Harbour Island
A resort island off North Eleuthera in the Bahamas, world-famous for its nearly 5 km pink-sand beach, with the colourful colonial clapboard houses and golf-cart streets of Dunmore Town adding to its charm.
Harbour Island lies off the northern tip of Eleuthera in the Bahamas; it is about 5 km long and less than 1 km wide, and locals affectionately call it “Briland”. On the east side is the world-famous Pink Sands Beach, tinted pale pink by fragments of red foraminifera shells mixed into the sand; on the harbour side to the west, Dunmore Town, once the second-largest town in the Bahamas, preserves colourful 18th–19th-century clapboard houses, white churches and the seafood stalls of Bay Street. There are hardly any cars on the island, and most visitors rent golf carts to get around. From here you can take a boat to Spanish Wells, known for its lobster fishing, visit Preacher's Cave and the Sapphire Blue Hole in North Eleuthera, or head out to dive the shipwrecks of Devil's Backbone reef and the Current Cut; for the Glass Window Bridge and other Eleuthera sights, see the Eleuthera entry. The best time to visit is the dry season from December to April; June–November is hurricane season. Getting there: fly from Nassau or from US cities such as Miami to North Eleuthera Airport (ELH), take a taxi to the dock and then a water taxi of about 10 minutes to the island; there are also fast ferries from Nassau. Prices on the island are high; allow 3–4 days.
Top sights
- Pink Sands Beach, Harbour Island – A pale pink sand beach stretching about 5 km along the east coast of Harbour Island, its colour created by crushed red foraminifera shells…
- Glass Window Bridge – A road bridge at the narrowest point of the island, with the deep blue Atlantic on one side and the pale green Eleuthera Bay on the other…
- Dunmore Town, Harbour Island – One of the oldest towns in the Bahamas, with candy-coloured colonial wooden houses, white picket fences and flower-lined lanes, ideal for e…
- Spanish Wells – A tidy small fishing island off North Eleuthera, the Bahamas' spiny lobster hub, with colourful houses, quiet beaches, and boat trips for s…
- Preacher's Cave – A cave where shipwrecked Puritan adventurers sheltered and worshipped in 1648, regarded as the starting point of Bahamian recorded history…
- Sapphire Blue Hole – A deep blue sinkhole in the scrubland of North Eleuthera where you can jump from the cliff edge, just a few hundred metres from Preacher's…
- Devil's Backbone Reef – A treacherous reef stretching between Harbour Island and North Eleuthera, strewn with shipwrecks and famous as a shipwreck diving site in t…
- Current Cut – A narrow channel between Eleuthera and Current Island where you can drift-dive with the rushing tide, renowned as a world-class drift divin…
- Queen Conch – A small wooden shack on the Bay Street waterfront that serves conch salad made to order, Harbour Island's most famous street food.
Where to eat
- Queen Conch – A seaside stall on Bay Street in Dunmore Town, serving freshly made conch salad that locals consider the island's favou…
- The Landing Restaurant – A boutique hotel restaurant in a colonial-style house in Dunmore Town, serving contemporary Caribbean food made with lo…
Itineraries
- Eleuthera & Harbour Island North-to-South Traverse – Traverse Eleuthera from north to south, starting from Pink Sands Beach all the way to Lighthouse Beach at the southern…
- Bahamas Island Hopper: Nassau, Eleuthera & Exuma – Visit three major island groups in one trip: Nassau's Old Town, a road trip through Eleuthera, and a boat tour from Geo…