TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums General Caribbean Cayman Brac vs Eleuthera Bahama

Trying to decide where to go this year. Looking for an island that we have not previously been to. Looking for advice on cost of groceries and alcohol. I have done some research on both Cayman Brac and Eleuthera and was totally shocked at the cost of groceries and alcohol in Eleuthera. Found a grocery store online in Eleuthera - a 6 pack of Bud Light for $18. We have been to several island in the Caribbean and have not seen prices that high. I have not been able to find a grocery store with an advertised price of beer in Cayman Brac, but did find advertised prices for groceries and they were not bad. Is it just the out island in the Bahamas that are so expensive or is everything just really high in all of the Bahamas?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

I can't speak for the Cayman Islands, but have a lot of experience of the Out Islands. Beer, in particular, is very pricey -- $72/case for imported beer is about par for the course; local beer (Kalik or Sands) might be a little less.

Remember that very little grows on these islands, so it is all imported and then slapped with a duty. So, you can expect limited selection and higher prices -- about 50% more than you're used to in the U.S. (the best grocery store I saw in Eleuthera was in Rock Sound). But beer is even more pricey -- that's why we drank rum!

If you found more reasonable prices in the Caymans, it's because their principal "industry" isn't tourism -- it's offshore financial services. So I suspect that imported food is not subject to such a mark-up.