Seaplane from Miami to Harbour Island

Harbour Island has no customs office of its own. The nearest one is at North Eleuthera across the water, large enough to hold a Bahamas immigration and customs desk and that is what makes an international arrival here work at all.

The first arrival in the country has to be at an airport of entry, so North Eleuthera is where the passports are stamped. Every water landing spot carries its own approval from the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority.

There is no bridge and no road to the island, so the last stretch of any arrival is over water. From the airport side to the Government Dock is under four miles, so the island sits close to the mainland without being attached to it. The main dock is the one every taxi uses, though a party staying at a resort with its own marina can be set down there instead.

That last mile is the whole reason this crossing is worth planning rather than improvising. Tell us where the party is actually staying when you send the date and the arrival gets built backwards from that. The full entry picture is in the travel documents guidance and the north end of the mainland has its own page at North Eleuthera.

Pink Sands Beach runs about three miles down the eastern shore and it is the reason most people come. The colour is real and it is not the sand itself: millions of tiny mollusc shells have collected along the beach over time and those shells go a deep red when they are wet.

Mixed through the white sand they turn the whole shore pink, strongest where the water has just been. It shifts through the day as the light moves, so the same stretch photographs differently at nine in the morning and at five in the afternoon.

Horse riding along the beach is the one thing guests add most often on top of simply being on it 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.

The settlement is Dunmore Town and it was the capital of the Bahamas in the late eighteenth century. Lord Dunmore founded it in 1786 while he was governor, which is where both the town and the street through it get their name. What survives is the architecture.

The lanes are narrow and quiet, lined with pastel cottages in a New England style that looks transplanted rather than Caribbean, with flower beds along the walls and the water at the end of most streets. St John's Anglican Church was built in 1768 and is the oldest Anglican church in the country.

It is small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon, which is what makes it a half day rather than a stop. Bakeries, galleries and restaurants are mixed in among the houses rather than gathered in one place. If a table matters, say so with the date: the charter desk can arrange it before you land.

Nobody drives a car here. Golf carts are the transport and they are hired at the dock, usually within a minute of stepping off the boat, which is most of the reason the island feels different from the mainland within the first five minutes.

The scale is what makes it work. Three and a half miles end to end means the beach, the town and the north point are all inside a short run of each other, so a party can do the whole island in a day without ever planning a route.

Walking works too and plenty of guests never hire anything. If someone in the party cannot manage the lanes on foot, say so when the date goes in so the cart is waiting rather than queued for. Ground arrangements at either end are on the ground transport page.

At the northern point there is a single fallen tree lying on a flat bed of sand and it is the most photographed object on the island after the beach itself. It has no story attached to it beyond being where it is, which is part of why it works.

It is the far end of a cart run from the town, so it tends to be the turning point of a half day rather than a destination in itself. The sand around it goes flat and wide at low water, which is when it is worth being there.

The north point is also where the island faces the mainland, so this is the stretch where a party gets the sense of how close the two are. More of the same coastline from the air is on the scenic flights page.

Diving is not what Harbour Island is known for, which is exactly why Briland's Blue Hole is worth naming. It is the island's own hole and it gets a fraction of the attention it would get anywhere with less beach to compete with.

The water around the island carries the usual mix for this part of the Bahamas: reef close enough to the shore to swim to in places, deeper ground a short run offshore and flats on the sheltered side. Snorkelling, scuba, fishing, sailing and kayaking all run from here.

Say how many are getting in the water when you send the date and say whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling, because a dive boat and a snorkel boat are not always the same boat. What we can put in the aircraft for it is in the baggage guidance.

There are two marinas on the island and Valentine's is the one most often named, because it has its own docks and a party staying there can be brought straight into them rather than to the public dock.

For anyone arriving by air with a boat already waiting, that is the difference between one transfer and two. It is also the practical base for anyone running back and forth to the mainland during a stay, which is common enough that the marinas are busier than the size of the island suggests.

If a yacht is meeting the party, the aircraft can set them down alongside instead of at a pier. That is a yacht transfer and it is the reason a good number of these flights happen at all. Pickups from a dock rather than a ramp are on the dock pickup page.

Two names come up more than any others when a party stays. Pink Sands Resort borders the beach directly, which is the whole argument for it and the Dunmore sits in the town. Valentine's is the third and it is the one to pick if boats are part of the plan.

A day trip works here in a way it does not on islands further down the chain, because the crossing lands you close and the island is small. Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route.

The other direction is to keep moving. The mainland is minutes away by water and the rest of the chain is a short flight, which is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. The full island guide is on the Harbour Island destination page and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.