Three Indispensable Items To Rescue Your Bahamas Trip
- Guava Duff Dessert at 1648.
- Lobster and grilled conch at Papa Joe’s.
- Conch fritter at Tippy’s.
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Hurricane Nicole brews in the Atlantic near the party’s Airbnb in Eleuthera, Bahamas.
By Shari Benyousky
Photographs by Tony Garza
You’re probably scoffing right now, aren’t you?
Here you huddle in your Warsaw, Ind., with Snuggies, portable heaters, and mittens, and I’m telling you that a trip to the Bahamas could be anything but spectacular.
You’re making a fair point. Our Bahamas trip did feature empty pink sand beaches that stretched for miles, snorkeling with schools of Blue Tang, and freshly caught seafood washed down with icy local beer. Yep. All good.
And yet, if you’re planning to visit the Bahamas without the comfort of a cruise ship, it’s important to go behind the preparation scenes. Let’s start back at the beginning of our planning (before we arrived and found that Hurricane Nicole swirled a few miles north of our Airbnb beach – but we’ll get to that).
1. FOOD – Our destination was the remote island of Eleuthera shaped like a long snaky mermaid (it’s fair to note that Disney recently purchased the southern tip of this island, so it won’t be remote forever). As you fly over the island, you’ll notice wide swathes of sandy shelves under the seas – Caribbean on one side and Atlantic on the other. The sand turns the water into a thousand shades of turquoise, but the sand and salt also make the island soil problematic.
A scientist we met informed us that the island soil is only 1% fertile. This means that food is rather difficult to come by and quite expensive. Luckily for us, one of us had been to the island before and convinced us to suspend our normal travel method of just carry-on luggage. Instead we each packed a 50 lb. checked bag full of food. Correct, we brought flour, beans, honey, tea, canned chicken, coffee, and lots of other staples. I admit that I doubted this plan, but visiting the tiny, pricey, and not-well-stocked local stores changed my mind. Unless you’re planning to spend a good amount eating out every day, bring food. For example, an out-of-season little pineapple cost $11, a single orange $2.50, and a box of crackers $10.
TIP – Look for sweet local coconut bread or bags of ugly oranges which taste divine
Eating out in restaurants fared better if you stick to ordering fresh local seafood and not imported items like beef. We ate lots of conch meat, shrimp, grouper, and lobster for excellent prices.
Local beers – Sands, and Kalik – were excellent too. However, Eleuthera’s endless variations of beaches and snorkeling are not accompanied by an enormous line of restaurants found in Hilton Head or Cancun. Finding a restaurant takes some scrolling through Google maps. We liked Tippy’s (conch fritters), 1648 (local dessert called Guava Duff and the Devil’s Backbone plate for two), and a great little place called Papa Joe’s where we discovered that grilled conch is better than fried. Tip of the hat to our waitress who once worked a high-paying job in New York City dressed in suits and high heels but now prefers to work 16 hours a day in paradise.
TIP – Be sure to try the Sands Pink Grapefruit Beer which our entire party enjoyed on hot afternoons.
2. RENTAL CAR – Now you might be asking how we arrived at stores or restaurants since I haven’t mentioned the more or less nonexistent public transportation. This brings us to our second planning requirement – the 2 ½ drive from the North tip to the South tip of Eleuthera. We taxied down the one runway at North Eleuthera Airport and queued under the delicious sun in one line to go through customs while our rental car provider drove our mini-van from around the corner. We piled our 50 lb. bags in the back and discovered that driving on an Eleutheran road is both exciting and potentially deadly. Potholes litter the roads like brown Indiana leaves. Later we overheard one local explaining that locals don’t drive at night because it’s impossible to get a car fixed quickly since everything needs to be imported. You DID want the beaches to be all yours, right?
TIP – The island was once a British colony, so you need to drive on the LEFT SIDE of the road.
The island boasts more than 135 public beaches with access to two oceans, but you’ll need a rental car to get to any of them. There are rocky beaches, smooth beaches, coral reef beaches, pink sand beaches, beaches owned by celebrities such as Lenny Kravitz, shell-collecting beaches, beaches with hermit crabs, jellyfish, and barracuda. Our Airbnb library included a book describing each and every beach and another for each and every snorkeling spot. Our favorites? The really remote Light House Beach (we had to use GPS to find passable roads).
One person in our group tested a road-spanning puddle only to find himself knee-deep in water, thus saving our rental car’s life. Getting to Light House Beach required parking at Cotton Bay beach and walking two miles. We also loved Double-Bay Beach and Rainbow Beach. Be sure to stop at the Glass Window Bridge where you can simultaneously see the deep blue Atlantic on one side and the aqua Caribbean on the other.
TIP – Think of the trip as an adventure needing occasional duct tape instead of a pampered resort and you’ll be fine. When one of our group members stumbled and cut his leg, we were lucky to be in the vicinity of a Canadian with a backpack full of emergency gear. He told us that one should always travel with a roll of electrical tape and toilet paper for emergency bandaging. He wasn’t wrong.
3. SWIMMING GEAR – Our top priority was snorkeling, but a day after landing, Hurricane Nicole threatened the island. The northern sky between us and Florida grew dark, and the Atlantic waves curled into whitecaps. So, we needed to find a place to snorkel quickly. Our Airbnb looked out over the Atlantic where the hurricane churned, so we consulted the snorkeling book and drove to the Caribbean side of Eleuthera. We waited for a space between rainstorms and tried a close-to-the-beach little reef. From atop the rocky shore, not much was visible and some of us weren’t impressed.
But two brave souls jumped in and found hundreds of thousands of little blue fish darting around. Following them led to schools of larger orange and blue and yellow striped, an enormous stingray, and – in one heart-pounding moment – a two-foot-long barracuda that darted out from its cave, swallowed fish, and slipped away like a shadow. They floated by the jellyfish like ghosts. Two of our party took stings on the torso and another a painful kiss on the lips.
TIP #1 – You can push a jellyfish away from the top gently to avoid a sting, but never touch the dangling tentacles.
TIP #2 – Wash the sting with salt (not fresh) water, apply some rubbing alcohol or vinegar which you’ve had the forethought to bring along, and finish with anti-itch crème and possibly a Benadryl tablet.
We learned from the snorkeling book that finding the right place is key. Sometimes parts of reefs die, sometimes there are submerged dangers such as boats, and sometimes a hurricane kicks up sand and visibility disappears. No matter the obstacles, though, snorkeling rocks. We plan to purchase better gear and go many, many more times.
4. OTHER THINGS TO BRING – A quick survey of our group would offer the following list of items to bring on your trip. First and most important – bring bug spray. Low-wind days bring out clouds of no-see-ums and mosquitos. If you’re dining on a restaurant outdoor deck, spray your ankles before you go. Other items – a hat that stays on your head in the wind, beer cozies, water shoes with thick soles for rocks, an extra pair of sandals, an extra swimsuit, a rash guard to wear when you get burned, 50 SPF sun tan lotion, a Canadian with a magical backpack full of gear, and your sense of adventure.
Know of an interesting place, statue, or restaurant which you’d like to see featured in this column someday? Send SB Communications LLC an email at [email protected].
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Beech and beer at Tippy’s.
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A view at night with a full moon over the Airbnb.
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Image taken from Google Maps.