harbour island

Elena swimming in the Caribbean off Harbour Island, Bahamas

Beach yoga

Pink Sands Beach on the Bahamas' Harbour Island, at sunset

Doll's House Harbour Island Lone tree

Water flower

Ocean colors, twilight

Sunset, Pink Sands Beach

HARBOUR ISLAND in the Bahamas is a small island of just a few square miles that lies just to the east of Eleuthera. You get there by flying to the rather optimistically named North Eleuthera International Airport, which is very small - about the size of a large house - but extremely convenient: the transfer by van and water taxi takes only 20 minutes. Although once the capital of the Bahamas, the only settlement on Harbour Island now is the small town of Dunmore. There are some attractive and historic colonial-era houses here, but the main reason for visiting is to enjoy some of the best beaches in the Caribbean. Harbour Island's Pink Sands Beach, in particular, is simply gorgeous, whether for walking, lounging or swimming. We stayed for a week here over Thanksgiving at the Coral Sands resort (recommended), which was probably long enough unless you really like beach vacations - although it's idyllic there isn't much else to do besides enjoying cocktails on the beach and the range of restaurants is somewhat limited. In November the temperature was in the 80s F (though it was occasionally windy), but Harbour Island's weather is pretty constant year-round... unless of course there's a hurricane!