Why guide?
I’ve walked seashores from the Andamans to Uig, from the Cocos (Keeling) to Zicatela, however I’ve by no means seen something just like the floury pink sand of Harbour Island within the Bahamas. And if there was ever a resort to match such a seashore, it is Coral Sands.
Set the scene
The complete place glows as if lit from inside. AJ Capital Partners, which is simply finishing a multimillion-dollar redesign, seems to have grabbed each seashell on the planet and hooked up them to lamps, mirrors, and partitions. Then they’ve washed down the verdant inn in pink and turquoise. It would possibly sound a bit a lot, nevertheless it feels fully proper after a golf cart drive by the higgledy-piggledy streets of the island’s Dunmore Town. The resort greets guests with two teen-sized seahorse sculptures; you’ll be able to head all the way down to the seashore by the Pink Mermaid bar and restaurant, previous the pastel pool and the seashore bar the place Kalik beer washes down conch fritters. Finally, there are the pink and white seashore umbrellas and the good Peter Johnson, who retains company in loungers, towels, and luxury.
The backstory
In 1968, Brett King and his spouse Sharon Van Howten arrived on Harbour Island, simply off the highest of Eleuthera, to play out the third act of their very American lives. Brett had been a fighter pilot within the Second World War, incomes a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart, earlier than turning right into a Hollywood actor and showing in a slew of considerably forgettable films. They’d turn into entranced by the island, which had as soon as been a secret getaway for the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Rockefellers, and Aristotle Onassis. They ran the resort they based till the late Nineties, when it handed into the arms of two native hoteliers who offered it in 2024 to AJ Capital Partners, a deep-pocketed actual property and resort administration firm primarily based in Nashville, Tennessee. AJ started the renovations to compete with the Dunmore, historically the belle of the Harbour Island ball, hiring the Dunmore’s former common supervisor, Chorten Wangyel, who is among the world’s consummate hoteliers.
The rooms
Imagine the Little Mermaid having a fever dream. The Rock Beauty, the place I stayed, is a cabin with steps straight down onto the sand. I parked my golf cart by a entrance door thick with foliage, then entered a large, sunlit room with a 4 poster–mattress whose rose cover was printed with tropical flowers. A luxurious armchair stood within the nook, and out of doors, on the terrace, have been crimson, clam-like chairs. The rest room is big, with a roll-top bathtub, unguents by the Sicilian model Ortigia, and all of the combs, tweezers, first help kits, and extra that you just would possibly require.
The bathe is cobalt blue with an Arabian entrance. Again, all of this might sound an excessive amount of, and could be if it weren’t for the pink sands beneath. I stepped out onto the deck to see folks laughing by the seashore bar, a marriage being organized on the seashore, and horses being ridden bareback into the clear water. Imagine the bit in Barbie the place she emerges from her home to wave on the neighbors. There are 41 keys on the property, together with eight oceanfront cottages (two have two bedrooms), one other seven backyard cottages, and two homes—”Brett’s” and “Sharon’s”—with their very own swimming pools and full-sized kitchens. There is Villa Botanica, a Bahamian three-bedroom dwelling with a pool that may be a little off the property, then there are the rooms within the previous inn itself, sea-facing and spacious, with their very own terraces. Peter and Carol Goodwin, a British couple who’ve been coming for years, informed me they all the time took time earlier than dinner to combine a gin and tonic on their terrace and discuss their day.
Food and drink
Conch fritter? Shrimp burger, Caribbean lobster roll? It’s shockingly simple to cross hours on the seashore bar, sipping frosé whereas the tones of the ocean, sky, and sands shift with the solar. Breakfast is served within the inn’s restaurant, The Pink Mermaid—above the swimming pool, which has a pink mermaid embedded in mosaic within the depths. Among the choices is contemporary fruit, a extremely spectacular granola bowl, and a Briland Benedict. Briland is the native shorthand for Harbour Island, and the Benedict consists of crab desserts alongside the standard muffin and hollandaise. All is served on colourful crockery, and significantly fabulous Fiestaware pink mugs. Dinner can also be within the Pink Mermaid, and you can begin with a gin-based Pink Mermaid cocktail. If the pink mermaid turns into an excessive amount of, you eat her pal, the Spiny Lobster, with capellini. On the evening I visited, the chef was attempting out a contemporary and scrumptious new native leaf salad, a part of the supervisor’s transfer to make the Coral Sands more healthy, with out undermining the unique cocktail-and-sunshine hedonism of the place.
Wellness
Currently, there’s an open-air health club with a sauna and chilly plunge, the place I loved seeing company of a sure age (nicely, mine) on train bikes of their Loro Piana and shades. There is a placing inexperienced, tennis courts, and an indoor golf simulator. But Wangyal, the brand new supervisor, is Bhutanese, and attuned to Himalayan concepts of wellness, which he desires to introduce with the Bahamians’ lengthy historical past of utilizing native herbs and crops for drugs. So the brand new house owners are about to spend hundreds of thousands on a wellness middle. “It will be built under a beautiful banyan tree, which I call the Buddha tree,” mentioned Wangyal. “And split into the four zones: so for fire, it will be hot stone baths; for water, water treatment; air, meditation, reading, yoga; and for earth, what is naturally produced here, our own herbal scrub or sea salt, and so on.” The middle can have its personal rooms, and will likely be a five-minute stroll away, so Coral Sands residents can decide in in the event that they need, or not in the event that they don’t. They hope it is going to be prepared in 2026.
The space
Harbour Island has turn into a globalized enclave of wealth. The island is barely three-and-a-half miles lengthy and one-and-a-half miles at its widest. At its coronary heart is Dunmore Town, named for the British governor common within the 1700s. Its historical past is related to shipbuilding and piracy. Now it’s willfully laid again, with ownerless chickens roaming free by $40 million mansions. Everyone (besides the chickens) whizzes about on golf carts. There are pretty regionally owned eating places reminiscent of Rock House and the Landing (which even have rooms), and there’s Daddy D’s if you wish to dance into the evening with probably the most random assortment of individuals conceivable.
The service
Utterly charming, heat, and useful, as you’d anticipate from the Bahamas. Names are remembered by each company and employees, and titles are anticipated, i.e., “Miss Allie, may I have another tropical spritz?” When you’re requested how your day goes, a solution is listened to. But don’t get too grand: given the clientele hereabouts, the individual bringing your eggs might nicely have attended a royal marriage ceremony.
Who comes right here?
Speaking of royal weddings, India Hicks, for a begin. The mannequin and one-time bridesmaid for King Charles has a store right here. Then there are the billionaires, who are inclined to preserve to themselves down filth tracks at both finish of the island. (There are many to select from, however, say, Barry Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg.) At the Coral Sands itself, the clientele look like individuals who have finished nicely for themselves and need to take pleasure in it. There’s a smattering of British folks, however primarily it’s Americans. I befriended Catherine and Taylor, a few attorneys from Oxford, Mississippi, which is my favourite city within the US. They have been escaping their babies and stored extending their keep.
For households
I sorely remorse not taking my three-year-old son. Coral Sands might not have particular household facilities—though there are plans for an activity-based creche—nevertheless it has the right seashore with among the loveliest employees on the planet. The pool is beautiful and was typically crammed with the laughter of youngsters, all with out turning into overwhelming. To accommodate them, there are the two-bedroom cabins and the three-bedroom homes with their very own swimming pools. And the menus are stuffed with issues kids would love.
Eco effort
With the renovation comes a transfer away from plastic merchandise. Hydration stations are being arrange. There can also be a robust push in direction of native seafood and farm-to-table produce. But the island stays wedded to a line of diesel turbines close to the harbor.
Accessibility
Accessibility will not be supreme, sadly. The resort sits throughout a sequence of dunes, so there are lots of steps. The cabins are accessible by golf cart, and, given what number of returning shoppers Coral Sands has, there have been some clearly frail company who have been having fun with themselves vastly. But not one of the rooms have been particularly designed to be accessible.
Anything else?
Did I point out that the seashore is pink? That’s due to the crushed shells of foraminifera, a small crimson crustacean. With the delicate daylight and the blue of the ocean, the sand takes on virtually super-real tones. It’s a pink that interprets into pleasure (besides, maybe, for the crushed foraminifera).
Is it value it?
It’s costly, however sure.