I think we just may try Harbour Island in future. We are not supermodels by any stretch of the imagination (our 4 year son thinks he his!) but I do get a little fed up in Hopetown when we turn up in linen and the rest of the restaurant look as if they just finished trying to fix their outboard.

We are not snobs but having spent most of our time in the Southern Med, scrubbing up at night after being out on a boat is half the fun of a summer holiday.

US based destinations to us always seem hard work. They seem to be at either end of the spectrum in terms of cost/style.

We just returned from a trip to the US/British Virgin Islands. We found the US virgins still too touristy, but the British virgins were much less so, and the people were much more friendly!! It was a very inexpensive trip and the travel too and from was a piece of cake, and with all the inter island ferries, relatively easy to jump around and explore several islands. If you want to have a night or 2 of fun, try Jost Van Dyke. We had a BLAST here! Nothing to do but eat great food, drink and relax, but the people here are wonderful and it is as close to a deserted island as we found!

Check out our trip report to Eleuthera. I think you will have a great time there.

http://www.fodors.com/community/cari...rt-10-2007.cfm

Other out islands that are high on our list are Cat and Long Islands.

Can you still rent boats in the Eleuthera cays? That's extremely appealing to me. I love hanging out on the boat and being able to come and go with it as we please. Any boat rental recommendations there?

Harbor Island looks awesome, but damn it's pricey! :)
i was hoping to keep it under $2000 for a week for 2 bedrooms, which doesn't seem realistic there. Looks like Eleuthera is more reasonable? How late does the ferry between the 2 run?

http://www.vrbo.com/79450

possible though!

THANKS!
We just booked our flight to ELH and arrive on 6/26. We are stoked! Any boat rental recommendations from in the area?
What other islands are boat-able from ELH.
Thanks agaiN!

While the Abacos and even the Exumas- to an extent- are places where you can rent a small boat and island hop on your own, Eleuthera is not the same, nor is HI. Others may correct me if I am wrong but I rented a boat years ago in HI and found there was no territory to go in it (and the boat itself was old and poorly maintained- as opposed to new and very nice boats in the Abacos where there is a lot of competition between the rental companies). Two years ago, I tried very hard to see if there was anywhere to rent a small boat on Eleuthera and found that there really wasn't a safe rental area there either. The islands of Elethera and HI are both lovely in their own ways but you will need to find a charter to take you out to dive, snorkel from either one.
While others say there is no night life in the Abacos or Exumas- and for real partiers I suppose that is true- I would rather be there. I went many times when I was your age and we and our friends were leaving young children and babies at home for a first time getaway- we still had lots of fun. A good deal of that fun was actually in the day time- to Nippers in Guana or to Pete's in Little Harbour- after a full day of sun and "boat drinks" it was nice to be low key out for dinner and drinks (as long as there were no baths or bedtimes to worry about- ah, freedom!).
In more recent times, we didn't really want any nightlife but it did not seem to exist - or would be hard to find- in Eleuthera. In HI, when we were there, and it was many years for an week's stay rather than a day visit- it seemed to be contained to hotel bars and not much livelier, in my opinion, than what we found in Green Turtle Cay, Hopetown, or Staniel Cay in the Exumas.
Anyway, you may or may not actually find a boat but I hope you have a fun trip.

Yep, ishkribbl is correct on the boating issue. Harbour Island/Eleuthera is different than Abaco. Sea of Abaco is a "protected" spot and is safer for small boats. Harbour Island to and around Eleuthera is open and very different.

Congrats on your booking! I hope you love it as much as we did.

Again, thanks so much for your input. So should plan to realistically limit our islands to Eleuthera and HI? Or is it possible to hop on a shared charter to check out some other destinations. I'm bummed about the boat rental!

No other destinations to consider. Harbour Island and the north end of Eleuthera, if you choose, will be your choices. You would have to rent a car for exploring the north end of Eleuthera to find other beaches. It's a quiet island and very long, over 100 miles so you cannot explore Eleuthera in a day.

Check out Valentine's as they may have day excursions now. Can't think of the name next door for scuba but they may have options, too. Or, check with your hotel on renting a guide/boat for the day to take you around different areas of the north end of Eleuthera.

Instead of a boat, you will have a golf cart instead. Very fun!

One more question, can you fish off the shore? If so, can you rent gear?

I don't recall seeing anyone fish from shore. There are many anglers that go out for deep sea fishing though.

Check out this site:
www.myharbourisland.com/watersport.htm

That website has a lot of information you might find helpful.

Yea, i was checking that site out earlier but it seems to be pretty out of date. I think I have too much free time to over plan this trip! :) BeachGirl, thanks again for all your input!

Valentine's Marina probably has fishing charters-I've seen them bring the fish in. Spanish Wells is the place to fish in that area-probably where they go to fish.

Eleuthera is easy to to spend more than 1 day exploring, it takes 4-5 hours to drive from 1 end to another, add another 45 minutes if you want to see stunning Lighthouse Beach.

Other than the 3-Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and Eleuthera, it's really hard to travel to other Out
Islands, as was explained way above. You would have to fly back to Nassau, and spend nights elsewere. You can charter a plane, from Pink Sands Resort, but think around $2000 for the flight.

For fishing:

http://valentinesresort.com/Marina.php

You probably can charter a boat to get to Spanish Wells, but Eleuthera is not really navagable.

it's confusing isn't it? I've been going back and forth where to go for our 40th anniversary this year. We've finally decided we're going to ELU for the first time in June and we rented this house, which is definitely within your price range.
http://www.bahamabreezevilla.com/villa.html I like the central location so we can rent a car and explore the island, and also the face that it's on the Caribbean side with snorkeling from "our" beach.

I'm planning to do a day trip or overnight trip to Harbour Island, so we'll have the best of both worlds.

Sorry, "also, the FACT, it's on the Caribbean side."

Thanks again for all the help. We are going to stay on Harbor Island @ http://www.little-arches.com/. It has some good reviews on TA and the owner is extremely responsive.

Thanks!

That looks like a cute place!

Be sure to go to Valentine's for a drink and watch all of the anglers coming in from their day at sea. Lots of people at the bar and good conversation.

Don't forget to *reserve* a golf cart. They do sell out of them and while it is a small island, having the cart for the hot summer days will be nice. You don't have to use it every day but it is certainly nice to have.

KablamOr- I hope you have a magical trip. I have heard good things about Little Arches- I look forward to reading your report!