Today, guests pull up a bar stool at the Patio Bar, drink a Kalik and watch the parade of boats. The

I can only imagine the gossip whispered under the chandeliers of the British Colonial Hotel, and bandied about on the hotel s private beach where the rich and disgruntled reposed in the shade of coconut palms.
The scandals were juicy, indeed. Disgraced royal, the Duke of Windsor, who gave up the British crown to marry divorc e Wallis Simpson, turned up in Nassau as the governor-general in 1940 and gave numerous soir es at the hotel, which became more numerous as the pair grew more bored.
Flamboyant Canadian gold mine owner Sir Harry Oakes was tossed out of the hotel in the 1930s for not dressing properly. His revenge: He bought it. Oakes was murdered in Nassau in 1943, a case that remains unsolved, and a mystery that has inspired books and movies.
During a recent stay, I relaxed on the white-sand beach facing economy car rental costa rica Nassau Harbour, and I realized the back of the stately British Colonial Hilton economy car rental costa rica Nassau, originally built in 1899, was actually the front. The Italianate seven-story hotel is centered by a medieval-style tower with two wings that seems to embrace the busy harbor, where little wooden fishing boats deftly maneuver the wide channel between hydrofoils, tugs, party boats, sleek yachts and mammoth cruise ships.
Both hotels were built by Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler, and both shared many of the same guests. Flagler built a 1,000-foot-long pier at The Breakers for the ships that would take guests across the Gulf Stream to the British Colonial.
Both hotels also had parallel histories that included fires that destroyed the original buildings the British Colonial in 1921 and The Breakers in 1925. Both hotels were immediately rebuilt into spectacular Mediterranean palaces far grander than their predecessors. And both hotels live on today, serving as the heart of their communities.
This fact was underlined on a Saturday afternoon during my stay at the British Colonial. The country s prime minister was having a business lunch with several members of Parliament in the Aqua restaurant overlooking the beach and harbor.
While not nearly as grand as its sister hotel, economy car rental costa rica The Breakers, the British Colonial offers an elegant stay in a city known for flashy beachside high-rises. From my room, I could see the humongous pink hotels of Atlantis resort economy car rental costa rica across the harbor on Paradise Island.
I like Atlantis, but on this trip I welcomed the peace and quiet of the British Colonial, and the fact that I could walk from my room to the pretty beach in five minutes instead of the 20 minutes it would take at Atlantis.
And I appreciated the history of the British Colonial, a building economy car rental costa rica that s withstood hurricanes, fires and scandal. In the old days, wealthy guests strolled the beach and 8acres of gardens, economy car rental costa rica danced in the ballroom and were photographed for stories that ran in newspapers around the world. The hotel boasted electric lights, a golf course and ice plant.
Today, guests pull up a bar stool at the Patio Bar, drink a Kalik and watch the parade of boats. They relax in leather club chairs in the Bullion Bar and sip afternoon tea or discuss the scandals economy car rental costa rica of the day, usually political, over late-night cocktails.
From the British Colonial, I walked to Rawson Square and roamed the pink government economy car rental costa rica buildings, peeking inside the Supreme Court to see where the accused stand behind wood banisters; the pink hilltop Government House to watch the changing of the guard; the Straw Market to buy a hat; Arawak Cay to eat fried conch at one of the seafood shacks, and up the hill to the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas to admire the paintings by Bahamian artists.
The food at The British Colonial is not gourmet, but it s really tasty after a day at the beach. My personal favorites: pesto crusted spiny rock lobster chunks, black beans and cilantro salsa served with a lemon and saffron aioli; and the Bahamian conch sampler conch salad, conch fritters and island conch chowder.
My home is 4 miles from The Breakers, and I often take visiting family and friends to the hotel for dinner to show them there s more to South Florida than chain-store malls and cookie-cutter condos. The Breakers is a testament to a time when grand hotels were built by visionaries who brought the world s movers and shakers to mingle in a fantasy seaside setting.
I stay at the British Colonial for the same reason. Guests still walk across a gleaming marble floor under a glass-domed ceiling reminiscent of a European rail station. A mural above the grand staircase honors Henry Flagler s legacy.
This entry was posted in Canada Luxury Hotels economy car rental costa rica , Canadian Hostel Association , Canadian Hostels , Canadian Hotel Chains , Canadian Hotel Jobs , Canadian Travel , Hi Network News Hostel , Hi-canada and tagged Beach , built , Daily , Flagler , History' , hotel , Lively , Nassau , News , Palm on March 15, 2014 by sadmin .