Sandals Emerald Bay Closed: What Happened & Beaches Exuma
Sandals Emerald Bay in Exuma, Bahamas, closed on August 15, 2024. The resort is undergoing a $100M transformation into the new Beaches Exuma – the first family-friendly Beaches resort in the Bahamas. Exuma is one of my all time favorite places to visit, but don’t pack your bags just yet – the Beaches Exuma timeline has slipped by 2 years since the original announcement. If you’re planning a trip before 2028, check out the other Beaches resorts for your family trip.
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Why is Sandals Emerald Bay changing to Beaches Exuma?
The conversion looks like a reaction to soft couples demand. It isn’t. When Sandals acquired the property in 2010, it bought the resort plus 53 adjacent acres with the intention of opening a Beaches — the bones were already right, since most rooms were laid out as one- and two-bedroom suites. The property had been built as a Four Seasons, opening in 2003, and was developed from the start with a family-oriented layout: beaches, pools, and play space spread across a large oceanfront footprint.
What stopped them was Great Exuma itself. The island was small, its resources limited, and there simply weren’t enough flights arriving to fill a family resort. So Sandals opened it as a couples-only property instead, with the understanding that they’d revisit the Beaches idea when the destination could support it. Fourteen years of airlift growth later, that day arrived.
What is Beaches Exuma?
Everything below is announced, not confirmed — Beaches has released plans and renderings, not a finished product, and specifics have already shifted between announcements.
The headline is a $100 million transformation, with a Pirate Island Waterpark, a Kids Camp, Sesame Street characters, and the Greg Norman-designed championship golf course carried over from the Sandals era.
On the room side, Sandals has described reconfigured multi-bedroom villas, suites, and connecting rooms, upgraded food and beverage, and new family amenities including a splash deck, with the Red Lane Spa retained.
The site is far larger than what Sandals Emerald Bay occupied — plans describe roughly 500 acres, which is consistent with those 53 adjacent acres finally coming into play, and the scope now includes a sizable conference and banqueting facility aimed at group travel, destination events, and corporate retreats.
In shape, then: a full-scale Beaches flagship in the mold of Beaches Turks & Caicos rather than a light rebrand of the resort that closed. Whether the finished resort matches the renderings is a separate question, and one nobody can answer until the property is actually standing.
What are the best alternatives to Sandals Emerald Bay?
There’s no like-for-like replacement for Sandals Emerald Bay. What it offered was an unusual combination: Bahamian water, near-total quiet, championship golf, and adults-only. No other property in the portfolio bundles all four. The right substitute depends on which of those you were actually there for.
If it was the Bahamas. Sandals points guests to the renovated Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, which has its own offshore private island. It’s the honest answer geographically and the wrong answer atmospherically — Nassau is a cruise port with traffic, crowds, and a downtown, and Exuma is none of those things. Book it if the destination mattered; skip it if the quiet did.
If it was the water and the beach. Sandals Grande Antigua on Dickenson Bay is the brand’s own suggested alternative, and it’s the strongest one — a genuinely great stretch of sand with a resort that has aged well. You trade the sandbar-and-cay landscape of the Exuma chain for a more conventional Caribbean beach, but on pure beach quality it holds up.
If it was the seclusion. Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the closest thing to Exuma’s low-key, off-the-beaten-path feel, and it’s new enough that the rooms and grounds are still in excellent shape. Longer flights and a connection from most US cities, which is precisely why it stays uncrowded.
If you were waiting on Beaches Exuma for a family trip. Go to Beaches Turks & Caicos. It’s the flagship the Exuma project is modeled on, it’s bookable now, and given the timeline you’d be waiting until 2028 for a first-season property still working out its operational kinks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sandals Emerald Bay still open?
No. Sandals Emerald Bay closed to guests on August 15, 2024 and has not reopened. It is not accepting reservations and will never operate as a Sandals resort again.
Why did Sandals Emerald Bay close?
It closed to be rebuilt as Beaches Exuma, the first Beaches resort in The Bahamas. This was the original plan for the property — Sandals bought it in 2010 intending a family resort, but Great Exuma didn’t yet have the airlift or infrastructure to support one, so it opened as a couples-only Sandals instead. The 2024 closure was the company finally executing that plan, not a response to poor performance.
When will Beaches Exuma open?
No opening date has been announced. Sandals has said the goal is to complete the transformation by the end of 2027, but that’s a construction target rather than a confirmed guest opening. Treat anything earlier than 2028 as speculation — the project was originally announced as a 12-to-15-month renovation, which would have reopened it in late 2025.
Can I book Beaches Exuma?
No. No opening inventory has been released and reservations are not available.
Will Sandals Emerald Bay reopen as a Sandals resort?
No. The property is being converted to the family-oriented Beaches brand permanently. Couples can still stay — Beaches resorts accept adult couples — but the adults-only experience Emerald Bay was known for is gone. If that’s what you’re after in The Bahamas, Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau is the remaining option.
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