Grand Bahama’s tourism comeback has begun in earnest.
After major cruise lines like Bahamas Paradise and Carnival have already resumed sailings to the destination, a number of hotels have also reopened their doors in Grand Bahama.
That includes the Lighthouse Pointe all-inclusive, along with hotels like Pelican Bay, Ocean Reef, Taino Beach and the Castaways Resort and Suites. according to a recently-released statement by the Grand Bahama Island Tourist Board.
Other accommodations that have reopened include the Dundee Bay Villas, the Paradise Cove, The Village Bahamia; Royal Islander; Bell Channel Inn and the Sunrise Resort and Suites.
Several other hotels will also be relaunching in the next few months: that includes the popular Old Bahama Bay, which is reopening Nov. 1, and the Island Seas Resort, which will return on Nov. 15.
Last week, Grand Bahama’s Viva Wyndham announced that it would be reopening on Dec. 10.
It’s a rapid recovery and major step for Grand Bahama’s crucial tourism sector only two months after Hurricane Dorian.
The legendary explorer came here to the Ocean Hole in Eleuthera in 1971, drawn to one of the stunning inland sikholes called Blue Holes of which there are in The Bahamas than anywhere else on earth, some explored, some not, many with unknown depths.
“This is the paradise of Rock Sound,” Leitha Tinds says from the doorstep of her home directly adjacent to this marine wonder. “From when I was a little girl, it’s always been a special place. People come here from all over the world.”
And that’s long been true of Eleuthera, the long, thin, curling island 112 miles long and never more than a short stroll wide, the next island east of Nassau in The Bahamas chain but a universe away.
There are several ways to navigate around Eleuthera, but they’re all largely vertical. You can fly south to airports like Rock Sound and Governor’s Harbour, both accessible from the US mainland, or you can fly to North Eleuthera and make the journey down the expanse of the island.
The latter is the most rewarding journey.
North Eleuthera is most heavily trafficked for travelers heading to the chic enclave of Harbour Island, who turn north and in just about 10 minutes by boat and ferry from the airport, have reached one of the Caribbean’s capitals of cool.
But those who turn south find what is one of the most exotic, beautiful and still largely under-the-radar destinations in the region.
The “El Karaka” beach bar is a great first stop on a journey down Eleuthera.
Driving by car down Eleuthera shows travelers a landscape that is constantly changing; at one point you’re straddled by impossible blue coastlines; a few moments later you’re consumed by thick brush. The next you’re sailing past grain silos and pineapple fields.
The Cove, Eleuthera
You can’t trust your map or your watch; it will take as long as takes, every move southward a different rung of the steps on Eleuthera’s ladder.
Eleuthera itself has constantly been changing, especially in the modern period, from the days when Arnold Palmer used to play Cotton Bay and Billy Jean King was the club pro at Cape Eleuthera, to its latest incarnation, as a haven for those in search of another side of The Bahamas.
Today, Eleuthera is many destinations in one, from The Cove, Eleuthera the luxury resort that’s one of The Bahamas’ best, to Jack’s Bay, the resort community that will be the home of Tiger Woods’ first golf course design in the Caribbean, to a small but robust collection of boutique hotels and villas.
And then there’s Cape Eleuthera, the massive peninsula in southern Eleuthera that is one of the largest, most impressive pieces of land you’ll find in The Bahamas — and also home to the island’s best marina.
The best marina in Eleuthera is this one.
Further down the island you get to Surfer’s Beach, hidden among the brush, a terrific destination for swells, or the charms of Governor’s Harbour, the historic little seaside town.
And then you get to Rock Sound and the Ocean Hole and you drive past Jack’s Bay and past Tarpum Bay and you keep going, until you eventually get to what is Eleuthera’s only fork in the road.
This is where Eleuthera’s long, thin, curling body sprouts a mermaid tail, and you can go right or left.
To the right you’ll head toward Cape Eleuthera, thousands of acres and some of the best deep-sea fishing in the hemisphere and the home of the Island School, the world-famous academic outpost and research station.
But right before you get there, if you remember to turn left at the Methodist Church, you’ll find the most remarkable bonefishing waters in Eleuthera.
Deep Creek, a destination for bonefishermen or just those in search of serenity itself.
This is Deep Creek, a secret bonefishing spot where the only sounds are the hum of the casuarina trees and the laps of the flats, a place where you can hear the earth and turn off the volume of the world.
But our journey is taking us beyond Deep Creek and the Cape, taking us to the other side of the fork on an expedition for Eleuthera’s greatest beach.
WE GET to the very southeastern tip of Eleuthera and reach the island’s most famous pilgrimage point, Lighthouse Beach, the kind of storybook stretch of sand that naturally requires a four-by-four and manages to turn a few miles into a 40 minute excursion.
We finally reach it and find a beautiful coastline, with all of the boxes ticked: the turquoise, the white sand, the cliffs.
It’s beautiful, to be sure, but we start to wonder if this is truly the place.
It’s at that point that a group of Italian tourists motion for their friends to come join them.
“This way!”
This beach, it seemed, was simply the decoy beach, a booby trap for beach hunters lacking patience, filled with travelers who had traveled far enough that they were convinced that, once they had completed the bumpy trip across those cracking roads, they’d be rewarded with Lighthouse Beach.
But they were wrong.
There is another beach.
After a 30-second walk the other way across a dune, we see what really brought us here.
It’s idyllic, spectacular, the South Pacific-meets-the-Caribbean, a brilliant beacon for weary sand seekers, the end of Eleuthera’s 112 miles and its most fitting, most wonderful point.
The US Virgin Islands has enacted a new bill aimed at spurring hotel development and construction in the Caribbean territory.
The USVI’s expanded Hotel Development Bill gives hotel developers the ability to channel a percentage of room revenue both to finance the renovation of existing properties and to build new hotels.
“The signing of this bill is a game-changer for the Territory’s hospitality industry. It will significantly benefit hotels, resorts, and small businesses impacted by increased tourism and accelerate opportunity for employment in the Territory,” said Kamal I. Latham, CEO of the US Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority.
Under the new law, hoteliers can use up to 100 percent of revenues generated from the USVI’s existing occupancy tax to finance new hotel construction or renovations.
That also includes 100 percent of gross revenue generated from the USVI’s newly-created Economic Recovery Fee, which is up to 7.5 percent of the hotel guest’s bill.
“This is a very powerful hotel development and infrastructure financing mechanism that creates an environment for new development,” said Stephen Evans-Freke, President of Water Island Development Company. “It opens the door for transformative projects like ours to strengthen the island’s position as a top tourism destination.”
The legislation aims to spur development in a territory that has seen almost no new hotel development in the last few decades, significantly lagging its Caribbean neighbors.
“The bill demonstrates government commitment to hotel companies through upfront investment in new hotel supply and upgrades to existing tourism products as well as creating career opportunities for residents,” said Bill Tennis, Executive Vice President, DiamondRock Hospitality Company, owners of Frenchman’s Reef Marriott Resort and Noni Beach Resort.
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