Private Jet from Miami to Harbour Island

Pink Sands Beach runs roughly three miles down the ocean side and is what almost every party comes out for. The colour is not a trick of the light. Countless tiny shells have collected over centuries and turn deep red once wet, and stirred through white sand they push the whole shore pink, strongest along the line the water has just left. It moves through the day as the sun does. A jet landing in the morning puts your party on this sand with the whole afternoon still in front of it, which is the difference between the beach being the day and the beach being an hour at the end of one. Riding a horse along it is the thing guests add most often on top of simply being there, and it is an old Bahamian habit rather than a resort invention. Say if anyone wants it when the date goes in, because it is arranged ashore and not by us. Other things we can put on the ground are on the custom experiences page.

Nobody drives a car here. Golf carts are the transport, hired at the dock and usually within a minute of stepping off the boat, and that single fact is most of why the island feels unlike the mainland inside five minutes. Scale is what makes it work. Three and a half miles end to end puts the beach, the settlement and the north point inside a short run of each other, so a party can take in the whole island in a day without planning a route. Walking works too and plenty of guests never hire anything at all. If anyone in the party cannot manage the lanes on foot, say so when the date goes in so a cart is standing ready rather than queued for. Arrangements at either end are on the ground transport page.

A single fallen tree lies on a flat bed of sand at the northern point, and after the beach itself it is the most photographed object on the island. No story is attached to it beyond being where it is, which is part of why it works. It sits at the far end of a cart run, so it tends to be the turning point of a half day rather than a destination of its own. The sand around it goes flat and wide at low water, and that is the hour worth being there for. Which hour that is on your date is worth asking about before you fix the flight, because a charter can be moved to meet it and a scheduled arrival cannot. The north point is also where the island looks back at the mainland, so this is the stretch that shows a party how close the two really are. More of the same coastline from the air is on the scenic flights page.

Diving is not what this island is famous for, which is why Briland's Blue Hole earns a mention: it draws a fraction of the attention it would get anywhere with less beach to compete against. The north shore carries something harder to miss. The Devil's Backbone is a shallow ridge of coral and shifting sand along the top of Eleuthera, and the passage from Spanish Wells threads through it. Boats take it slowly and in good light, and there are wrecks along it. Reef close enough to swim to in places, deeper ground offshore, flats on the sheltered side. Say how many are getting in the water and whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling, because a dive boat and a snorkel boat are not always the same boat. What we can carry out with you is in the baggage guidance, and water toys go on in Miami.

The settlement sits on the harbour side and it ran the country for a while. Lord Dunmore laid it out in 1786 while he was governor, and for part of the late eighteenth century it was the capital of the Bahamas. It is half a mile from the pink sand, so most parties take in both in an afternoon rather than choosing. Bakeries, galleries and restaurants sit mixed in among the houses instead of gathered on one strip, and a table is worth holding before you land rather than after. The full account of the town, the lanes and what to do in them has a page of its own: a private jet from Miami to Dunmore Town is the same crossing with the day built around the settlement instead of the shore. If a table matters, the charter desk can hold it while you are still in the air.

Two marinas work the island and Valentine's is the one named most often, with Romora Bay the other. Between them they hold boats up to around a hundred and sixty feet for most of the year, which is more yacht than the size of the island suggests. They are also the practical base for anyone running back and forth to the mainland during a stay, and that happens enough to keep both busier than a three mile island would explain. On a jet the party clears at MYEH and crosses the harbour, which is a shorter run to a boat lying here than any crossing by sea from Florida. If a yacht is meeting you, say so with the date: what we arrange is the flight and the yacht transfer around it, and a tender meeting the party is set against your arrival rather than a clock.

The island is small on purpose, but it is not cut off. North Eleuthera is where the jet sets down, and the water between the two is a crossing of minutes rather than a journey. Because the aircraft has already cleared customs on that side, a day can be half island and half mainland without a second border. Spanish Wells lies just west of the same stretch, and the long body of Eleuthera runs a hundred miles south from there. Parties who want the mainland version of the day book a private jet from Miami to Eleuthera or to Rock Sound in the south instead. Ground transport on the mainland side is arranged with the flight.

Three names come up when a party stays on. Pink Sands Resort sits on the beach, which is the argument for it, The Dunmore is in the settlement and Valentine's is the one if boats are part of the plan. A day trip holds up here in a way it does not further down the chain, because everything ashore is close together. Staying over changes the baggage and the hour you leave Florida, not the flight, and the return is booked for the day you want rather than the one a timetable offers. The other direction is to keep going. Because the aircraft lands on the mainland in any case, the same airframe carries on down the chain to Nassau, the Exumas or Staniel Cay, which turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Freight and supply runs are on the island logistics page, the packaged version is the Harbour Island getaway day trip, the full island guide is on the Harbour Island destination page and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.