- My family of three spent over $3,000 on a four-night stay at The Reef hotel in Atlantis.
- The Bahamas resort had many activities and restaurants, and we liked the size of our room.
- The stay (particularly the food) felt overpriced, but the resort was like paradise. We'll be back.
Ever since we became parents two years ago, my husband and I have completely changed how we plan vacations.
Now when we book a trip, we look for family-friendly resorts with on-site amenities to keep our toddler entertained. This recently brought us to the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
We first took our son there in 2023 and loved how easy the vacation was for our little family, from its on-site amenities to its many stroller-friendly ramps and pathways.
We chose to stay at its Reef hotel as it's in a quiet area of the sprawling complex, which includes five hotels, a casino, a water park, and more than 20 restaurants.
This time, I booked the hotel through my Amex Platinum Card because it got me a $100 credit and complimentary breakfasts for my stay. We also booked during a special offer for 25% off the nightly room rate.
Overall, we spent $2,279 for four nights in a one-bedroom oceanview suite in August (low season), plus $816 on food and drinks on the property after redeeming that $100 credit.
We stayed in an oceanview suite.
Normally, we would've booked a simpler, lower-tier room, but since it was low season, we got a decent deal on an oceanview suite.
Our space was complete with two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a private balcony. We borrowed a crib from the hotel.
Although the decor wasn't particularly modern or chic — and even felt a bit dated — our room felt clean, spacious, and comfortable.
The balcony was a highlight of the room.
We especially loved downtime in our room, thanks to the stunning view of turquoise waters from our private balcony, and were glad to have spent the extra money.
It's going to be hard to go back to garden-view life.
As the trip went on, we really appreciated having a full-size kitchen.
We realized that sit-down restaurant meals were not going to work for our family after an embarrassing trip to Carmine's.
Fortunately, having a kitchen with a dishwasher, cooking range, and a big fridge made our stay much less stressful.
Not only could we store milk, yogurt pouches, and other snacks for our son, but also we could make eggs and enjoy early breakfasts together in the room.
We had brunch on the property for free using a credit-card perk.
My credit card came with a perk that we used for complimentary morning meals at the hotel.
Since we liked eating breakfast in our room, we used the credit for late brunches at Perch, a sleek sit-down restaurant with upscale à la carte options like avocado toast with poached eggs, and Poseidon's Table, a buffet restaurant with food my husband and I thought was mediocre.
We went to the buffet more often because it was more toddler-friendly, and usually had a light poolside lunch or snack later in the day.
The beach was beautiful, but it was hard to get a good spot.
At many Caribbean resorts, you need to wake up early to grab a good lounge chair in the shade — or in this case, with a working canopy — and this was no exception.
The beach closest to The Reef was lovely, with powder sand and a location in a cove with shallow, spilling waves that were perfect for kids to play in.
However, we found that guests would wake up at the crack of dawn to throw their belongings on the best chairs to call dibs.
Even so, the coolest part of the beach is the actual reef in the water.
My husband and I spent $82.50 for a resort babysitter to watch our son for three hours so we could go snorkeling (and visit the water park). We saw tons of tropical fish of all different colors just steps away from our hotel lobby.
Atlantis also has 14 pools, including several zero-entry pools for kids.
Our son loved splashing around in the zero-entry pool next to The Reef hotel. It was warm and steps away from the beach, which meant we could easily bounce back and forth between the two.
There were plenty of other kids' pools, but we only spent time here and at the pools in Aquaventure, the water park.
Many of the lounge chairs were available, probably because it was low season and there were so many other pool options.
The on-site water park had something for everyone.
Aquaventure, the water park at Atlantis, is free for guests and a huge perk of staying at the megaresort. The park has everything from short and slow water slides for little kids to nearly vertical ones.
Our son loved the water-play zone and my husband and I enjoyed the transparent waterslide that took us through an exhibit with live sharks, which we got to explore when we had the sitter.
The aquarium was the perfect place for a change of pace.
Atlantis has an enormous indoor marine habitat with over a dozen lagoons and thousands of aquatic animals, including sharks, rays, and barracuda.
Strolling through the different tunnels was a fun way to take a break from the outdoors and let our toddler walk around safely.
Atlantis has a lot of options for eating out, but we felt most of them were overpriced.
When looking at reviews of Atlantis before my trip, the most common complaint I saw was that the food and drinks felt overpriced. I can't say I disagreed.
My husband and I hired the same babysitter on another night for three hours again so we could visit chef Michael White's new restaurant, Paranza.
We had a nice meal that included amberjack crudo and octopus-and-bone-marrow pasta, but dinner ran us $310 — and that's not including what we paid for the sitter.
I love dressing up for a fancy meal, but considering the cost, I'm glad we only did one.
There are lots of fast-casual options on the property as well, but they aren't exactly cheap either. Two rice bowls and a few sides and drinks from Field Trip set us back $74 another night.
Typically, you can buy $100 in food credit ahead of your trip and get an additional $15 free, but we went during a blackout date.
We'll keep returning as long as we can afford it.
Although Atlantis felt a little overpriced to us, the convenience of having access to so many restaurants, activities, and amenities on one property is unbeatable.
It's an especially wonderful place to travel with a small child. We were able to see so much and easily return to our room whenever we needed — all without having to pack all of our essentials and toddler into a car.
Plus, it's great that Paradise Island is only a three-hour flight from New York, and the resort is a short taxi ride from the local airport.
Overall, our visit during the low season was just over $3,000 — although that's not including the cost of our airfare, ground transportation, babysitter services, and groceries we bought later.
Still, as long as we have the funds to do so, we plan to come back to Atlantis in the future.