Fort Fincastle

Offering gorgeous views of Nassau, the city of New Providence island, Fort Fincastle is a part of the Bahamas rich history. Along with the nearby attraction of the Queen’s Staircase, the site dates back to the late seventeen hundreds and attracts many tourists.

While the Fort is full of history and stories just waiting to be told, the tour guides on site may need to improve the way the information is told to tourists. When entering the fort’s lookout tower, one guide was walking around repeating a few facts about the fort itself as well as some locations seen from below. After a few minutes he quickly wrapped up and asked for tips. This left me as a tourist, feeling like I learned little to nothing and even more confused about the site.

Offering more formal tours can be a way to fix this situation. While the Fort itself isn’t large, it holds lots of history that could be told in a more organized way for the tourist to make sense of a story. Additionally a tour could be added to encompass the Queen’s Staircase since their histories are intertwined. This would make the fee you must pay when entering the Fort worth your money as well as leaving tourists with more knowledge of Bahamian culture.

Another place for improvements would be in terms of the gift shop. While the space was small, most of the room was taken up with food items and gifts unrelated to the Fort or Staircase. As the last stop before leaving the attraction for many tourists, this needs to be a place of positive experience. Having unique items that reflected any parts of the site would be a nice remembrance for tourists to take with them to remember the experience. The let down of the gift shop left me with an incomplete feeling after the visit despite any positives that occured. Since the last interaction is so crucial, the gift shop makes a great place for improvements.