Harbour Island Bahamas

2021-04-09T16:04:00.022-04:00

Harbour Island Guide Revised

We Are Mobile!

After 16 years of operation, HarbourIslandGuide.com went through a much needed update to satisfy the requirements for "responsive" so you can view our content such as maps of Harbour Island and our expanded photo gallery, on just about any device.

We now have a sustainable platform to display photography work and other imagery in an organized and easy-to-use gallery. This has always been our primary content along with providing general information for subjects like how to get to Harbour Island, where to stay, etc.

We are excited at the prospect of adding a very large amount of content that we have accumulated over the years for Harbour Island. In the past, it was such a hassle to add content and provide it in such a manner that everyone could enjoy -- including us.

Our passion for Harbour Island has always been our primary motivation for sharing our content. We hope you will check out our new mobile website and let us know what you think! If you like our site, link to it or mention it on your social channels. We are on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest too! Check our page links for more.

pj
Visit Harbour Island Bahamas

Harbour Island On Pinterest!

2012-06-23T13:04:00.004-04:00

Harbour Island now has a presence on Pinterest! These are select photos that are being posted on our Harbour Island Facebook page. Come join us!

Check out Harbour Island Photos on Pinterest.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2012 Perry Joseph Photography

Harbour Island on Facebook

2012-02-28T01:38:00.011-05:00

Harbour Island is now on Facebook! That seemed like my best solution for sharing photos and comments about Harbour Island. While I have not kept up my blog for Harbour Island, I have been shooting photos of the island for a number of years now and have reached such quantity that it's time to share more of it. For the moment, it appears Facebook is the more thoughtful approach to finding friends who share a passion for the pink sands of Harbour Island. You can also follow my postings on my Harbour Island Twitter feed.

Will I abandon my Harbour Island blog for the Harbour Island Facebook page? I don't know yet. Blogging definitely provides a better platform for story telling, but coming up with the time is more of the problem.

Okay, enough of my speech and personal issues. You're probably here because you want some sort of relevant content on Harbour Island, right? So go on over to the Facebook Page and check it out. Click the "Like" button at the top of the page, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

One other mention while I'm here. I have also started an Eleuthera Facebook Page and have been steadily adding photos there to augment my photos of Eleuthera on my website about Eleuthera.

Hope you enjoy some of the new photos. I'm always interested in feedback so please feel free to leave a comment either here or on the Harbour Island Facebook Page. Hope to hear from you.

Now please pass the conch fritters and don't drink the last Kalik!

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2012 Perry Joseph

Eleuthera - Road Trip!

2009-02-15T02:15:00.010-05:00

We missed this amenity the first time we made the trek to Harbour Island: Eleuthera! (Believe it or not, some people think Eleuthera is Harbour Island.) Of course, we knew Eleuthera existed given you typically fly into North Eleuthera if you want to get to "Briland." Eleuthera had been dismissed because we thought Governors Harbour and Club Med beach was the hot set there. Driving to those destinations and spending any amount of time there pretty much soaks a full day, 3+ hours of which is driving. And we eventually did that... Was it worth it? Absolutely!

But since then, we've had an opportunity to poke around the northern shores of Eleuthera and found any number of choice spots that can be driven to in less than an hour from the Harbour Island ferry dock. You can arrange to have a car rental meet you there and spend a half day discovering a few of the treasures North Eleuthera has to offer without feeling like you just did the marathon.

One of our favorite spots to visit is Preachers Cave. This historical site recently produced some archaeological finds dating back to the Arawaks in the 1500s. If you do a little reading about William Sayle and the Eleutheran Adventurers before you go, it makes for a better experience. When there, you can get a feel for the hardships these founders endured. Yet here they were surrounded by some of the most beautiful beachfront and island landscape in the Bahamas!

And that leads us to the other feature of visiting Preacher's Cave: checking out the adjoining Tay Bay Beach just off Devil's Backbone. Let's keep it simple: Wow! This is arguably one of the nicest beaches on North Eleuthera -- a very long broad beach with nice rock outcroppings on either end to give it character and grace. If you're there long enough, you'll invariably see a few boats come through the treacherous Devils Backbone, many times being led by a guide boat to avoid wrecking their hulls on the coral reefs.

Another excellent destination when embarking on an Eleuthera Road Trip is Current Cut and Current Settlement. Current Cut, popular with divers all over the world, is a narrow channel of water that flushes back and forth with the tides between Current Island and Eleuthera. Whether you dive or not, seeing the dark blue ocean water rushing through like a river is quite a visual. And the visit to peaceful and sedate Current Settlement gives you a real feel for "tiny town Bahamas." But before we muse about how far removed Current Settlement is, a newly renovated library there provides high speed Internet access to the rest of the world -- and your email if you must. Don't forget to check out that area of Current Settlement where the old dock is. This entire area is "camera ready."

We'd be remiss if we didn't mention of a few of the beaches and points of interest in North Eleuthera. Check out my satellite map of Eleuthera and look for Ridley Head, Salt Kettle Beach, Ben Bay Beach and Current Bay Beach. I'm not going to fib, though. These aren't necessarily the easiest places to find unless you either have good instructions or you are good with a map, and probably both. Just be sure to have extra water with you in case you get stuck somewhere. Some of these locations are off the beaten path and there are few if any signs. Probably the easiest of these Eleuthera beaches to find is Tay Bay Beach next to Preachers Cave. Once you are on the right path, there are signs along the way and you shouldn't have any problems with the roads or the navigation. Just be sure to tell someone where you're going and what time you expect to be back.

So if you're looking for something extra to do when visiting Harbour Island, hop on a water taxi and head towards Eleuthera. See what it feels like to be an Eleutheran Adventurer.

"Eleuthera road trip!"Music to my ears...

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2009 Perry Joseph

Shalimar on Harbour Island

2008-02-04T01:43:00.001-05:00

Got a G blog alert for a hit on Harbour Island. Always nice to see a good blog entry behind the linkage; especially when it sports some nice pictures from one of my favorite islands -- always better than the usual boring blog spam.

Behind the lens of those nice blog photos was the lovely Shalimar -- apparent world traveler and food expert. Shal graces us internet surfers with some nice photos from around Valentine's Marina and Harbour Island. Some of her work reminds me I need to shoot more food shots -- and go on a diet. I've been thinking about buying a second small camera just for that -- taking the food pictures that is. I'll leave the diet for another day.

Anyway, curiousity took me to a few of Shal's other sites and I found we share some commonalities -- we blog when we can -- and we've both dined at Angela's on Harbour Island. Yet another thing I've been trying to get my lovely wife, Rose Mary, to do since she's the food expert in the Family: write some Bahamas restaurant reviews. Perhaps this next trip? We already have reservations for Rock House Hotel on Harbour Island this coming April. Rosie has done several for Eleuthera Restaurants that I thought were rather nice.

Shal did some nice photography work during her dining experience at Angela's. The only thing not nice about it was it made me ravenous for some conch fritters. Thanks for that, Shal! I think I just gained another pound just thinking about them. Deelish! Thanks for that, Rachel Ray...

So when I get done checking Shal's Harbour Island trip report, I made a few comments on her blog and received a very nice reply along with a few more links for her content. Nice work!

One of the shots was a scene I had also shot on the northern end of Dunmore Town. The scene had a nice view of the bay, a couple of old chairs under a very old slanted wood roof, and an old wire spool was used for playing dominoes on. Shal caught the shot just right. My photo had a Bahamian gentleman sitting at the makeshift table with some dominoes, but the exposure wasn't the best and neither was the pose. I did, however, manage to shoot a couple of reasonable shots of the nearby two story structure -- one of them shown above.

Love your stuff, Shal, and thanks for the pix and the trip report! Now pass the conch fritters please!

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2008 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island Bahamas Virtual Reality

2008-01-03T03:21:00.000-05:00

Harbour Island provided me with a number of unique opportunities to shoot my favorite type of picture, virtual reality and panoramas.

I added a page to HarbourIslandGuide.com called Harbour Island Virtual Reality Tour.

The image of Lone Tree, as seen from the camera as it points directly down, is shown here. Those virtual reality images where you can see everything above and below are referred to as "fully submersive" or "equirectangular" panoramas.

In the case of the virtual reality picture of Dunmore Town and Harbour Island beach where you can't see the bottom (nadir) or top (zenith), these would be referred to a "cylindrical" panoramas.

If it isn't already obvious, some of the difficulties in taking these types of pictures is getting the exposure just right and avoiding problems with high contrast scenes -- a frequent problem in this type of environment.

Another typical obstacle in shooting panoramic images is finding views that are worthy throughout the 360 degree field of view. In that particular case, a place like Harbour Island almost makes that problem a non-issue.

One feature I really like about shooting panoramas is being able to extract a portion of the image and and use that as a single image. You can see an example of this on one of my Lone Tree images in my new print art gallery for Harbour Island. It's an extract from the Virtual Lone Tree panorama.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2008 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island Pictures and Images Gallery

2008-01-02T02:24:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to launching my Harbour Island Pictures and Images shop. I had a difficult time choosing which photos to start with. Harbour Island has so much to offer a photographer.

One of my favorites is Harbour Island's Crown Street. This little narrow street is so Bahamian, so rich in colors; pink, coral, green, white along with a polaroid blue to back it all up. So peaceful and natural.

Another favorite in the gallery is the triple exposure shot of Harbour Island's famous "Lone Tree". It's actually a part of a larger virtual reality / panoramic shot of Lone Tree. I plan on getting that and another virtual reality shot of Dunmore Town posted on HarbourIslandGuide.com.

In fact, instead of my just gabbing about it and then waiting another 9 months to do it, I think I'll work on that right now. Great way to start the New Year -- start thinking about that next visit to Harbour Island and Eleuthera.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2008 Perry Joseph

Lunch Club Hits Blue Bar on Harbour Island

2007-03-13T00:18:00.000-04:00

A rare view of the e-lite Lunch Club hard at work. Now we know their secret -- liquid diets. Amazing I was invited. Even more amazing is they let me bring my camera. Bad idea. Now, it's all over the net. Oops, I did it again.

And the only reason they invited me was because I'm always the designated driver. What a buzz kill! Now I know how Dangerfield felt. At least they didn't stick me with the tab... not yet.

The hardest part about writing this entry is avoiding all the wisecracks that come to mind when I look at this shot. I'm saving them for next trip -- I'm going to need plenty of verbal ammo. Besides, I'd get a week's worth of kp duty if I put them in print.

If you're on Harbour Island, take the advice of the Lunch Club and check out the Blue Bar at Pink Sands hotel. The foofie drinks are yummo! (Thanks to Rachael Ray for that literary bit.)

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2007 Perry Joseph

The Pink Sands of Harbour Island

2007-03-04T03:25:00.000-05:00

I read elsewhere on some funky travel forum "the sand's not really pink, it's white." Too many Kaliks, bud! If you'd spend a little less time checking out the pink suits, you'd see we're talking pink sands! I can hear it now, "how pink are they?" The sand is so pink, it almost looks red at daybreak. You gotta try to get up real early once to see this phenom; stop hanging out at Gusty's till the wee hours. Yeah, I know -- it's supposed to vacation. Lucky for me I gave up hangovers so I could get up early and take photos so you could see what you're missing.

For me, it's not so much about the sand being pink as much as it is "packed." I've trundled (cool word - thanks, Mark) through all kinds of sand beachfront in the Bahamas and most of it is real mushy -- great if you like developing calf muscles -- something akin to walking through snow. I prefer walking at 4+ mph, so I'm not real fond of sand you sink into.

As I've studied it, unscientifically of course, the beach sand stays packed because it's protected by the nearby reefs. These reefs keep Harbour Island's pink sand beaches one of the best walking / jogging beaches in the Bahamas, not to mention one of the best swimming holes.

Are there others? Sure... But how many of them have as many cool digs in such a concentrated area as does Harbour Island? Make a pit stop at Sip-Sip and Blue Bar and you'll see what I mean.

See you on the pink sands beach.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright ©2007 Perry Joseph

Raphael Mazzucco on Harbour Island

2007-01-04T02:16:00.000-05:00

Found this article where Raphael Mazzucco talks about his S.I. photo shoot on Harbour Island. You may recall some of my muse on this subject in my entry Harbour Island makes cover of Sports Illustrated.

I found Raphael's selection of equipment most interesting when it came to his Leica Digilux 2; something I had never heard of. The Pentax 67 was a lovely camera to use for those rich beach scenes.

But hey, I didn't make this blog entry to bore you with camera talk... The real news of the article is SI has put a book out that is a collection of the many fab photos Raphael shot on Harbour Island. Here are some sample shots from SI's "Exposure".

This is a limited edition book signed by Raphael so don't wait if you want one. Here is where to buy SI's "Exposure" book.

Speaking of photo stuff... I finally got around to processing a few of my interactive 360° panoramic photos I shot of Harbour Island last Spring. The first one was taken at the southern end of the island just before the major rock outcropping. This is a delightful spot early in the morning when only a few people are out -- typically walking or jogging -- and maybe a dog or two to leave behind a few paw print photo ops in the sand.

I am so amazed at how you can be on Harbour Island at the peak of prime vacation time and still be just about the only one standing on the beach watching the sun come up. My wife says it's because I'm the only crazy person who would get up that early in the morning when you're on vacation. Yeah and it makes for a good excuse to take a nap in the hammock later on in the day. Okay, lame excuse...

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
©2007 Perry Joseph

Basketball -- Bahamas Style...

2006-11-25T03:19:00.000-05:00

Last trek to Harbour Island, I made sure to get a followup shot for my previous entry: B-Ball on Harbour Island...

There are those large gatherings on a warm night -- groups of kids headed for the court under the lights -- bouncing their b-balls along the narrow streets of the island.

Everbody knows everybody on this island. You don't miss a big game -- they are a treat to watch. And these guys can play!

How nice it would have been to have hoops like this down the street when we were growing up?

If you're looking for a different place to play basketball and you happen to be in the Bahamas, check this court out.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2006 Perry Joseph

Lone Tree on Harbour Island

2006-07-25T01:58:00.000-04:00

This is an image of what has become something of a landmark on Harbour Island -- Brilanders call it the Lone Tree. I Photoshopped this image for a while thinking I would put in on a tee shirt or hat and wear it on my next trip to Harbour Island just to see what kind of comments I would get. I had emailed it to an artist I know and showed it to a few other friends. They all did a thumbs down. "Not enough color," they said.

Well, yeah! If you've seen the Lone Tree on Harbour Island, it's a study of grayscale that contrasts heavily against the backdrop of the bright sand, blue sky and a turquouis ocean -- essentially a dead object sitting in very righteous spot.

What I'm driving at is it's easy to miss the beauty of Lone Tree. Having done my fair share of fresh water fishing, I've seen a lot of deadwood. It's the shape and character that makes one piece of driftwood more beautiful than another. In simple terms, Lone Tree is the bomb and definitely worth a Kodak moment.

I was told once this tree was an almond tree -- and then I get it from the real authorities who hang out at the Harbour Lounge Bar (Yo Spooner!) it's a pine of some sort? Everyone seems to agree it wound up there after hurricane Andrew in '92. Some say it slid down the nearby hill -- others disagree. Who had too many drinks and said it was blown over from Eleuthera? Interesting how it wound up being upright; the tree I mean. A even more interesting tidbit was how Lone Tree can move around during high tide. Are famous landmarks supposed to move around?

If you look closely at this second shot, you will see a pair of flip flops laying to the right of the tree. I know it's anectdotal, but you might get a kick out of this little segway. As I approached Lone Tree to take this shot, a couple of golf carts came whizzing past making a beeline to Lone Tree. Note, you are not supposed to drive golf carts on the beach and there is a sign that clearly says so. Right away, you know these people are the special annointed ones who don't need no steenking rules.

This guy and a fair looking underaged bimbo literally jump out of the first cart; she runs over to the tree, kicks off her flip flops and proceeds to run out to the water's edge so boyfriend can act like he's a pro with a camera and shoots 100 pictures of her trying to act goofy like she's a model. "Look at me!" Sorry Toots, the SI Swimsuit shoot was months ago. What a hoot! She thought it was all about her. But it sure was nice of her to give my shot of Lone Tree that little extra prop.

How do I know they were "annointed" you ask? The second golf cart contained two pilots who were flying them around the islands in a jet -- they were now acting as bodyguards -- like it was really necessary (yawn). The pilots and I exchanged a few comments and those kinds of smiles that say "Yeah, I know. They're..." I would have thought better of them and said they were just having fun; I like doing stupid stuff too. But those &#!@# carts can leak all kinds of wretch on the sand. It sucks when people don't respect how fragile the beach is.

Anywho, I came across the first image while browsing through my collection and remembered how much time I had spent working on it. Why not at least shove it up on the blog? Yep.

And then you ask how one can babble on about a Lone Tree on a beach on Harbour Island? You'll have to go see for yourself -- you'll know.

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2006 Perry Joseph

BahamaWave - Bahamas Photography At Its Best

2006-07-01T01:19:00.000-04:00

I've been trading email with a photog from the Bahamas who has become an email friend over the years -- Derek from BahamaWave. Years back, Derek dropped me some email regarding my site for Harbour Island. After a few exchanges, he emailed me some links to some of his sites and I liked them enough to bookmark them. Derek has a great eye for Bahamian art. He also has an excellent collection of photos from the Bahamas -- this is stuff you can frame. Best of all, Derek's a really nice guy.

I recently sent email to Derek asking about his original site being "404" -- geek for "offline". Alas, the expense and "not enough visitors" and "not enough time" shut the site down. Happens to all of us websters at some point or another. Derek now spreads his word of the Bahamas through his new BahamaWave blog.

Better yet -- click over to Derek's new gallery for his photos of the Bahamas hosted by DevinatART and another nice Bahamas photo gallery over at BetterPhoto. Don't see that image of the Bahamas you want? Drop Derek a line... He'll hook you up.

While I'm here, this is my vote for favorite Bahama Wave shot.

Do like I did... Grab a drink, flip on some good tunes and surf the Bahamas through Derek's lens.

pj

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2006 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island Trip Report from Pinknest

2006-05-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

I feel bad about not getting anything done around here lately. The good news is, I have a lot of content which will eventually get out. I have some panoramics from the last trip that will be most interesting. I was able to combine 360° virtual reality with the latest wave of "high dynamic range" or HDR, which is techno babble for a much broader and deeper color range. I'd like to say these will blow you away, but I'm trying to stay humble about it.

In the meantime...

I recently picked up on a very thorough trip report for Harbour Island which also included a visit to Eleuthera. This isn't your average Harbour Island trip report either -- this girl did the number on photos and dialog. Made me want to be back there so bad! You go girl!

I quickly passed the piece along to my wife and a few other H.I. junkies so they could take the day off at their desk and check out the island. I can hear Rose Mary saying "See you at the Blue Bar for lunch?" So if you're "jonesing" for pink sands, check out Pinknest's Harbour Island Trip Report.

pj

P.S. See honey? You should do a trip report too!

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2006 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island Makes Cover of Sports Illustrated

2006-02-15T00:31:00.000-05:00

Beach party? I'll bet. It kills me! Nobody thought to call me with an invite? The answering machine must be broke. And I would have taken the photos gratis!

Well, you'll just have to use your imagination as to where the shot was taken on Harbour Island. Safe to say S.I. knows a good beach when they see one. (Now, now...)

I haven't had the chance to run up to Barnes & Noble's rack to look-see if there are any other beach shots that might give away an exact location. But frankly, it doesn't matter because I've seen the whole beach and one part of it is just as hip as any other -- it's all a knock out -- and it deserved to be the backdrop for the '06 cover.

So you don't get the wrong impression, and if you haven't been to Harbour Island, the beach goers keep their tops on at all times -- they're there for the pink beach -- mostly.

Hat's off to Raphael Mazzucco for the bomb snap. You got it!

Update: S.I. On Location on Harbour Island

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2005 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island '06

2006-01-20T02:53:00.000-05:00

It won't be much longer now. Spring is getting closer and so is our next visit to Harbour Island. I've been getting ready for the last month and still have a ways to go. With me, it's mostly about the gear I am taking. Rose Mary has been ready since Summer. Instead of packing all of her warm weather clothes in the Fall, she packs some it in a box for the trip to Harbour Island -- she's all ready to go. Did I say I love my wife?

I have been doing some experimentation with some new photo gear so I can capture a few more photos for my Harbour Island and Eleuthera websites. I have over 1000 photos of Harbour Island and Eleuthera now, but it seems like such a small amount. Is there such a thing as too much? My wife thinks so...

I've been working on some new mapping techniques which I hope to implement on my Harbour Island site by this Summer -- hopefully sooner.

Along the way, I have been working on a few other projects related to all this. I plan on moving this blog to another location in due time -- it's time for some consolidation and some updates. I'd love to talk more about it, but it's more fun to leave everyone guessing. I do promise it will be quite interesting.

In any event, for those of you following this blog, I didn't want you to think I was sleeping at the switch -- I'm just working on "island time". The next wave is coming soon.

Copyright © 2006 Perry Joseph
Visit Harbour Island Bahamas

B-Ball on Harbour Island

2005-11-03T04:34:00.000-05:00

Let theirs be light on the court: Harbour Island Basketball Players Want Court Lights

"Basketball players on Harbour Island are thankful for the efforts by Local and Central Governments that transformed what was once the public dump site into a beautiful basketball court complete with glass backboards, break-away rims and a natural breath-taking view of the harbour between "Briland" and mainland Eleuthera."

Got that right... I've taken a few shots of that "breath-taking view" from those courts and it is a splendid view indeed -- definately not your typical basketball court ambiance.

Visit Harbour Island Bahamas
Copyright © 2005 Perry Joseph

When the Sand is Pink on Harbour Island

2005-10-10T15:19:00.000-04:00

I just finished work on my latest entry for Harbour Island photo-of-the-month.

There is a short time span in the morning where one can clearly see how pink the sand is on Harbour Island. The first time I saw this beach was in broad daylight, and I must admit, it didn't look too pink to me... Nor did it photograph that way. The sand looks bright white with the sun shining on top of it. A technical reason could be provided, but that's not important.

Given the right time of morning, the variations of "pink sand" is nothing short of stunning. On one hand, you want to stare out at the ocean and watch the sunrise -- the shock blue waves rolling in and slithering along the beachfront -- the sun literally popping up over the horizon and painting that big bright yellow stripe pointing straight toward you. But if you think to look up or down the beach, you can get just as mesmerized watching the sand turn every imaginable shade of pink. Sometimes it pays to look the other way.

I'll see you on the beach.

Copyright © 2005 Perry Joseph
Visit Harbour Island Bahamas

Traffic Problems on Harbour Island

2005-09-22T02:19:00.000-04:00

Too many golf carts, cars, trucks and SUVs on Harbour Island? Probably. This article details some of the concerns:

Traffic Crisis in Paradise

One source tells me there are approximately 800 carts on the island not to mention there are at least half dozen golf cart rental companies. Bear in mind, Harbour Island is 3.5 miles long.

Wait a sec... Before I go further, allow me to clear up that little bit of trivia. Harbour Island is exactly 3.29 miles long from the top of the reef on the North end to the most Southern point on the island. Just in case you need to know, it is 3.25 miles if you drop the Northern reef. Trust me -- I'm right on this.

As I was saying, Harbour Island is 3.29 miles long. How many carts does one need? Make no mistake, running around the island on a golf cart is a ton of fun and I wouldn't have it any other way... little scooters could be cool too.

I do get a kick out of the handful of oversized SUVs on the island. Perhaps a little too much Americana? I can begin to see a problem if they import a fleet of Escalades to the island. More than anything, I want to see who is going to be first to bring in a Hummer.

There's some mention of wanting full time traffic cops on the island. What I am waiting for is to get a speeding ticket while driving a golf cart on Harbour Island. Or perhaps something less heinous like failure to use proper hand signals, or the most obvious, driving down the wrong side of the road. I would be most happy to pay that fine as long as I get to take the ticket home to show my friends.

Remind me to show you a photo I took which clearly demonstrates what can happen to one's golf cart when when one parties at Gusty's all night.

Copyright © 2005 Perry Joseph

Harbour Island Bahamas

2005-09-17T01:46:00.000-04:00

Bahamas Best Kept Secret

Promise not to tell? One of the best kept secrets of the Bahamas is Harbour Island. This romantic little island, known as "Briland" by its inhabitants, is a short hop from the States. A one hour flight from Florida to North Eleuthera followed by a brief cab and water taxi ride gets you to this Bahamas gem in a hurry.

Harbour Island is 3.23 miles long, and at its widest point, .54 miles. Its long wide beach is famous for its hard-packed pale pink sands. The likes of Fodors and Conde Nast rate it as one of the "best Bahamas beaches". The beach, combined with some great restaurants, hotels and vacation home rentals, makes Harbour Island a destination of choice amongst Bahamas enthusiasts. It's no surprise to find a few "rich and famous" there -- they know they won't be hounded.

Central to Harbour island is Dunmore Town. This quaint and friendly community features old Victorian structures adorned with Bahama's colorful pastel paint schemes. No high rise hotels, fast food or traffic jams on this island!

Golf cart rentals are the transportation of choice. Swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing, and just plain walking the beach are some of the popular activities. To be sure, Harbour Island is not known for its shopping and night life nor is there any gambling. If you seek large crowds, wild parties or theme park rides, this is not your destination.

Harbour Island weather is truly delightful; especially late Winter and Spring when there is little chance of rain. Ocean breezes take any edge off of moderately warm temperatures ranging from the 70s to 80s during the day and 60s at night. Air conditioning during season is unnecessary -- ceiling fans keep things comfy. And nothing beats falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean through an open window. We're talking heaven on Earth.

Dining out is casual. The better restaurants include Pink Sands Hotel, Coral Sands, The Landing, Rock House, Romora Bay Club and Harbour Lounge. For local fare, Ma Ruby's should not be missed. And there are more... Part of the pleasure of exploring the island is checking out the restaurants. When compared to other Bahamian islands, Harbour Island has one of the best selections of restaurants -- all within close proximity to any place you stay. Be sure to leave the "diet" at home. All that walking on the beach and swimming in the ocean creates an appetite.

Harbour Island hotels include Pink Sands Hotel, Coral Sands Hotel and Dunmore Beach Club -- all on the ocean side of the island. On the bay side, it's The Landing Inn and the Rock House. On a budget? There are other hotels to choose from. Vacationing on the Island is not cheap, but if it was, everybody would be there, right?

Harbour Island vacation home rentals and villas are numerous. Location and size come at a price. If you desire "beachfront", the better locations are usually on the north and south along the ocean side. If you want to save a little money, there are some nice rentals in Dunmore Town and others located in the interior of the island. Remember, the beach is always just a few minutes away.

When looking for home rentals on the internet, look for those offering more than just a few photos so you have an idea of what to expect. A number of rentals are handled by rental or real estate agents who may not always provide much in the way of descriptions, map locations or photos. Owners who care about promoting their home rental properties typically have independent web sites and accept e-mail inquiries directly.

Some of the better house rentals on Harbour Island are booked nearly a year in advance of prime season. Those who want the best make early reservations -- many are repeat customers. You can also take a "standby" position on a number of rentals in hopes someone cancels. Be sure to ask for referrals and double check policies for deposits and refunds.

If you seek a memorable and relaxed Bahamas vacation coupled with sun, sea, great food and a romantic beachfront that will knock your eyes out, consider Harbour Island. I'll see you on the beach!