We love Eleuthera. Sadly, after FINALLY getting everyone we know to pronounce it correctly, we decided it was time to try another island. Our heart will always be there, for me that's especially true of Tarpum Bay. However, we witnessed in the few short years of our visits, careless attention to development taking a toll. Disney's purchase of the landmark Lighthouse Beach was the final straw. Truth be told, it is good to try new things. Long Island is a couple hundred miles south of Eleuthera, falling southeast of The Exumas, with the Tropic of Cancer cutting through the top third of the long, narrow island. It has the reputation as being the most beautiful of The Out Islands and is known for agricultural crops, including mutton farming (in this case goats, not sheep). Bummer, but I could not get inbound flights to Nassau match outbound flights to Long Island, so we had to stay a night in Nassau. We tried BahaSea Backpackers and shared an ocean side king room with our daughter, who had a twin bed. They also have shared rooms in the form of a hostel on the premises, which we wanted our young adult daughter to see. The property is beautiful and nearby restaurants. However, the hotel is separated from businesses by an incredibly busy four-lane street and overall, way too hectic for us. Next time, we'll go back to our standby, Orange Hill.
Where We Stayed: Sun Living Apartment above Under the SunLuckily, it only took a few miles after we turned the wrong way on the Queen's Highway for me to realize the problem. Hahaha! One main road and I still messed it up. It didn't take long for us to find our apartment for the week, above It's Under the Sun Department Store in Mangrove Bush. Initially, I picked this for the incredibly affordable rate, and the flexibility in how many people can sleep there. We're already booked for another stay this Christmas because it was all that, but also homey and incredibly convenient to both ends of the island. Here's a link to their rental website. Under the Sun serves up some delicious food, too. Here is a link to a blogger's review. We enjoyed our stay so much that I made a video tour of the apartment:Food:We stock up on basics when we first arrive with things like eggs, bread, sliced ham, cheese, soda, cookies, peppers, tomatoes and onions. Typically, I'll make a breakfast with eggs and we'll eat one other meal at the rental, usually sandwiches. This helps with the finances, and still keeps kitchen work to a minimum. We like to eat out one time a day, usually a late lunch. Tiny's Hurricane Hole: Great expat party vibe that includes delicious food and thoughtfully crafted cocktails. Max's Conch Bar: Perfect island scene with a great menu. The mosquitos were bad during our visit, but nothing a quick spray of Off couldn't handle. I'm sad we were too full for dessert. LLoyd's: Good if you need to catch a game but average food and grumpy service. Erica's Bakery: This place in Clarence Town should not be missed. Go early in your trip so you can stock up and I promise you'll want to return before the end of your trip. Everything about this bakery is on point. It seems to be a favorite spot for Sunday afternoon sweets. Rowdy Boys: In a lifetime of eating out, the young man that waited on us was one of the kindest and most thoughtful service professionals I've ever experienced. Food was good. Chez Pierre: Hands down, by any standards this is excellent and beautiful food. Add to that, the thoughtful menu, an absolutely beautiful location and this is a place not to be missed. Chez Pierre also has small, rustic cabins with meals included in the price. We're already planning five nights here on our next trip. Pit Bull's First and Last Drop: After spending a few hours at Gordon's Beach (which BTW is so beautiful, I was left speechless), stop here for a cold Kalik and great stories from Pit Bull. His conch salad has an usual ingredient that makes it especially delicious. Enjoying this little bit of paradise that Ernest created is exactly the kind of day that makes us love The Out Islands. Note about bringing your own food: If you read Bahamas travel forums, you will notice many threads about people packing coolers of food to bring on their Bahamas vacation. It's true, food is expensive on an island. It's also true that you may not find everything you are used to buying in the states. Unless you have some extreme dietary restrictions, I promise you will find everything you need. Those giant chest freezers in each market are filled with meat, pizzas, seafood, and countless other treats. Take a peek inside and see what you find. I also promise you will not save enough money to make much of a difference in your travel budget. Save yourself the hassle of lugging frozen food and buy locally. No matter what island you visit, the local economy benefits from your dollars. Trust me, the local residents need your business. Don't complain about Disney and other foreign investors ruining the charm of your favorite islands if you are not willing to support them yourself. Buy groceries locally, stop in at restaurants - even if just for a Kalik and a snack. It's a win-win-win. You support local people in a destination you love, you buy a bit of convenience when you are on vacation, and you have the opportunity to meet some incredibly wonderful people. End of rant. Beaches!We love beautiful beaches, but are not so much hang out all day at the beach types. We like to swim, snorkel, walk, look for shells, eat a snack and then repeat the cycle. These were some of our favorites: Columbus Point: I'm not sure if this is a beach, a creek, a little bay... whatever, it was beautiful and we loved the snorkeling. The sand is powdery and white and the water gin-clear. Amazing. Guana Cay: The beach itself was a bit more coarse sand (clearly a sign of being spoiled), but we had fun snorkeling here. We did make it out to the cay, but didn't have the best shoes for navigating the sharp coral rocks. Dean's Blue Hole: We were repeat visitors here. It's one of the rare places where you might see more than a few people. It's a thrill to snorkel over the blue hole, but south east of there, by the break is amazing snorkeling. There is always a cliff jump, or two, and this is a good walking beach. Being on the east side, there is plenty of washed up trash to collect, so bring some extra bags. Lochabar Point Blue Hole: My husband swam with a fever of rays here. Enough said. Galloway Beach: Beautiful white sand, great shell hunting, shady trees, calm swimmable water. Surprisingly, we didn't snorkel, so we'll have to save that for next time. Santa Maria Beach: At this point in our trip, we weren't really paying attention to what beach we were on. We were shooting for Galliot, or Santa Maria and I have no idea if we were on either, or if we were even on a public beach. We drove north, behind Santa Maria Resort until the road ended and started snorkeling. We had a great time and found pin cushion stars, and a whole lot of big fish in the deep water near the entrance to the creek/bay (seen as the dark blue stripe below) . This location was incredibly beautiful. Gordon's Beach: This is by far the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The blue color is extraordinary. The large crescent shaped white sand beach is idyllic. Coral heads not far from shore made this exceptional. Beaches only accessible by boat: Luckily, we ended up on a half day tour with Francis Darville of Sun Boat Rentals and Tours. He shared stories of growing up on Long Island and vast knowledge of the area. We had some great snorkeling and spent time on some incredible sand bars. We had such a great day that I made this video to share it: Our Week on Long IslandIt's hard for me to sum up a week like we had in Long Island. Both internally and externally, the beauty of this island runs deep. Water is so blue that it reflects on the bottom of clouds. The variety of shades of blue and the intensity was nothing like we've seen before. Beaches included chunky sand with little cays offshore, white sand beaches with the clearest cyan water, blue holes right on the beach, all with some of the best off shore snorkeling we've encountered. We did lots and we did nothing. We met wonderful people, discovered amazing natural beauty, snorkeled all over the island, saw some interesting critters, and found ourselves relaxed and centered again.
We love a beautiful beach, and Long Island has them. We still have a lot of exploring to do, but from our first trip, I'd say Long Island has a greater variety of different beach types, and many more options for shore side snorkeling. Eleuthera has overall more wide, soft sandy beaches but fewer options for good snorkeling without hiring a boat. Thank goodness I waited two months to write this report. With seven days on our visit, it would take a book to describe the details of all our fun. Every day was met with beautiful vistas, meeting genuinely kind people, easily accessible snorkeling, and a wonderful low key island vibe. One such day included a leisurely drive down to Gordon's Beach on the very southern tip of Long Island. The water was such a pure, clean hue of cyan, framed by a beautiful powdery white sand that I was left gobsmacked. We enjoyed walking, napping and snorkeling a surprising good patch of coral heads not far from shore. After a few hours, we decided to find a cold Kalik and stopped at Pit Bull's First and Last Drop. We had such a great visit, listening to Earnest's stories of growing up, finding adventure in Nassau, and then returning to Long Island. One top of that, he made us some of the very best conch salad we've ever had. On our way northbound, we decided to get some pastry treats in Clarence Town, but stopped for a quick snorkel at the blue hole on the south end of Lochabar Beach first. My husband got in before me, just as a fever of rays passed by. Lucky him for perfect timing and an incredible experience. We didn't see a lot of fish, but we're a wee bit concerned about a barracuda that was a little more curious than we liked. On our way back to the car, we stopped and chatted with two couples, each of the four carrying buckets and baskets. They were incredibly friendly and shared that were collecting grasses for weaving. Headed back to the Queen's Highway, a wild boar stepped out of the brush and stopped to take a look at us before crossing into the brush on the other side. A surprise ending to an absolutely perfect day!
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AuthorI'm a mom to two, wife to one, and a math teacher to many. We live on Michigan's West Coast, in the beautiful town of Holland. We love the people, natural beauty, and peaceful vibe of the Bahamas Out Islands. Archives
December 2021
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