Magical Eleuthera

This past December 2021 we decided to take our first (annual?!?) post-Christmas trip. We had been researching islands in the Bahamas and landed on Eleuthera. It just so happens that Lenny Kravitz has a home on this gorgeous island (hmm). We did not run into him, unfortunately.

Eleuthera is a long, thin island in the Bahamas. It is 110 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest. It is located about 75 miles east of New Providence Island (Nassau). We flew from St. Louis to Atlanta to Nassau and took a very small plane (more on that later) from Nassau to Eleuthera. Due to Covid, there was extra coordination involved in planning the trip. We took tests in a 5 day window before leaving in order to obtain a Bahamian Health Visa. We were relieved when both tests were negative.

We were starving when we landed in Nassau…after leaving St. Louis in the pre-breakfast hours, rushing to make our connection in Atlanta and being served a minimal snack on the planes, we were ready for lunch. The Wendy’s in the Nassau airport was our only option and did the trick! Tasted just like home.

Our plane from Nassau to Eleuthera was running a little late. We weren’t too concerned until we saw the plane!

I’m getting better, but am still not a great flyer. Aside from the fact that we had booked a flight on Southern Air, and the plane said Flamingo Air, along with the other fact that the plane seemed to be out of the 1950’s, it was fine. They said they were waiting to get their Southern Air planes back from the United States. Likely story? Either way we survived.

When we landed in Eleuthera, a short 15 minutes later, our rental car was waiting. Tarictia, the property manager for our VRBO had rented the car to us and was very pleasant despite our slightly late arrival. In Eleuthera, you drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheeling, etc. is on the right side of the car. This was a very interesting experience, like writing with your non-dominant hand, but Trey did a fantastic job!

We wanted to stop for a few groceries on our way to our VRBO and were racing against the darkness. We made it and grabbed some bread, peanut butter, milk, eggs, etc. The prices are very high compared to the United States (a very small jar of Jif for $5), but this was expected as they have to import everything.

Our VRBO, the Bird of Paradise Golden Chalice, was delightful. Very nice decor with a whole-house media system, great air conditioning, ocean front deck and pool. It sat on French Leave Beach South, a beautiful pink sand beach.

Eleuthera has 135 beaches and we visited several. I purchased two Eleuthera guidebooks by Bret Sigillo-The Beach Book and The Snorkel Book. They were pricey at about $85 for the pair but were worth every penny. He details each of the 135 beaches in The Beach Book, rating both the beaches and the roads to take you there with one to three stars, three being the best. He also rates the beaches according to the level of difficulty of the snorkeling in The Snorkel Book. We stuck to three star beaches, two-to-three star roads and beginner snorkels. The two star roads were often very bumpy and muddy, sand or gravel with tire bursting pot holes. It was hard to imagine tackling a one star road. Let’s just say Trey was not thrilled with the road conditions (especially while driving on the “wrong” side of the road and car), but we did it without any major mishaps. Here are some of our favorites!

Eleuthera is not a touristy place and there are no “brand name” grocery stores, shops or restaurants. This makes it perfect! We shopped for food at the store at the Shell station (the only brand name place we saw), Burrows One Stop Groceries store, Eleuthera Island Farm and Bacchus Fine Foods. I bought a t-shirt at a cute ice cream shop next to one of the restaurants. They didn’t have ice cream that day. They were waiting for the next boat to bring it.

We ate several lunches and dinners at Tippy’s Restaurant and Beach Bar. It was about 50 yards from our house and we could walk from the beach or from the road behind our house. We spent New Year’s Eve there. The food was good, the drinks were strong and the staff was friendly! Below are examples from several lunches and dinners. As you can see we did enjoy the lobster, and the conch fritters were a delicious take on hush puppies. Their pizza was good too!

Here are some pics from our New Year’s Eve dinner….We started with a conch salad amuse bouche followed by conch and shrimp gumbo, shrimp and beet salad, stone crab claws, lobster thermidor and cherry cannoli.

We also had several meals at The Buccaneer Club. Breakfast was delicious and interesting and lunch was yummy as well. Trey had the big breakfast on our first visit with scrambled eggs, french toast, bacon, grits and Bahamian corned beef. The grits were fantastic and the corned beef was yummy, tasting like a thick meat sauce one might pair with pasta. I tried a Bahamian style breakfast on our first visit, the “Boil Fish”. It was grouper poached in a light, tangy broth with potatoes and onions. It was light and refreshingly different and made me feel particularly healthy in comparison to Trey’s meal, LOL. The Boil fish came with johnny cake that was like a fluffier cornbread.

We also enjoyed a lunch there. We shared conch salad which was essentially conch ceviche. It was very fresh and flavorful. I had blackened grouper with rice and peas and Bahamian mac and cheese. Trey had shrimp curry. It was all very good.

The third restaurant we tried was at the French Leave Resort. We had a beautiful view of Governor’s Harbour and the food was also good. We enjoyed peeping at a huge yacht moored at the resort and wondering who the owners were. We shared a burger, a salad and conch rangoon that were scrumptious.