A continuation from Beating the Winter Blues | Hope Town, Bahamas Part I
The flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Treasure Cay, Bahamas is a measly hour and fifteen minutes long, gate to gate…or more accurately, gate to the outdoor covered porch, that is home to both customs and baggage claim at Treasure Cay Airport.
Being such a small plane with only a handful of passengers, one flight attendant and one pilot, it was a pretty relaxed atmosphere. As we flew along, the pilot and flight attendant would point out various islands along the way and would let those whose view was blocked by the propellers take turns moving around to other seats for unobstructed views of the crystal clear, bright blue water below. They offered everyone a drink and snack and passed out the customs form we needed to fill out before landing.
The flight was fairly calm for the most part, with little to no turbulence…until we started to make our approach for the airport. As we circled around to line up with the runway, the winds picked up and began bouncing the plane around, in what I will describe as the most extreme turbulence I have ever encountered in all my years of traveling. Had we not all been safely strapped in, we would have undoubtedly resembled kernels of corn being popped in a microwave bag.
The pilot and flight attendant reassured us all this was normal, and that we were completely fine. Good luck convincing the poor young girl traveling by herself of that, as she was now shrieking in terror with every bounce of the plane! I looked over at the two ladies seated to my left in the back row, and they gave a look back that said, we aren’t sure whether to laugh or join her. Trying not to add to her terror we chose the laughter, as we bounced from side to side, banging our heads against the cabin wall and window, all the while attempting to fill out our customs forms.
Finally, the one and only runway at Treasure Cay was within sight, and we were touching down! Only one catch…ummm, is this thing dirt?? According to the official website, it’s listed as an asphalt runway, but much like the roads here in Pennsylvania, who knows when this thing was last paved! We landed safely though, so we will just consider it part of the island charm that you will quickly fall in love with in the Bahamas!
Just as we did when boarding the plane, a set of steps was rolled over to the door and we all exited down onto the tarmac, and walked as a group over to the building that more closely resembled a large house then an airport. A friendly woman at a counter greeted us in a room that was so small, when we formed a line all but one or two people were still outside.
One by one, we stepped up to hand over our passports and customs forms. She asked the same basic questions you would get when clearing customs in any other country, where are you staying, for how long and if you were there for business or pleasure? Ummm, here four days for pleasure and I’m staying on a private vessel in the harbor off Hope Town, just past the family of barracudas, anchored next to the third conch shell on the left.
Okay, not really, but not far off either, except that private vessel was still over an hour journey away. She handed me my passport back, and I walked the five steps to the exit door, where another customs agent asked to check my bag, looking for anything I wasn’t supposed to be bringing into the country. My tote bag may or may not have had multiple packages of cookies I brought down for mom and dad, as the grocery stores in the Bahamas are hit or miss with non-essential goods.
He looked in my bag then looked back at me with a look of, is this girl serious with this?? I flashed a big smile and explained they were for my parents. He gave me the nod to continue on, and just like that, I was back outside on the porch collecting my luggage off a small cart.
Since the airline had arranged for my taxi ride from Treasure Cay Airport, down the island to Marsh Harbour Airport, I made my way around front and back into the building to collect my taxi voucher and find my driver. Like any other airport you go to, there was a long line of taxi drivers waiting out front to transport people to their hotels or back home if they are lucky enough to live there. A gentlemen motioned to me to follow him, took my suitcase and led me to a, shall we say, clean but well traveled mini van. I climbed in the back seat and we were on our way.
Being a long thin island, there is only one main road that runs the full length of the island, SC Bootle Highway. It is narrow and not paved the full length (at least when I was last there), so we had to pull off to the side at various points to let oncoming traffic pass safely. The drive, while a bit scary at times was beautiful, running through areas of tall pine trees which would then open up to breathtaking views of the ocean, easily visible on both sides of the road in some areas. The directions from the airline were to take me to the Marsh Harbour Airport however, my dad was waiting for me at the ferry dock another fifteen or so minutes from there. It took some convincing (and a big tip), but I was able to get the taxi driver to drop me off at the ferry dock instead.
Being such a remote island, my cell phone did not have service, so any attempts to call or text my parents upon landing did not work. You can imagine my excitement to see my dad standing at the dock waiting for me, after such a lengthy ordeal of getting there! As we waited for the next scheduled ferry to Hope Town to arrive, I recounted the morning’s events for him, of course while hanging off the side of the dock watching all of the tropical fish below swim around.
Being an island, one of the main modes of transportation to get around is by boat. When visiting the Abaco, you will become very friendly with the crew at Albury’s Ferry Company! They have a fleet of eighteen ferry boats that make multiple runs a day between Marsh Harbour and a handful of other Cays in the area. This service is not only used to transport tourists back and forth, it is also used as daily transportation for adults going to work and children going to school. I for one would have been much more excited about going to school if it included a ferry ride across those waters twice a day!
After a short wait, our ferry arrived, and we began the next leg of the journey, a roughly twenty-minute ride from Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island over to Hope Town on Elbow Cay. We approached the island and rounded the bend past the red and white striped Elbow Reef Lighthouse, through an inlet and into the small Hope Town harbor, which was lined with palm trees and the most vibrantly colored cottages, each with a short dock out front.
The ferry dropped us off at the public dock, which sits across the lane from the center of town, where most of the restaurants, shops and boutique hotels are. Hope Town Inn & Marina, where our boat was docked was back across the harbor though; near the lighthouse we passed on the way in. We walked down the lane to where dad had left our dinghy and I hopped in for one more boat ride!
Almost twelve hours after leaving my house, I was finally sitting on the back of our boat in the warm sunshine, eating a light lunch that my mom had prepared for me, knowing I would most likely be hangry upon arrival. I scarfed it down, then got myself cleaned up and went to explore the marina and surrounding area before it was time for my next meal, conch fritters and my first of many frozen rum drinks from the restaurant at the marina. Yum! Being a VERY long day of travel, I wisely and more likely due to my inability to stay awake, went to bed very early that first night. After all, I had a big day of snorkeling ahead of me the next day and needed to be well rested!
The relatively small island of Elbow Cay is only around eight miles long, with the settlement of Hope Town claiming the prize for the largest population at only 458 residents as of the last census poll in 2010. At the widest part of the island, one can walk from one side to the other in well under ten minutes. The cay mostly consists of open land with a small number of private homes and rental properties, as well as a couple of boutique hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, gift shops and a single church that hosts services of different religions depending which time of day you attend.
After a quick breakfast, we all hopped into the dinghy, loaded with snorkel gear, for a tour of the town and beach area back on the other side of the harbor. After a ten- or so-minute ride, we parked the dinghy at the official Dinghy Dock, a public dock that is intended for anchoring just that, the small inflatable dinghies that boaters use as their mode of transportation, when needing to get around in shallower water. On any given day, roughly twenty or more dinghies could be found tied up to either side of the dock. We secured ours appropriately, and climbed up the wooden steps to the dock, and made our way down the lane that runs through the center of town. It is more of a lane then a road, since no cars are allowed in this area, only golf carts, bikes and foot traffic.
We walked past a few shops and headed towards the Hope Town Harbour Lodge, the largest of the hotels on the island. To get to the hotel from the lane running through town, you walk up a long set of stairs, that winds its way through a lush garden of palm trees and other tropical plants, and approach the main lodge area. This was impressive enough in itself, but the view from the back is enough to make you run back home, pack all of your belongings and rush back to live there full time!
The back of the main building faced the Atlantic Ocean, and a long white sandy beach lined with palm trees, beach chairs and deep blue umbrellas that matched the hue of the water out past the coral reef. This area was also home to the hotels swimming pool, free of use mind you for anyone on the island, as well as a bar/restaurant area and a handful of white cottages that could be rented as an alternative to staying in the main lodge.
While the pool and bar area was nice, I was antsy to get in the ocean and see some fish! I had never actually been snorkeling before, so it took a little bit to get situated with the fins, mask and snorkel, then of course figure out how to actually get into the water once all of these things were on! “Pro” tip, you walk backwards and ideally put the fins on at the waters edge! Mom isn’t a big fan of snorkeling, so she stayed on the beach and read, while dad and I waddled off into the ocean.
I will be honest, for some reason I had the expectation that snorkeling would be like climbing into a big calm tank at the aquarium and calmly floating around watching fish swim by. It wasn’t. Like not even close. Because I was terrified a shark was going to eat me, we didn’t venture too far out from the shoreline, and instead stayed at the front edge of the coral reef, where we could easily put our feet back down and stand up. Because of this though, you are bouncing around in the surf and the water is cloudy from the sand being churned up, which as you can imagine makes it kind of hard to see the fish, let alone try and take pictures of them, which I to no surprise was trying to do! Needless to say I got bored with this very quickly and decided to walk the beach for a while instead, picking up shells and chunks of dead coral that washed up.
With no real interest in going back in to snorkel, we decided to head back to the boat and walk the path over to the lighthouse. The land behind the marina was a bit remote. So remote in fact, we weren’t quite sure if we were supposed to be wandering around back there. There wasn’t much to see along the way, other than a single house just off the dirt road which had a ton of chickens and one very loud rooster running around freely. Since we were sort of in the middle of nowhere, and there obviously weren’t any giant touristy signs saying “Lighthouse This Way”, we just kept an eye on the top of the lighthouse and followed paths that seemed to go in that direction. Eventually the dirt path opened up into a boat yard, which led to a small marina store and the base of the lighthouse.
Always in search of fish when near water, I was excited to spot a couple of parrotfish and a fairly large stingray swimming about in this area! As much as I would love to have hopped in with my snorkel mask on, swimming where there is boat traffic is kind of frowned upon! Just as I got to the top of the lighthouse, one of the common Caribbean afternoon thunderstorms made its way in and we were forced back to the boat to take shelter until it passed over.
Post storm though, we made our way into town to eat dinner at a cute little wine bar and restaurant called Wine Down Sip Sip, which as you may have guessed, sits right on the lane running through town. It’s a cozy little place, decorated with big couch style benches and a variety of board games and books to keep you entertained. They have a full bar and a casual menu, featuring a variety of flat breads that are a must try!
The next morning after a yummy breakfast at Captain Jacks, a couple my parents became friends at the marina invited us out for a boat ride with them. Assuming we were just going for a ride and coming back, I left all of my snorkel gear on our boat. It’s one thing to walk around in your swimsuit all day; it’s another to walk around in your swimsuit wearing also wearing a mask and fins, juuuuuust incase.
As you can imagine, I was quite bummed when they stopped and anchored the boat for us to hop off and go swimming, and I was not prepared. Once they saw how excited I was though to be in the water swimming, and borderline refusing to ever get out even when everyone else went up to take a break, they asked if I wanted a pair of goggles and dug some out for me to use.
I was now able to clearly see the giant orange starfish that was on the sea floor below us! Because the water is so clear, it looked like it was only a couple of feet below the surface, but it turned out the water in that area was more like fifteen or twenty feet deep, much too far for me to try and swim down to get a better look.
I say look, as there is a general rule when snorkeling or scuba diving of not touching the wildlife. For starters it’s not good for the animal, but in addition to that, many of the corals, starfish and jelly fish are actually quite venomous and will cause you a great deal of pain if you try to pick them up. If it is brightly colored, chances are pretty good it is venomous and you should definitely leave it alone!
After a few hours of swimming with nothing else in sight but that one starfish, everyone was getting hungry and were ready to head back for a late lunch and to get ready to go out for the evening. We heard about a popular local musician K.B., who was going to be performing Junkanoo style music at the Hummingbird Cottage Art Center in town, and wanted to go check them out.
While I was waiting for my turn to shower, I decided to take a walk around the marina and came across the guy from the boat next to us who had just come back from fishing for the day. He had cart full of brightly colored Mahi-Mahi, more commonly known as dolphinfish. Don’t worry though, there is zero relation to actual dolphins! As he began to filet them, he mentioned that there was a tiger shark and pretty large Barracuda that would swim into the area to munch on the scraps they toss in.
Not wanting to miss this, I plopped myself down on the dock, avoiding dangling my feet down over the side as I would normally do, and watched the water for the shark and Barracuda to show up. And watched. And watched. And nothing. Only a few small fish came along to nibble, but that was it.
He was done cleaning the fish so at this point it was unlikely anything larger was going to show up. I stood up to continue on my way, when he turned to me and asked if I like Mahi-Mahi. “Sure!”I replied, not really thinking anything of it. The next thing I know, he’s handing me bags of freshly caught fish to take back with me. I did a 180 and headed back to the boat grinning from ear to ear, carrying what would now be that night’s dinner! It was amazing! To this day, I still have not had a piece of Mahi-Mahi that has tasted as good as that meal did.
After dinner, we walked over to the marina office and tracked down the taxi boat driver to get a ride over to town for the concert. The art center, which sadly I am not sure exists anymore, consisted of two pastel pink buildings, which sat on a large piece of property along the beach. The smaller building was converted into gallery space where local artists hung their work which was open to the public to view and purchase and the larger building just next to it, was used as office and classroom space.
The back lawn was very well manicured and had a big concrete patio where the band was setup and getting ready to play when we arrived. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but it was a great time! His songs were upbeat, and had catchy off the wall lyrics, that were sure to be stuck in your head for days. Popular titles include “She Fat”, “All De Meat” and “Party Get Hot Hot”. You can actually find his album, “K.B.’s Bahamian Hits #1”, on iTunes if you wish to take a listen!
After spending a few hours at the concert, we meandered back over to the Harbour’s Edge for a nightcap, or in my case another frozen drink loaded with rum, and radio for the taxi boat to come back and pick us up! Being an island, marine radio is the most popular method of communication and every restaurant or store you go to has one handy!
Tonight however, the radio was not needed, as our taxi captain just happened to be sitting at the same bar hanging out with friends, figuring he would need to come back for us eventually and why not have fun while waiting.
After everyone was done their drink, we hopped in the boat and made our way slowly back across the harbor in the dark of night, dodging and weaving through all of the mooring balls that did not have boats attached to them, then it was off to bed to rest up for my last full day in the Bahamas.
Thanks to an early wake up call from the Rooster, my last day of vacation started a bit earlier than I had hoped for. I was kind of bummed that it was raining on my last trip up the lighthouse, so we ventured back over for a bit while it was sunny out and headed back up to get some photos of the harbor full of boats!
A fun fact about the lighthouse, it is one of the last kerosene-fueled lighthouses and one of only three manual lighthouses left in the world!
Not being a big fan of the snorkeling situation, my parents suggested we rent a golf cart for the day instead, and take a ride down the island to the famous Tahiti Beach we kept hearing so much about from everyone. Tahiti Beach is approximately 3-4 miles from the center of town and the average golf cart goes roughly 10-12 miles per hour, so this was going to be a full day adventure!
We signed all of the necessary paperwork and were pointed in the direction of the infamous lane, that turns into a semi-proper road just outside town and is the only road running in that direction.
Not being in any sort of rush, we stopped to check out various cottages and gift shops along the way and came across these hand painted signs showing the various distances from that location to points all over the world! I of course requested we stop for a photo!
We also came across what may be one of the smallest firehouses I have ever seen! Just enough space for one fire truck!
Since the ride was long, we stopped for lunch at a spot called On da Beach Bar & Grille, where I had, you guessed it, more fish and more frozen drinks with rum! Check out this view from their seating area out back!
With what appeared to be another afternoon thunderstorm rolling in, we hopped back in the golf cart and zoomed along to Tahiti Beach to catch a glimpse before we had to turn around and rush to get back to town.
Now you may be wondering why it has the name Tahiti Beach. Well, take a look for yourself! The white sand beach lined with palm trees looks like it was picked up from Tahiti and moved to the Bahamas!
With the storm getting bigger, we raced back to town in a steady downpour, this time without making any stops along the way. As nice as the peaceful car free streets were, having a vehicle with proper windows and a little more speed would have come in handy at that moment!
Once back in town, we dropped the golf cart off, and stopped at the Ebb Tide Gift Shoppe that is loaded with unique locally handmade gifts. You can find anything from paintings of scenes and marine life from the area, to decorative knickknacks carved out of conch shells and various items made of fabric that has been batiqued (a special hand dying process, using melted wax to leave the fabric white in areas when soaked in the dye bath) with palm trees, sailboats, fish. If you are in town, you should definitely check this place out!
With no signs of the rain letting up, we finally retreated to the boat and spent the night inside eating dinner and playing a game of Dominos. A word of advice, when playing Dominos, maybe wait to rub it in that you are crushing it on your first ever time playing…until you actually win the game! Ooops! Lesson learned.
Sadly as it got later, it was time to start packing my bags and get to bed, as tomorrow it was back to home reality.
I smartly booked a late afternoon flight home, so I could soak in every last bit of vacation time possible that last day. With my bags packed and ready to go, and nice sunny warm weather, we took a final walk around town so I could take some photos that I wanted but was unable to get with all the afternoon rainstorms in the days prior. St James Church (the aforementioned only church around) sits just off the beach had amazing bright yellow shutters, that were just glowing against the blue sky and dark green palm trees. I was so happy the sun finally came out to aid in my photo adventures!
Another reason I was happy the sun came out, the hope of less turbulence on the flight back to Florida! By early afternoon, it was time to start making my way back to the public dock for my ferry ride to the airport, Marsh Harbour this time instead of Treasure Cay, where I flew into as plan B.
The ferry boat pulled up, so I said goodbye to my parents and climbed aboard with my luggag and off we went, back out through the inlet and into the open ocean to cross over to Great Abaco Island. The ride across was beautiful! I sat at the back of the boat and watched as the sun glistened off the blue waves, sad to be leaving this little slice of paradise!
Once at the ferry dock in Marsh Harbour, I hopped in a taxi and took the short ten minute ride over to the airport. Not knowing how long this whole process would take, and not wanting to miss another flight, I allowed myself WAY more time then was necessary. It made much more sense to sit in the airport and wait then be stressed out rushing to catch a flight.
Upon arriving at the airport, I was all prepared to sit in the “terminal” (aka single room waiting area and or benches out front) for a couple of hours, but then I saw a group of people heading across the parking lot on foot with their luggage. Curious, I followed suit, and found a small restaurant over there. I went in and pulled up a stool at the open window, and ordered myself one last frozen rum drink to finish out what was an overall great vacation!
The flight back to Fort Lauderdale was thankfully quick and turbulence free. What wasn’t quick however was the process of clearing customs. Not being my first time out of the country, I was quite familiar with the process and how long it should normally take. For whatever reason though, Fort Lauderdale has the longest customs process I have ever encountered in my life, and I have done it numerous times now with the same results.
Being a smaller plane, they again escorted us down the steps, onto the tarmac, and up a side entrance into the airport to wait in line at customs. That line however was over an hour-long wait…for what was only step one of the process. So there I stood, in a complete panic again, stressing about missing yet another flight.
Everyone in the line was aggravated and driving the customs agents crazy asking what the hold up was and if jumping ahead in line was possible, so connecting flights were not missed. We were of course told no.
After at least an hour, I finally moved to the front of the line, where I handed my return declaration form and passport to an agent to review, then bypassed the baggage claim area since had kept my luggage with me and moved on to the next line, equally as long as the first, to exit the area. Before exiting, a customs agent had to check your bags and collect your declaration form.
Once this step was complete, I took off running for my next gate knowing I still had to clear security again, and was hoping to have time to grab some food to eat on the plane. By the time I arrived at the gate, they were already 90% done boarding. So not only did I not have time to grab food, I was sheer minutes from being stranded in Fort Lauderdale again!
As I sat on the two-hour flight home, hungry and tired, I thought to myself there had to be a better way of doing this! Thankfully I found out there was! Blog post on that coming soon!
Even though there were a few bumps along the way, I was very grateful to have the opportunity to travel to a new country and escape the winter weather in a tropical paradise, even if only for a couple of days!
If you are planning a trip to Hope Town, here are some tips to help you out! As always, feel free to reach out in the comments or contact section with questions!
Money:
The currency of the Bahamas is the Bahamian dollar and is typically 1:1 with the US Dollar. While it is obviously preferred you use their currency, do not be surprised if you are handed back US currency as change at many locations.
Credit cards are accepted at most locations but usually only Visa and Mastercard. Merchants who accept American Express are rare.
There is only one bank on Elbow Cay, the First Caribbean International. It is only open on Tuesday from 10am-2pm, and it does not have an ATM. The only way to take out cash is by doing a cash advance on your credit card, which fair warning usually comes with a very hefty interest rate from your credit card company. You can access banks with an ATM but it requires a ferry ride back to Marsh Harbour.
Electricity:
Electrical Outlets are the same style and voltage as in the United States (120V) so no need for any converters or adapters.
Driving:
Traffic drives on the opposite side of the street in the Bahamas compared to the US. As mentioned, in Elbow Cay, the only four wheeled mode of transportation available to tourists is a golf cart, so if you choose to rent one, please be sure you are aware of their local driving rules before heading off. Cars and work trucks will zoom around you and can give you a bit of a startle if you are on the wrong side of the road.
Medical Attention:
For minor health concerns that you would normally treat yourself via a trip to the drug store, you should be able to find supplies for at the local grocery stores. Keep in mind though, these are small family run stores. They do not have guaranteed products or brands and for the most part items are being imported from the United States, so they can be very expensive but a $20 bottle of Aloe beats suffering from sunburn all vacation!
For slightly larger medical concerns there is a small clinic in Hope Town where a nurse can provide care and prescribe medicine if need be. It is only open in the mornings though and I vaguely recall it not being open every day despite that being the posted schedule.
For severe emergencies, be prepared to be airlifted out to Nassau or Florida, as those are the nearest hospitals capable of providing emergency care. As you can imagine, being airlifted to a hospital does not come cheaply! Many companies such as the Divers Altert Network provide emergency trip insurance which includes being airlifted out to a hospital. It’s worth checking into, especially if you plan to be out in the water snorkeling or scuba diving on your trip.
Weather:
The weather in the Bahamas can be quite fickle. One minute it’s sunny then next it’s pouring rain! The storms don’t usually last very long though (unless you have bravely decided to go during Hurricane Season, which is officially June through November). Temperatures rarely if ever dip below 70 even in winter, but humidity hovers around 80-90%. Sorry curly haired friends!
Places to Stay:
We stayed on our own boat, so I can’t personally vouch for any of the local hotels as far as the rooms are concerned. The Hope Town Inn & Marina as well as the Hope Town Harbour Lodge however were both impressive with their amenities, both having on site restaurants, bars and pools. There are plenty of rental cottages in town as well if you prefer to have your own space.
A full list can be found HERE.
Places to Eat & Drink:
Wine Down Sip Sip – Casual atmosphere with amazing food!
Harbours Edge – Both indoor and outdoor seating, casual atmosphere and lots of Bahamian style meals to choose from.
Hope Town Inn & Marina – Outdoor seating with a fine dining menu.
A list of other options can be found HERE.
For more general information please visit the Hope Town Visitors page:
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