To Plan A Trip

The Bahamas Tourist Office, with branches in major U.S. cities, provides useful brochures, including ones for the less populated Family Islands. These offer an entirely different take on island living: a pre-high-rise, pre-tourist-driven, tropical—dare I say—paradise. I flew from Nassau to Eleuthera, home to the English settlers of 1648, and from there a ten-minute motorboat ride brought me to the tranquil hideout of Harbour Island. Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of the Virginia Colony and the Bahamas Governor between 1787 and 1796, chose Harbour Island for his summer residence. Dunmore Town bears the stamp of the American Loyalists who landed there after the Revolution. Palm trees may be whispering in the yard, but the pastel cottages wear the peaked roofs and dormer windows of New England. Three miles of pink sand beach scallop the island’s ocean side, where a handful of hotels hide themselves amidst lush green plantings. I stayed at the agreeable Coral Sands and enjoyed a five-minute walk into town along nearly trafficless roads. Although Hurricane Andrew swept directly over Harbour Island last September, tourism officials promise a speedy recovery.