NBP Travel: Long Island, Bahamas

It is better in the Bahamas. Especially in the Out Island of the Bahamas. This was our 1st time on Long Island. We've been to Eleuthera, Staniel Cay, Harbour Island (day trip) and we're going to Cat Island in July. We love the remoteness of those islands. If we won the lotto, we might just have to buy a place on one of them!

We flew US Airways from Chicago to Nassau and then took Southern Air to Stella Maris (though the plane was a Flamingo Air plane). Our pilot on the way back was 20 years old! I was very impressed at how good he was and at such a young age. Traveling back was rough though. We were on United and it was delayed 4 hours. Add that to the 5-hour layover we already had in Nassau. Ugh.

Leaving Chicago early Sunday morning

Our flight to Long Island

Are we there yet?

We've made it!

We were looking for total relaxation on this trip and we got it. I didn't like Long Island as much as I liked Eleuthera. I felt like Eleuthera had a lot more beautiful beaches and I liked that it had a bit more restaurant choices. I guess Long Island was a tad too remote for me. We didn't really experience any great snorkeling either. I think it didn't help that during our son's last spring break we went to Bonaire where the snorkeling was amazing. We will always compare I guess.

We had great weather during our stay. It was a bit cloudy the day we arrived and the next day, but after that the weather was just perfect. I was worried about the water temperature and ended up bringing a wetsuit shorty for snorkeling. The water was a bit on the cold side so it was nice to have it.

I was on the fence on whether we should stay at Cape Santa Maria or rent a house.I started looking for rental properties and came across On-A-Whymm . What a beauty. We knew we just had to stay there.

We spent hours sitting on beach chairs just unwinding. The view was so relaxing. We could have stayed there forever. There's one thing I didn't like about the beach though. It is shallow for quite a while making it impossible to swim... but look at that sky... sigh...

Even though we didn't stay at Cape Santa Maria, we decided to check out their beach. It looked stunning on their website and in reviews. Would it live up to the hype? It sure did.

Dean's Blue Hole is the world's deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below the sea level. We couldn't wait to check it out and snorkel in it. It was a little freaky at first but it was quite an experience.

We also took a half-day boat tour with Captain Delbert. We snorkeled and looked for sand dollars. It was a fantastic day.

There are not a lot of restaurant options on Long Island. We tried 3 restaurants: Chez Pierre and the restaurants at Stella Maris Resort and Cape Santa Maria resort. The food was good but nothing spectacular. We did have a chef come by the house and cook us dinner one night. She made us a great meal.

The week went by too fast of course. Before we knew it, it was time to go home. We felt rejuvenated but a little sad to leave. On our last morning, the moon stuck around to tell us goodbye.