We have always wanted to visit Exuma islands in the Bahamas, and finally made the trip to stay at Sandals Emerald Bay The hotel has a stunning beach and beautifully lush gardens, features 11 diverse restaurants, each offering different cuisines, along with an 18-hole golf course and several pools - including the party pool with a swim-up bar and live entertainment and the secret spa pool. My favorite part of the Sandals brand is that the all-inclusive package is truly all-inclusive and includes unlimited dining, premium liquors, land and water sports, scuba diving, airport transfers, and gratuities.

And my favorite thing about staying at a Sandals Resort is....

That SCUBA diving is completely included if you are already certified! Brandon and I don't SCUBA nearly as much as we would like to because it can be quite expensive, but here you can dive every single day if you want with no added charge - that is such a treat for us!

Some highlights from our dive included picking up live conchs off the ocean floor, swimming through small sea cave holes and following a giant lobster crawl for quite some time - a rare sighting in the daytime. 

For those new to diving, Sandals offers the PADI Open Water Diver course, which allows guests to become certified divers during their stay. The course includes classroom sessions, pool training, and open-water dives, all conducted by professional PADI instructors - although this is an additional fee. We actually got our certifications at Sandals South Coast a few years ago and it was a great way to complete the course.

One other surprising included activity at Sandals is golf - check out this course overlooking the water and the bay of the resort.

But my favorite thing about Exuma is just the natural beauty of the beach here - the sand is so pure, soft, and bright-white with just a hint of pink from the coral, and the water is crystal clear blue. 

Just a few of the shells I found on a quick walk down the beach.

The most impressive part of this resort is the grounds, there is lush greenery and endlessly blooming flowers at every turn.

The bay is angled so the sun rises over the water, and doesn't set on this side of the island - but the skies and water still turn dreamy cotton candy colors at sunset.

Brandon thoroughly enjoyed the Martini Bar before our dinner at La Parisienne. This was one of our favorite restaurants at the resort - we particularly loved the french onion soup and the lamb shanks!

Kimono's Japanese Teppanyaki is always a highlight.

But I think our favorite meal overall was an Indian dinner at Bombay - everything here was so good, they were able to make it extra spicy for us, and the restaurant had a very fun ambience!

Until the next one!