Nassau and Paradise Island are the cruise-and-resort door. The trip people remember is a Family Island: the Exumas' water and the swimming pigs near Staniel Cay, Harbour Island's pink sand and golf carts, Eleuthera's long skinny roads, or Andros if you came to dive. Bahamasair, charter hops, mailboats, and Bahamas Ferries are the real geography — not a single island you can Uber across.
The Bahamian dollar (BSD) sits at par with the US dollar; USD is everyday cash. English is official; Bahamian dialect is what you hear on the dock. Eat conch — cracked, salad, fritters — and johnnycake; Junkanoo is the Boxing Day and New Year's parade clock, not a Saturday dinner show you can book like a luau.
Lynden Pindling (NAS) is the hub. BTC and Aliv cover New Providence more thickly than a mailboat stop on a thin cay. An eSIM live at immigration means the water-taxi pin, the Tropic Air-style hop confirmation, and the Harbour Island golf-cart shop are not a hunt for a BTC desk behind a cruise-ship day.