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Embrace Resort Review. Staniel Cay, the Bahamas

I hope my Embrace Resort Review helps you guys choose where to stay when you visit Staniel Cay, the Bahamas. Not only is it pure relaxation, it’s also the cheapest way to swim with the pigs in the Exumas. Organising these kind of luxury trips without any agents etc, can be hard. But it’s the way I always like to do it. Thankfully though when we booked to stay at the Embrace Resort, the local team there also runs a little travel agency, Staniel Cay Vacations, so that mean we could just relax and let them take care of all the trips, golf-car rental, swimming with sharks, boat trips etc etc. Not only that, they’re the cheapest on the island. Perfect!

How I Ended Up At Embrace Resort, Staniel Cay

For me, after spending 2 months climbing Everest, my wife and I wanted to celebrate in style. Away from snow, altitude and cold! Jaa had been seeing about swimming with the pigs for the last couple of years on Instagram, so it was on our travel bucket lists.

At this stage, I only knew that the pigs were in the Bahamas. So it was time to do some research. Obviously, since the whole pig thing blew up on social media, there are loads of copycat pig swimming tours. We wanted to avoid that! The main reason we had never done it to this point was due to the thought of thousands of american tourists swarming a couple of pigs for an IG shot. No thanks.

So we found the original ‘Pig Beach’. It’s near the island of Staniel Cay, in the Exumas, in the middle of the Bahamas. Ok. Noted. We could either do a loooooong day-trip from one of the main Bahamian islands to Pig Beach and fly back. Or, better still, base ourselves in Staniel Cay and do the trip from there. So that’s what we decided.

After deciding to base ourselves in Staniel Cay, we had to find accommodation. And the Bahamas is pretty expensive! There really are only a couple of options, a wildly overpriced Yacht Club (like $2k for a simple bungalow, ridiculous!), or the lovely Embrace Resort.

We had a month long trip planned across Europe and the Caribbean, so we wanted to have a somewhat luxury stay, but we had to be careful with the budget too.

How Much Is the Embrace Resort?

The rooms at the Embrace Resort are super cheap by Bahamas Standard. But the luxury quality is still there. Little independent stand alone bungalows, some complete with hot-tubs. A gorgeous pool to cool off in. And a lot more, I’ll explain more about all that below. But you can see the rooms start at $219 for a one bed. Amazing value.

TOP-TOP: Embrace Resort Special offers

Realistically if you make it Staniel Cay, you’re going to want to swim with the pigs, rent a golf cart, EAT, etc etc So for sure the best option is the Embrace Resort offers:

A 3, 5 or 7 night break. Including swimming pogs, AND golf cart, AND a nottle of wine AND lunch each day (with a beer!) AND an upgrade – for $1,199 + VAT. In the Bahamas, that kind of deal is unbeatable. DO THAT TOO!

My Embrace Resort Review

You can probably judge from the pricing above, that I am delighted with this place! In a country full of faceless, generic chain hotels, the Embrace Resort stands out. It’s run by a local family, with local staff, and it’s been here for decades. You can feel that it’s their baby, and part of their lifestyle and the energy from the whole place emanates that.

The rooms:

When you stay at Embrace Resort, each room is kind of like a mini-AirBnB. It’s a standalone bungalow, wrapped around the cute pool.

The food:

We had half-board, which means most of the meals are included. And they are DELICIOUS. My mrs and I are both vegetarian. Normally that’s a nightmare across the whole Caribbean. But the restaurant, the Flyin’ Pig Cafe, on site serves quite a lot of veggie food so we were set.

The brekkie each day, I promised myself every evening I would order the healthy options. But their French Toast was banging. I had it every single day, while I watched my wife be healthy. No regrets.

For lunch or dinner, be sure to check out their coconut and chickpea curry too. MMMMMMM.

The cafe also does PROPER coffees, with a real machine. And cakes and snacks etc, so it’s great for a little pitstop if you’re flagging during the day. They have indoor air-con seating too, and an outdoor terrace. So you’re all good regardless of the weather.

The Location:

Staniel Cay is small. Really small. So, in all honesty, the location isn’t so important. That being said, Embrace Resort is slam bang in the middle of the island, so everything is super accessible. And in fact, it’s walking distance from the main grocery store, the airport and the dock that you take the boat tours to/from. So it’s a winner.

It’s not on the water directly, which I guess is why it’s a quarter of the price of the other places. That seems like a great trade to us as you can walk to the beach anyway. Also, you will need to rent a golf-cart to get around anyway, regardless of where you stay, and once you have the keys to that badboy. You’re 5 minutes from a beach in every direction!

It’s 5 or 6 minutes in the golf-cart to Pirate beach, below, for example.

The Amenities:

The Embrace Resort, as mentioned above, has:

• An on-site restaurant (the Flyin’ Pig Cafe)
• A gorgeous little swimming Pool
• A tour agency attached to the hotel (same owners) so you can book everything through these guys
• The cheapest golf car rental on the island
• Walking distance to the main grocery store
• Walking distance to ‘town’, and the beaches

Embrace Resort Pics

Things to do in Staniel Cay

I actually wrote a whole guide to Staniel Cay Bahamas here. But the main gist of 5 things to in Staniel Cay when you’re staying are:

1. Swimming with the pigs
2. Either 1 long Boat tour, or multiple smaller baot tours to include iguana island, swimming with sharks, James Bond’s thunderball grotto
3. Tour the island by golf cart
4. Get a little drunk at the Yacht Club bar for sunset
5. Hit up all the beaches on Staniel Cay, ESPECIALLY pirate Beach (ideally in the morning, you’ll have it to yourself – this is like something from a movie, honestly)

How to Get to Staniel Cay

Again I laid that out in the Staniel Cay blog post. But the short answer is you either fly from Nassau, the Bahamian capital. Or you fly from Fort Lauderdale direct.

Thoughts on the Embrace Resort Staniel Cay

My embrace resort review should be pretty clear. We LOVED this place. As a couple who dislikes mass-tourism, I really didn’t know what to expect when we came to the Bahamas. Truth be told I was worried it would be wall-to-wall umbrella sunbeds. But once we got to Staniel Cay, it wasn’t like that at all.

An untouched island pretty much. I was shocked. And then the Embrace Resort was the cherry on top. Lovely atmosphere, cute bungalow, great price-point. I rarely go back anywhere with my travel plans, but we’re already planning a return. That says it all. I hope you guys get the opportunity to see why we love it so much here.