How Abaco's Season Comes Back, Cay by Cay
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Abaco's season is coming back first on Green Turtle Cay this year. Most of its closed restaurants and resorts are due back by the last days of October. Hope Town's museum, Marsh Harbour's Wally's and Green Turtle's own Albert Lowe Museum are due back between mid-November and Thanksgiving. From then on, much of the calendar is out on the cays: a Hope Town music festival, an art expo on Man-O-War and a crafts show in Marsh Harbour, all in December.
The dates below come from the Abaco Sun's fall 2026 closures roundup, published September 21. Its own note says some businesses may not have firm reopening dates and asks readers to follow each business for the latest. So read every date here as a schedule. Check before you set out.
By the time you read this, most of New Plymouth's off-season closures should be over or nearly over. In two weeks the cay goes from mostly closed to mostly open.
| Business | Scheduled return |
|---|---|
| The Wrecking Tree | After its closure ended October 26 |
| Green Turtle Club | October 28, after closing September 2 |
| Big O's | October 28 |
| Bluff House Beach Resort & Marina | October 30, at lunch |
| Turtle Crawl Cafe | October 30 |
| Sundowners | October, date to be announced |
| 2 Shortys | Closed until November 2 |
Green Turtle Club runs a resort and marina, and its kitchen cooks freshly caught Abaco seafood with nightly menus of world and Caribbean fusion. Big O's is the swimming-pigs bar and restaurant on No Name Cay. Bluff House has a 40-slip marina and its own white-sand beach.
Bluff House's reopening falls on the same day as the Terry Spurlock Halloween Fly-In. It's a Bahamas Ministry of Tourism aviation event that brings private pilots to Abaco, and Bluff House is the host hotel. The tourism event page lists it for October 30 through November 2. So Green Turtle Cay reopens the same weekend the pilots arrive, with a resort, a marina and a cafe all coming back on one Friday.
The season ends on Green Turtle Cay as well. The Abaco Sun events calendar lists New Year's Day Junkanoo in New Plymouth at 2pm on January 1, and fireworks at Settlement Point at 7pm.
Nipper's on Guana Cay is due back November 1. It calls itself a beach bar and grill, known for frozen Nipper Juice and "Chicken in Da Bag" on Fridays.
November 1 is a Sunday. Under G&L Ferries' off-season schedule, the 5:45pm departure from Marsh Harbour to Guana doesn't run on Sundays and holidays. The Marsh Harbour to Hope Town departures at 5:50am and 1pm are also dropped until the regular schedule comes back. The roundup gives no date for the full schedule's return and sends riders to G&L Ferries and its Facebook page for updates. G&L runs scheduled service from Marsh Harbour to Hope Town, Man-O-War and Guana Cay. Albury's Ferry Service now redirects to G&L's site for schedules, since the two companies merged. Until the full schedule is back, a trip to Nipper's on its first Sunday means planning the ride home first.
Marsh Harbour is open for business year-round, but some of its restaurants have been running short hours. The Bistro at Abaco Beach Resort has been closed since August 16 and is scheduled to reopen Friday, October 30. The menu includes conch croquettes with onions, thyme and a coconut-rum remoulade.
Two weeks later, Abaco Beach Resort hosts a week of music. Rhythm & Roots brings Nashville songwriters, including American Idol alumni Butter and Grit, Luke, and Laurel, plus Texas-born singer-songwriter Garrett Bradford. They'll spend November 8 to 15 mentoring Abaco students in an after-school program. According to the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism announcement, the week ends with two shows at the resort.
Some listings give the date as "13/14." That's because there are two shows, a small one on Friday and a bigger one on Saturday. J. Davis, artist relations for the Nashville Bahamian Student Collaboration, told the ministry the aim is for students to see "not just a concert, but the process behind it."
The same weekend, the resort holds its second annual pickleball tournament, November 13 to 15, with clinics, competitive play, a kickoff reception and dinners.
One Marsh Harbour stop has no season at all. Friends of the Environment opened its Exploratorium in April on its Marsh Harbour campus, with hands-on exhibits about local ecosystems. The Abaco Sun reported that it's open weekdays from 9am to 4pm, and drop-ins are welcome.
The second wave of reopenings comes around Thanksgiving, and it includes both of the cays' history museums. The Wyannie Malone Museum in Hope Town is due back in mid-November. Its displays cover shipbuilding, shipwrecks, torpedoed freighters, period household objects and historic photographs. On Green Turtle Cay, the Albert Lowe Museum closed at the end of August 23 and is set to reopen at Thanksgiving. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, antiques, photographs, documents and rare Lucayan artifacts.
That puts Green Turtle Cay's restaurants about four weeks ahead of its museum. Wally's Restaurant and Boutique in Marsh Harbour has been closed since September 5 and plans to reopen Thanksgiving Day, November 26. The next day, Friday, November 27, the Abaco Inn holds its Art Show & Wine Tasting in Hope Town from 11am to 4pm.
Treasure Cay runs on its own schedule. Treasure Sands Club opens for one holiday stretch, November 24 to December 2, with a special menu. It then closes again December 3 to 22 and reopens December 23 for the season. At Bahama Beach Club, the pool bar was set to reopen after November 1, and the Pavilion restaurant is due back in mid-December.
Once most places are open, the calendar moves to the cays, and nearly every December date is about art or music.
The first two overlap. The Sparkle Market falls on the Saturday of festival weekend, so December 5 puts two Hope Town events on the same day. Nashville songwriters will have come to Abaco twice in less than a month, first to teach students in Marsh Harbour and then to play for charity in Hope Town. Man-O-War is the only stop on this list where the organizers are adding boats to get people there.
Through all of this, Abaco's mainland is closer to a year-round service center, and the cays open and close with the season. Green Turtle Cay is first to reopen and also hosts the first big night of the new year. Hope Town's festival and market share the first weekend of December. With G&L's full schedule date still unannounced, the ferry timetable decides how easily you can get between them.
Many of the reopenings and events above center on Abaco's working marinas, from Bluff House's 40 slips to Man-O-War's art expo. If you're weighing a home on the water in the Bahamas, or just want to talk about how a marina community runs from season to season, Tyrese Campbell is glad to share what he knows. Book an Appointment whenever it suits you.
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