Hard to pin down what makes Harbour Island, Bahamas such an incredible place, as the variables are many.
This tiny sliver of an island runs north to south just off the tip of Eleuthera, truly one of the most beautiful Bahamian islands, for those in the know.
Hockey great Mark Messier, owner of a resort here, first visited on a fishing trip when playing for the New York Rangers, explains it this way:
“People like it here because it’s so hard to get to.”
Indeed, despite being so close to the coast of Florida (and officially part of North America, and not the Caribbean), you can only fly as close as nearby Eleuthera Island. We were cramped into a Beechcraft 1900C on a flight that left on a milk route from Nassau, the Bahamian capital.
This commercial flight ended up being a pizza delivery one, too, for locals wanting to bring a pizza treat back to their families! Anyone over five-feet tall, with or without a pizza box, had to bow down to maneuver in this surprisingly low-ceilinged plane. Yet, the mood was a jocular one.
Messier flies down in his own plane.
Once on the ground, however, everyone must take a $5 cab ride from the airport to the ferry port, and then a $5 ferry ride to make your way to Dunmore Town, the only village on Harbour Island. Bubbling under the surface is an authentic, friendly vibe – a local man on the ferry, just married, offers us a beer to celebrate. Our arrival? His wedding? It doesn’t seem to make a difference!
Many visitors arrive in Dunmore Town using their own boats, which is somehow a more direct way of getting here.
In this way, they are recreating the arrival of the original settlers, the famous Eleutheran Adventurers, colonists from Bermuda who were seeking religious freedom. After they were shipwrecked nearby, they eventually made Dunmore Town Bahamas’ first capital.
The beach action is on the eastern, Atlantic side, where folks stroll for hours, nearly alone along Pink Sand Beach – perennially voted as one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, nay, the world.
The pink hue of the sand is as striking as it is subtle – but the texture is unforgettable – think baby powder or finely sifted flour.
The resulting, almost miraculous sand has the amazing capacity to perfectly retain footprints, so if you look at the sand, as a detective might, you could well have the impression that hundreds have recently trodden by. You’d be wrong; it’s merely a record of the entire day’s foot traffic.
All resorts on Harbour Island have access to the public beach where visitors and Bahamians enjoy the beauty of this most perfect place.
Soft, easterly winds blow in with the waves, and the beach is never far from your lodging’s room or balcony overlooking the sea. The odd jogger or the person on horseback, constituted the only action we espy from our room at Runaway Hill Inn, owned by the Messier family.
Our host, Jennifer Messier, is easily the most spontaneously friendly and knowledgeable person you’ll meet there. She and her family have run the resort for over 17 years, and she speaks about her adopted home of Harbour Island (or Birdland, as locals call it) with the genuine enthusiasm of a first timer. Yes, she appears to know everyone and everything about the island and its residents.
The Messiers have been part of the scene here ever since brother Paul was invited on a fishing expedition.
“Another brother (Mark) soon got hooked on fishing and the resort became a family affair,” explains Jennifer, seemingly unaware of the pun.
You might meet brother Mark here (winner of six Stanley Cups and recently named officer of the Order of Canada), but Jennifer is the real star.
Celebrities in the business world you may know of run amok on Harbour Island. But one thing they have in common with everyone else here – including locals – is the electric golf carts. They make so little noise that the cooing of doves is all I can hear!
One of the major attractions is a lone tree. More driftwood than live tree, you’ll find it stuck in the sand off Bay Street. A local landmark, it was placed there by a tropical storm some decades ago and has become the backdrop for hundreds of top fashion shoots, like Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated, etc.
The charm of this place is its tininess. The beach is by far the key attraction and, at three miles long and 15- to 30-metres wide, is almost as big as the town on the other side.
You may come for the incredible relaxation as many repeat visitors do, but sport fisherfolk and water enthusiasts love this place, too. Back at Runaway Hill Inn, Jennifer shares photos of guests with their big catches yet, in her opinion, “any day on the water is a perfect day, whether you make a big catch or not.”
After spending a day on Harbour Island’s eastern side (facing the daylong sun), we hop into our golf cart and drive eight minutes to the appropriately named Sunset Café on the west side. Here, we enjoy overlooking boats at the Ramora marina, while downing a few frozen Goombay Smash cocktails.
The view is one of yachts of differing sizes, whose owners may be well-seeded (football team and restaurant empire owners from the US) who are seeking the same thing as us – peace and quiet the old-fashioned way.
The Eleutheran Adventurers who first came to the Harbour Island area were fleeing religious intolerance. That is why, when they got here, they choose their name from the Greek word, Eleuthera, which means freedom.
Later that night, as I watch the full moon hang above the sea from the restaurant veranda at the Runaway Hill Inn, I think:
How utterly appropriate!
IF YOU GO:
www.runawayhill.com
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