Talk:Bahamas Voyage Tips and guide

For future reference the Project:CIA World Factbook 2002 import can be found at Talk:Bahamas/CIA World Factbook 2002 import.

What are Turning circles and why are they a problem for American drivers? As I understand it, a turning circle is a measure of how small a circle a vehicle can turn around in[1]. Or should it be traffic circles or roundabouts? -- (WT-en) Huttite 16:38, 18 Jan 2006 (EST)

It's proably roundabouts. Here in California, I'd guess 99% of drivers have no idea they exist, and have even less idea what the right-of-way rules are in a roundabout. The only one I know of is in Berkeley. Until a few years ago the right-of-way was basically determined by local custom that had arisen from drivers' guesses about right of way. Fortunately, they added signs explicitly indicating the rules. -- (WT-en) Colin 16:43, 18 Jan 2006 (EST)

Yes, I suspect you are right. They had the right-of-way problem in NZ too until they changed the right-of-way rules and put up signs to ensure all drivers on the roundabout had right of way over all entering traffic. They defined the circle in the middle as a center line to do it too! Now you even have to indicate your entry and exit; and get fined if you don't, because straight through traffic is turning. (It is when you really think about it - though most drivers don't.) -- (WT-en) Huttite 17:39, 18 Jan 2006 (EST)

This appears to be another sad case of geographic ignorance. The simple fact is that the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos nor Bermuda are in the Caribbean. Someone assumed that they were many years ago and the falsehood has been self perpetuating ever since. The Caribbean ends in the channel that runs North of Cuba, Hispanola and Puerto Rico. If you want to want the Bahamas to be in the Caribbean you will also have to inclue Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in the Caribbean.

As far as I can tell, the two ways of breaking down the Bahamas for travel are:

A. 1) Grand Bahama, 2) Nassau/Paradise Island, 3) everything else. B. Each island as its own "region," per the map on the front of the official tourism site [2].

Between those two, I definitely prefer B—even though it will leave us with a fairly large regions list—if for no other reason than to flatten the hierarchy (especially since an "Everything else" region article will never be anything good). But are there any other ways to divide up this country? If so, please detail them here. In the meantime, I'll be working on the map assuming B. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 19:00, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

Mmm, new problem: the Ragged Islands. Population 72, apparently no tourist facilities, and not seeming to fit with any other islands. They definitely don't need their own article, but there should be somewhere to cover them, in case there are interesting places for yachters. I've shaded them in here in black. Any ideas what to do with them? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 20:13, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

I would recommend following the principle you have used for the rest of the map - each island grouping is a separate "region". The alternative would be to ignore them I guess.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 22:26, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

As you might have guessed, I do not like B. Do we really need to split the country in regions at all? If there are no obvious way to do it, I would say leave it without regions, --(WT-en) ClausHansen 07:19, 4 August 2011 (EDT)

On that basis we would need to re-do just about every island group in the world, from the Falklands to the Solomon Islands. The established approach to island groups makes for clean, easy-to-read maps which help the traveler. It is for example, no co-incidence that the official Bahamian government site [3] uses exactly that approach. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 07:41, 4 August 2011 (EDT)

I do not suggest any changes to the maps which indeed are great, I just suggest that we do not regionalise countries too small to make it necessary or where there is no reasonable way to do it. Btw, I just checked the official page linked to above, and as I see it they are doing what I suggest: no regions, 14 articles for the 14 islands/island groups, simple and flat, --(WT-en) ClausHansen 08:22, 4 August 2011 (EDT)

I think I misunderstood you Claus. So you are OK with a map division as done? It is just the "region" terminology that you object to? If that's the case, then I would agree with you.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 09:59, 4 August 2011 (EDT)

Some of the island/island group pages are already subdivided, or just slightly subdivided as region articles into either component islands or a handful of cities. From what I've seen this all looks pretty legitimate, and was done by someone with more knowledge of the area than I have. I'm happy with this as stands, with the one exception of the Ragged Islands, as I said above. I can't find a good place for them, but they definitely do not deserve their own article. A short bit on them, in a similar manner to Gambier_Islands#Regions, would suffice, but I just don't know where that should be put. They are not important enough to take up space in the country article, and they do not naturally group with any other island grouping in the country.

Anyhow, I went ahead and made the map + new "divisions" scheme live, but have neither the time nor energy needed to really do a good job organizing the individual regions. If, ah, anyone else is interested, please feel free... --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 02:00, 6 August 2011 (EDT)

I'm not sure the redlinking islands are exactly the most elegant way to break this down... Also is San Salvador Island and Rum Cay the same thing or is it two different things? Hobbitschuster (talk) 12:58, 19 July 2017 (UTC)Reply

Below is a proposed infobox to let readers know which formatting conventions to use in Wikivoyage articles. Do you agree with these proposals? If you have direct knowledge of what is most commonly used in the country, please let us know. Ground Zero (talk) 12:38, 4 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

Moved to the top of this page. Ground Zero (talk) 04:07, 28 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

This new alternative one looks more Bahamas-like to me. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 09:52, 28 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Given there has been no comment, I have replaced the banner. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 12:30, 1 May 2022 (UTC)Reply

I slightly prefer the new banner, but I’d like to see banner 0 used in another article if possible, as it is a nice banner. --Comment by Selfie City (talk) (contributions) 16:22, 1 May 2022 (UTC)Reply