Helicopter from Miami to Eleuthera

The north tip is where a Miami crossing arrives and where most of what people come for is packed into a few miles. The airfield, the docks for the neighbouring cays and the road south all sit within a short run of each other. North Eleuthera is also the end of the island with the shortest onward hops: the boats to Harbour Island and to Spanish Wells both leave from here, and neither takes long. That concentration is why a short day works at this end and gets harder the further south you go. Say at the enquiry if the day is a north end day, because it changes the whole shape of it.

The Glass Window is the narrowest point of Eleuthera and the single most photographed thing on it. On one side the open Atlantic runs deep and dark, on the other the Bight lies pale and shallow, and between them there is a strip of rock you could walk across, about thirty feet wide. Winslow Homer painted the arch here in 1885 and the name stuck. From the ground you stand on the bridge and look left and right. From the air you see the whole thing at once, which is the version people have in mind when they ask for it. It is the reason a scenic leg over the island is worth asking for by name. It is also the link between the north end and everything below it, so any day that starts in the north and ends further south crosses it anyway.

Less than a mile south of the bridge, on the Atlantic side, the rock is worn into a run of pools that fill from the swell and warm through the day. They are reached on foot from the road above. It is the natural pairing with the Glass Window because the two are within walking distance of each other, so a party that wants both is asking for one stop rather than two. The Atlantic side is the exposed side of this island, so this one is weather dependent in a way the Bight side is not. It is worth naming when you send the date rather than deciding on the morning.

Eleuthera was settled in 1648, and the cave on the north coast is where that began: the first arrivals came ashore after their ship struck the reef and used it as shelter and as their first meeting place. Inside there are chambers and stalactites, and the reef that put them there is the same one that still runs along this coast. It is the Devil's Backbone, a line of rock, coral and moving sand that has taken ships ever since 1648, and boats on the Spanish Wells to Harbour Island run still take a local pilot aboard for it. A helicopter passes above the whole thing. The cave is the oldest thing on the island and the quietest of the north end stops. It sits close enough to the airfield and to the bridge that it fits into a north end morning without costing the afternoon. West of the settlements, Current Cut, a channel about a hundred yards wide, runs at six to ten knots and is one of the quickest drift dives anywhere.

South of the bridge the island widens a little and Gregory Town sits in the middle of it. This is the agricultural part of the Bahamas and the pineapples are what the town is known for. Surfer's Beach is the other reason to come this far down. The Atlantic swell arrives on this stretch with nothing in front of it, which makes it the one part of the island where the water is the sport rather than the scenery. From the north end this is already a real drive. With the aircraft held for your party, a middle of the island day is a decision rather than a compromise.

Governor's Harbour is the capital of Eleuthera and sits almost exactly halfway along it. It holds the oldest civic history on the island and a harbour front that still works as one. It has its own customs and immigration, which matters for a party whose day is in the middle rather than at the top: the formalities can happen where the day is, instead of an hour and a half north of it. The Leon Levy Native Plant Reserve sits here as well, and a beach picnic on this stretch is the usual reason parties stay around the middle for the afternoon.

Rock Sound is the far south of the island, and its own attraction is underground: an inland blue hole in the middle of the settlement, deep enough that nobody has been able to say where it ends. Beyond it the island narrows again and runs out at Lighthouse Beach, which is another stretch past the settlement and the most remote beach on Eleuthera. This is the end of the island that an aeroplane day rarely reaches, because it is two hours by road from the north airfield. It is the clearest case on this route for choosing where the day begins, and it is worth saying at the enquiry.

Two small docks at the north end do all of the connecting. Three Island Dock, about a mile from the settlements, is where the water taxi leaves for Dunmore Town on Harbour Island. Gene's Bay, a few miles west, is where it leaves for Spanish Wells. Either crossing runs around ten minutes and the boats go through the day rather than to a timetable. That is why so many parties whose real destination is somewhere else still come in here first, and why a day built around pink sand starts at the top of the island. Dunmore Town runs on golf carts rather than cars, so ground transport is worth asking for at the enquiry rather than at the dock, and if a boat is meeting you instead, a dock pickup is arranged with the flight.

Spanish Wells sits off the north tip and is a working fishing settlement rather than a resort one. Royal Island lies just beyond it, and Harbour Island with its pink sand and Dunmore Town is the best known of the three. None of them is on Eleuthera itself, and all of them are minutes from its north end. A party that wants two of them in a day is asking for short hops rather than a second crossing, which is what turns one island into island hopping. Each has its own page, so say which are on the list when you send the date. Over two days it becomes a Bahamas day with more than one harbour in it, and the rest of the chain sits on the Bahamas destinations page.