Scuba divers flock to Bimini Road - named for the strange underwater formations resembling paving blocks of a giant aqua-highway - off Paradise Point at the north end of Bimini Bay. The enormous limestone blocks are clearly visible in shallow water, resembling the massive hand-hewn building blocks of the Incas.

The 'road' stretches for 1000 feet and is the subject of many mystical interpretations. No one knows the source of the formations. Tales of strange happenings lured Jacques Cousteau here to film and investigate the formation. Countless other research teams have followed. Explorer Richard Wingate acclaimed the shoal as part of 'The Lost Outpost of Atlantis', and the concept has become fixed in local lore.

Those who believe in strange sources for the Bimini Road were exhilarated in 1977 by the discovery of a series of 500-foot-long sand mounds in the mangrove swamps in the eastern part of Bimini. From the air, the mounds appear to be shaped like a shark, a square, a cat, and a sea horse.

Locals on several other islands claim brazenly that Christopher Columbus landed on their pieces of turf. But it is Crooked Island that recent evidence suggests was the explorer's second New World landfall. Not that you would know it from this quiet, beautiful place. The island's irregular shoreline is indented with deep inlets and lined by pretty beaches.

Bird watchers are in for a treat; Herons, ospreys, egrets, mockingbirds, finches, wild canaries, hummingbirds, and flamingos abound. And lepidopterists can spot approximately 28 endemic subspecies of butterflies. Spring is a good time to visit.

Bird Rock Lighthouse, bat caves, Great Hope House (now abandoned) and the shallow waters of Bathing Beach referred to as the 'world's largest swimming pool', are all great reasons to explore Crooked Island and learn of its pirate and plantation past.

Andros is a rough-edged, wild island, covered with vast swathes of palm savannahs, eerie forests of mahogany, pine and palmettos and huge mangrove wetlands. The primeval forest is so imposing that islanders swear they're inhabited by red-eyed elves called chickcharneys. Andros is not geared for tourism but still attracts divers, birdwatchers and beachbums.

Andros, the largest and least explored of the Bahamian islands, is bounded on one side by the Great Bahama Bank, an underwater plateau that is about as shallow as the island is high. A 140-mile-long coral reef lies a few hundred yards to 2 miles off the east shore (surpassed in length only by Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the reef off the coast of Belize and Honduras). Beyond it, the plateau drops off to a very dark 6000ft (1.8km) in the Tongue of the Ocean canyon.

This 743 sq km (287 sq mi) national park protects the world's largest breeding colony of West Indian (roseate) flamingos. Dominating the park is Lake Rosa, a shimmering mirror reflecting the antics of roseate spoonbills, reddish-pink egrets, tricolored Louisiana herons, and about 50,000 hot pink flamingos. Visitors must take the informative ranger-led tour.

You must contact the Bahamas National Trust office in Nassau to arrange and pay for your visit prior to leaving for Inagua.

This 16-hectare (40-acre) park is Grand Bahama's finest treasure. In the north of the park, trails lead onto a limestone plateau riddled with caves that open to the longest underwater cave system in the world. You can walk along the boardwalks that wind through a mangrove swamp and spill out to the beautiful Gold Rock Beach, fringed by soporific dunes.