Any recommendations for hotels in the Out Islands of the Bahamas?

by philg

Folks: I’m planning a little airplane trip starting on Friday. The itinerary is New York City, Atlanta, Florida to fuel up, out to the Bahamas, back to Charleston, SC, Washington, DC and home. The goal is to visit some interesting places that are hard to reach on commercial airlines, snorkel, and add some good recommendations to http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/caribbean

I’ve already been to Andros and Exuma. I was thinking maybe Cat Island and Eleuthera. Thoughts/ideas?

9 thoughts on “Any recommendations for hotels in the Out Islands of the Bahamas?”

  1. Cat and Eleuthera are both interesting, though you’ll need a car or a taxi for any sight-seeing. Long is more developed than those two, but that’s relative. If you get there see if the ice cream parlor that sells deep-fried (Caribbean) lobster is still in business. Norman has (or at least had six years ago) a restaurant in walking distance of its airstrip – and some very interesting history.
    Marsh Harbour in the Abacos is the third largest city – after Nassau and Freeport; it has a traffic light. If you have time, taxi into town and take Albury’s Ferry to Hope Town – it’s truly picturesque. So is Man-O-war for that matter.
    The Abacos may still have their web site; http://www.oii.net or a search will turn up something.

  2. Eleuthera is a fascinating place. Very untouristy, with the southern end almost deserted. Beautiful beaches, and some great snorkelling. You can find some photos from my trip (taken with a bunch of college friends) at my friend’s Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dominic/sets/72057594054512232/.

    The first few pics are of Nassau, which you probably know enough to stay away from. Some of the pics are from the campus of a small school, which is about the only civilization on that part of the island, but you should be able to get a feel for the remoteness of the southern part of the island (where we stayed) from the pics, especially the biking ones.

    They had huge plans for the island becoming a resort, but it never came through. There are networks of abandoned road going through dense overgrowth, and even a huge abandoned airfield that was originally going to serve all the the development there:

    http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=24.78991,-76.294792&spn=0.046909,0.095787&t=h&z=14&om=0

  3. Phil,
    Have you ever considered flying a single engine heli from Florida to the Bahamas? I realize you are in New England, but if you lived in Florida would you do it?
    Regards,
    Mark

  4. My wife and I had a wonderful honeymoon at Fernandez Bay Village on Cat Island. I wouldn’t say it’s a great place for sightseeing, but it is perfect for laying on a quiet clean beach with a nice cold drink. In the lagoon there’s a couple of small islands you can kayak to for snorkeling.

    For a change of pace they’ll drive you in a 4×4 over to the East Shore where you’ll find big waves and a surprising amount of plastic that floats in from the Atlantic. On the other hand, the East Shore is totally isolated and you may be the only one in sight for several miles of beach.

  5. Phil-

    We met a few years ago at MMOPA in Groton. I was flying SR22G but have since bought Mooney Ovation.

    We go to the Bahamas out islands about once a year (give or take) and have settled on Harbour Island off North Eleuthera and Cape Santa Maria on Long Island.

    They are 2 different experiences, each with something special to offer.

    HI is a sort of funky version of Bermuda with a charming town full of brightly painted cottages. Rent a golf cart (the preferred method of transport) and explore. The beach is world famous – 3miles of pink sand but on the Atlantic Ocean side so complete with surf etc. There are many hotels and rentals from relatively utilitarian to ultra posh and expensive (Chris Blackwell’s Pink Sands). Coral Sands hotel offers good value. Fly into N. Eleuthera and take the water taxi across the bay.

    Cape Santa Maria is on the opposite spectrum – no town to speak of, but a beautiful resort on a 5 mile stretch of sugar soft white sand fronting a sheltered lagoon. Nothing to do but relax, fish, snorkel, swim, eat, drink etc. Small cottages directly on the beach. Fly into Stella Maris and take a taxi up to the cape.

    If you do Cat Island or one of the more obscure islands I’d be happy to hear about your experience as we are thinking of trying some other places next year just for a change of pace.

    Have fun.

    Mike Stenzler
    N513ZM

  6. MD: Would I fly an R44 over to the Bahamas? Only with pop-outs. On the other hand, there are brave souls such as that English woman who flew her R44, without pop-outs, all the way around the world. (Note to non-helicopter nerds; without pop-out floats, a helicopter that is forced to land in the water will sink with a few seconds; an airplane will float for a few minutes.) Anyway, I have the Cirrus SR20, which is pretty good for flying over water IMHO. The 200 hp engine is very reliable since it is never asked to do anything challenging (more reliable, I think, than the SR22 engine). The parachute could be nice if forced to ditch; I think I would trust the parachute more than my landing-in-water skills (I do have a seaplane rating, but that plane had floats!).

  7. Phil:

    There could be a small flaw in your logic on the safety of a water landing with CAPS (Cirrus Airframe Parachute System) -iIn the event of CAPS activation one of the sub-systems used to absorb energy is the landing gear. Unfortunately in water the gear cannot do that job very well and the occupants are subject to compression injuries of the lower vertebrae – similar to injuries sustained by helicopter pilots who make hard landings. The honeycomb seat pans help somewhat but this is one area where the safety benefit of the chute is somewhat elusive.

    That said, the Cirrus has fixed gear and will probably pitch-pole upside down in a “real” ditching (not using the chute). Those big doors that need to swing up, forward and out appear to make rapid egress unlikely in that event – crash hammer notwithstanding.

    You pays yer money and you takes yer chances..

    I left out these urls from my post yesterday-

    http://www.capesantamaria.com
    http://www.coralsands.com/
    http://www.pinksandsresort.com
    http://www.harbourislandguide.com/
    http://www.myharbourisland.com/

    Have a nice trip.

  8. Mike: I think Phil actually mentioned the issue of water parachute landings in the Cirrus in his post about Cory Liddle. Though I’m with you. Besides the impact from the chute, I’d be worried about the chute landing on top of the plane and making egress harder, or getting caught in the lines trying to get out.

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