Phrase that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had been seen on the marina of this tiny speck (5 sq. miles) of an island for a trip was met with bemusement by the vacationers who had gathered to observe the magnificent sundown on the bar, and with dismay by locals, anxious that their little speck of paradise was turning into the subsequent Saint Barts.

“I hear she’s staying proper up the road,” a lady sitting alone on the bar instructed us. She was cheerfully downing completely chilled prosecco in a champagne flute.   

The locals appeared unimpressed.

“It is the 2 percenters who’re coming, and the ultra-rich,” one shopkeeper instructed us, noting that enterprise had been brisk among the many wealthier People, Canadians and Brits which can be the spine of the financial system right here.   

Perhaps too brisk.  

“Now we have 20 billionaires on this island alone. The visitors is attending to be insufferable,” she stated, eyeing me suspiciously.  

I straightened up and tried trying like a two percenter, however I wasn’t certain what they appeared like.

Site visitors? What visitors? I appeared out the window of her store. Most individuals had been driving round in golf carts. With a inhabitants of only one,800, Harbour Island and its one and solely city, Dunmore City, makes Saint Barts (inhabitants 11,000) appear like midtown Manhattan.

The lady herself, she defined, had moved to Eleuthera, a 10-minute water taxi journey away, the place the hoi polloi hardly ever come, apparently.

All of which begs the query: Why on earth would anybody, not to mention Taylor Swift and a bunch of billionaires, come to this tiny speck?  

Why are there so many enormous yachts sitting in Valentines Marina?

Harbour Island is barely an island. It is an island off an island, on this case Eleuthera, some 60 miles northeast of Nassau. You may’t fly in. It’s a must to fly to Eleuthera, take a taxi to a dock just a few miles away, and take a water taxi to Harbour Island.  

This inaccessibility, apparently, is a significant promoting level for the tiny group of individuals that may match on the island, and afford to pay the steep (Saint Barts-style) costs.

The operative phrase is “tiny.” The biggest resort has 41 rooms; the dozen or so different lodges have lower than that.  Altogether, there cannot be greater than 250 resort rooms on all the island.  It is unlikely you will see an enormous international chain arrange store right here. I’s uncertain the infrastructure may help a big resort.  Not surprisingly, there appears to be a brisk enterprise renting out the few homes on the island.

Stroll across the city for just a few days, although, and you may see why a small group of vacationers preserve coming again and appear very bored with making it larger:

• Pink Sands Seashore: This is likely one of the nice seashores of the Caribbean, certainly of the world. It truly is pinkish, due to the decaying shells of microscopic sea creatures. It stays white, a whole bunch of ft offshore, no seaweed, no rocks, no something, simply blue water. It is flat, and the sand is compact so you’ll be able to stroll with out sinking in.  It is so compact that individuals journey horses up and down the entire three-mile stretch.
• The eating places: How is it attainable that an island with just a few hundred guests can help so many nice eating places? There’s native locations Queen Conch or Ma Ruby, which serves terrific Caribbean meals and is thought for its “Cheeseburger in Paradise” (It is served on a brioche-style bun, and supposedly earned the praises of Jimmy Buffett). There’s terrific Italian meals at Aquapazza, and basic Caribbean meat and fish dishes at Latitude 25 on the Coral Sands Lodge, or on the stylish Dunmore Lodge, or at Malcolm 51 on the swanky all-cottage Pink Sands Resort, or the Rock Home, or The Touchdown, or at Valentines. And nonetheless you’ll be able to’t a get reservation on many nights.
• The homes: You’d assume an island with so many rich guests and residents can be filled with big McMansions and multi-acre compounds. They’re definitely right here. The boat captain we employed for a day cruise quipped that “the millionaires reside on the north aspect, the billionaires reside on the south aspect, and everybody else lives within the center.”  Folks like Invoice Gates, Ron Perlman, Mickey Drexler, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, and Wayne Huizenga are stated to have properties right here. However Dunmore City is stuffed with modest, one and two-story properties which can be ablaze with coloration: blues, yellows, reds, a veritable explosion of pastels, together with purple morning glories all over the place.
• The church buildings:  Stroll round on a Sunday and you may hear singing.  It is a non secular nation:  90% belong to some non secular denomination, although it is largely Protestant (Baptists and Anglicans), with Roman Catholics and a smattering of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Greek Orthodox, and others.  We attended the Lighthouse Church of God to listen to Pastor Samuel Higgs and guitarist Rocky Sanders and a heavenly group of singers rock the home with old-school gospel music. Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz have additionally stopped by. Higgs and Sanders performed golf equipment in Europe earlier than coming again to the island.
• The individuals: The Bahamian individuals are well-known for his or her heat and friendliness, and it comes out in abundance on a small island like this. Simply say “good morning” to anybody, and they’re going to cease and say, “Good morning!  How are you?”  They’re going to smile, and so they imply it.

 Whereas the locals could also be complaining about visitors and wealthy individuals, do not count on the federal government of the Bahamas to close the door. Tourism accounts for 50% of the GDP of the nation, and employs practically 70% of the workforce.  Because of that infusion of money, per capita earnings is the third largest within the Western Hemisphere (behind the U.S. and Canada).

Luxurious journey could also be booming, however journey to the Caribbean normally stays robust. Arrivals had been up 14.3% final yr, in response to a current report by the Caribbean Tourism Group reported by Caribbean Journal.  

And whereas the locals could complain, any small island or metropolis would kill to get the type of intense loyalty locations like this appear to engender.

The lady on the bar at Valentines stated she had been coming right here for 20 years, and had her honeymoon right here.  She had flown into Eleuthera on a personal aircraft together with her husband (who owned automotive dealerships within the Midwest), her youngsters, and associates of theirs. They’d chartered a ship to spend just a few weeks within the Bahamas, and can be going south to even smaller islands.

Why was she sitting alone on the bar?

Her household, she stated with a smile, was off searching for Taylor Swift.