Freeport: the Bahamas' second city

Built from scratch in the 1950s as a duty-free commercial zone, Freeport offers beaches less crowded than Nassau at short distance from Florida's coast.

The center and beaches require a car or taxi.

The Garden of the Groves, a botanical garden with waterfalls and paths through tropical plants, offers a shaded refuge away from the coast, populated by birds and small reptiles.

A few minutes away, the Lucayan Caverns, within Lucayan National Park, hold one of the most extensive systems of underwater caves ever mapped in the world.

Heading towards the coast, the beach of Taino Beach offers calm waters ideal for snorkeling among small schools of tropical fish, protected by a natural barrier.

Towards evening, the Port Lucaya Marketplace, an open-air market on the tourist port, animates its stalls with live music and local crafts.

The underwater caves of Lucayan National Park remain among the world's best-studied flooded cave systems, explored by cave divers who have mapped kilometers of submerged passages.

Freeport did not exist before the 1950s: the entire city was planned from scratch by an American entrepreneur who secured massive tax concessions from the Bahamian government to develop it from nothing.