Personally I wouldn't say it's a bad choice, but rather another choice. I know I tend to stray from the norm in liking Nassau, but one person's trash is another person's treasure. Lots to do in Nassau and once you get to know the locals it's a really neat place.

If you go with the attitude that it's a dump, all you'll see is a dump. It's bigger, but no worse of a dump (visually) than many of the other Bahamian towns we visited. I still remember seeing meat being delivered to a small shop/fuel station in Cat Island - half thawed, flies buzzing around the blood soaked boxes, being unloaded from the back of a pickup truck. We loved Cat Island too - met Bohog there, one of the original "creators" of Rake n' Scrape (Rake n' Scrape was "invented" on Cat Island). We hung out with him and his friends for hours one night, drinking Kaliks from a shack on the beach while he played. Anyway, I guess my point is that you can look at the negatives or you can embrace the opportunities. We could say that Cat Island was gross, but then everyone would miss the cool people there.

All in all we probably spent about 3 weeks in Nassau. Most cruisers hear it's bad and only spend a night - maybe two - so I would not necessarily say that they are qualified to make an assessment. Other cruisers have spent longer and still hate it. We didn't. It's close to the Exumas and they are wonderful. I agree however - far fewer day trips from Nassau to anywhere else.

Another alternative would be to go down to Staniel Cay (Thunderball Cave) and be "mid-Exumas". You'd have to fly to Nassau and then take a (not cheap) island hopper, but there would be lots of day sails from there and one or two marinas in the area.

Like I said - just want to provide alternatives. I can't really comment on the Abacos as we haven't been there yet, but I hear it's beautiful there too.