Bahamas
Chez Pierre, 242/338-8809, , doubles from $130.
Seven years ago, Pierre and Anne Laurence decided to sell their successful Montreal bistro. “Montreal was all about stress and competition,” says Pierre. “I wanted a place where I’d have the time to really enjoy myself in the kitchen and tend to my customers.” The Laurences found what they were looking for just south of the Tropic of Cancer: eight acres on Long Island, an 80-mile stretch of cliffs, cays, and coves that’s only four miles across at its widest point.
Powered entirely by alternative energy (wind and sun), Chez Pierre’s six bungalows are spread out along a wide crescent beach. Each has a screened porch overlooking the water, and shutter doors open to a terra-cotta-colored bedroom. At the main house, there’s a large wooden deck and a bright, airy restaurant. Needless to say, the food is fantastic—a blend of Bahamian, Italian, and French, highlighting local ingredients and fresh seafood. (Rates include breakfast and dinner; your bar tab is extra.) Bikes, kayaks, and a catamaran are available at no charge. Pierre also helps arrange snorkeling excursions ($50), scuba trips ($125), bonefishing ($250), and rental cars ($60 per day).
Seascape Inn, 242/369-0342, , doubles from $132 (with continental breakfast), dinners about $20.
Most of Andros Island is uninhabitable marshland, choked by mangroves and shot through with so many lakes and channels that from the air it looks like a doily. The Seascape Inn, on Andros Island’s Mangrove Cay, is within minutes of a 120-mile-long barrier reef (the third largest in the world), making it perfect for diving, fishing, or just dropping out for a week. Each of the property’s five cabanas has a small deck facing the white-sand beach. Pass the hours bonefishing from the flats in front of your bungalow (catch and release), exploring the reef by kayak, or pedaling along Mangrove Cay’s lone road (bikes and kayaks are free for guests).
You’ll typically find Brooklyn-born hosts Mickey and Joan McGowan at the inn’s bar and restaurant. Gracious and friendly, the McGowans are clearly thrilled with their choice to move to the Bahamas nine years ago. Mickey sports an impressive collection of cheeky T-shirts (“You are entitled to my opinion” reads one). He’s also a PADI-certified instructor, and takes guests out most mornings on his 34-foot boat for a two-tank dive ($75). Joan likes to garden and bake, whipping up muffins and biscuits at dawn and tempting desserts—sometimes pies made with coconuts from the yard—in the afternoon. The rest of the family is four-legged: Bernie, Bebe, and Magoo, a trio of abandoned dogs rescued and spoiled absolutely silly by the McGowans.
Staniel Cay Yacht Club, 954/467-8920, , doubles from $135, per person all-inclusive $173.
In the center of the 100-mile-long Exuma island chain, a half-hour flight from Nassau, is tiny Staniel Cay, a popular port for the sailing set that’s home to just 80 full-time residents. The Yacht Club is a five-minute golf-cart ride from the airstrip (there are only a handful of cars on the island). Couples and families love the club’s nine pastel-colored cottages, seven of which have private balconies that jut over the crystal-clear water. There’s a small beach next door and more dramatic stretches of sand accessible by foot or golf cart, but most people are here to play skipper.
A Boston Whaler is docked outside each cottage; guests are given a map and encouraged to explore on their own. There are so many deserted islands nearby that the unspoken rule is if a beach is occupied, move on to the next. Thunderball Grotto, where part of the Bond film Thunderball was shot, is a favorite for snorkeling. Just north of the grotto, at Major Spot, surf-swimming pigs will circle your boat, expecting to be fed. Four miles beyond Major there’s a group of tame nurse sharks who don’t mind posing for pictures.
Though you can pay for lodging and extras à la carte, a package that covers lodging, all meals, taxes and gratuities, a Whaler (with fuel), a golf cart, snorkeling gear, and round-trip transfers is often the better value. The Yacht Club also offers charter flights from Fort Lauderdale ($400 round trip), and you can be here in less than three hours from the mainland—instead of just wishing that you were.
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