A Guide Post in Eleuthera, Bahamas

Although Eleuthera, one of the family islands of the Bahamas, doesn’t have a very large population (11,165 according to the 2000 census), it’s a fairly large island. It stretches out, North to South, for almost 110 miles. So, obviously, if you plan to do some exploring during your vacation, car rental will be crucial.

The Fabulous Beaches of Eleuthera

With more than 200 miles of coastline, needless to say, Eleuthera has a lot of beaches. You’re going to need a car of some sort to be able to visit most of these beaches.

For instance, let’s assume that you’re in the Governor’s Harbour area and you’d like to go to Lighthouse Beach (one of the best beaches on the island). It’s located at the southern-most point in Eleuthera. The drive would be more than 45 miles. And, it’s a trip that you won’t mind taking.

Many fabulous beaches are strewn across the length of Eleuthera’s coast. And there are so many of them that you simply don’t want to miss. With the help of the popular guide book, The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera, you’ll be able to schedule your day trips.

Ben Bay is a secluded tropical cove located at the northern end of the island. Starting from Governor’s Harbour, it is also a 45 mile drive. However, it’s the opposite direction from Lighthouse Beach.

Other Places to See in Eleuthera

There are, naturally, other places to see while you’re exploring the numerous beaches.

Preacher’s Cave is just a short jaunt from Ben Bay.

The Ocean Hole in Rock Sound is a good place to stop while driving south to Lighthouse Beach. It’s a great place to stop for a picnic lunch and feed some of the large fish that inhabit the Ocean Hole.

Distances in Eleuthera

Because of the length of Eleuthera, a long and skinny out-island in the Bahamas chain of islands, the distances between settlements can be significant.

Traveling between settlements can be very difficult without access to a vehicle. It’s not unusual to see hitchhikers along the side of the road as you travel the Queen’s Highway.

Trying to use taxis to get around Eleuthera, for any significant distances, could get pretty pricey. If you just want to get from the airport to your hotel, then a cab is the way to go. Although, if you want to explore this amazing island, you need to book a rental car for at last a few days.

From Governor’s Harbour Airport to Pineapple Fields, a resort in the settlement of Governor’s Harbour, the distance is only about eight miles If you don’t plan to explore outside of the community, then taking a taxi to and from the airport is a good idea.

However, if you’d like to see Pink Sand Beach on Harbour Island, the water taxi dock is about 35 miles from Governor’s Harbour. That would be a pretty hefty cab fare.

You need to accept that things are pretty far apart in Eleuthera. Places that you want to visit can be many miles apart.

You’ll have to decide whether or not you’ll need a car during your vacation. If you want to just chill out at your hotel or vacation rental, you might not require a vehicle. There’s absolutely no doubt that you’ll need one if you plan to do any exploring at all.

Eleuthera Rental Car

Renting a car in Eleuthera

is a bit different. You won’t find any national chains here. Most likely you will be renting from and dealing directly with the owner of the car you rent.

Some of these renters have formal rental agreements, some don’t. Some will start you off with a full tank of gas and others won’t.

Rental prices will vary with the type of vehicle you want as well as with the rental period. For instance, you can get a much better daily rate if you rent for an entire week or more than you can if you only want a car for a day or two.

It’s hard not to want to explore such a beautiful place. Don’t miss out when you visit.

Surfers Beach, Eleuthera, Bahamas

For a vacation that’s anything but ordinary, think about visiting the island of Eleuthera. However, it’s not for everyone. If you like a hopping nightlife and busy casinos, then Eleuthera isn’t for you. However, if what you’re seeking is a slower pace in an amazingly beautiful tropical location, then this is it.

Where is Eleuthera Located
Eleuthera, one of over 700 Bahamian islands, is located about 60 miles east of Nassau. When you look at a map of the Bahamas, it’s a long, thin island with a “whale tail” at the southern end. The island is over 100 miles long but only 2 miles wide at its widest point. Most of the island is much narrower than that, with the narrowest point at the Glass Window Bridge.

How To Get To Eleuthera

Eleuthera is home to THREE international airports – North Eleuthera (ELH), Governor’s Harbour (GHB) and Rock Sound (RSD).

When departing from Florida there are a number of options for flying to Eleuthera. American Eagle (American Airlines) offers flights from Miami to North Eleuthera. Continental Airlines operates regularly scheduled flights from Fort Lauderdale airport to either North Eleuthera or Governor’s Harbour. A small, private airline – TwinAir/Calypso – leaves from Fort Lauderdale and visits all three Eleuthera airports.

BahamasAir also flies to Eleuthera, but from Florida, you’ll need to make connections through Nassau.

Flying from Nassau provides other choices. BahamasAir offers service to all three airports on Eleuthera. SouthernAir also provides service from Nassau to all three of Eleuthera’s airports. Another option is to take the high-speed ferry from Nassau to Eleuthera. They offer routes to Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and Governor’s Harbour.

Be sure to check the schedules for each of these options.

Eleuthera Hotels and More

There aren’t any large resorts on Eleuthera and that’s just fine with most people who visit. The most expensive resorts are on Harbour Island where many of the rich-and-famous also have homes.

There are also a few upscale resorts on the main island of Eleuthera. These include The Cove, Pineapple Fields and Cape Eleuthera Resort. However, the majority of hotels on Eleuthera are low-key, laid-back and comfortable. That includes such places as Surfers Manor, Rainbow Inn, Duck Inn and Unique Village, to name a few.

There’s also the option of vacation rentals in Eleuthera and there is a wide variety to choose from. Many of these can be found by simple internet searches. It’s fairly easy to find something that’s just right.

The Beaches of Eleuthera

Eleuthera is home to more than 50 incredible beaches, however a good number of them are difficult to find. If you’re only visiting for a short time you might not find the best ones.

However, there is a great book available that can help guide you to pretty much every beach on the island. This book even tells you, by way of a rating system, which are the best ones. That will certainly help you decide the ones you simply mustn’t miss. Appropriately named “The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera” it’s a valuable resource that you don’t want to be without.

What’s the Best Time to Visit Eleuthera

While you can visit Eleuthera any time of the year, you’ll find the best weather during the winter months – November to April. The season for tropical storms and hurricanes is from June to November. That doesn’t mean Eleuthera will get them, but summers are also hotter and more humid. You’ll get more thunderstorms in the summer, too. Personally, I love thunderstorms and the ones in Eleuthera can be pretty impressive.

This is just a quick review of everything that Eleuthera has to offer. It’s a little off the beaten path but well worth the effort.

Current Location: Heading Home to Eleuthera, Bahamas

Combining Days

We have decided to combine our last few days into one post because we are really now just marking time until we head home to Eleuthera.

We will not be including our flight back to Eleuthera in our costs as we began our trip in Fort Lauderdale on May 11th and we will end it in Fort Lauderdale on November 23rd.

We will be including all the costs right up to our flight home, including the cost to get to the airport.

Each day’s expenses are itemized below and, of course, in the grids above that we have been including in each post.

Day 193, Friday, November 19, 2010

Accommodation: $31.47 (Camping)

Day 194, Saturday, November 20, 2010

Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)
Food: $17.20 (Groceries)
Total: $48.67

We are trying to keep our grocery buying down to a minimum as we don’t want anything fresh left over on the day we leave.

Day 195, Sunday, November 21, 2010

Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)

Day 196, Monday, November 22, 2010

Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)

Day 197, Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Transportation: $18.00 consisting of:
Cab to TriRail – $15.00
TriRail to Airport $3.00

Mileage: 19.8

The Adventure Ends

It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of our almost seven month long adventure. And yet, it’s going to be good to get home.

One hundred and ninety-seven days is a long time to be traveling and living out of a suitcase or, in our case, backpacks.

We have had a terrific time and certainly enjoyed the journey. We will now enjoy the familiarity of our home in Eleuthera.

It will good to see old friends again and reconnect. Our very dear friends, V and B, will be picking us up at the airport when we arrive back in Eleuthera. It will be wonderful to see them again.

Recap Tomorrow

Stay tuned for the recap of our adventure in our post tomorrow.

Current Location: On Board Celebrity Century En Route to Miami

Today’s Total Expenses: $102.34 (cruise cost includes transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment)

Miles Traveled Today:
We will record the miles for the Atlantic Crossing on November 8th when we arrive in Miami

Sailing Between Eleuthera and the Abacos

Early in the cruise we checked the chart in the main foyer that shows the course the ship will be taking.

To our delight, it showed that we would be sailing through the Eleuthera Channel which is between Eleuthera and the Abacos.

We had asked the staff to find out for us the estimated time that we would be passing Eleuthera. We didn’t want to miss getting a glimpse of our island as we sailed by.

The staff member we asked for the information actually called the Bridge to get the information for us! And, it seemed we would be passing Eleuthera somewhere between noon and 2:00pm at our current course and speed.

We were determined to be on deck when that happened. Although the weather looked like it might not co-operate. It was still a bit overcast with the odd bit of rain every now and then.

Passing Eleuthera

The weather cleared, thank goodness, and we got our first glimpse of Eleuthera at about 2:30pm. We stayed on deck until we couldn’t see it anymore, feeling just a little homesick.

However, we still won’t be home until November 23rd as we still have more things planned for our time in Florida.

So, we bid farewell to Eleuthera and looked forward to ending our transAltantic cruise in Miami tomorrow.

Current Location: Onboard the MSC Musica at Katakolon, Greece

Today’s Total Expenses: $178.51 (cruise cost includes transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment)

Miles Traveled Today:
Sea Miles: 360.2 (313 Nautical Miles – Bari to Katakolon)

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

We arrived in Katakolon at 12:15pm and disembarked to explore the island.

We certainly enjoyed walking around the small town and looking in all the touristy shops.

The ship offered excursions to Olympia but, of course, they were very expensive.

There were local tour companies offering excursions to Olympia at much lower rates. We were tempted but it just wasn’t in the budget.

Maybe Some Beach Time?

As we have dubbed ourselves “beachologists”, having written a book about the beaches of Eleuthera, in the Bahamas – The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera – we simply had to check out the local beach. (Interesting fact: Eleuthera is the Greek word for freedom.)

Well, calling this a beach was being kind, a little too kind. It was postage stamp size and it was pebbly rather than sandy, so we didn’t linger. There was, however a little beach bar there that seemed quite popular.

Instead, we choose to walk up a hill and get a great view of the ocean and of our ship.

Afterwards we headed back to the ship to relax before dinner.

Current Location: Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida
Accommodation: $30.00

Today’s Total Expenses: $30.00

Day 103 – Saturday, August 21, 2010

Cypress Cove Day Pass

As an outing for today we decided to visit Cypress Cove – a naturist resort right here in Kissimmee.

On their website they offer a free tour and day pass and we thought we’d take them up on their offer.

Great Weather

The weather forecast for the day was favorable – 90 Deg. F and small chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

Given how hot, humid and rainy it’s been we thought we had better jump at the chance to take advantage of a, hopefully, good weather day.

Pools, Paddle Boats and More

This resort certainly has a lot going for it. We were given a complete tour and they have several full time residents, lots of RV sites and several tent site as well. In addition to that, they also have a few hotel rooms and apartments with full kitchens for rent.

There’s tennis courts, a big lake with paddle boats and canoes that are free to use and two heated pools as well as a very large hot tub.

Surrounding the pools are things like a boutique, clubhouse, hair dresser, restaurants and bars and even the American Nudist Research Library with quite an extensive collection of nudist publications through the years.

We even donated a copy of our book “The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera” which rates each beach on the island for privacy.

Is Bigger Better?

It’s probably the biggest naturist resort we’ve seen so far with a lot going on.

We felt that perhaps the size of the resort accounted for the feeling that we got that it wasn’t as friendly or welcoming as other naturist resorts we’ve been to.

However, we were visiting on a singles weekend, so maybe that had something to do with it as well.

If you’re in the area, take advantage of their day pass to check it out.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Well, it seems that if it’s Florida, then it will rain in the
afternoon, as sure enough it did.

It certainly cleared the pool really quickly, particularly when there was some thunder.

Trying Out the Paddle Boats

When the weather cleared, we actually took one of the paddle boats out on their 50-acre lake. It was calm and pleasant and – thank goodness – we didn’t encounter any gators. Hey – it’s Florida!

Back to the Condo

A short drive back to the condo for dinner, drinks and relaxing in front of the TV. Yep, pretty boring but still enjoyable.

Current Location: Sunny Chinooks

Today’s Total Expenses: $31.00

Accommodation: $31.00

Reading Naturally
This was another relax and do nothing day, lay in the sun, walk down to the river, spend time in the hot tub, lay back in the sun. Sunny Chinooks is building a new pool but they doubt it will be ready for this season.

They have quite a collection of naturist magazines including several back issues of “Naturally”. Vicky and I were passing the time reading some of them and I picked up the Fall 2008 edition.

We’re Famous
To my surprise on page 38 was an article entitled “Escape to Eleuthera” which is the island in the Bahamas we live on. Eleuthera has more than fifty fabulous beaches that you pretty much have all to yourselves. The problem is they are very hard to find and a tourist with only a week’s vacation has no hope of finding them. This is why we wrote “The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera” which has become a must have purchase for anyone that comes to the island.

Rich and Cindy Thiboutot
Well the authors of the Naturally article, (Rich and Cindy Thiboutot) apparently agreed because they gave our book a terrific plug right in the article.

We are now writing an article for Naturally about how we discovered the Thiboutot piece in a pile of back issues in a naturist camp in Alberta.

Thanks again to the folks at Sunny Chinooks for letting us keep the Fall 2008 copy of Naturally.

Our slogan is “Because you’re never too old”, but the reality is we know that, at some point, we are going to prefer sitting and rocking on the front porch to skiing down a black diamond hill. Actually prefer is not the right word but now that just getting up off the couch is accompanied by numerous grunts and groans it seems inevitable that we will have to find enjoyment in less physical activities.

We have lived and worked most of the past ten years on the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Our house is not grand but it is on top of a hill in the middle of the island which gives us spectacular views of both the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans. We had a lot of plans for this house but they will take time to realize and time is the thing we are most short of.

We had to make a very difficult decision and choose between staying in paradise or exploring the rest of the world. It’s a big world and we just can’t do both so we decided to sell our house and set out on a new adventure.

We have already been to every state and province in the US and Canada plus most islands in the Caribbean. We’ve done Mexico, and a little bit of South America but hardly anything in Europe. So that will be the focus for the next few years.

We plan to get a motorcycle (trike), a trailer camper and travel from place to place, blogging as we go.

We write this having just listed our house for sale. With the world’s economy in the dumper this is not a good time to sell but we have priced it so aggressively we hope it will sell quickly.

If you or someone you know has a dream of owning a home in a tropical paradise check out our home in Eleuthera.

Images of Eleuthera DVD

This brand new DVD featuring the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas is packaged and ready to ship.

Images of Eleuthera, which is over an hour long, is a photo journey through the island of Eleuthera separated into North (including Harbour Island and Spanish Wells), Central (including the Glass Window Bridge) and South (including Princess Cay and Lighthouse Beach).

There is even a bonus section of underwater photos as well as a folder of photos to use on your computer as a screen saver.

All of this is set to an original score by long time winter resident and well known composer, Sam Spence.

We are very proud of this latest production as it complements our very popular beach guide, The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera.

Where the book highlights all the beaches of Eleuthera, the DVD showcases the entire island.