Driving in The Bahamas: What You Need to Know

by Mariah Moyle, 15 May 2025

I still remember the first time I drove in Nassau. It was during my first visit to the Bahamas, long before living here was even a glimmer in my eye. I had spent two weeks in Nassau while waiting for a new propeller for my sailboat to arrive from the USA after ours had the misfortune of falling off. I spent week one exploring the more industrial downtown port area of Nassau on foot, and then got antsy and decided to rent a car and explore the island.

From the moment I pulled onto the road, I was inexplicably delighted. There was this subliminal, unspoken language between drivers—light taps of the horn, hands waving, cars zig-zagging in what looked like chaos but somehow worked. I wanted to decode it like it was a secret island dialect.

Fast-forward seventeen years and… let’s just say the romance has worn off.

Roundabouts are a free-for-all, cars stop in the middle of the road to “politely” let someone in, and no one received the global memo on using turn signals. But if you’re new here and planning to drive, here’s what you should know—delivered with honesty, love, and a dash of island reality.

Note: Driving around the island of New Providence (Nassau) is its own unique adventure, which I describe here. The Out Islands are much more laid back, and in some of the smaller communities, you’ll be tootling around in a golf cart. If you like to explore, you’ll want to consider a 4x4 vehicle in places like Eleuthera and Long Island. I go into more detail on driving in the various island regions in my relocation guidebook, Escape to the Bahamas.

The Unspoken Rules of Bahamian Roads

The Land of the Left

The first thing you should know is that we drive on the left side of the road, thanks to the British. However, the cars themselves come from everywhere. So you may end up driving a right-hand drive from Japan or a left-hand drive from the U.S.

Which means one thing: if you own both types of cars, or travel to mainland North America a lot, you will turn on your windshield wipers every time you try to signal. It’s a fact of life here.

Also, Japanese imports come with speedometers in kilometers, while our speed signs are in miles (the rare few that I’ve ever seen), so at any given moment, you may or may not know how fast you’re going. This is normal.

Giving Way (aka Nose-Out-and-Pray)

When you pull up to an intersection, there will most likely be something that is obstructing your view of oncoming traffic such as a building or a bush, so unless you have a vehicle with a short hood, you will have to stick your nose out into traffic in order to see the oncoming traffic. Even if there isn't something obstructing the view, you will find people sticking their nose into the intersection out of sheer habit. If you are the oncoming person, you will have to slow down and drive into the other lane to go around them, or simply stop and let them out.

The bigger challenge: drivers with the right of way often stop in the middle of the road to “be nice” and wave someone out. Or if I’m on the receiving end (on a side road waiting to pull out), I still always get hung up on it when someone stops. They rarely use a hand signal to let me know what’s going on. I hesitate for too long and confusion ensues. Even though what they are doing is not "the law" it's "the etiquette".

Honking

Honking here is not like honking elsewhere. The horn is used mainly as a thanking or hailing mechanism, which I find refreshing from the angry sounds of a long blast of discontent.

It is:

• beep-beep = thank you

• beep = hello / I’m coming through this intersection please don’t pull out

• BEEEEEP = you did something stupid

The two-tap thank-you honk is so ingrained that I feel personally offended if someone doesn’t give me one when I let them out.

Navigating puddles 

When it rains in Nassau one realizes how little thought was put into designing and implementing an engineered water run-off system, therefore, water puddles up like an ongoing chain of lakes and drivers are overly-paranoid that they will be sucked under like quicksand if they drive through it.

To be fair, there are numerous unsuspecting potholes and unless you know the road on a dry day, you should proceed with caution, because you may experience a serious jolt. But I’ve literally been run off the road numerous times by someone trying to avoid a puddle. And I don’t mean some little Nissan sedan that’s worried about bogging out, these could be Jeeps, pickups or 4x4’s that are more than equipped at handling a bit of standing water and/or a hidden pothole.

Roundabouts 

*sigh* I don't even know where to start with roundabouts. My only shred of advice would be to navigate them with your best defensive driving skills. It's chaos and I don't think anyone is really taught how to use them. If you’re not familiar with roundabouts in your country, study up on how to traverse them properly so at least you can argue that you were in the right if an incidence does occur.

Power Outages

When the power goes out, the traffic lights go out, and any emergency back-up etiquette on navigation goes out the window. I was taught that if a traffic light had malfunctioned, treat it as a stop sign. Evidently they didn't learn that here (see #4). You will see cars at major intersections forcing their way through until it's complete gridlock and what would normally take you 15 minutes to drive somewhere will take you 1 1/2 hours. 

When the power goes out, so do the traffic lights. You might think: “Treat it like a four-way stop.” Bahamian roads reply: “Absolutely not.” You will witness cars at major intersections forcing their way through until it's complete gridlock, and what would normally take you 15 minutes to drive somewhere will take you 1 1/2 hours. 

Blinkers

Assume that people will stop or turn without warning, so always plenty of distance and be prepared for cars to stop in the middle of the road for seemingly no apparent reason.

Accidents

When someone gets into a fender bender, the vehicles stop exactly where the scene of the crime happened, which is typically right in the middle of the road. They will wait there until the police arrive, stopping traffic for miles.

Final Tip

My best advice for driving in an unfamiliar country and avoiding accidents, is to simply slow down and leave plenty of room between yourself and other cars. There's usually some nice scenery to admire along the way. You’re on island time now, so what’s the rush?