Baha Bay Up for Unprecedented Fifth-Consecutive Title
This blog post was adapted from an article on Blooloop.com
Voting has begun for the 2026 World Travel Awards Caribbean Region, and Baha Bay at Baha Mar enters as the four-time defending Caribbean’s Leading Water Park, having received the title every year since the park opened: 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
A win in 2026 would be unprecedented in the category and would further cement Baha Bay as the benchmark for luxury waterpark design. The sustained recognition reflects our approach: Baha Bay was built for long-term performance, not just opening-day impact.
“A four-year run tells us the project is resonating extremely well in a highly competitive market, and it also speaks to the strength of the management and operations team at Baha Bay,” says John Torti, Partner. “The waterpark continues to perform as intended, evolving with the guest, staying relevant, and delivering at a high level. Being in the conversation for a fifth year reflects that long-term thinking we discussed very early on.”
A Luxury Waterpark Built for a Different Guest
Baha Bay is not a typical standalone waterpark. The 15-acre beachfront park opened in July 2021 as part of the Baha Mar resort complex, a luxury destination featuring three hotel brands (Rosewood, SLS, and Grand Hyatt), over 45 restaurants and bars, a casino, and world-class spa facilities. Baha Bay serves all of them.
That positioning created a distinct design challenge: the park had to deliver world-class thrills for families and teens alongside the level of comfort, pacing, and refinement that luxury resort guests expect.
“Designing within a luxury resort context shifts the priorities entirely,” says Torti. “It’s not just about rides, capacities, and theming. It’s about how the guest experiences the resort from morning to night. Our intention was to curate a one-of-a-kind experience, blending the sophistication of a luxury resort with the thrills of a world class waterpark – that level of integration is something you simply don’t encounter anywhere else.”
The park features 24 water slides, a 500,000-gallon wave pool, the Caribbean’s only water coaster, a surf simulator, lazy river, infinity-edge pools, a beach club, private cabanas, and The Pavilion, a gaming retreat that brings Baha Mar’s casino directly into the waterpark environment. Dining spans world-renowned concepts including Umami Burger and Sugar Factory.
Place as Design Language
Baha Bay’s design draws directly from Bahamian architectural and cultural references. Island Contemporary, British Colonial, and Traditional Bahamian influences shape the built environment of Baha Bay. Natural quartzite flagstone extends from pool sun shelves into planters. Local stone textures appear in water features, and shell patterns are embedded in the walkways. Custom artwork was completed on-site by local Bahamian artists.
“Grounding the design in contextual Bahamian influences was essential,” explains Torti. “Guests may not always be able to articulate it, but they feel when a place is authentic; when the materials, the architecture, and landscape are all telling a consistent story. That’s what creates a sense of place that lasts, and ultimately what keeps a destination relevant over time.”
The landscape architecture reinforces this approach, with specimen planting among lush tropical vegetation designed to complement Nassau’s coastal environment while managing microclimates within the park.
“Guests may not always be able to articulate it, but they feel when a place is authentic; when the materials, the architecture, and landscape are all telling a consistent story.”
– John Torti
What a Fifth Title Would Mean
As Caribbean destinations invest increasingly in experience-led differentiation, driven by competition for tourism dollars, rising guest expectations, and a growing emphasis on destination identity, the waterpark category at the World Travel Awards has become a proxy for how seriously a destination takes design.
Baha Bay’s track record suggests that the parks which sustain recognition over time are the ones where narrative and cultural identity were integrated from the start, not layered on after construction.
“As we look ahead, the focus is on how the park continues to perform and evolve with the ever-changing market. This kind of recognition reinforces our belief that when design is rooted in place and built with a long-term mindset, it doesn’t just open strong – it endures. That’s the approach we’re carrying into our projects around the world.”
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