same zone of the Atlantic hurricane season. Is there a time of year that tends to hit it the most? I know I hear Dorian and I think, gosh, Dorian is probably like July or August.
When is the weather typically the most solid for taking that adventure, would you guess?
[00:18:33] Speaker C: I would say sort of high season.
The best time to travel is maybe from late November to April. So probably not hurricane season. It's not as hot, but I think what a lot of people maybe don't know about hurricane season is it's not the same as like monsoon season where it starts raining one day and it doesn't stop for six months. Hurricane season could be just as nice as the rest of the year. It just depends on if a hurricane comes your way.
So you just don't know.
I never have had to cancel a trip and I couldn't even tell you how many times I've been to the Bahamas and I've never had to cancel a trip for a hurricane.
Most hotels have policies if one's coming, and same thing with flights. It's not so hard to change your flights if a hurricane's coming. The airlines are cool about can usually there's plenty of time to get out. It's not like a hurricane just pops up and there's plenty of time to plan around it. So I actually wouldn't be too worried about planning in hurricane season. But I will say that a lot of the out islands, the smaller islands, so we're talking Exuma, Aluthra, Long Island, Abaco, those ones, a lot of them close in maybe late August, September, October for renovations, for repairs. And because it is sort of the most active part of hurricane season and they know that the visitors aren't going to be coming as much. So that's the time they close down and sort of fix this, fix that, upgrade things.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: So they really do actually have like a shoulder season or an off season.
[00:20:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And truly you wouldn't want to visit during that time because everything closes. All the restaurants, it's really just sort of like throughout the out islands. Now Nassau, you can go to Nassau anytime and it's going to be hopping. But yeah, the out islands you wouldn't want to visit in September or October unless you were going to say there's a club med in San Salvador.
Somewhere around there, there's a club med and then there's a sandals on great exuma. And so that's always open. They don't close for September, October, but the smaller hotels, the mom and pops, the local stuff that would be closed usually.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Gotcha. Interesting. Yeah. That kind of actually surprises me that there's kind of a downtime in destination that never occurred to me. Yeah, good time.
[00:21:08] Speaker C: How about that?
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Well, are there any other little tips that you want to share about planning Bahamas or any other quick little stories that you feel like you just have to get out while we're still on the topic before I let you go.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Well, I could tell you so much juicy, juicy tea about.
I just got a massage last week from the only masseuse in Staniel Key. And being the only masseuse in Staniel Key. Staniel Key is where all the celebrities.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: Well, I wouldn't say Staniel key, but the Exumas in general, so that's where they've got their islands, right? Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Johnny Depp, like Mariah Carey, Tiger woods. Everybody's down there either on their own private islands or on their yachts. So Beyonce. And, like, I'm not even kidding. The famous people are just cruising around, so you could be riding your boat over to the pigs and truly run into a celebrity, but nobody cares. It's just. It's just chill. But at any rate, have you run.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Into celebrities in the Bahamas?
[00:22:12] Speaker C: I did, but not in the Exumas.
The Bahamas hosted the Miss Universe pageant in maybe, like, 2008 ish. Okay.
As the publicist, I was there on the red carpet helping to guide celebrities who were performing at the pageant. And at this time, of course, it was owned and run by Donald Trump, so it was like a whole Heidi and Spencer were there, if you remember them from the don't.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Oh, the people who would always fight.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Yes. And Flow rider, she was performing. She had a very limited, short time music career, and she performed there. And then Flow Rider was there. So I definitely had some experience. Billy Bush, you remember, you know, he was, like, on access Hollywood or so that. That was a time when I saw some. Actually, I have never seen Johnny Depp or anyone in the Bahamas, but I know where all their islands. I have. I have a plan. One day to get a boat, shipwreck it in front of his.
Mean, travel insurance should cover that, right? And then I'll be friends with Johnny Depp, which will be so fun.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: That sounds like a plan, but, I mean, we should talk about travel insurance in a different podcast, because literally, Chris and I just recorded one where we talk about our travel insurance that will not actually cover things. Oh, no, that's a different podcast for a different day. I will get fired up about that. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing all of your insider info and fun stories, and maybe we should have a whole nother thing that literally is just you rattling off all the crazy stories of the Bahamas. And then I can't wait for us to chat about your book in the coming weeks. And then, yeah. Thank you for being with us. And if you are fresh and new to us, you can find Angie
[email protected]. And of course, the instagrams and the TikToks and all that. And then watch for her book coming out. What's the title of your book?
[00:24:18] Speaker C: It's flirting with disaster.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Ooh, I love it.
[00:24:21] Speaker C: Yes. And it comes out March twelveth. But you can preorder it now, and.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: We'Ll dig into that in an upcoming episode. Thanks so much for being with us. And if you'd like to go ahead and hit that subscribe button, go for it. You could find us on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Angie, thanks for being with us.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. This is so much fun. I could do this with you all day long.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: We'll do it again. Don't worry. Have a great day, everyone. Bye bye.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: Two Travel Dads podcast is written and produced by Rob and Chris Taylor in St. Augustine, Florida. Check out past episodes in detailed show
[email protected]. Slash podcast Dash episodes. If you would like to be on to Travel Dads podcast, please send us a note through our website or find out
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