Renovated: Wyndham Nassau Resort

The first group scuba diving trip that I made with my dive club, Oceanblue Divers, was to Nassau in the Bahamas, where we stayed at the Wyndham Nassau on Cable Beach and dived with Stuart Cove's. [See photos and shark diving videos.]

The dive operation at Stuart Cove's has a bit of a reputation for driving "cattle boats," but my overall impression was quite favorable. I found the operation to be well organized, the boats and facilities to be in great shape, and the staff to be helpful. Then again, our large group (31 people) was a herd of cattle in itself, so maybe it didn't seem like a cattle boat because we all knew each other.

My impression of the Wyndham, however, was altogether different. This place looked like it had been a fantastic resort—30 years ago. Paint was peeling off everywhere, the hot tub was hot on only one of the four days we were there, the decor was all 1970s pastels, many fixtures didn't work, and more. My favorite example was the window shade in our room: a piece of plywood.

However, I just read that the Wyndham finished a top-to-bottom refurbishment in January. They completely renovated 304 of their rooms (including flat screen TVs and refrigerators), they refinished the exterior, they overhauled the whole pool area... in short, they seem to have fixed most of the major issues.

Add together these renovations, my favorable opinion of Stuart Cove's and an outstanding special as low as $415 per person for a 3-night/2-diving-day package, and you've got a recipe for an excellent long weekend of scuba diving.