Bahamas Vacation Rental
Bahama Islands News, Articles and Information
Baby boomer entrepreneurs cash in, start new chapter
Since selling his Nashville-based fresh produce distribution company, John Beasley spends half of the year in the Bahamas boating, fishing and buying vacation rental properties. "I've got to stay occupied, so I buy land to keep my mind fresh and my money invested," said Beasley, who sold Overton Distributors to a unit of wholesale giant Sysco two years ago. .Be careful when 'getting away'
F rank and Ann Miller of Hannibal, Mo., found out in the hardest possible way that a vacation villa in the Caribbean can be unsafe. Last winter, the couple rented a posh house for a month in the intimate beachside resort of Rendevous Bay on the island of Anguilla. One morning in January they woke to find two armed and masked bandits in their bedroom. The intruders fled, but not before shooting the Millers, seriously wounding Ann. No arrests have been made.An isolated incident in the paradisiacal islands? Yes and no. Travelers to Anguilla (population 13,000), the northernmost island in the Caribbean's Leeward chain, reported no threats with guns in 2004, two in 2005 and one this year, according to the Anguilla police.
By accounts published in the Caribbean news media and locals' blogs, however, break-ins at small hotels or vacation rentals are occurring more frequently on some Caribbean outposts and in parts of Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Trouble in paradise: Crime in the caribbean
Accounts published in Caribbean news media and on locals' blogs indicate that break-ins at small hotels or vacation rentals are occurring more frequently on some Caribbean outposts and in parts of Bermuda and the Bahamas.No overall regional statistics are available on vacation home thefts affecting tourists in the Caribbean. However, the most recent U.S. State Department consular information sheets, which give up-to-date safety information on countries around the globe, cite break-ins in the past year in St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Aruba, Bonaire and St. Maarten. The reports also have begun recommending that visitors lock valuables in hotel safes and other properties on almost all Caribbean islands, Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Until recently, the biggest worry facing most tourists in the Caribbean was petty crime: aggressive soliciting, muggings and purse snatchings.