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Green Turtle Cay Review
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Green Turtle Cay
- Category: Islands
- Location: Green Turtle Cay
Fodor's Review:
A 10-minute ferry ride from a Treasure Cay dock will take you to. The tiny island is steeped in Loyalist history; some residents can trace their heritage back to their ancestors' arrival from the U.S. colonies more than 200 years ago. The cay is surrounded by several deep bays, sounds, bonefish flats, and irresistible beaches.
New Plymouth, first settled in 1783, is Green Turtle's main community. Many of its approximately 550 residents earn a living by diving for conch or selling lobster and fish to the Abaco Seafood Company, but an increasing number depend on businesses catering to tourists and vacation-home owners. On some summer days during the height of Green Turtle's tourist season, the visitors on the island can outnumber the residents.
There are a few grocery and hardware stores, several gift shops, a post office, a bank, a handful of restaurants, and several offices -- not to mention the homes that have been owned, in some cases, by the same families for generations. Narrow streets flanked by wild-growing flora (such as amaryllis, hibiscus, and poinciana) wind between rows of New England-style white-clapboard cottages with brightly colored shutters. During the Civil War, New Plymouth provided a safe haven for Confederate blockade runners. One Union ship, the USS Adirondack, was pursuing a gunrunner and wrecked on a reef in 1862 at nearby Man-O-War Cay. One of the ship's cannons now sits at the town harbor.
If your accommodations aren't in New Plymouth proper, you'll need transportation into town. Many hotels provide an occasional shuttle, and there's one taxi on the island, but most people travel via golf cart or boat. Your hotel can help to arrange a boat rental through one of several rental companies on the island. Don't worry, you won't miss having a car; even in the slowest golf cart, you can get from one end of the island to the other in 20 minutes or less.
New Plymouth's most frequently visited attraction is the Albert Lowe Museum, on the main thoroughfare, Parliament Street. The Bahamas' oldest historical museum, it's dedicated to a model-ship builder and direct descendant of the island's original European-American settlers. You can learn island history through local memorabilia from the 1700s, Lowe's model schooners, and old photographs, including one of the aftermath of the 1932 hurricane that nearly flattened New Plymouth. One of the galleries displays paintings of typical Out Island scenes by acclaimed artist Alton Lowe, Albert's son. Mrs. Ivy Roberts, the museum's director, enjoys showing visitors around and sharing stories of life in the Out Islands before the days of high-speed Internet and daily airline flights. Parliament St. 242/365-4094. $5. Mon.-Sat. 9-11:45 and 1-4.
Just a few blocks from the Albert Lowe Museum, on Victoria Street, is Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar (242/365-4181), which stands next to the old gaol (jail), a tiny stone building thought to be more than 100 years old and, happily, no longer in use. Mrs. Emily Cooper, creator of the popular Goombay Smash drink, passed away in 1997, but her daughter Violet continues to serve up the famous rum, pineapple juice, and apricot brandy concoction. The actual recipe is top secret, and in spite of many imitators throughout the islands, you'll never taste a Goombay this good anywhere else. It's worth a special trip to try one. Mementos left by customers -- business cards, expired credit cards, T-shirts, and autographed dollar bills -- and Junkanoo masks cover the walls and ceiling.
The past is present in the Memorial Sculpture Garden, across the street from the New Plymouth Inn. (Note that it's laid out in the pattern of the British flag.) Immortalized in busts perched on pedestals are local residents who have made important contributions to the Bahamas. Plaques detail the accomplishments of British Loyalists, their descendants, and the descendants of those brought as slaves, such as Jeanne I. Thompson, a contemporary playwright and the country's second woman to practice law.
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