Girlfriends, Getaways and Atlantis

As teenagers, girlfriend getaways are a bonding experience. A way to really get to know your friends’ personalities and create tent poles to build your relationship on. By the time you’re an adult with a job, significant other and children, the girlfriend getaway takes on new meaning. It’s a way to take some time for yourself and reconnect with your girlfriends in a way that just isn’t possible in between soccer practices, meetings, date nights and weekends spent catching up on laundry and cleaning the stove. Perhaps now the girlfriend getaway is more important than ever as women and super moms try to do it all, all the time.

On a recent trip to the Bahamas, I discovered that Atlantis, Paradise Island, is the ideal place to escape it all for the perfect girlfriend’s getaway concoction that is one part adventure, one part staying up way too late and one part relaxation. 

One Part Adventure 

Atlantis offers more than a few ways to be adventurous. In addition to favorites like snorkeling, scuba diving (the Bahamas have been voted “Best Place to Dive With Big Animals” for the last 10 years in a row!) and a thrilling 141-acre water park with extreme water slides and exciting river rides, they also offer incredible wild life adventures including a bucket list staple, walking or swimming with sharks. 

Stingray Experience

The Stingray Experience offers a hands-on encounter with hundreds of sleek stingrays and colorful tropical fish. After you hand feed the interesting creatures, you’ll have a chance to snorkel with them too.

Mayan Temple Shark Lagoon

Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks can be seen from extraordinary vantage points: from an exhilarating ride on a water slide through the middle of the lagoon in a clear tunnel – or from the surrounding deck and panoramic windows, which offer a more leisurely look. The more adventurous girls can opt to try the Walk with the Sharks Adventure to do exactly what it sounds like…walk under water with sharks! 

One Part Relaxation

The best way to start any girlfriend’s getaway is with a day at the spa. Who couldn’t use a good massage and pedicure? It’s actually practically a must for the amount of time about to be spent in flip flops and sand, right? The award-winning Mandara Spa at Atlantis brings together ancient Balinese healing touches, traditional European therapies and natural elements indigenous to The Bahamas. The spa is outfitted with warm and cold plunge pools, steam and sauna rooms and private lounge areas. Plus, the women’s area includes a relaxing aromatherapy room.  The spa includes a full service salon, body treatments including wraps and scrubs, facials, and several massage packages including aroma stone therapy, deep tissue, Swedish, sports, and reflexology. 

Afterwards, you and your ladies can spend the afternoon sipping Pina Coladas poolside with great gossip and good books. The pools at Atlantis are outfitted with comfortable outdoor lounge areas made for just that and while the resort is family friendly, there is a beautiful pool and restaurant that is adults only.

One Part Staying Up Too Late

The best way to end a day of relaxation and adventure with friends? By staying up way too late. Atlantis offers a number of adult only options for spending your evenings – because the last thing you want to do on a girlfriend’s getaway is be around kids or go to bed at a reasonable hour. When you’re not trying your luck at the craps table, just above the Atlantis Casino floor is the ultra chic Aura Nightclub, a 9,000-square-foot space designed by Jeffrey Beers. Outfitted with two bars, two VIP sections, illuminated glass dance floors and DJs spinning your favorite jams, it’s the ideal place to let your hair down and practice those new Whip and Naenae moves your son taught you last week.

If you failed miserably at learning those dance moves (darn my non-rhythmic hips!), there are also slightly more lowkey options like Dragons Ultra Lounge featuring cocktails and music just off the casino floor. And for those that love to laugh, Joker’s Wild Comedy Club brings in some of TVs funniest comics and is a great way to get your ab workout in.

Luxury is pretty much a given at Atlantis, but if you want the best of the best, I recommend staying at The Cove Atlantis, the most breathtaking (in my opinion) of the towers. With a variety of fantastically amazing suites to host your sleep overs and down-time, your stay at The Cove also gains you exclusive access to that lovely adults only pool I told you about earlier, Cain at The Cove.

My stay at Atlantis was hosted. Opinions remain my own.