While searching online for a true quiet

While searching online for a true quiet tropical island getaway, I happened across L.i., Bahamas, a small island eighty kilometers long and only three miles large, aptly named "Long Island, " one of the southern most out islands within the Bahamas.

As I began to read about having less tourism, the beautiful stretched out and remote beaches on both the Atlantic plus the Caribbean sides of the island, I came across myself already beginning to relax plus envisioned myself strolling down an immensely beautiful beach for hours without a good care in the world...

Continuing my education, I actually began to soak up the laid back lifestyle. I felt a major urge to get myself to this island and the quicker, the better.

Like a dream come true, as I set out to write this, I am sitting at the porch of a wonderful, romantic cottage, The Whistling Duck, located to the south of Clarence Town.

Our tiny 20 seats or so plane landed at Deadman's Cay Airport (Cay is pronounced "key" in the Bahamas) at the southern end of the island. We were greeted by Nancy, typically the caretaker for the owners or our private cottage, who drove people to The Whistling Duck.

She was initially friendly, had a hearty Bahamian bust a gut, and offered to help us with anything (including a rental car which will we took advantage of our second day). She said she was a telephone call away if we had any problems.

On our flight from Nassau to be able to Deadman's Cay, we found yourself already wondering what might be a good thing about what we would end up calling "The Other Long Island"...

It absolutely could be the incredible water. There are the most beautiful hues of Caribbean and Atlantic blues from clear to light blue to aqua to turquoise to be able to deep bluish-purple to varying oceanic shades of green, I have ever witnessed.

Then again it might be the amazingly secluded beaches with soft sands, good shell hunting and the constant calming rhythm of crashing waves. Hang on, it's probably that Long Island has got the most down to earth, friendly people on the planet.

If you have a craving for private adventure, there are many small roads fishing off the single north and southern region main road, Queen's Highway. Every one of the small, mainly dirt or crushed stone "car paths" must lead to a new head shaking "Wow! " check out and experience.

No, actually it's got to be the water sports from snorkeling, snorkeling, sailing, boating, fishing, to water-skiing.

In hindsight, the best thing about The Other Long Island may be one of the sights or perhaps activities that we didn't get to, for instance caving or who knows what!

The most appealing aspect could be a combination of any of the above, or maybe it's simply totally relaxing, being away from all the pressure of work and city life.

This kind of island takes your imagination back in time to what the Bahamas used to be such as. Amenities are few. The food is great. Supplies are limited but offered if you find out where and when to look. Bahamian and U. S. dollars are interchangeable. The people are comfortable, always seem to have a welcoming laugh planted on their friendly faces and even more than hospitable and helpful.

The Whistling Duck cottage was every thing it had looked to be on the website and more. The fowl feather namesake cottage had a perfect covered front porch using a double wicker swing, gas grilling grill and two teak and even canvas chairs to sit and even soak up the views of the Atlantic and the harbor at Clarence Area.

We quickly discovered this was the perfect spot to sip morning coffee or even tea, read to our hearts information, or simply relax.

There is another terrace off the bedroom, complete with two sige lounges and an outdoor shower, normally the one I used all week. Ceiling fans inside the living room, kitchen area and the bedroom help in keeping the interior comfortable with constant man-made sea breezes.

There is a gazebo at the water's border where we hung out absorbing the water's sights and sounds and used time reading throughout the week. Good bath and beach towels can be included. A kayak is available for that small deposit. Laundry facilities are situated at the Flying Fish Marina if needed. For an additional fee you might have Nancy clean the cottage each day.

A couple of bikes were included with the new and provided exercise and travelling for our first days' adventure on the island to check out Clarence Town.

We full our backpack with supplies from of the two small stores together with befriended a small boy, Horace, at the True Value food and sundry retailer. Horace seemed truly intrigued simply by my silver and blue Asics running shoes, shown by the awe in his big eyes when he reached down to touch them.

We quickly learned that a car was a must if we urgent needed to explore the island. Riding eighty mls on bikes one way to get to the northern tip of our quiet area getaway was simply too much.

Incidentally, be sure to take enough cash for instance a of the rental car operators do not acknowledge credit cards. (If you think gas is without a doubt expensive in the U. S., examine $6. 10 per gallon inside the Bahamas, and this is in 2008! ).

The tourist map of Long Island is like a cartoon and makes this look like all the roads on the island usually are paved. If you have an adventuresome spirit, don't be surprised when taking among the numerous off-shooting roads from Queen's Freeway to suddenly find yourself on a small, and rocky, car-width path that looks like it is going nowhere.

Rest assured of which slow going and patience will probably pay off with breathtaking rewards as being the startling, beautiful ocean views provide stimulating visual overload, especially within the Caribbean side of the island.

Through our first week of July check out, there was a constant breeze. The various bird species were gaily singing each morning. We fairly quickly found out why the particular cottage was named The Whistling Duck! There is indeed such a traveling feather friend on the island!

The hummingbirds were busy flitting from plant to flower during the day. My wife unknowingly imitated a flower an individual afternoon while wearing a bright yellowish top and had to gently trend to get a hummingbird to leave her on your own.

The humidity was very high and sweatily noticeable. The combination of being in the shade and the breeze was good and the best place to be unless we were in the water. Working out over the front deck each morning got me personally drenched within minutes. The ocean access definitely Boat Rental Miami Beach kept me inspired!

On day two, Nancy dropped off the rental car we had arranged the day just before and we set out on our first traveling adventure. Using the tourist map, we all headed south to Hard Good deal, one of some thirty plus townships up and down the island.

We entertained ourself by pretending to figure out how Hard Great deal got its name and came up with a number of possibilities. Turning east on a little gravel road, we headed in the direction of the Caribbean side of the isle and ended up by the abandoned salt fields of the Diamond Crystal Salt Company.

In the days before a fridge, salt was used to preserve meats in addition to fish for ships setting out to marine and had been a huge business. Most of us thought we were lost when we curved a curve in the road in addition to simultaneously gasped at the incredible, magnificent spectrum of light blue Caribbean lakes and rivers. This may have been the most beautiful vision of ocean water either one of us possesses ever seen!

Following the sand together with gravel road, we returned to Queen's Highway (a fairly small, and two lane blacktop road which usually runs almost the entire north-south entire island) and headed north. For the most part, the drive is not very thrilling. There are occasional ocean views on a person side or the other. Taking virtually any side road will likely lead to stunning ocean views, a deserted beachfront, and a new adventure.

Wanting to see the Stella Maris Resort, built in the particular 1960's, we found ourselves located on a hill in the middle of the holiday resort where we could see the deep almost purple-blue waters of the Atlantic seeking one way and the stellar, azure blue rainbow waters of the Caribbean simply by turning our heads 180 deg, which was quite astonishing.

The Stella Maris Resort is large and is also the only place on the island with tennis courts. We noticed several for sale signs in the front of a few of your homes located within the resort, and found ourselves wishfully wondering... Sigh.

Lunching at the resort overlooking the beach, we all found the food and service had been okay but could use some quality improvement. We did not get to see precisely what are apparently some of the best plantation ruins on the island of st. kitts, which are located on the resort property.

There were hoped to make it all the way to the upper tip of the island to see one of the other two resorts, Cape Santa Nancy and the Christopher Columbus Monument, yet decided we were running out of time. We are going to make sure we see both on our up coming visit.

Wonderfully, the remainder of the few days we had no plans whatsoever and each morning casually decided what we would perform for the next few hours. No stress, zero phones, no technology, no visitors, no rushing around. Simply the regular caressing breezes and soothing sounds of the Atlantic waves to relax us all, stimulate our senses and calm our souls.

We enjoyed taking long walks on Lochabar Shore. We quickly realized that getting to the beach from the gazebo was much easier during low tide, which had to be lower than high tide by at least 3 to 4 feet.

We found numerous little conch shells and two significant conchs with the most beautiful deep yellow on the inside, sand dollars, and lots of small shells throughout the week.

Walking to the right for about thirty minutes on Lochabar Beach, we rounded the bend plus encountered a huge blue hole. Blue holes immediately plummet from the bordering shallow sandy waters to reasonably extreme depths.

One of our best adventures was to see the deepest orange hole in the world. Dean's Blue Cup is located at Long Island and goes to a depth of around 660 feet! We were told that the 2nd largest known underwater cavern on earth is at the bottom of Dean's Bluish Hole.

We had a wonderful picnic in this article one afternoon, just the two of us all. I was rather nervous contemplating snorkeling out into Dean's Blue Pit and I decided it must have been the extreme unknown of what lies in typically the depths below. Locals dive from your low cliffs on the backside of your hole and swim in its seas all the time.

My better and much prettier half, had no issues floating around out into the middle of Dean's Blue Hole... and loves presenting me trouble about being a chicken breast to this day!

The third morning, I named Nancy to find out where to get fresh fish, thinking there had to be plenty in the particular Bahamas. She mentioned Nick the fisherman and gave us his number. I left a message and he called us back a few hours later on.

Nick the fisherman said he had grouper and red snapper he previously caught the day before. It turned out Computer chip, his wife and six young children lived at the end of our sandy, tiny rocks road. It took five minutes to walk up the hill to his property where we were met by a inviting version of man's best friend, that ran up to us wagging his or her tail excitedly and definitely got each of our petting attention.

There was a fair level of miscellaneous underwater sonar equipment and three fishing boats in the yard. It absolutely was evident this family spent a lot of time by, in, on or underneath the water.

Nick greeted us warmly and invited us in.

There are attention-grabbing shark jaws mounted on typically the wall in order from small and safe looking, to, "no way you need to encounter one of these in the water, inches holy sh_ _! large jawed, teeth filled specimens.

Nick shared a little about how they ended up about Long Island. We learned he was right from Nassau. Nick and his wife Fiona have four boys and 2 girls.

Twenty-three years ago he created the idea to create a native Bahamian date, which the entire family now enhances. It is sold throughout the Bahamas. The artwork is original and each calendar month has native Bahamian tidbits including history and recipes for such things as soups and conch dishes.

We bought two copies at one of the neighborhood stores to bring back home with us. All of us plan to take advantage of some of the local tasty recipes and use them for our next premium club dinner in the mode of a Bahamian theme dinner!

Nick started out talking about a few of the ship-wrecks he had explored and showed us several items of fascination such as one hundred year old antique wacholderbranntwein bottles, four hundred year old olive cisterns, and more.

One of the wrecks he talked about was a ship called the Southhampton, which in turn prompted me to share that our godson was attending Southhampton College or university in southern England to get their masters in Marine Archaeology.

Days later on our way to the international airport to leave the island I noticed Nick's royal blue pick-up truck coming toward us. His wife has been leaning out the window waving her hands and trying to flag us down.

We pulled over and Nick went up to our car. He said "I have something for your god-son, " and pulled out a small white-colored pipe. He explained he had restored the pipe from a ship that had purportedly been set lamplit by Blackbeard the Pirate. Chip thought my godson, Tim, want. No doubt, Tim will love it!

There are never before experienced this level of friendliness, excitement, exuberance and generosity on a vacation. What an island! Might be we should keep it a secret. No chance, this is a story to share as an example regarding how the world used to be, in some cases still is, and definitely the way it should be!

The Outer Advantage Grill, located by the Flying Fish Marina in Clarence Town, became one of our favorite spots. It is on the water and is a wonderful place to knowledge a simple, local flavor for lunch or dinner or to have a drink and dreamily watch the boats, water birds and other creatures.

We had lunch with the Outer Edge Grill several times, having fun in each visit immensely. After a bite we concluded their conch fritters were most likely going to be the finest on the island. Cracked conch and grilled grouper made for savory meals.

Everyone at The Outer Edge was really friendly. We enjoyed talking using Hermie and particularly with Stanlika. After my mentioning all the toast food on the island, Stan suggested to be able to special order anywhere to have our food grilled, which was a great bit of trivia for the rest of our trip.

It was fun considering the boats coming in and out of your small marina during the week. There are a few fishing boats and some rather huge, luxurious vessels as well. Some of the titles were Les Belles, Carcharia, Tropical island Hope, Liquid Gold, Island Dream, and Endless Adventure. Home plug-ins included Miami, Coral Gables, and even Nassau among others.

Rowdy Boys in the Winter Haven Resort in Clarence Town is by the water on the other side with the small peninsula by the marina. The food was very good and the family that owned it was extremely friendly.

We met the grandmother Chloe plus her husband, a granddaughter Justine who waited on us and the other of the sons. One afternoon most of us offered to buy Chloe a drink. She chose a concoction called SkyJuice, which involves gin and very sweet coconut milk. She soon began sharing most of her family history. She also shared of which her son Ben had obtained the owners of the yacht Des Belles (see above paragraph) deep-sea fishing. Ben had learned they'd no plans and were easily planning their laid back adventure everyday. What a wonderful way to travel the ocean!

Chloe and her husband got owned and operated a blueberry and banana farm, which had been destroyed by a hurricane a few years earlier. She had tears in her eyes as she shared some of the hardships her family had skilled. Their three boys had argued somewhat loudly through their the younger years and had been given the nickname on the 'Rowdy Boys. "

Rowdy Males Construction now builds throughout the Bahamas and had finished The Winter Haven Hotel and Rowdy Boys Bar together with Restaurant just over a year ago for their mother and father and family to run. We look toward visiting Rowdy Boys and this family unit again.

The Forest Restaurant is certainly three miles south of The Whizzing Duck. We had a wonderful dinner regarding cracked lobster, cracked conch, peas and rice and mashed taters here one night. The proprietors, Dudley and Patty, were fantastic.

One afternoon we called within special order grilled grouper and chicken sandwiches, which were awesome by the way. When we stopped by to pick up each of our picnic lunch, Dudley waited in us. I shared that this stomach had been off all early morning. He insisted on making us a club soda and blackberry brandy to fix me up. They were outside club soda, so he utilized ginger ale. I told Dudley I did not want any alcohol with no success as he insisted I drink that straight down. I did so reluctantly together with was pleasantly surprised at the taste. 30 mins later my stomach felt good. Nothing like a good ol' local Bahamian medicinal beverage to fix you up!

We stopped in a few of the tiny roadside stores to buy water as well as a handful of food items during the week. Anywhere we went the people were actually friendly. We had nothing but extraordinarily terrific "encounters" with Long Island folk the whole week.

The Oasis Bakery beyond Clarence Town has wonderful home-baked breads, including whole wheat and multi-grain, cookies and decadent local sweets. You can order sandwiches for takeaway (the island term for "to go") or eat outside on the bakery. We observed it was common for small establishments to have a smaller bar onsite, and the Oasis was not a exception.

Our favorite afternoon ended up being the impromptu stop at Max's Conch Rod in Deadman's Cay. You can't skip Max's as there are international flags waving on each side of the road and some junk cars, one of which has been spray painted with "Max's Conch Bar" on both sides.

We sauntered in for a tropical drink and break. We placed an order for your white wine and a tropical punch with Liz. Liz and your ex husband Gary own Max's. The girl seemed truly happy to see all of us and to meet us.

Sitting and even sipping our thirst quenching drinks we watched ingredients being chopped for what turned out to be fresh, homemade conch salad, by none other than Gary, whom wielded a machete sized, razor-sharp knife as deftly and rapidly as anyone I have ever seen.

Many of us knew we just had to have several of this fresh island delicacy plus placed two orders. Kathy possessed never had conch salad ahead of. She loved it just as much as Used to do and it was the best I had ever before tasted.

One of us asked how Max's had come to be. Liz advised us Gary had often used a new spear gun when he had been some sort of fisherman. When he missed his focus on he would retrieve his spear, sometimes swimming right by sharks. His or her fellow diving mates thought he was crazy and nicknamed him "Mad Max" after Mel Gibson's video. Therefore, Max's Conch Bar, named after the crazy fisherman!

People frequently came and went while we consumed our delectable lunch. Many of us figured Max's must be one of the places for socializing, food and drink. The decor is about as native as it becomes. The round, wooden shack comes with numerous posters of various Kalik along with other island beer girls showing off their own healthy, curvaceous bodies. Shells, coral, bright colors, and checker boards with bottle caps as online game pieces are scattered about inside island designer fashion. The bar is normally even a rare internet hot spot and there is no charge for signing on.

During the last afternoon we stopped to check out the Long Island Library and Art gallery. We enjoyed browsing through the various collections depicting and explaining various aspects of the history, culture and traditions of the island through the years. There are examples of a number of the local craftsmanship, historical news article content for the Bahamas, and even some handmade condiments for sale near the exit. It was certainly worth the $3. 00 fee for the educational and entertaining experience.

We decided we had to come back to Max's for dinner our last night upon Long Island. This was without a doubt our best meals on the island. Grilled conch and marinated mutton were Liz's suggestions and they were incredible. In the Bahamas, mutton is either sheep or goat.

Mutton this night was goat, that has been a first for me and it was mout-watering. Gary whipped up some mango daiquiris, made with a secret blend of 5 rums and fresh mango, that were absolutely the best daiquiris I have at any time tasted. The four of us a new wonderful time getting to know each other a bit. We talked about all sorts of topics from the Bahamas to the U. S., to be able to drinks, to food, to family and friends, and even shared a few personal fun stories about our prior lives. We were sad to say good night, despite the fact it was almost 11 p. m.

Despite the fact that our visit was only for seven days, there are seemingly endless stories we're able to share from our week on "The Other Long Island, " truly an incredible quiet island getaway.

Though the area is laid back and peaceful, there are actually many things to do. Four activities most of us did not get to do were scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, snorkeling on one of this coral reefs, and touring one of the numerous island caves. These are already on this "to do" list for our up coming trip to the island.

During our all too brief visit, we took walks upon several beaches, including Lochabar Beach front, Galloway Beach, the beach by Dean's Blue Hole, and a few whose names we do not know.

Incredibly, we did find a total of two people and a canine while walking on these beaches. These were the softest sand and most panoramic stretches of beach, complete with various types of rock formations, I have ever seen.

Feeling the plush sand under our feet and between our own toes, the colors of the water, seeing sea turtles, shell hunting, the particular scenery up and down the coast, along with the miracle of no people, produced our beach experience one that weren't able to have been more relaxing, soothing plus invigorating.

If stretches of private, quiet beaches are one of your prerequisites, the beaches of Long Island make it one of the best romantic islands I can perhaps imagine.

If you require shopping, higher end amenities, constant service, together with living in the lap of high class, you probably want to look for a Four Months or Ritz Carlton type hotel. These are not to be found on the calm island getaway of Long Island.

Should you prefer quiet adventure travel plus dream of feeling like you have gone back in its history, don't care about updated or great infrastructure, love beautiful desolate beaches, want to interact with real, friendly and unassuming people, and simply want to relax more than you ever thought potential, you will want to check out Long Island in the Bahamas.

Quiet and secluded are apt descriptive terms for Long Island, Bahamas. Keep this in mind if you're considering a family trip.

I have never felt so entirely relaxed and filled with such inner peace as I did while on L.i.. This sentiment was echoed simply by my lovely soul mate. Kathy and I can't wait to go back to "The Different Long Island, " an incredibly wonderful and even beautiful quiet island getaway.

Be aware: If you're looking for a secluded and loving quiet island, start planning your journey to Long Island now! (See listed below to Book Empowered Travel! ).

(The code for Deadman's Cay airport on the southern tip of Long Island, Bahamas is LGI. Typically the code for Stella Maris air-port on the northern tip of the L.i., Bahamas is MYLS).